The Selz position – Harxheim fortification group
The Selzstellung, now widely forgotten, was built in the period from 1907 to the early years of World War I and is considered one of the largest fortifications in the German Empire at the time. It consisted of more than 350 fortifications stretching in a wide arc from Heidenfahrt to Nieder-Ingelheim, Wackernheim, Ober-Olm, Zornheim, Ebersheim, Harxheim, Gau-Bischofsheim, Bodenheim and Laubenheim, from the west to the south around Mainz. The Selzstellung was intended to repel attacks from the west on the strategically important position of Mainz and the Rhine crossing. One of a total of 13 fortification groups of the Selzstellung was located above Harxheim. The fortress belt never came into use and was blown up and leveled in the spring of 1921 due to the decisions of the Versailles Peace Treaty of June 28, 1919.
Military history of the Selzstellung
The Selzstellung was built between 1907 and the first years of the First World War and is considered one of the largest fortifications in the German Empire at that time. The military fortified belt to the west and south of Mainz, which was highly modern for the time, was intended to repel an attack on Mainz and the Rhine line coming from the west – especially from the French side.
After the Franco-German War of 1870/71, which Germany had won, there was deep mistrust between the warring parties. This led to a massive military buildup in the years that followed. In the German Empire, new fortifications were built to secure the new border in Alsace-Lorraine. In France, the famous Verdun fortified belt with its numerous forts was built as a counterbalance to this.
Due to its military importance in the past, Mainz was already secured by three fortress rings and ramparts. Moreover, the city initially lost strategic weight due to the now clearly westward shift in the course of the border.
Selzstellung with structures and railroad lines
Image: Political Archive of the Federal Foreign Office, Berlin
Military technological development made great strides in the last two decades of the 19th century. This led, among other things, to the development of very powerful artillery ammunition. As a result, the resilience of the existing fortress architecture had to be strengthened. Thus, concrete reinforced with steel was used as a new type of building material in fortress construction, replacing the masonry technique previously used. Extensive modernization of existing defenses was completed around 1900.
In the course of new war planning on the German side, Mainz again moved more into the focus of military strategists at the beginning of the 20th century. The construction of the fortress was to experience a renaissance as a result. On January 23, 1900, Kaiser Wilhelm II decided in a supreme cabinet order to establish a seltzer station according to modern principles near the communities of Harxheim and Ebersheim. This was the first step towards the construction of the Selzstellung. However, eight years passed before this project was implemented. The actual trigger for the start of construction were modified plans of the Prussian General Staff for a renewed attack against France based on the Schlieffen Plan. Mainz, with its crossing of the Rhine and the mouth of the Main, had to be secured in case of a counterattack against the German Reich from the west. This was now to be achieved by the much more extensive construction of an advanced position along the edge of the Mainz Plateau above the Selz Valley. A total of around 350 structures were built. 1)
Burdens on the affected communities due to construction measures
In 1907, work began on what was probably the largest construction project of all time in Rheinhessen. After the start of the First World War in August 1914, the pressure to complete the work increased. During this period, it is estimated that up to 36,000 soldiers and conscripted civilians were deployed here to complete the fortification groups as well as to expand the military roads and build tracks for the fortification rail lines. This had a significant impact on the communities located in the catchment area of the Selzstellung. From the beginning of the war, they were obliged to support the deployed soldiers and workers in their activities by providing quarters, stabling and food services. Thus, two days after the mobilization of August 1, 1914, the mayor of Mainz at the time, Göttelmann, ordered the quartering of the armored troops and fortification companies in Mainz and in Rheinhessen, including Harxheim. For the affected communities and their inhabitants, this resulted in considerable burdens and restrictions, especially since the supply situation worsened with the beginning of the First World War due to increasing shortages. 2)
In the chronicle of the Protestant parish of Harxheim, the then Harxheim pastor Johannes Würth reported the arrival of Fortress Company 55 in the village as early as August 2, 1914, one day after mobilization. 3) In his notes of September 20, 1914, he named other military units quartered at Harxheim, namely the recruit depot of Foot Artillery Regiment 18 (until October 23, 1914), Telegraph Construction Company 6, Fortification Company 118, and Manning Detachments 4, 9, and 10 (until December 1, 1914). In addition, Ersatzreservekompagnie 90 was quartered until September 10, 1914.
Furthermore, according to the records of Pastor Würth, soldiers of Fortress Companies 3 (quartered on December 18, 1914), 38 and 120 were deployed in the expansion of the Selzstellung and quartered in Harxheim during these first months of the war.
1914 – quartering of soldiers of a fortress company in the property Mainzer Straße 4 of Philipp Heinrich Ackermann in Harxheim
Image: Private property Gunter Herbert, Harxheim
For numerical classification, it should be mentioned that, for example. a company could consist of a captain, several non-commissioned officers and up to 250 men. Manning detachments, used to move unmanned gun batteries, could be composed of up to 120 men (detachment commanders, officers, NCOs, enlisted men) and up to 160 riding and draft horses. The exact strengths of the garrison units quartered in Harxheim can no longer be reconstructed due to the lack of records, but may also have been significantly smaller in terms of personnel and horses due to regrouping. These figures give a rough idea of the burden that these quarterings of soldiers, horses, and material placed on the population of Harxheim (at that time about 520 inhabitants). 4) 5).
A photo from 1914 shows exemplary quarter guests from one of these units in the property of Philipp Heinrich Ackermann from Harxheim in Mainzer Straße 4
On September 5, 1914, Pastor Würth again reported on the heavy burdens caused by quarterings:
“At (winery) Lotz lie 43 men”. Luise and Georg Rösch of Mainzer Strasse 1 wrote on a postcard, dated September 16, 1914, to the addressee that they still had “20 men quartered” on their farm.
The military postmark on this card indicates that Fortress Company 55 was already in action in Harxheim at that time.
1914 Field postcard – Rösch family (front side)
Picture: Fortress archive “Military postmarks in Rheinhessen 1914 – 1918”, Jürgen Lemke, Mainz
1914 Field postcard – Rösch family (reverse side)
Picture: Fortress archive “Military postmarks in Rheinhessen 1914 – 1918”, Jürgen Lemke, Mainz
In parallel, military expansion activities were in full swing at all levels during this period. The pastor wrote about this in the chronicle of the Lutheran parish:
“August 9, 1914:
Work Sunday, about 36,000 men are now lying and working in the villages of the Mainz fortress area on the expansion of the fortifications. Our people start to cut wood in the Ober-Olmer forest, to make stakes and rice bundles (fascines for the side walls of the trenches), to build a shunting track and an unloading track at the railroad station. Countless transports of cement and gravel pass through the town to the heights. In Mommenheim they unload mountains of lumber to build shelters, etc., here more Rhine gravel, Wackersteine, cement and clay pipes. Few vineyards are still completely undamaged, many partly taken by the light railroads and earthworks.”
“September 7, 1914:
Several batteries of heavy field artillery take up positions at the artillery ranges on the road to Ebersheim; they remain until January 4, 1915.”
“September 18, 1914:
Sergeant Dr. Münz, a trade teacher in his civilian profession, spent his off-duty hours carving cribs in the courtyard of the rectory so that the 5 “invalid horses” in our barn would not have to eat their oats from the ground. Good prices have already been paid for the horses purchased from here by the military. Some owners received the former purchase price, even though they had been driving the horses for 5-6 years; so up to 1250 Mk. per piece.”
September 1914, , Ltd. d. Res. Spiegel, Chief of the Manning Dept. 4, watering his horse at the tube well
Image: Private property Günter Happel, Harxheim
1914 Purchase of horses from the Ritzinger family, Untergasse
Image: Private property Franz Götz, Harxheim
1914, field postcard with postmark of fortress company 55
Image: Private property (owner does not want to be named)
“October 17, 1914:
In the chamber above Mayor Böhm’s bakehouse, 18,000 live infantry cartridges have been stored for 14 days. The gun ammunition rooms of the fortifications have also been filled for some time.”
“December 18, 1914:
Quartering of the 3rd Fortress Company with 250 men.”
“March 10, 1915:
After a number of our local quarter guests departed yesterday evening, today, accompanied by singing, a new 100 men of unserved Landsturmmänner (Westphalians) arrived on foot from Mainz, who, united with those still remaining here, are to form the newly formed 2nd Armored Company of the Mainz fortress.”
On July 26, 1915, the last soldiers quartered in Harxheim left the town for deployment on the Eastern and Western Fronts.
Structure of the Harxheim fastening group
The fortification belt of the Selzstellung consisted of 13 fortification groups. The fortification group Harxheim belonged to subsection IIb of the Selzstellung with the other fortification groups Gau-Bischofsheim and Bodenheim.
List of the structures belonging to the Harxheim fortification group and the blasting documentation
Image: Political Archive of the Federal Foreign Office, Berlin
Site plan of the infantry bases belonging to the Harxheim fortification group ISP as well as the artillery and ammunition rooms to the north
Image: Ludwig Schirmer / Rudolf Büllesbach (Source: GeoBasis-DE/LVermGeoRP2012-09-24, DTK 25)
The Harxheim defense ensemble consisted of five standardized infantry rooms (IR) for different platoon strengths – a platoon consisted of 80-90 soldiers – designated IR 36/37/38/39/40. While the four first-mentioned installations were located in the Harxheim district, the site of IR 40 was located in the area of the neighboring municipality of Gau-Bischofsheim east of the Mahlsteig.
Construction drawing of an infantry room for a 1 1/3 platoon of the Harxheim fortification group
Image: Image and plan collection of the Mainz City Archive
Construction drawing of an infantry room for a 2/3 platoon of the Harxheim fortification group
Image: Image and plan collection of the Mainz City Archive
In addition to these concrete shelters, up to four fortified dugouts (machine gun rooms, observation rooms) were assigned to each of them, which were connected to each other by trenches and led to the trenches in the front line. All fortifications were additionally secured with wire entanglements up to 10 meters wide, especially in the west/southwest direction. In addition, the strategically favorable positioning of the structures almost directly on the edge of the steep loess slope of the Mainz Plateau was a natural protection for this defensive bar. These locations granted the defender ideal observation and defense positions in the event of an attack.
In the rear area of the Harxheim section, in a northerly direction along the (military) road from Mainz to Ebersheim, were three artillery rooms designated AR 19/20/21, which provided protection and cover for the artillerymen stationed there with their guns.
Between these artillery rooms were the MR13 and MR14 ammunition rooms, which were heavily protected by particularly thick and reinforced concrete ceilings. The ammunition supply for the west-facing 12 cm guns located in open bedding near the artillery rooms was stored there.
All shelters were interconnected by telecommunication lines and connected to their own water supply. 6)
Site plan of the infantry bases ISP belonging to the Harxheim fortification group as well as the artillery and ammunition rooms (AR,MR) located to the rear.
Photo: Rudolf Büllesbach (Source: Plan of Mainz of the Entfestigungsamt, 1920, Political Archive of the Foreign Office, Berlin)
The water reservoir built in 1904/05 for the water supply of the community of Harxheim in the form of a small “castle”, which was located on the heights on the left side of the Rheinhessenstraße in the direction of Mainz, was largely demolished as part of the military construction measures from September 7, 1914. The new building was several meters lower and was vaulted with a thick, bullet-proof reinforced concrete ceiling. The orientation point, which was prominent and highly visible to the military, thus disappeared from the surface under a mound of earth. The modified water house was provided with a plain concrete columned portal and a steel door, and was completed on February 17, 1915, in the form that still exists today. 3)
History of the Selzstellung after the completion of construction work
During the construction phase, narrow-gauge tramways had been set up in the Harxheim district between the construction sites on the heights and the material storage areas. They were dismantled after the completion of the construction activity from February 22, 1915. The track material was moved to storage yards in Ebersheim and in Kesseltal in the direction of Hechtsheim. A standard gauge track branching off from the Harxheim-Lörzweiler station to the Niersteiner Höhe and used for military transport purposes initially remained in place. 3)
About a year later, from February 27, 1916, by order of the military command, the dismantling of the unconcreted dugouts built only two years earlier and the filling of the trenches began. The wood of the shelters and the fascines were publicly auctioned by the local municipality at the beginning of April 1916. On November 27, 1918, two weeks after the end of the First World War, the furnishings of the until then intact concreted dugouts as well as tools and barbed wire were auctioned off to the people of Harxheim to the highest bidder. The structures of the Selzstellung had had their day. 3)
Rheinhessen and thus Harxheim were spared the direct fighting of the First World War. As a result, the Selzstellung met the same fate as numerous other military structures in history: the construction was costly and consumed immense sums of money – the benefit was zero due to the course of the war. The First World War ended with Germany’s military defeat, and the German emperor abdicated. Rheinhessen came under the occupation of the French Army. In accordance with the Treaty of Versailles, which stipulated Germany’s military defeat and disarmament by the victorious powers, all military installations had to be dismantled or destroyed under strict French supervision and precise documentation. Between March 10 and April 16, 1921, almost without exception, all the fortifications of the Selzstellung were blown up. 7)
1920, Infantry room I.R. 38 “Auf der Schnurr” after demolition
Image: Political Archive of the Federal Foreign Office, Berlin
Ruin of the infantry room I.R. 38 “Auf der Schnurr”, 1944 (marking)
Image: Historical aerial photograph Harxheim bei Mainz” (16121336: Aerial photograph of the USAAF, taken from an overflight altitude of approx. 7,500 – 8,000 meters; scale: approx. 1:10,000; 24.12.1944 (Photo: Luftbilddatenbank Dr. Carls GmbH)
The concrete ruins, still prominent features in the landscape for many decades, were successively filled in and overgrown. What survived the decades in the soil later reappeared as reinforced concrete fragments in numerous places, e.g. as part of land consolidation measures.
2021, retaining wall, in the upper part of the Mahlsteig, eastern side; set from concrete fragments of the blasted ISP 40.
Image: Siegfried Schäfer
The few remains of the fortress belt that are still visible today hardly give an idea of the dimensions of this huge defense line. Gray-black ballast material for the concrete work and smaller concrete fragments can be discovered, as in many places along the course of the former Selzstellung, even after more than 100 years in the Harxheim district. Today, many of the former position areas are valuable components of protected biotope areas and designated landscape conservation areas.
The author as well as the Harxheimer Heimat- und Verkehrsverein Harxheim would like to thank Dr. Rudolf Büllesbach for his comprehensive support and the provision of documents, photos and drawings in the context of the preparation of the present documentation on the Harxheim fortification group as part of the Selzstellung.
References:
- Büllesbach, Rudolf/Hollich, Hiltrud/Trautenhahn, Elke: Bollwerk Mainz – Die Selzstellung in Rheinhessen. Munich 2013, ch.05, p. 32-38
- Büllesbach, Rudolf/Hollich, Hiltrud/Trautenhahn, Elke: Bollwerk Mainz – Die Selzstellung in Rheinhessen. Munich 2013, ch.11, pp. 116-121
- Würth, Johannes, Pastor: Records in the Chronicle of the Protestant Parish of Harxheim from 1909 – 1920
- Büllesbach, Rudolf/Hollich, Hiltrud/Trautenhahn, Elke: Bollwerk Mainz – Die Selzstellung in Rheinhessen. Munich 2013, ch.13, p. 117
- Hartwig Busche/Jürgen Kraus, Handbuch der Verbände und Truppen des deutschen Heeres 1914-1918, Part X, Foot Artillery Volume 2, Vienna 2020, p.81, pp. 305-306.
- Büllesbach, Rudolf/Hollich, Hiltrud/Trautenhahn, Elke: Bollwerk Mainz – Die Selzstellung in Rheinhessen. Munich 2013, ch.13, pp. 137-149
- Büllesbach,Rudolf/Hollich, Hiltrud/Trautenhahn, Elke: Bollwerk Mainz – Die Selzstellung in Rheinhessen. Munich 2013, ch.17, pp. 172-180
