After the fully authorized town of Meppen received the right to do so from the Bishop of Münster in 1360, the first town fortifications were built soon afterwards: a rectangular rampart, perhaps reinforced with palisades, a surrounding moat and four town gates: Hase-, Ems-, Mark- and Merschporte. The complex appears to have been reinforced with roundels in the mid-16th century, which were then developed into bastions in line with the times. In the 1580s, the fortress was caught up in the maelstrom of the Spanish-Dutch War. The expansion into a modern fortress with bastions, ravelins, hornworks, further advanced ramparts and moats with glacis, escarpment and contrescarpment took place between 1633 and 1663, during which the fortress was occupied alternately by Protestant and Catholic troops. Meppen was in Swedish hands from 1633 to 1638. During this expansion phase, individual parts of the fortress were given corresponding names: Schweden-Schanze, Schanze Gustav, Schanze Christina, Schanze Helena and Schanze Eleonora. After the cunning night-time conquest of the Meppen fortress by imperial troops in May 1638, Meppen came back into Catholic hands. The town and fortress still suffered from two town fires and artillery fire before peace came and, from around 1660, the Prince-Bishop of Münster, Christoph Bernhard von Galen, set about expanding Meppen into a national fortress to defend against the Protestant Netherlands, among others. It was during this time that the fortress was given its final – baroque – extension and shape, which it was to retain until the end. The lecture traces the eventful 400-year history of Meppen Fortress and also looks at the fate of individual fortifications after they were dismantled in 1762, as well as outlining the path to the later and to this day committed tourist valorization of the site.

Venue: Stadtmuseum Meppen
Organizer: VHS Meppen
Date: Wednesday, September 24, 2025, 6:30 to 9:45 pm
Admission: € 14.00
Registration via the VHS: Course no. 11-100 (Semester: 2/25)