Wilhelmsburg (Werk XII)
Wilhelmsburg (Werk XII) stands in Ulm, Germany, as part of the Bundesfestung Ulm, a nineteenth-century federal fortress. Its surviving masonry follows a polygonal system, replacing the older bastion tradition with angled defensive lines. Built between 1842 and 1859, the site formed part of Europe’s largest fortification of its time.
The German Confederation financed this defensive network after Napoleon’s defeat in 1815. Up to 10,000 workers built it under Prussian fortress director Moritz Karl Ernst von Prittwitz und Gaffron. Casemates, defensive barracks and overlapping fields of fire reveal the engineering behind its military design. The complex escaped dismantling after the First World War, although its official fortress status ended in 1938. Many sections disappeared over time, while surviving structures preserve the scale of the original defence system. Its planned capacity reached 5,000 soldiers in peacetime and 20,000 during war.
- City
- Ulm
- Content updated
Take this page with you
The myTuur app is free, and once you are standing at a spot its story starts by itself.
Spots like this one are the stops myTuur strings into tours through Ulm. In the app, each story begins where you stand: walk up to a spot and it starts, read it on screen or listen as you go, then follow the route to the next one.
What is myTuur?
myTuur is a free city-guide app. Its tours are built from spots, and each spot carries a story that starts when you get there, to read or to listen to as you like.