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Key figures

Origin and history

The fort of Guentrange, called Feste Obergentringen by the Germans, was erected between 1899 and 1906 during the first German annexation of Alsace-Moselle. It was part of the Moselstellung, a fortification system designed to block a possible French offensive aimed at resuming Alsace-Lorraine. This network, inspired later by the Maginot line, marked an innovation compared to the French (Séré de Rivières) or German systems (forts von Biehler). The fort was equipped with battled batteries (100 mm canons), a three-level central barracks and 3 km underground galleries.

With the forts of Illlange and Koenigsmacker, Guentrange protected Thionville from an attack from the west. During the First World War, far from the front, he was not attacked. Occupied by the French army in 1919, he was integrated into the fortified sector of Thionville in the 1930s, as part of the Maginot line. Reused as an ammunition depot by the Germans (1940-1944) and then by the French until 1971, it is now managed by a local association and open to visits.

On November 9, 1944, the fort escaped the allied shelling of the region's fortifications. The 1,299 B-17 and B-24 bombers dropped 3,753 tons of high-altitude bombs, largely missing their targets in Moselle, illustrating the inefficiency of massive air raids against fortified structures. After 1945, the fort was still used as a depot for the 25th French artillery regiment before being transferred to the city of Thionville.

Architecturally, the fort is distinguished by its sober facade, typical of the German military buildings of the period. Designed to house up to 2,000 men (3-4 infantry companies), it combined modern defensive elements (circumferences, galleries) and a centralized logistics organization. His role in the Moselstellung reflected the German strategy of locking the Moselle Valley between Metz and Thionville to counter a French advance.

Today, the fort of Guentrange is a testimony of Franco-German military history, marked by the conflicts of the twentieth century. Its preservation by the Amicale of the Fortified Group of Guentrange allows to discover this underground heritage and the geopolitical stakes of Alsace-Moselle, between annexations, world wars and French reappropriation.

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