science

Lines of Stollhofen

Lines of Stollhofen is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Lines of Stollhofen rather than just read about it. In short: The Lines of Stollhofen (German: Bühl-Stollhofener Linie) was a line of defensive earthworks built for the Reichsarmee at the start of the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714) running for about 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) from Stollhofen on the Rhine to the impenetrable woods on the hills east of Bühl. The lines were constructed by order of Margrave Louis William I of Baden-Baden in order to protect northern Baden f…

Key takeaways

Lines of Stollhofen belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Lines of Stollhofen to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Lines of Stollhofen from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Lines of Stollhofen (German: Bühl-Stollhofener Linie) was a line of defensive earthworks built for the Reichsarmee at the start of the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714) running for about 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) from Stollhofen on the Rhine to the impenetrable woods on the hills east of Bühl. The lines were constructed by order of Margrave Louis William I of Baden-Baden in order to protect northern Baden from the newly erected French fortress of Fort Louis on the River Rhine.

Location The roughly 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) long and only partly fortified line started in the east near Obertal (today part of Bühlertal), ran westwards over the heights to Bühl and then northwest in the Rhine valley via Vimbuch (today a village in the municipality of Bühl), Leiberstung (today part of Sinzheim) and Stollhofen to the River Rhine. It comprised linear schanzen in the terrain, as well as individual star schanzen, hornworks, small forts and fortified villages, and used the watercourses on the Rhine Plain in order to flood the fields of fire and approach using weirs. At the same time, by including the villages of Bühl and Stollhofen, it enabled control of the old trade routes from Basle to Frankfurt (today the Bundesstraße B3) at Bühl, and from Strasbourg to Frankfurt (old Roman road, today the B 36). Until 1707, the line bounded the operational area of the French troops and barred the easiest route to Bavaria via Pforzheim.

History Following his Rhine crossing in mid-February 1703, Marshal Villars found the passes through the Black Forest to be still impassible because of snow. Therefore, he initially occupied Kehl Fortress on 12 March as his base east of the Rhine, united with the army of Marshal Tallard, and on 19 April 1703 began an attack on the Bühl-Stollhofen Line. He bombarded the line south of Kappelwindeck and tried to bypass the line to the east with 25 battalions under Blainville. Both attempts, on 19 and 24 April, failed because the French could not capture the fortifications at Obertal. On 25 April, Villars pulled back. In summer 1703, however, Margrave Louis William could not stop Villars marching up the Kinzig valley and on into Bavaria. There, Villars was victorious in the First Battle of Höchstädt. Likewise in 1704, Tallar passed through the Black Forest unhindered along the Dreisam Valley. After the death of Margrave Louis William (9 January 1707), Villars captured the Bühl-Stollhofen Line in May without a fight and had it destroyed. Several months after the loss of the Bühl-Stollhofen Line, work began on the Ettlingen Line under the Rhine Army commander, George Louis of Brunswick-Lüneburg. The line was reinforced during the War of the Polish Succession (1733–1738), was destroyed by the French in 1734 broke and was rebuilt in 1735.

Today As a result of the canalization of the Rhine by Tulla in the 19th century and the construction of roads and settlements in the last century the remains of the line are now visible in places only in the wooded areas east of Bühl. In the Bühl Municipal Museum is the 1703 map of the Bühl-Stollhofen Line drawn by Major Elster.

See also Baroque fortifications in the Black Forest Eppingen lines Johan Wijnand van Goor defended the lines in 1703 Battle of Blenheim (August 1704) the lines played an important blocking role in the weeks before the battle Prince Eugene of Savoy commanded the forces on the line immediately before the Battle of Blenheim Marshall Villars (May 1707) attacked the lines with a holding operation and then outflanked them defeating Christian Ernst, Margrave of Brandenburg.

Notes

References Nolan, Cathal J. (2008), Wars of the Age of Louis XIV, 1650-1715, Greenwood encyclopedias of modern world wars, ABC-CLIO, p. 253, ISBN 9780313359200 Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart, Bestand L 6, Bü 1696, 1707

Further reading Eugen von Müller: Die Bühl-Stollhofener Linie im Jahr 1706, in Hrsg.: Badische Historische Kommission: Zeitschrift für die Geschichte des Oberrheins, Band 21 1906, Carl Winter's Universitätsbuchhandlung, Heidelberg, 1906 Hans Zelter: Die Stollhofener Linie, in Fortifikation No. 9, 1995, pp. 20–24

External links

Lines from Stollhofen in: Arthur Kleinschmidt (1882). "Karl III. Wilhelm" . Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (in German). Vol. 15. Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot. p. 238. Bühl und Stollhofen (PDF-Datei; 148 kB)

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Lines of Stollhofen

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Lines of Stollhofen claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Lines of Stollhofen before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Lines of Stollhofen ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Lines of Stollhofen

In research: Lines of Stollhofen appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Lines of Stollhofen in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Lines of Stollhofen is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Black Forest, Fortification lines, Forts in Germany, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Lines of Stollhofen outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Lines of Stollhofen in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Lines of Stollhofen means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Lines of Stollhofen out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Lines of Stollhofen in simple terms?

Why does Lines of Stollhofen matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Lines of Stollhofen?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Lines of Stollhofen.