Festung

Festung is a generic German word for a fortress. Whilst it is not in common usage in English it is used in a number of historical contexts involving German speakers:

For historical fortresses in Austria, Germany or Switzerland
As part of the excuse given by the German Army (Wehrmacht Heer) for the slow progress of the Siege of Warsaw
For German WWII strongholds which were to be held at all costs, especially towards the end of the war:
- Atlantic wall or Festung Europa — Hitler's personal term for the fortifications he had erected to stymie any allied attempt at invasion of the continent.
- Stalingrad (see Battle for Stalingrad)
- Warsaw (Festung Warschau) see also the Warsaw Uprising
- Poznan (Battle of Poznan (1945))
- Kolobrzeg (Battle of Kołobrzeg)
- Wrocław (Festung Breslau)
- Budapest (Battle of Budapest)
- Kaliningrad (Festung Königsberg)
For entire countries such as Norway which were heavily fortified in World War II. See Festung Norwegen.

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title.
If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.