Festung

Festung is a generic German word for a fortress. Although 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 reasoning given by the German Army (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:
 * Alpine Fortress or Alpenfestung
 * Atlantic wall or Festung Europa &mdash; a military propaganda term from the Second World War which referred to the areas of Continental Europe occupied by Nazi Germany.
 * Stalingrad (see Battle of Stalingrad)
 * Warsaw (Festung Warschau) see also the Warsaw Uprising
 * Poznań (Battle of Posen)
 * Kolobrzeg (Battle of Kolberg)
 * Piła (Festung Schneidemühl)
 * 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.
 * For proposed post war German enclaves (festungen, literally "strongholds") in places such as Brest and Trondheim (see )
 * For planned national redoubts such as Switzerland's National Redoubt (Schweizer Alpenfestung).