Fort No. 2 Bronsart (German: Bronsart bei Mandein) — a fort that covered the Königsberg-Tilsit highway, laid down in 1875 and completed in 1879. It was named after General Paul Bronsart von Schellendorf. It was modernized in the 1890s. The garrison size reached up to 250 men. The construction cost was about 3 million marks at the prices of the year it was built. The fort is located on a hill and is shaped as an elongated hexagon measuring 255 by 110 meters, surrounded by a dry moat 10 meters wide and 5 meters deep with a lined counterscarp and an earthen escarp, topped with a metal grille up to 2 meters high with sharpened spikes bent towards the front.

The arched entrance to the fort, protected by a caponier, leads to the central sally port 5 meters wide and 3.5 meters high, from which corridors 2 meters wide symmetrically extend in both directions. On the first and second floors of the fort’s gorge section are barracks, kitchen, dining room, storerooms, restrooms, and a hospital. The floors are connected on the side of the central sally port by spiral staircases, with regular staircases at the corridor ends. The rooms, 3.2 meters high, have arched window openings and embrasures.

In the central part of the fort, on both sides of the main sally port, were located: compressor room, power station, warehouses, workshops, etc., connected by corridors. The central sally port is connected to the cofferdam, from which sally ports lead through the counterscarp wall of the floor moat to the flanking half-caponiers. Side exits from the central sally port lead to inner courtyards surrounded by an earthen rampart with gentle ramps for transporting artillery. From each courtyard, side sally ports lead to the moat and to underground ammunition depots. All underground casemates have vaulted ceilings 1.5 meters thick made of repeatedly fired ceramic bricks, protected by an earthen embankment up to 6 meters thick. On the earthen embankment are casemated traverses with block-and-tackle hoists and lifts for raising ammunition, supply depots, and observation posts with embrasures. Between the traverses were artillery positions covered by parapets.

During the assault on Königsberg from April 6 to 9, 1945, Fort No. 2 was on the direction of an auxiliary strike, blocked by units of the 324th and 216th Rifle Divisions, and therefore was not subjected to massive heavy artillery fire and remained fairly well preserved. It did not open fire during the assault on Königsberg. When the neighboring Fort No. 3 was taken, the commandant was offered to contact the neighbors with a proposal to surrender without a fight. Apparently, this is what happened. There is no information about it in memoir literature. Neither combat reports nor any documents have been found in the TsAMO archives. It ceased resistance on the morning of April 9, 1945. Indirect confirmation of the absence of an assault is that the structure shows no damage or signs of battle on the walls.

In the postwar period, Bronsart was closed. Military warehouses were located inside. There is an opinion that scenes from the legendary film "In the Zone of Special Attention" were partially filmed here. It is difficult to say which fort appeared in the shots. Structurally, the similarities could be identical. The flooded passage through which Volontir passed exists in both the first and second forts, and similar casemates, where soldiers run chasing a paratrooper, are found in the fortress of the city of Kaunas. In 1984, the fort was used for filming the movie "Act According to the Situation," where the fort played the role of a death camp.

After the collapse of the USSR, Fort No. 2 was abandoned for a long time. Today it is privately owned.

Sources:

https://www.prussia39.ru/sight/index.php?sid=506

https://gid39.su/fort-2/
Blog by Nikita Zagorny