This year’s symposium focussed on cross-border cooperation between the fortress monuments on the Upper Rhine. The first results of the “Vis-á-Vis” (Baden-Alsace-Palatinate) tourism community’s project to develop regional tourism modules for fortresses and an accompanying  research  project at the University of Karlsruhe were presented. The results of the project can be used to create reliable offers for cross-border fortress tourism in the region and, in conjunction with the European cultural route FORTE CULTURA®, beyond. Funding programmes and project ideas for fortress monuments in the Upper Rhine region were also presented and intensively discussed. The symposium was attended by representatives from 10 fortress monuments on both sides of the Upper Rhine as well as representatives from the PAMINA region, the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region and Southern Palatinate tourism. In the evening, the 10th Germersheim Fortress Festival was ceremoniously opened, attracting many thousands of guests, reenactment groups and showmen to the town.