253 - Germany Surrounded by Switzerland
The town of Büsingen am Hochrhein is one of two foreign enclaves enclosed within the territory of Switzerland (*). Büsingen has a long, intimate knowledge of borders, being located on the old limes between the Roman empire and the Germanic barbarians.
Ever since the mid 14th century, Büsingen has had Austrian overlords – at the end of the 17th century, the abduction, trial and death sentence of the Lord of Büsingen at the hands of the neighbouring Swiss canton of Schaffhausen almost led to war between Austria and Switzerland.
It’s said that due to this near-war, the Austrians decided to never relinquish control over Büsingen to the Swiss, just to spite them. When Austria sold its rights to the nearby villages of Ramsen and Dörflingen to the canton of Zürich in 1770, Büsingen effectively became an enclave within Switzerland.
In 1805, the Peace of Pressburg handed Büsingen to the kingdom of Württemberg, in southern Germany. Five years later, the town came under the overlordship of the Grand Duchy of Baden. Eventually, with German Unification in 1870, Büsingen became part of the German Empire.
A whopping 96% of the inhabitants voted for annexation by Switzerland in a 1919 referendum, but since the Swiss couldn’t offer Germany any territory in return, Büsingen remained, somewhat reluctantly, German.
As Büsingen is in a customs union with Switzerland, it is outside the European Customs Area. Other peculiarities caused by its exterritoriality:
• the common currency in Büsingen is not the euro, but the Swiss franc.
• Swiss police may pursue and arrest suspects in Büsingen, but no more than 10 Swiss police officers are allowed in the town at one time.
• Similarly, there may never be more than 3 German police officers per 100 inhabitants.
• There are two postal codes in this one town, a German one 78266 Büsingen; and a Swiss one: 8238 Büsingen (D). You can use Swiss or German stamps for your letters.
• Büsingen’s only petrol station advertises that it’s the cheapest in all of Germany – on average 30% cheaper.
(*) later more on Campione d’Italia, an Italian exclave in southern Switzerland.
Ridiculous that they couldn’t join Switzerland if they wanted to.
Comment by Lukobe — March 8, 2008 @
Any one know anything of this enclave’s history during WW2?
Comment by Don — March 9, 2008 @
Another enclave that’s worth a post…
http://exclave.info/tin-bigha/Tin-Bigha.html
Comment by Sam Bauers — March 9, 2008 @
for a more detailed history report, check http://www.buesingen.de/englisch/index.html then “Buensingen once” in the menu.
I incidentally found a list of all (?) enclaves/exclaves at http://exclave.info/territory_list.html
I wonder if any of these situations resembles the future-potential-hypothetical-wanted-but-feared Palestinian State, which would consist in 2 distinct territories separated by the historic ennemy … I can only think of the Pakistan+Bengladesh situation which didn’t last for long …
Comment by Dr. Goulu — March 9, 2008 @
See also: Llívia, a Catalan exclave surrounded by French territory.
Comment by anònim — March 9, 2008 @
Next time, try Baarle-Hertog for size.
- Where there’s enclaves within enclaves
- Where houses display little flags that indicate whether they’re Dutch or Belgian
- Where some houses have two front doors: one Belgian, one Dutch
- Where the border might run straight across your dining room table
Comment by Kim Hartveld — March 9, 2008 @
Thank you for this inspireing article, very interesting.
If you are interested in starting a series of exclave-articles or something of the kind I would check out Kleinwalsertal
Comment by MrMister — March 9, 2008 @
weird! i didn’t know there were enclaves in europe
Comment by David — March 9, 2008 @
There’s such an enclave between spain and france too…
Comment by mat — March 9, 2008 @
#6 Kim, Baarle-Hertog has already been covered on this blog.
http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2006/12/12/52-the-enclaves-and-counter-enclaves-of-baarle-bnl/
Other enclaves on this blog:
http://www.google.com/search?q=enclave+site%3Astrangemaps.wordpress.com
Comment by Robert — March 9, 2008 @
@lukobe Things were a little bit more complicated. The situation in late 1918 was chaotic in Germany, the Kaiser in exile, the old monarchic order in dissoolvation, the goverment overthrown, civil unrest, communistic insurgence overtaking the rule in many german towns declaring a soviet republic on german soil (following the leninistic revolution in Russia only 1 year before), bloody fights with conservative militias mostly formed up parts of the millions of flowing back desillusionated servicemen. a totally colapsing economy, famine across the country…
So the distress of large parts of the population in Germany on one side and the well situation in Switzerland might have played a keyrole in this referendum as much as much as the angst of eventually becoming part of some kind of Sovietrepublic.
So wouldn’t take any of this numbers to seriously and the numbers might have changed considerably only some months later when The Büsingians find out to make profit out of their special situtation and their right to trade with germany and sitzerland without any customs. So much that in 1919 the german decide to block the transport of food between mainland and Büsingen. Which may have outraged the Büsinger again… So, sentiments against and in favor might have changed a lot at that time…
The reason for the non-exchange of Büsingen after WWI however, that “the Swiss couldn’t offer Germany any territory in return” is just plain nonsense.
In would have been no big problem for Sitzerland to demand the handover of Büsingen even without
offering any territory in exchange when the Versailles treaty was ratified in 1919. Danmark, although as neutral as Switzerland in WW I. got some northern part of Germany. And helding a referendum at this time would have been a sur win for Switzerland.
The Swiss goverment however decided to stay completely neutral and out of the Versailles Treaty and declined to support any local agitation promitingthis. This might have spared Switzerland from any ressentment of highgoing nationalism in Germany and throughout Europe betwenn the 2 WorldWars and eventually may have saved them from being invaded during WWII.
By the way, directly after WWII there was a proposal by british parliament to handover Büsingen to Switzerland which was again declined by the Swiss Bundesrat (parliament). The only other german Exclave within Switzerland “Verenahof” was exchanged in 1967.
And about some other curiosity:
Cars: Büsingen is the only village in Germany with his own numberplate “Büs”. (German numberplates normally are consisting of 1-3 letters for the adminitrative district followed by a hyphen and registration “number” consisting of 1-2 letters and a number). They don’t have the “KN” as the rest of the Konstanz county to help the Swiss custom to distinguish them from the other residents of Konstanz county as they have to pay import taxes when entering as any other Swiss.
To make it even more peculiar: Although they registrate their cars under german law they are part of the Swiis economic zone and so they have to pay Swiss import taxes when buying a car in Germany. Other then the Swiss they have 2 years time to do so and to make in easily controllable by Swiss custom they get a “Büs-A…” number plate if they already have paid the Swiss taxes and a “Büs-Z…” for a car not declared in Switzerland.
The yearly cartaxes however are to be paid to Germany, but the amount is settled following local swiss law in nearby Schaffhausen.
- They’ve the only german football/soccer club, playing in the swiss league
- The fact about the currency is not correct: Swiss Francs and Euro are both officially currencies and are both in use and have to be accepted by any shop there.
(There’s nowadays some law for it after the postoffice formerly accepted only swiss francs as payment for german stamps. It was the only german post office refusing german currency than)
@David, yeap there are quite a lot of exclave here and Europe is full of administrative curiosities and strange rules such as for example how the austrian goverment directly benefits from the (german beer) drunken in Germany. Or the already mentioned Baarle-Hertog exclave where the country you belong to depends on the main entrance of the house, which were changed from time to time to save local taxes for example.
Comment by Theo — March 9, 2008 @
yes too much of enclaves http://nancyjones28.wordpress.com/
Comment by nancyjones28 — March 10, 2008 @
Then you have Cooch Behar. That makes this part of Germany look tidy.
Also from this great site!
http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2007/05/08/110-cooch-behar-the-mother-of-all-enclave-complexes/
Comment by Qiu Jieqiang — March 11, 2008 @
Theo: “Danmark, although as neutral as Switzerland in WW I. got some northern part of Germany.”
After holding a referendum in two zones (with the Northen favouring Denmark 75-25, and the Southern favouring Germany 80-20), Denmark regained part of Schleswig. It had been lost in the Second Schleswig War (1864) between Prussia and Austria on one side and Denmark on the other.
Since Büsingen never had been Swiss, there is little similarity between the cases.
More info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schleswig_Plebiscites
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Schleswig_War
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Vienna_%281864%29
Note that, had Denmark wanted to, we could probably have demanded (and received) the entire Schleswig area back from Germany in the peace of Versailles, but the (in my opinion rather more sensible) decision was made to hold plebiscites instead.
Comment by Kristian — March 11, 2008 @
Kristian “Note that, had Denmark wanted to, we could probably have demanded (and received) the entire Schleswig.. ”
Sorry to tell you, that Danmark didn’t had any vote or wasn’t even signing the Versailles Treaty. So it wasn’t Danmarks “sensible decision” but mostly Great Britain and the USA who declined exactly the danish claim to get all of Schleswig. Instead they tried to solve the old ethnic conflict by a referendums.
Danmark however was responsible for delimiting the boundaries of the 2 zones and they tried to move the limits of 1. (northern) zone as much south as possible as the votes were counted “en bloc” and not parish by parish as in the 2. zone. They first wanted to include Flensburg into the 1.zone, but as being the biggest city of Schleswig and predominantly german this would have risked the danish outcome
in the results and so the excluded it to be sure to gain the referendum.
So the towns of Tonder and Hojer although 3/4 in the region had voted in favour of remaining in Germany became Danish. The demand of Danish nationalists (including the king) to annex Flensburg and the 2.Zone in violation of agreements and the outcome of the referendum led to the so called Easter Crises of 1920 as the danish goverment refused to adopt it.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Crisis_of_1920)
And by the way Kristian, Schleswig
was nether a part of Danmark before WWI but a german fiefdom owned and ruled by danish king. It remained part of the “German Holy Empire” all the time till it’s cessation in 1806. Attempts to make Schleswig part of Danmark resulted in the 3-year-war between Sanmark and Schleswig/ Holstein seeking their independece (1848-1851). It ended with the “London protocol” 8/5/1852 stating that Schleswig/Holstein/Lauenburg remain a fiefdom under danish rule but not part of Danmark. The attempt to break this treaty and trying again to integrate them into Danmark in November 1863 resulted in the ultimatum by Austria and Prussia and the following Second Schleswig War war where Danmark lost control of these provinces.
So Schleswig/Holstein/Lauenburg were ruled by danish but never was part of Danmark. And Büsingen by the way was owned once by Schaffhausen (ok,not Switzerland) too.
Comment by Theo — March 12, 2008 @
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Theo, I know all that. I was merely saying that, in the punitive atmosphere prevailing after WWI, Danish insistence on reparations for the war of 1864 might have been picked up by the French, eager to inflict as much damage on Germany as possible. Luckily this didn’t happen.
Comment by Kristian — March 18, 2008 @
[...] in der Wikipedia; gefunden auf Strange Maps, auf das ich über das Nachspiel gelangt [...]
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I had never heard of this place before the article. I’ll make sure to check it out if I ever return to the area. Excellent and interesting article.
Comment by cyclepromo — April 9, 2008 @
there is also Llivia a spanish town inside french territory.
Comment by Dr. Ramirez — April 16, 2008 @
I grew up and lived in Büsingen for 15 years. It’s worth mentioning that this is a really beautiful and unspoilt village with lovely walks along the River Rhine.
Nevertheless, living there is a fairly schizophrenic matter, as it is neither really fully part of Germany nor seen by the Swiss as part of their country.
Linguistically, the local dialect is a hybrid of Swiss German and Southern Baden Alemannic German. Many if not most of the population work and shop in Switzerland, but must pay prohibitively high German taxes. After 10 years of living in Büsingen, residents are awarded work permits for the surrounding Swiss cantons of Schaffhausen, Zurich, and Thurgau (though getting work permits is no longer as difficult as in the past due to bilateral treaties between the EU and Switzerland).
The legal framework for Büsingen’s status was established by the State Treaty of 23 November 1964 between Germany and Switzerland, which can be found here (in German, French, and Italian):
http://www.admin.ch/ch/d/sr/c0_631_112_136.html
Unlike most of my classmates in primary school, who opted for the Swiss secondary school system, I went to a German Gymnasium in the nearby town of Singen am Hohentwiel. This meant that every morning, I would cross the border from Germany into Switzerland, travel for just under a mile through Swiss territory, then cross the border again to re-enter “Mainland” Germany; in the afternoon, the bus would again cross the border twice to take us back.
Don: In WWII, Switzerland effectively shut down the border, leaving Büsingen closed off from the rest of the “Reich”. German soldiers on home leave were required to deposit their weapons at the border guards’ posts. The Swiss customs officers would supply them with greatcoats to cover up their German uniforms for the duration of their short walk over Swiss territory to their homes in Büsingen.
The history of the WWII-era refugees in the surrounding border areas between Germany and Switzerland is discussed by Franco Battel in “Wo es hell ist, ist die Schweiz” (my translation: “The bright lights in the distance are Switzerland”):
http://www.amazon.com/hell-ist-dort-Schweiz-Nationalsozialismus/dp/3905314053/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208464656&sr=8-1
An unverified report by the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) in exile during the war stated that the German army was building extensive barracks for possible use in stationing troops for an attack on Switzerland, but I don’t know if that is true - in any case, it never came to an invasion of Switzerland, which is why the population of Büsingen still enjoy a peaceful relationship with their Swiss neighbors to this day.
Our house was right on the (unmarked) border with Switzerland; the road was paved in two hues of tarmac on the Swiss and German sides, respectively.
I have been reading this blog for a long time, and was delighted to spot this entry for my old home. Living in Büsingen is/was what originally piqued my curiosity about the important and occasionally absurd phenomenon of maps and borders.
Comment by Hyperlax — April 17, 2008 @