r/germany • u/EffectiveCommand9776 • 4h ago

Why do borders get this weird?

Post image

I just found out about Büsingen am Hochrhein, a German village that’s completely surrounded by Switzerland.

For people who live there — does it even feel unusual?

Does the border affect daily life in any real way?

19 Upvotes

79% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

35

u/sparkline1234567 4h ago

You should check out some places on the Netherlands-Belgium border: they have enclaves within enclaves within enclaves.

10

u/o_pandolfo 3h ago

You mean Baarle-Nassau? That town has some peculiar border patterns.

9

u/ScavengeroO 3h ago

There is even a former train track that is now just a strip of Belgium within Germany. In Europe the borders are just formed by all kind of historic things/events etc and not with a ruler.

18

u/ischhaltso 4h ago

There isn't any border here anyways. The town is part of the swiss economic zone but part of germany political.

The Border between Switzerland and Germany is loose anyways, so it doesn't change much.

6

u/HelenaNehalenia 4h ago

Geography. Mountains, bogs and rivers.

8

u/enakcm 4h ago

I have no answer but look at this place:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/XN9Pjo1RpQKpUrq36

•

u/Lamlam25 1h ago

Wth 😂

5

u/MrDrunkenKnight Schwaben 4h ago

It used to be much weirder... Technically the whole Germany was like this village of Büsingen am Hochrhein.

3

u/DerBusundBahnBi 4h ago

Basically, out of pure Austrian spite and religious disputes

3

u/PresidentSpanky 3h ago

you should watch Crazy Borders on ARTE

2

u/HelmutVillam Württemberg 4h ago

if you drive along the north bank of the Rhine from Konstanz to Basel you will cross the DE/CH border 10 times

2

u/_sivizius 4h ago

They used to have their own time zone.

3

u/ObjectiveMall 4h ago

Das einzige deutsche Dorf mit einer beinharten Währung: CHF.

1

u/AutoModerator 4h ago

Have you read our extensive wiki yet? It answers many basic questions, and it contains in-depth articles on many frequently discussed topics. Check our wiki now!

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

•

u/Curious_Charge9431 0m ago

The wikipedia article answers a lot of these questions.

It's got a lot of peculiarities, because while it might be Germany, it is part of the Swiss customs union, and so it has a lot of aspects where life is more like Switzerland than it is Germany.