{"id":50068,"date":"2023-01-15T23:38:40","date_gmt":"2023-01-15T22:38:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=50068"},"modified":"2026-01-14T02:04:55","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T01:04:55","slug":"busingen-am-hochrhein-the-curious-case-of-a-german-town-surrounded-by-switzerland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2023\/01\/15\/busingen-am-hochrhein-the-curious-case-of-a-german-town-surrounded-by-switzerland\/","title":{"rendered":"B\u00fcsingen am Hochrhein: the curious case of a German town surrounded by Switzerland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The borders between countries give rise to many paradoxes, and some of the most curious are those found in a German town nestled in Switzerland.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2022\/08\/29\/steinstucken-the-curious-island-of-liberty-that-was-surrounded-by-communist-germany\/\">Steinst\u00fccken: the curious 'island' of Liberty that was surrounded by communist Germany<\/a><\/rel><br \/>\n<rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2017\/09\/11\/sobieskiego-100-the-mysterious-soviet-building-that-remains-closed-and-guarded-in-warsaw\/\">Sobieskiego 100: the mysterious Soviet building that remains closed and guarded in Warsaw<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p><strong>B\u00fcsingen am Hochrhein is a town in southern Germany with a census of 1,519 inhabitants.<\/strong> Although more than in southern Germany, it would be correct to say that it is in northern Switzerland, since this German town it is totally surrounded by Swiss territory. Like other similar cases, <strong>the origin of this German enclave in Switzerland must be sought hundreds of years ago, when B\u00fcsingen belonged to the Holy Roman Empire.<\/strong> In 1805, during the Napoleonic Wars, it passed into the hands of the Kingdom of W\u00fcrttemberg, which in 1815 became part of the German Confederation. And that is how B\u00fcsingen became part of Germany.<\/p>\n<div class=\"foto_piedefoto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51819872372_4f36a47a99_o.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto;\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"piedefoto\">The flags of Switzerland, B\u00fcsingen and Germany, waving in this German location (Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.buesingen.de\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Buesingen.de<\/a>).<\/div>\n<p>The inhabitants of B\u00fcsingen do not seem to have historically been very satisfied with their nationality. In fact, <strong>in 1918, just after the First World War, a referendum was held in B\u00fcsingen in which 96% of the residents voted in favor of joining Switzerland.<\/strong> The Swiss Confederation is very scrupulous With these types of issues, and <strong>as he was not able to compensate Germany for the transfer of that town, he rejected the annexation request<\/strong> of the residents of B\u00fcsingen.<\/p>\n<p>B\u00fcsingen's status implied certain complications in World War II, since the German town was surrounded by a neutral country. <strong>Some German soldiers resided in that enclave, and in order to gain access to their homes, the Swiss border guards required them to leave their weapons at the border<\/strong> and cover their uniforms with coats, in such a way as to go unnoticed.<\/p>\n<div class=\"foto_piedefoto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51819872397_327a367784_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto;\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"piedefoto\">The B\u00fcsingen am Hochrhein post office, indicating two postal codes: the German one, on the left, and the Swiss one (Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/95431111@N02\/8978845629\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Christophe Ravier<\/a>).<\/div>\n<p>At the end of the war,<strong> B\u00fcsingen was assigned to the French occupation zone of Germany.<\/strong> Its status was raised again, but Switzerland refused to enter into negotiations, as it would only agree to annex that town if it so agreed a sovereign German government, something that did not exist at the time.<strong> This refusal to integrate B\u00fcsingen into Switzerland was heightened by the transfer of eastern Germany to Poland<\/strong> in compensation for the annexed eastern Polish territories by the USSR, something that caused discomfort among the German-speaking Swiss population.<\/p>\n<p>However, given the possibility that this enclave would become a refuge for Nazi war criminals,<strong> Switzerland allowed French soldiers access to it, so that they could take charge of its surveillance.<\/strong> In 1957, it The German and Swiss governments confirmed the current status of the town, which <strong>in 1961 changed its name from B\u00fcsingen to B\u00fcsingen am Hochrhein.<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"foto_piedefoto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51820932493_cbd5ffffe4_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto;\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"piedefoto\">Two telephone booths in B\u00fcsingen am Hochrhein: the German one, on the right, and the Swiss one (Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/95431111@N02\/8978849227\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Christophe Ravier<\/a>).<\/div>\n<p>Although B\u00fcsingen am Hochrhein is part of Germany, there are certain peculiarities in that town. There <strong>the usual currency is the Swiss franc.<\/strong> The electricity supply comes from Switzerland. In addition, <strong>the Police of the Swiss Canton of Schaffhausen are allowed access to the town and even make arrests there<\/strong>. Services such as postal services, healthcare, telecommunications and education follow a mixed model:<strong> the inhabitants of B\u00fcsingen am Hochrhein can choose whether they prefer German or Swiss services<\/strong> (in the locality a postal code can be Swiss or a German). <strong>In tax matters, Swiss VAT is applied.<\/strong> In addition, the official website of the town is accessible through the domain <a href=\"http:\/\/www.buesingen.ch\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">www.buesingen.ch<\/a> (Swiss) and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.buesingen.de\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">www. buesingen.de<\/a> (German).<\/p>\n<p>Below these lines, <a href=\"https:\/\/goo.gl\/maps\/8uKRDVqMZnidH9qSA\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the map of B\u00fcsingen on Google Maps<\/a>:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The borders between countries give rise to many paradoxes, and some of the most curious are those found in a German town nestled in Switzerland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19073],"tags":[15916,10929,17055],"class_list":["post-50068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geography","tag-busingen-am-hochrhein","tag-germany","tag-switzerland"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-11 23:45:17","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50068\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}