Haut-Rhin department

Haut-Rhin
region	Grand Est
prefecture	Colmar
Sub-prefecture (s)	Altkirch Colmar Mulhouse Thann
Residents	764.030 (Jan. 1, 2017)
Population density	217 inhabitants per km²
surface	3,528.39 km²
Arrondissements	4th
Community associations	17th
Cantons	17th
Communities	366
President of the Department Council	Brigitte Klinkert
ISO-3166-2 code	FR-68
Location of the department of Haut-Rhin in the region Grand Est

The department of Haut-Rhin [ o D ] (literally Upper Rhine , German  Upper Rhine ) is the French department with the serial number 68. Its capital is Colmar . It is located in the Grand Est region in the east of the country and, in contrast to the other Alsatian department Bas-Rhin (literally Lower Rhine ), is named after its location on the Rhine , which is closer to the source and forms the border with Germany .

According to a survey in 2013, 38% of the population still spoke an Alemannic dialect . This means that the German dialects are less widespread here than in the Bas-Rhin department and more than in the Moselle department in Lorraine .

The departments of Haut-Rhin and Bas-Rhin are (as of March 18, 2020) the departments in France most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic .

geography

The department is located in the south-east of the Grand Est region and in the south of Alsace . Its eastern border is the Upper Rhine , in the west the Vosges stretch through the country and in the south the foothills of the Swiss Jura .

The department borders in the north on the Alsatian department Bas-Rhin, in the east on the federal state Baden-Württemberg , in the southeast on the Swiss cantons Basel-Stadt , Basel-Landschaft and Solothurn , in the south on the canton Jura , in the southwest on the department Territoire de Belfort of the Franche-Comté region and, in the west, to the Vosges department of the former Lorraine region .

Landscape near the Haut-Rhin with a view of Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines

Lac Blanc near Orbey

history

Foundation and older history

The department was formed during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790 from the southern part of the then existing province of Alsace . It was divided into the three districts (French: district ) Altkirch, Belfort and Colmar, the forerunners of the arrondissements . The department and the districts were again divided into 32 cantons and had around 290,000 inhabitants. Even then, the capital was Colmar.

The arrondissements of Altkirch , Belfort , Colmar , Delémont ( Delsberg ) and Porrentruy ( Pruntrut , former Département du Mont Terrible ) were established on February 17, 1800. On May 30, 1814, the Delémont and Porrentruy arrondissements were dissolved because the Congress of Vienna had awarded their territory to the Swiss canton of Bern . In 1857 the Altkirch arrondissement was replaced by Mulhouse .

District of Upper Alsace

District of Upper Alsace 1890

→ Main article : District of Upper Alsace

From May 10, 1871 ( Peace of Frankfurt ) to June 28, 1919 ( Peace Treaty of Versailles ), the department was part of the German Empire . As the district of Upper Alsace , it belonged to the realm of Alsace-Lorraine . The district was divided into six districts: Altkirch (as before), Gebweiler , Colmar (as before), Mülhausen (as before), Rappoltsweiler and Thann . The arrondissement of Belfort with its French-speaking population remained as Territoire de Belfort in France. The Oberelsaß district covered 3,508 km² and in 1885 had 462,549 inhabitants.

At the head of the district stood a district president; District presidents were:

president	Term of office
Robert von der Heydt	1871-1875
Adolf Ernst von Ernsthausen	1875-1879
Ludwig Ferdinand Timme	1880-1888
Gustav of Jordan	1888-1898
Alexander zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst	1898-1906
Albert August Wilhelm von Puttkamer	1906-1918

The parliament in the district was the district day . This elected ten members to the regional committee of the realm of Alsace-Lorraine until the state parliament was set up in 1911 with the constitution.

Since the end of the First World War

With the reintegration of the department into France in 1919, the structure of the districts was almost completely taken over into arrondissements. Gebweiler became Guebwiller again, Mulhouse became Mulhouse, Rappoltsweiler became Ribeauvillé, only Colmar was divided into Colmar-Ville and Colmar-Campagne, which were merged again in 1934. The Territoire de Belfort was not reintegrated into the Haut-Rhin department, but became an independent department of France in 1922. In 1941 he was assigned the number 90.

From 1960 to 2015, Alsace formed its own region, which in 2016 became part of the Grand Est region.

Cities

The most populous communes in the Haut-Rhin are:

city	Population (2017)	Arrondissement
Mulhouse ( Mulhouse )	109,443	Mulhouse
Colmar	69.105	Colmar
Saint-Louis ( Saint Ludwig )	21,177	Mulhouse
Illzach	14,691
Wittenheim	14,317
Rixheim	13,902
Kingersheim	13,055
Riedisheim	12,645
Cernay ( Sennheim )	11,565	Thann
Guebwiller ( Gebweiler )	11.094	Guebwiller

Administrative division

Communes and arrondissements in the Haut-Rhin department

The Haut-Rhin department is divided into 4 arrondissements , 17 cantons and 364 communes . On January 1, 2015, the arrondissements of Guebwiller and Ribeauvillé were dissolved.

Arrondissement	Cantons	Communities	Residents January 1, 2017	Area km²	Density of population / km²	Code INSEE
Altkirch	2	108	69,851	666.10	105	681
Colmar-Ribeauvillé	5	98	211,312	1,147.99	184	682
Mulhouse	8th	79	352.817	707.16	499	684
Thann-Guebwiller	5	81	130.050	907.14	143	686
Haut-Rhin department	17th	366	764.030	3,528.39	217	68

See also:

• List of communes in the Haut-Rhin department
• List of cantons in the Haut-Rhin department
• List of associations of municipalities in the Haut-Rhin department

coat of arms

Description: In red, a golden oblique bar with three golden lily crowns placed on both sides after the bar .

Web links

Commons : Département Haut-Rhin  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Département Haut-Rhin (French, German partly, English partly)
• Prefecture of the Haut-Rhin department (French)
• Cty Guide of the city of Mulhouse in the Haut-Rhin (French)
• Haut-Rhin department on www.insee.fr ( National Statistical Office )
• Literature on the Haut-Rhin département in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Etude sur le dialecte alsacien (PDF) Accessed February 4, 2014
2. ↑ Comité consultatif pour la promotion des langues régionales et de la pluralité linguistique intern : Redéfinir une politique publique en faveur des langues régionales et de la pluralité linguistique intern . July 2013, p. 94 (French, Rapport Langues de France - comité consultatif [accessed on April 16, 2017]).
3. ↑ FAZ.net March 18, 2020: There are no more Covid 19 beds
4. ↑ Administrative history
5. ↑ Gérard Lang: Le Code officiel geographique. (PDF; 1.9 MB) In: Courrier des statistiques 108 (2003), pp. 53–62, here p. 55.
6. ↑ Decree No. 2014-1720 of the French Ministry of the Interior to dissolve the arrondissements of Guebwiller and Ribeauvillé and to reclassify the communes of the arrondissement of Thann in the Haut-Rhin department

Coordinates: 47 ° 55 '  N , 7 ° 20'  E