Border between Germany and Austria
The border between Germany and Austria is an 815.9 or 817 kilometer long state border in Central Europe. It separates the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany in the north and west from that of the Republic of Austria in the south and east. For Austria it is the longest border with a neighboring country, for Germany the border with Austria is on a par with the German-Czech border and the longest land border. In the depths of the Obersee , part of Lake Constance , the borderline is not clearly defined.
On the Austrian side of the border are the federal states of Vorarlberg , Tyrol , Salzburg and Upper Austria , on the German side the Free State of Bavaria (as well as the state of Baden-Württemberg with an unresolved border in Lake Constance ).
With the exception of Lake Constance, the current border was regulated in a bilateral state treaty on February 29, 1972, after various border agreements and treaties had been concluded between Austria and the government of the then sovereign Kingdom of Bavaria in the 19th century .
Borderline
In the west, the border begins in Lake Constance, although the exact demarcation on the bottom of the lake is still disputed or simply not standardized by law. Both Germany and Austria predominantly represent the condominium theory , according to which the area of the "Hohe See" (ie from a lake depth of more than 25 meters) is jointly administered by all neighboring states. The third state bordering Lake Constance, Switzerland, is based on the real division theory, according to which the lake as a whole is to be divided among the neighboring states based on the proportions of its shoreline. The territorial issues in Lake Constance have not been fully clarified, but usually do not cause any problems between the partner states that have been linked in the joint International Lake Constance Conference since 1972 .
On the southeastern part of Lake Constance, the land border between Germany and Austria begins at Lindau (D) and Hörbranz (A), although it initially runs in the river bed of the Leiblach tributary to Lake Constance . The motorway border bridge between the German federal motorway 96 and the Austrian Rhine Valley / Walgau motorway A14 also crosses this border river. The border follows several rivers and streams eastwards through the hilly landscape of the Bavarian Allgäu on the border with the Vorarlberg Vorderwald . Finally, it reaches the summit of the Nagelfluhkette and thus forms a geographical specialty: the Breitach valley cuts into this mountain range south of the Breitachklamm as Kleinwalsertal and is therefore surrounded all around by high mountains. Politically, the only municipality in Kleinwalsertal, Mittelberg , belongs to the Austrian state of Vorarlberg. However, as a functional enclave, due to its location, this can only be reached via German national territory.
East of the Kleinwalsertal, the mountains rise even steeper. The state border reaches the internal border between the Austrian federal states of Vorarlberg and Tyrol. This point, known as Haldenwanger Eck , is not only the border between the two Austrian federal states, but also the southernmost point of the German national territory. From here the border follows the main central ridge of the Allgäu Alps to the northeast to the Tannheimer Mountains . With the Tyrolean community of Jungholz , which is only connected to the rest of the national territory via one point near the summit of the Sorgschrofen , there is another functional enclave in Germany in this area. From there, the border runs eastwards along the Zirmgrat and across the Ammergau Alps . Shortly afterwards it reaches the highest points of the border in the Wetterstein Mountains . The Zugspitze , the highest mountain in Germany, forms with its height of 2962 m above sea level. NHN one of the most prominent border points and the highest point of the common national border. Over several peaks of the Northern Karwendel range , through the Vorkarwendel and the Bavarian Prealps , the border runs eastwards as the northern border of Tyrol.
At Kufstein (A) or Kiefersfelden (D) the border line meets the Lower Inn Valley . One of the most important north-south connections in Central Europe runs through it. On the one hand, there is a motorway border crossing along the Austrian Inntal motorway A 12 and the German federal motorway 93 , which later connects Germany with Italy via the Brenner motorway and the Brenner Pass and represents an important transit route. In addition, the Kufstein – Innsbruck or Rosenheim – Kufstein border line runs parallel to this through the Lower Inn Valley, over which large parts of the north-south railway traffic and most of the Austrian railway traffic between Tyrol and the eastern federal states are routed. For a few kilometers, the border runs for the first time in the river bed of the Inn , before the border branches off eastwards from the river at Erl and thus begins the so-called Great German Corner , a striking southeastern incision in the Austrian national territory between Tyrol and Salzburg. The southernmost point is reached by the "Deutsche Eck" just below the Königsee in the Berchtesgadener Land district .
The border then turns northeast again and reaches the urban area of the state capital Salzburg , where the border runs over the Walserberg and then meets the border river Saalach , which it then follows to the confluence with the Salzach near Freilassing . The Salzach in turn forms the common border between the federal states of Salzburg and a little later Upper Austria and Bavaria up to the confluence with the Inn near Haiming . At Passau , the borderline deviates briefly to the south from the course of the river Inn, so that the confluence of the Inn into the Danube is not a border point and in this area there are a few square kilometers of German national territory south of the Inn-Danube line.
From the Achleiten district of the Austrian municipality of Freinberg (where the boundary stone No. 1 of the Republic of Austria is located on the Kräutelstein , a small rocky island in the Danube), the border lies in the middle of the Danube and only leaves it again at Engelhartszell , where the The border line moved again to the northeast from the river. In this area in the direction of the Bohemian Forest, it follows several smaller streams and finally meets the Dreieckmark about 25 kilometers from the Danube at Schwarzenberg am Böhmerwald . This border stone near the Bavarian Plöckenstein marks the border triangle of Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic and thus the eastern end of the German-Austrian border.
Municipalities on the state border (from east to west)
Legend: Border crossing possible: only places are indicated where the border can be crossed by car , train , ferry or passenger ship .
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- Legend
- 1 = Gegenbach
- 2 = Great Mill
- 3 = Finsterbach
- 4 = Grenzbach / Osterbach
- 5 = Ranna
- 6 = Ranna Lake
- 7 = Schindelbach
- 8 = Lindenbach
- 9 = Stöcklbach
- 10 = Dandlbach
- 11 = Pittenbach
- 12 = lake lake
- 13 = Rickenbach
- 14 = Leiblach
- A = Berchtesgaden Alps
- B = Chiemgau Alps
- C = Bavarian Prealps
- D = Karwendel
- E = Wetterstein Mountains and Mieming Range
- F = Ammergau Alps
- G = Allgäu Alps
Border crossing and border traffic
At the German-Austrian border there are more than 50 border crossings that allow people to cross the border using motorized individual transport or public transport, both local and long-distance (e.g. trains, ships on Lake Constance and cable cars). For geographic reasons, most of these border crossings are located in the eastern, flatter part of the border from Salzburg . The high-ranking road connections in the western part are among the most important border crossings because of their importance for north-south transit and holiday travel. For example, the Kufstein / Kiefersfelden motorway border crossing in the Lower Inn Valley, as part of the German federal motorway 93 and the Austrian Inntal motorway A 12, represents an important part of the north-south connection from Germany via the Austrian-Italian Brenner Pass to the northern Italian industrial and tourist regions and further into Inland Italy . A similar function, mainly for tourist traffic , is fulfilled by the Fernpass , located entirely in Austria, which can be reached from the border through the Füssen border tunnel and which directs traffic towards the Austrian-Italian Reschenpass and the Brennerpass.
Particularly significant for intra-Austrian transport the highway border crossings Kufstein / Kiefersfelden in the Inn valley motorway and Salzburg - Walserberg at the beginning of the West motorway A 1. These two border crossings put together with the intervening German motorway pieces of the A8 to the motorway junction Inntal and the Federal Highway 93, the The main traffic axis between eastern and western Austria. There is no direct motorway connection on Austrian territory between Tyrol and the eastern federal states. It is similar with the Rosenheim loop . It connects the railway lines between Kufstein / Kiefersfelden and Freilassing / Salzburg via the German corner . Located on German territory, this represents the most important rail link between eastern and western Austria and is of corresponding importance for both domestic and international passenger and freight traffic. The border crossing over the Saalach Bridge between the stations of Freilassing and Salzburg is part of the Magistrale for Europe , an EU project to create a high-speed route between Paris and Budapest .
Since Germany has been one of the founding members and full users of the Schengen Agreement since 1990 and Austria also applies the agreement in full from December 1, 1997 after joining the EU in 1995, there are no longer any regular checks on persons at the borders . In some cases, for example during the 2006 World Cup , the Schengen Agreement was temporarily suspended by Germany or Austria so that border controls could be carried out. After the start of the refugee crisis in Europe , the German Federal Police began random checks at some border crossing points in September 2015.
See also
literature
- Daniel-Erasmus Khan : The German State Borders: Legal-Historical Basics and Open Legal Issues Chap. II: The German-Austrian border, pp. 164–232. Mohr Siebeck , 2004. ISBN 9783161484032
Web links
- Contract between the Republic of Austria and the Federal Republic of Germany on the common state border in the legal information system of the Republic of Austria
Individual evidence
- ↑ Article State Borders . In: Ernst Bruckmüller: Austria Lexicon . Publishing Association Österreich-Lexikon, Vienna 2004.
- ↑ Common borders between Germany and the neighboring countries. Federal Statistical Office , December 31, 2015, accessed on July 1, 2019 .
- ↑ State Office for Surveying and Geoinformation Bavaria (PDF).
- ^ Claudius Graf-Schelling : The sovereignty on Lake Constance with special consideration of shipping . Schulthess Polygraphischer Verlag, Zurich 1978, ISBN 3-7255-1914-5 .
- ^ Ulrich Nachbaur : Vorarlberger Territorialfragen 1945 to 1948. A contribution to the history of the Vorarlberg state borders since 1805 (= Vorarlberger Landesarchiv [Hrsg.]: Research on the history of Vorarlbergs . Volume 8 (NF)). UVK Verlagsgesellschaft , Konstanz 2007, ISBN 978-3-89669-629-8 , chapter 12.7. "Who does Lake Constance belong to?", P. 262–295 ( New Volume 8. Available as PDF at Academia.edu ).
- ↑ Germany is temporarily introducing border controls. In: Spiegel Online. September 13, 2015, accessed September 13, 2015 .
International borders of Germany
with:
Belgium |
Denmark |
France |
Luxembourg |
Netherlands |
Austria |
Poland |
Switzerland |
Czech Republic
Historically:
Inner German border
International borders of Austria
with:
Germany |
Italy |
Liechtenstein |
Switzerland |
Slovakia |
Slovenia |
Czech Republic |
Hungary 
