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The Franco-German border (; ) separates France and Germany and has a length of , about half of it along the Rhine.


History

The Franco-German border can be traced back to the 17th century, and the various treaties following the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), starting with the Treaty of Westphalia (1648) and the
Treaty of Nijmegen The Treaties of Peace of Nijmegen ('; german: Friede von Nimwegen) were a series of treaties signed in the Dutch city of Nijmegen between August 1678 and October 1679. The treaties ended various interconnected wars among France, the Dutch Republi ...
(1678–1679), marking the Rhine as the frontier between the Kingdom of France, and the different German states. The actual border was determined in the
Congress of Vienna The Congress of Vienna (, ) of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon B ...
in 1815. The border then changed after the French defeat during the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), where the French Third Republic was forced to yield Alsace-Lorraine to the new
German Empire The German Empire (), Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditar ...
in 1871. The territory was then returned to France 48 years later after the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. The border changed again in 1941 when Nazi Germany de facto annexed the region (without international legal recognition, or treaty). The current border was re-established after the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. In 2019, German authorities instituted extended border checks. These checks resulted in 178 people who had been banned from entering Germany being denied entry. 1,177 people on the wanted list were arrested, there were 1,235 breaches of residency laws, 406 breaches against narcotics laws, 205 breaches of weapons laws, 47 cases of falsified documents, and 19 people with extremist backgrounds were hindered from entering Germany. Most of these were along the borders to France and Austria.


Route

The border follows the
Upper Rhine The Upper Rhine (german: Oberrhein ; french: Rhin Supérieur) is the section of the Rhine between Basel in Switzerland and Bingen in Germany, surrounded by the Upper Rhine Plain. The river is marked by Rhine-kilometres 170 to 529 (the s ...
from the tripoint ('' Dreiländereck'') with the French-Swiss and the German-Swiss borders at
Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS), ...
(), passing between Strasbourg and
Offenburg Offenburg ("open borough" - coat of arms showing open gates; Low Alemmanic: ''Offäburg'') is a city located in the state of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With nearly 60,000 inhabitants (2019), it is the largest city and the administrative capital ...
. The Rhine forms the eastern border of
Alsace Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...
on the French side and the western border of
Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...
on the German side. Upstream of Karlsruhe (), the border leaves the Rhine, cutting westward to forming the northern border of
Alsace Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...
and
Lorraine Lorraine , also , , ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; german: Lothringen ; lb, Loutrengen; nl, Lotharingen is a cultural and historical region in Northeastern France, now located in the administrative region of G ...
on the French side, and the southern border of Rhineland-Palatinate and
Saarland The Saarland (, ; french: Sarre ) is a state of Germany in the south west of the country. With an area of and population of 990,509 in 2018, it is the smallest German state in area apart from the city-states of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg, and ...
on the German side. It passes Saarbrücken,
Petite-Rosselle Petite-Rosselle (; ; Palatine German: ''Klänrossle'') is a commune in the Moselle department of the Grand Est region in north-eastern France. The commune is separated from neighbouring Großrosseln to its west by the small river Rossel, whi ...
,
Freyming-Merlebach Freyming-Merlebach (; german: Freimingen-Merlenbach) is a commune in the Moselle department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. It is part of the agglomeration of Saarbrücken and Forbach.Creutzwald Creutzwald (german: Kreuzwald) is a commune in the Moselle département in Grand Est in north-eastern France. With Germany, it manages the Warndt forest. History The town was formed in 1810, by the merging of the three villages of ''La Croix ...
(where it follows the Bist for a short stretch),
Überherrn Überherrn is a municipality in the district of Saarlouis, in Saarland, Germany. It is situated along the river Bist on the border with France, approx. southwest of Saarlouis Saarlouis (; french: link=no, Sarrelouis, ; formerly Sarre-Libre a ...
, and meets the E29 before it terminates at the French-Luxembourgian-German tripoint on the Moselle, near the village of Schengen, Luxembourg (; chosen as the symbolic site for the signing of the Schengen Agreement between France, Germany, and the Benelux countries in 1985).


References


See also

*
Territorial evolution of Germany The territorial evolution of Germany include all of changes on the territorial borders of Germany. Modern Germany was formed in 1871 when Kingdom of Prussia unified most of the German states, with the notable exception of Austria, into the Ger ...
*
Territorial evolution of France This article describes the process by which the territorial extent of metropolitan France came to be as it is since 1947. The territory of the French State is spread throughout the world. Metropolitan France is that part which is in Europe. Wes ...
* France–Germany relations *
Rhine crisis The Rhine crisis of 1840 was a diplomatic crisis between the Kingdom of France and the German Confederation, caused by the demand by French minister Adolphe Thiers that the river Rhine be reinstated as France's border in the east, at a loss of so ...
* Die Wacht am Rhein {{DEFAULTSORT:France-Germany border 1648 establishments in France 1648 establishments in the Holy Roman Empire European Union internal borders 1648 in international relations Borders of France Borders of Germany International borders