Mittelberg is a municipality and a village in the district of Bregenz in the

Kleinwalsertal Kleinwalsertal is a valley in the Austrian province of Vorarlberg and part of the Bregenz district. It includes the municipality of Mittelberg and consists of three villages along the River Breitach. Due to the geographic location in the All ...

, in the

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

n state of

Vorarlberg Vorarlberg ( ; ; , , or ) is the westernmost States of Austria, state () of Austria. It has the second-smallest geographical area after Vienna and, although it also has the second-smallest population, it is the state with the second-highest popu ...

. It is accessible by road only from

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Geography

The largest stream in the municipality is the

Breitach The Breitach is a mountain river, the southwestern (left) source of the Iller in the Allgäu Alps, in the states of Vorarlberg (Austria) and Bavaria (Germany). Detail The river originates in , a part of Mittelberg, in the Kleinwalsertal as the ...

which originates in

Baad Baad (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese rock band that formed in 1992 and debuted in February 1993 under label Zain Records, currently signed under Giza Studio. As of 2023, its members are vocal Kyouji Yamada, drummer Kazuyoshi Aoki, guitarist ...

and flows through all three villages of Mittelberg, Hirschegg and Riezlern. It receives water of the side streams such as Derrabach, Turabach, Bärgundbach, Gemstelbach and Wildenbach. The main mountains of Mittelberg include Elfer (2387 m) Bärenkopf (Allgäu Alps) (2083 m), Walmendingerhorn (1990 m), Grosser Widderstein (2536 m) and Zwölfer (2224 m).

is a valley that is accessible by road only from

History

Mittelberg was settled around 1300 by five

Walser The Walser people are the speakers of the Walser German dialects, a variety of Highest Alemannic. They inhabit the region of the Alps of Swiss Alps, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, as well as the fringes of Italy and Austria. The Walser peopl ...

families from Tannberg coming across over the Hochalppass. The first houses were probably in Bödmen, a district of Mittelberg. The settlers inherited the land from the Swabian Counts of Rettenberg. The valley initially belonged to the Walser court of Tannberg but in 1563 the valley was awarded its own court in Mittelberg, which existed until 1807.

Population

Although it is not an

exclave An enclave is a territory that is entirely surrounded by the territory of only one other state or entity. An enclave can be an independent territory or part of a larger one. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is s ...

in a strict sense (it is contiguous with the rest of Austria), its geographic position creates a special situation for inhabitants and visitors. For instance, it has both Austrian and German

postal code A postal code (also known locally in various English-speaking countries throughout the world as a postcode, post code, PIN or ZIP Code) is a series of letters or numerical digit, digits or both, sometimes including spaces or punctuation, inclu ...

s. Since 1891 Kleinwalsertal has been in the German customs union, and has an open border with that country. Before the introduction of the

euro The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

, the German

Deutsche mark The Deutsche Mark (; "German mark (currency), mark"), abbreviated "DM" or "D-Mark" (), was the official currency of West Germany from 1948 until 1990 and later of unified Germany from 1990 until the adoption of the euro in 2002. In English, it ...

rather than the

Austrian schilling The schilling (German language, German: ''Schilling''; ) is a former currency of Austria from 1925 to 1938 and from 1945 to 1999, and the circulating currency until 2002. The euro was introduced at a fixed parity of €1 = 13.7603 schilling t ...

was the currency used in Mittelberg. Since Austria joined the European Union (1995), the

Schengen Agreement The Schengen Agreement ( , ) is a treaty which led to the creation of Europe's Schengen Area, in which internal border checks have largely been abolished. It was signed on 14 June 1985, near the town of Schengen, Luxembourg, by five of the t ...

was ratified (1997), and the euro was introduced (2002), the same currency is used in Austria and Germany. However, due to Mittelberg's location there are several taxation differences with the rest of Austria, such as use of the lower () German

VAT A value-added tax (VAT or goods and services tax (GST), general consumption tax (GCT)) is a consumption tax that is levied on the value added at each stage of a product's production and distribution. VAT is similar to, and is often compared wi ...

rate.

Education

Kindergartens: * Kindergarten * Kindergarten * Kindergarten RiezlernKindergarten Riezlern
" Mittelberg. Retrieved on January 6, 2018.

In popular culture

Mittelberg was the setting of "The Final Reich," one of the levels of '' Call of Duty: World War II: Nazi Zombies''.

References