Bas-Rhin
Bas-Rhin is a department in Alsace which is a part of the Grand Est region of France. The name means 'Lower Rhine', referring to its lower altitude among the two French Rhine departments: it is downstream of the Haut-Rhin department. Both belong to the European Upper Rhine region. It is, with the Haut-Rhin, one of the two departments of the traditional Alsace region which until 1871, also included the area now known as the Territoire de Belfort. The more populous and densely populated of the pair, it had 1,152,662 inhabitants in 2021. The prefecture is based in Strasbourg. The INSEE and Post Code is 67.
On 1 January 2021, the departemental councils of Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin merged into the European Collectivity of Alsace.
The inhabitants of the department are known as Bas-Rhinois or Bas-Rhinoises.
Geography
The Rhine has always been of great historical and economic importance to the area, and it forms the eastern border of Bas-Rhin. The area is also home to some of the foothills of the Vosges Mountains.To the north of Bas-Rhin lies the Palatinate forest in the German State of Rhineland-Palatinate, and the German State of Baden-Württemberg lies to the east. To the south lies the department of Haut-Rhin, the town of Colmar and southern Alsace, and to the west the department of Moselle. On its south-western corner, Bas-Rhin also joins the departments of Vosges and Meurthe-et-Moselle.
Principal towns
The most populous commune is Strasbourg, the prefecture. As of 2021, there are 7 communes with more than 15,000 inhabitants:| Commune | Population |
| Strasbourg | 291,313 |
| Haguenau | 35,715 |
| Schiltigheim | 34,129 |
| Illkirch-Graffenstaden | 27,118 |
| Lingolsheim | 20,266 |
| Sélestat | 19,300 |
| Bischheim | 17,939 |
Climate
The Bas-Rhin has a continental-type climate, characterised by cold, dry winters and hot, stormy summers, due to the western protection provided by the Vosges. The average annual temperature is in the lowlands and on high ground. The annual maximum temperature is high. The average rainfall is per year.Established according to data from the Infoclimat station at Strasbourg-Entzheim, over the period from 1961 to 1990.
| Lowest temperature | −23.2 °C |
| Coldest day | 2 January 1971 |
| Highest temperature | 37.4 °C |
| Hottest day | 2 July 1952 |
| Highest 24-hour rainfall | 62.9 mm |
| Wettest day | 23 May 1978 |
| Wettest year | 1987 |
| Dryest year | 1949 |
Etymology
Bas-Rhin is the last French department to have kept the term Bas meaning "Lower" in its name. Other departments using this prefix preferred to change their names—e.g.: Basses-Pyrénées in 1969 became Pyrénées-Atlantiques and Basses-Alpes in 1970 became the department of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence. The same phenomenon was observed for the inférieur departments such as Charente-Inférieure, Seine-Inférieure, and Loire-Inférieure.History
Bas-Rhin is one of the original 83 departments created on 4 March 1790, during the French Revolution.On 14 January 1790 the National Constituent Assembly decreed:
- "- That Alsace be divided into two departments with Strasbourg and Colmar as their capitals;
- - That the Department of Strasbourg will be divided into three districts ;
- - That the land of the German princes, coming under the sovereignty of France will be included in the division of districts;
- - That Landau, an enclave in the Palatinate, will have special justice ."
- In 1793 it absorbed the following territories newly annexed by France:
- *The County of Sarrewerden;
- *The County of Drulingen;
- *The lordship of Diemeringen;
- *The lordship of Asswiller of the Steinkallenfels family;
- *Several communes from the Palatinate
- In 1795 the region of Schirmeck, where the people did not speak Alsatian, was detached from the district of Sélestat and attached to Vosges ;
- In 1808 some territories east of the Rhine were annexed, especially the city of Kehl;
- In 1814, after the first Treaty of Paris, France gained the territories north of the Lauter from the former department of Mont-Tonnerre and including the city of Landau, but lost all the territories east of the Rhine;
- In 1815, following the second Treaty of Paris, France lost all the territories north of the Lauter and the department was occupied by troops from Baden and Saxony from June 1815 to November 1818.
- In 1871 Bas-Rhin was annexed by Germany and then became Bezirk Unterelsass in Reichsland Elsaß-Lothringen;
- In 1919 Bas-Rhin became French again and retained the territories that Germany had taken from the department of Vosges in 1871 ;
- Between 1941 and 1944, the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp was in operation
- In 1944 Kehl was attached to Bas-Rhin before being reassigned to the new West Germany in 1953;
- In 1982 the department was included in the newly created Alsace region;
- On 7 April 2013 a referendum was held on the creation of a single community in Alsace for joining the Alsace region and the two departments of Haut-Rhin and Bas-Rhin.
Heraldry
Demography
The demography of Bas-Rhin is characterized by high density and high population growth since the 1950s.In January 2014 Bas-Rhin officially had 1,112,815 inhabitants and was 18th by population at the national level. In fifteen years, from 1999 to 2014, its population grew by more than 86,000 people, or about 5,800 people per year. But this variation is differentiated among the 517 communes that make up the department.
The population density of Bas-Rhin is 234 inhabitants per square kilometre in 2014 which is more than twice the average in France, which was 112 in 2009.
Changing demographics in Bas-Rhin
The first census was conducted in 1801 and this count, renewed every five years from 1821, provides precise information on the evolution of population in the department.With 540,213 inhabitants in 1831, the department represented 1.66% of the total French population, which was then 32,569,000 inhabitants. From 1831 to 1866, the department gained 48,757 people, an increase of 0.26% on average per year compared to the national average of 0.48% over the same period.
Demographic change between the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and the First World War was higher than the national average. Over this period, the population increased by 100,532 inhabitants, an increase of 16.74%, compared to 10% nationally. The population increased by 9.23% between the two world wars from 1921 to 1936 compared to a national growth of 6.9%.
Like other French departments, Bas-Rhin experienced a population boom after the Second World War, higher than the national level. The rate of population growth between 1946 and 2007 was 83.83%, compared to 57% nationally.
Economy
The Bas-Rhin department has a high density of SMEs and SMIs and a higher proportion of workers in industry than the national average. Tourism activity is intense and creates many indirect jobs. The rate of unemployment is among the lowest in France: 6.5%. The average GDP per capita is €18,795 which places the region as the second largest in France with 2.9% of national GDP. Employment is distributed in the following way, as a percentage of the labor force:- Agriculture: 8,411 or 2%
- Crafts and industry: 97,349 or 24.2%
- Building and public works: 23,928 or 6.0%
- Tertiary sector: 271,984 or 67.8%
- Frontaliers: 28,186
Trades: 11,358 companies comprising:
- Supply: 11%
- Production: 21%
- Building: 37%
- Services: 31%
Commerce:
- Hypermarkets: 15
- Supermarkets: 117
- Other retail: 7,507 including non-food 5,229
Law
Alsace and the adjacent Moselle department have a legal system slightly different from the rest of France. The statutes in question date from the period 1871–1919 when the area was part of the German Empire. With the return of Alsace-Lorraine to France in 1919, Paris accepted that Alsace and Moselle should retain some local laws in respect of certain matters, especially with regard to hunting, economic life, local government relationships, health insurance and social rights. It includes notably the absence of any formal separation between church and state: several mainstream denominations of the Christian church benefit from state funding, in contrast to principles applied in the rest of France.Politics
Presidential elections 2nd round
Current National Assembly Representatives
Administration
The seat of the General Council is located in Strasbourg, in a building designed by the architect Claude Vasconi. The current prefect of the Bas-Rhin is Stéphane Fratacci. The representative of the Lower Rhine for the National Youth Council is Mr. Gautier Lutz.Bas-Rhin is composed of five arrondissements and 23 cantons.