Germany–Switzerland border
The border between the modern states of Germany and Switzerland extends to, mostly following Lake Constance and the High Rhine, with territories to the north mostly belonging to Germany and territories to the south mainly to Switzerland. Exceptions are the Swiss canton of Schaffhausen, the Rafzerfeld and hamlet of Nohl of the canton of Zürich, Bettingen and Riehen municipalities and part of the city of Basel in the canton of Basel-City and the old town of the German city of Konstanz, which is located south of the Seerhein. The canton of Schaffhausen is located almost entirely on the northern side of the High Rhine, with the exception of the southern part of the municipality of Stein am Rhein. The German municipality of Büsingen am Hochrhein is an enclave surrounded by Swiss territory.
Economy
Much of the border is within the sphere of the Zurich metropolitan area and there is substantial traffic, both for commuting and for shopping, across the border, with the S-Bahn services S9 and S36 of Zürich S-Bahn, three lines of Schaffhausen S-Bahn and one line of Aargau S-Bahn running through Swiss and German territory. The Swiss municipality of Kreuzlingen forms part of the conurbation of Konstanz, with cross-border regional train services S14 and S44 of St. Gallen S-Bahn. Similarly, the Trinational Eurodistrict of Basel includes territory in both France and Germany. As of 2023, there are 64'934 cross-border commuters between Germany and Switzerland.History
The High Rhine has had the character of being mostly the northern border of the Old Swiss Confederacy since the Swabian War and the accession of Basel and Schaffhausen in 1499-1501, dividing the Swiss Confederacy from the Swabian Circle of the Holy Roman Empire; with the Peace of Westphalia of 1648, the border acquired the status of an international border de jure.With minor changes, it remained unchanged since, even throughout the Napoleonic era when it divided two French client states and later the Confederation of the Rhine from the restored Swiss Confederacy, and eventually the German Confederation from modern Switzerland.
The border persisted even during the Nazi era.
On 12 December 2008 Switzerland implemented the Schengen Agreement. This removed all passport controls for travellers crossing the border; however, customs officers from both countries are still authorised to carry out customs checks on border crossers, as Switzerland is not in the EU Customs Union.
In mid-2016, during the European migrant crisis, the German government deployed an additional 90 border guards and 40 police officers in order to reduce the level of illegal immigration passing through Switzerland.
Transportation
Since Switzerland's accession to the Schengen Area in 2008, there have been no permanent passport controls along this border. Customs controls are still in operation since Switzerland is not part of the European Customs Union.Railway
railway lines crossing the border are :- Rhine Valley Railway between Basel Bad Bf and
- Wiese Valley Railway between Basel Bad Bf and Lörrach Hauptbahnhof
- High Rhine Railway between Basel Bad Bf and
- Turgi–Koblenz–Waldshut railway between and
- High Rhine Railway between and
- Eglisau–Neuhausen railway line between and
- Eglisau–Neuhausen railway line between and
- High Rhine Railway between and
- Etzwilen–Singen railway between and .
- Lake Line between and and between Konstanz and
- St. Margrethen–Lauterach railway and Vorarlberg Railway lines between and, over Austrian territory.
Tram and bus
A tram line and two bus lines offer cross-border services. The Basel tram line 8 was in 2014 extended across the border to Weil am Rhein in Germany. Verkehrsbetriebe Schaffhausen bus line 25, operating between and Ramsen via the German enclave of Büsingen am Hochrhein, crosses the border four times in one journey. Another bus service, line 33 of, connects with Singen railway station.Ferries and boats
Several passenger boat lines connect German and Swiss harbours on Lake Constance, among others a car ferry between Friedrichshafen and Romanshorn. Until 1976, there were also train ferries in operation across Lake Constance. There are also passenger boat lines on the lower High Rhine and between Schaffhausen and Kreuzlingen.Geography
The German-Swiss border begins in the east at the German-Swiss-Austrian tripoint, located within Lake Constance. The precise location of the border within Lake Constance has never been agreed upon officially. The official Swiss national map of 1938 did mark it, at, but maps made since the 1960s have avoided showing the border in the interior of the lake to reflect the lack of an official agreement. The Upper Lake Constance separates the German Bodenseekreis and Lindau district from the Swiss cantons of Thurgau and St. Gallen.The border makes landfall south of the city of Konstanz, at.
The short stretch of border between Konstanz and the municipality of Kreuzlingen comprises the only territory of Germany on the left bank of the High Rhine.
The border then follows the western section of the Seerhein north of Tägermoos and Gottlieben. The border then runs through the Rheinsee part of Untersee, passing south of Reichenau Island. At the lake's exit it turns inland, towards the north, leaving Stein am Rhein within Switzerland, as well as the municipalities of Ramsen, Hemishofen and Buch. It then returns to the Rhine, including Gailingen in the Konstanz district of Germany, but then turns north again to include the bulk of the canton of Schaffhausen, a right-bank territory including the town of Schaffhausen itself, in Switzerland, separating it from the German Schwarzwald-Baar-Kreis and Waldshut district. Büsingen am Hochrhein is a German exclave which has borders with three Swiss cantons, namely Zurich, Schaffhausen, and Thurgau.
West of Schaffhausen, the border follows the Wutach Valley. It then returns to the Rhine ca. downstream of the Rhine Falls, then separating the Waldshut district from the canton of Zürich, but then deviates from the river again to include the Rafzerfeld plain into Zürich's Bülach district and the southern part of the canton of Schaffhausen. The German territory wedged between the main part of the canton of Schaffhausen and the Rafzerfeld, which includes the municipalities of Jestetten, Lottstetten and Dettighofen, is also known as the Jestetter Zipfel.
Downstream of Eglisau, the border then sticks to the course of the Rhine until it east of the city of Basel, forming the northern border of the canton of Aargau as far as Kaiseraugst and then of the canton of Basel-Land bordering on the German Lörrach district.
Besides the right-bank part of Basel proper, the border also includes the right-bank municipalities of Riehen and Bettingen into the canton of Basel-Stadt. West of Riehen, the border runs near the River Wiese, then cuts across the Mannheim–Karlsruhe–Basel railway line and the E35 south of Weil am Rhein and returns to the Rhine, where it terminates in the French-German-Swiss tripoint, dividing into the French-German and the French-Swiss borders. The tripoint is located in the Upper Rhine at. A monument has been built near it, known as the Dreiländereck.