Why there’s a small part of Germany within Switzerland

Büsingen am Hochrhein looks like a completely ordinary German village at first glance. It has German street signs, a German postal code, and a branch of the German postal service. And yet, something feels different in Büsingen: the village officially belongs to Germany — but it’s located inside Switzerland. How is that possible?

A film by Matthias Schwarzer.

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Sources for the video:

Büsingen’s History (Buesingen.de, German):
https://www.buesingen.de/de/Unser-Buesingen/Deutsche-Insel-in-der-Schweiz

A German Island inside Switzerland (Kommunal, German):
https://kommunal.de/buesingen-deutsche-insel-der-schweiz

Büsingen and the Skype problem (Vice.com, German):

Warum Microsoft dem baden-württembergischen Büslingen Skype abdreht

A village between Francs and Euros (Südkurier, German):
https://www.suedkurier.de/region/kreis-konstanz/kreis-konstanz/Buesingen-ein-Ort-zwischen-Franken-und-Euro;art372432,9584784

Büsingen Corona rules (Südkurier, German):
https://www.suedkurier.de/region/kreis-konstanz/gailingen/corona-regeln-schrecken-die-schweizer-ab-hohe-preise-die-deutschen-gaeste-buesinger-wirte-klagen-ueber-zu-wenig-umsatz;art372441,11016645

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Intro song:
MÆT – Start Again

Music:
Epidemic Sound

#büsingen #germany #switzerland #exclave #enclave #geography

There is a small German village called Büsingen am 
Hochrhein. At first glance, it’s just an ordinary German village with everything you’d typically 
expect. There is a church, a town square with a piece of art in front, a German bank, the 
Sparkasse, a branch of the typical yellow German post, and so on. But something here in Büsingen 
feels different, because alongside all this German stuff, there’s also a Swiss phone booth, a Swiss 
postal code, Swiss newspapers, and a rurley. What is that supposed to be? There is a reason for 
these unusual Swiss touches in a German village, because Büsingen is a German municipality that 
geographically isn’t really located in Germany, but in Switzerland. Büsingen is what’s 
known as an exclave, completely surrounded by Swiss territory. You can’t get into the 
village without driving through Switzerland, and you can’t leave it without doing the 
same. And even within the village itself, Switzerland is ever-present, even though it 
officially belongs to Germany. And all of that, of course, raises one question: Why the 
heck is that the case? Why is there a small German village that’s geographically 
located in Switzerland? And what kind of curiosities does this situation 
bring with it? Well, let’s find out. *These subtitles were generated automatically and might contain errors.* Okay, here we are. Welcome to Switzerland. 
Yeah, I just came from Germany, which is somewhere over there. Then I 
drove with a car through Switzerland, a little part of Switzerland, only 
to drive back into Germany again, which is over there. You can already see the small 
church tower right behind me. That’s the church of the German exclave of Büsingen. Uh, let’s walk 
a few meters in that direction. I will show you. Okay, this is the border between Büsingen, 
Germany—the German exclave on this side—and Switzerland on this side of the border. And 
actually, you don’t really see that there is a border here. The only thing that you can see 
is the road markings are different. You see it? The Swiss roads have those yellow markings on one 
side of the road, which is for bicycles, I guess. And the German roads have those white stripes on 
the road. And that’s basically the only difference that you can see here. There is absolutely no toll 
station here or anything. The only thing that you can see are those border posts. This one is the 
Swiss one, and over there you can see the German one. Oh, and I noticed another difference. Take 
a look here. You see those small pillars here? They only exist on the German side of the border, 
but not on the Swiss side. Interesting, right? [Music] Okay, that’s how the border between Switzerland 
and the German exclave in Switzerland looks like. And now I would say, let’s go into the village and 
let’s see if we will find some more curiosities in Büsingen itself. Well, and the first oddity 
greets us right at the entrance to the village, because the first thing we see here is the Swiss 
flag, and only behind it the German one. Is that already some kind of statement? I don’t know. And 
this continues throughout the entire village. You will see both flags flying side by side on nearly 
every corner. Sometimes there are even paintings like this one here on the town hall wall. Although 
in that one, the German flag is noticeably larger than the Swiss one. It’s also interesting that 
Büsingen has its own license plate. The letters BÜS are printed on it, but of course, it’s 
still a German plate, not a Swiss one. The bus stop signs in Büsingen are a bit quirky, 
too. They’ve got this curved metal pipe on top, which is typical for Swiss bus stops, but they 
also feature the German bus stop symbol. From what I’ve seen, the surrounding Swiss villages don’t 
use this unusual combination. At the town hall, you will also find some information for 
tourists about Büsingen’s special status. And right here in the town square, we will 
also find the phone booth I mentioned earlier, although nowadays they are basically gone. But 
in the past, before mobile phones were invented, there were actually two functioning phone 
booths here: one German and one Swiss. And also on this square, there is a local 
branch of the German post, Deutsche Post, with the two postal codes I mentioned earlier—one 
German, one Swiss. Well, what else is there to say about Büsingen? Probably the most beautiful 
attraction is the Rhine. It’s wonderfully idyllic. You can go for a boat ride or even swim in a few 
places. But other than that, the village is fairly unspectacular. One nice thing is, there are a few 
very old historic timber-framed houses here, but some of them are slowly falling into disrepair. 
And if you walk through the residential areas, you will also find a few empty houses. So in some 
parts, Büsingen almost feels a bit forgotten. Okay, now we’ve seen a bit of Büsingen. Take a 
look here. This is the end of the village, and a few kilometers over there, there is Switzerland 
again. Yeah. But even though you can see some curiosities along the road here in Büsingen, there 
are a few more things that are different in this village because of its special status—things that 
you don’t see at first sight. Let’s start with the police. Even though Büsingen is officially German 
territory, in some areas Swiss law applies—for example, when it comes to customs, agriculture, 
and the hospitality industry. As a result, Swiss police officers are allowed to make 
arrests in Büsingen and take the detainees back to Switzerland. However, the number of 
Swiss officers allowed in the village at any one time is limited. No more than 10 of them are 
allowed to be present in Büsingen. German police, on the other hand, have no authority on Swiss 
territory and are only allowed to travel to the exclave on clearly defined routes and only 
if the Swiss authorities have been informed. What is also interesting: in times of crisis, 
Büsingen is considered part of Switzerland. That was laid down in a state treaty from 1967. 
The most recent example was during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Switzerland declared a state 
of emergency in March 2020. It also applied to Büsingen. For a time, the village was 
completely cut off from the rest of Germany. Another special case is health insurance. 
Citizens of Büsingen who are not employed can freely choose whether they want to join a German 
or a Swiss health insurance provider. And people in Büsingen are also free to decide whether 
they want to see a German or a Swiss doctor. Education is also affected 
by Büsingen’s special status. Children attend the local primary school 
until the fourth grade, but after that, parents can choose whether to send them 
to a German or a Swiss secondary school. The local football club, FC 
Büsingen, is another curiosity. It’s the only German football club that 
belongs to the Swiss Football Association. And when it comes to telecommunications, 
people in Büsingen use Swiss internet and TV providers but still have 
to pay German broadcasting fees. Another quite important quirk is this thing 
right here. Well, not my personal wallet, but what’s in it. Because how do you actually pay for 
things here in Büsingen? With euros or with Swiss francs? Well, Büsingen is actually the only German 
municipality where people generally pay with Swiss francs. At times, certain businesses like the 
local post office accepted only this currency and not the German mark and later the euro. Even the 
local administration calculates waste collection fees in francs. This rule, by the way, is largely 
because most people in Büsingen earn their living in Switzerland and are paid in francs, and 
probably also because many residents feel more connected to Switzerland than to Germany, 
even though they officially live on German soil. You might find it hard to believe, but 
there was even a time when Büsingen was in a completely different time zone than the rest of 
Germany—specifically in the year 1980. That’s when daylight saving time was reintroduced in Germany. 
But Switzerland didn’t follow suit until 1981. And because Büsingen followed Swiss regulations, the 
village temporarily had a completely different time than every other German town. And that’s 
also why even today some operating systems let you choose not only the London or Berlin 
time zone but also the Büsingen time zone. Okay, now we’ve learned about Büsingen and its 
curiosities, but what does this actually mean for the people that live here? And does this 
special status cause any problems? Over the past few years, there have been occasional news 
stories about Büsingen and its curious special status. For example, back in 2015, it was reported 
that the video service Skype didn’t offer some of its features in Büsingen. Microsoft explained 
this by referring to the village’s complicated tax situation. But the biggest problem for the 
people of Büsingen is something else. Because Swiss customs and economic laws apply here, 
the cost of living is significantly higher than in other German towns. To give you an 
example: if you go to a restaurant here, you pay Swiss prices, which usually are 
higher than the German ones. At the same time, however, residents of Büsingen have to pay 
German income tax, which is higher than in Switzerland. At least there is a tax allowance 
that helps to ease this extra burden somewhat, though it doesn’t fully make up for it. For 
this reason, many inhabitants of the village have sooner or later moved to Switzerland. 
And maybe that’s also the reason why you see some empty houses here. Financially, it just 
doesn’t make sense to live in this village. Fascinating story, isn’t it? Well, but there is 
still one last question we haven’t answered yet. The most important question. Why the heck is this 
situation like it is? Why is there a small German village completely surrounded by Switzerland? 
And you already know it. We have to take a deep dive into history to answer this question. To be 
precise, we have to go back to the year 1728. At that time, Büsingen was neither Swiss nor 
German. It was, surprise, Austrian. Yeah, it gets even more complicated. Back then, Austria 
owned several small villages in the region, and Büsingen was one of them. Throughout the 18th 
century, Switzerland repeatedly tried to bring Büsingen into the Swiss Confederation, or at least 
into the neighboring municipality of Schaffhausen, through negotiations. But Austria remained 
stubborn. Nothing changed even when Austria sold several small villages in the area to the Swiss 
canton of Zurich. Büsingen remained Austrian, and in some articles it is even described 
as a perpetual annoyance to Schaffhausen. So today’s status of Büsingen goes back to a 
centuries-old conflict. In the 19th century, Büsingen then was assigned to the Kingdom of 
Württemberg. Five years later, it became part of the Grand Duchy of Baden. But through all this 
time, what Büsingen never belonged to was the country of Switzerland. Well, and this special 
status hasn’t changed to this day, even though there have been various attempts over the past 
decades to incorporate Büsingen into Switzerland. After World War I, in 1918, the people of Büsingen 
held a referendum in the village. At that time, 96% voted in favor of joining Switzerland. 
Still, nothing came of it, because Switzerland couldn’t offer suitable territory in 
exchange. A few years later, in 1924, the people of Büsingen tried a more radical 
approach. They declared they would not shy away from any means of violence. The Baden state 
government, however, responded with consequences. Several more moderate protests failed, and 
eventually the authorities stopped responding to Büsingen’s requests altogether. Even World War 
II didn’t change Büsingen’s status. After the war, the village was occupied by French troops 
who appointed a new mayor. This mayor wanted to integrate Büsingen into Switzerland, 
but he was removed after only two months. Finally, in 1955, the last attempt 
of this kind was made. However, the German district of Konstanz, to 
which Büsingen officially belongs, opposed it. They demanded a land corridor from 
Büsingen to Germany, which would have split the nearby Swiss municipality of Dörflingen in two. 
This was seen as a provocation by the Swiss side, and the plans were shelved once again, 
and nothing has changed since that day. Well, and that’s why Büsingen today is a German 
municipality completely surrounded by Switzerland. It’s a bit complicated, right? But actually 
also quite a good example of good Swiss-German neighborhood, right? Even though you’re 
completely surrounded by your neighbor here. [Music] Okay, and that’s it. That was my video, my story 
about the unusual German exclave of Büsingen in Switzerland. Yeah, I hope you liked it. I hope 
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