Büsingen am Hochrhein

Büsingen am Hochrhein is a German village on the Rhine that functions, in daily life, much like a Swiss one. Completely surrounded by Switzerland, it belongs politically to the German state of Baden-Württemberg, but it lies inside the Swiss customs area, so goods move freely to Switzerland and not to Germany. Most residents earn and spend Swiss francs, homes can have both German and Swiss phone numbers and postal codes, and Swiss VAT applies in the shops. Its football club, FC Büsingen, is the only German team playing in the Swiss league. Residents once voted overwhelmingly to join Switzerland, but the transfer never happened, leaving one of Europe's most practical compromises.

Büsingen covers about 7.6 square kilometers on the north bank of the Rhine, just east of the Swiss city of Schaffhausen, with meadows, vineyards, and woods rising from the river. About 1,440 people lived there at the end of 2024. Swiss territory surrounds it completely: the canton of Schaffhausen on three sides and the cantons of Thurgau and Zurich across the river. At its closest point, a strip of Swiss land only about 680 meters wide separates it from the German border. There are no border controls with Switzerland, and the village has two postal codes, German 78266 and Swiss CH-8238. German police may cross Swiss land to reach it only under treaty-set limits. The euro is legal tender, but the Swiss franc dominates, and the Schaffhausen buses and trains serve it.

Büsingen belonged to the Habsburg-held Nellenburg lordship while the surrounding area joined Schaffhausen. In 1693 the Swiss kidnapped its Austrian lord, Eberhard Im Thurn, in a religious dispute, and the resulting quarrel ensured that Austria kept the village when other nearby lands passed to the Swiss. It came under Württemberg in 1805 and Baden in 1810, and so stayed German. In a 1918 referendum about 96 percent of voters chose to join Switzerland, but Switzerland had no land to offer Germany in exchange. A treaty signed in 1964 and in force since 4 October 1967 placed Büsingen in the Swiss customs area while keeping it German. When Switzerland and Germany both joined the Schengen area, routine border checks between the village and its neighbors ended entirely.

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