Bas-Rhin

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 (Pfälzerwald) 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 department of Vosges.

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 [...]."

The borders of Bas-Rhin have changed many times:

• 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[5]
• In 1795[6] the region of Schirmeck - where the people did not speak Alsatian - was detached from the district of Sélestat and attached to Vosges (District of Senones);[7]
• 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,[8] but lost all the territories east of the Rhine;[9]
• In 1815, following the second Treaty of Paris, France lost all the territories north of the Lauter[10] 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 (by the Treaty of Frankfurt) and then became Bezirk Unterelsass in Reichsland Elsaß-Lothringen;
• In 1919 Bas-Rhin became French again (Treaty of Versailles) and retained the territories that Germany had taken from the department of Vosges in 1871 (the Canton of Schirmeck and Canton of Saales);
• 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 is 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.

Strasbourg, the chef lieu (principal city) of Bas-Rhin is the official seat of the European Parliament as well as of the Council of Europe.

Heraldry

Arms of Aigrefeuille d'Aunis

The coat of arms of Bas-Rhin is closely linked to the history of Basse-Alsace. It appeared for the first time in 1262 on a seal of the Counts of Werd who originated from Woerth near Erstein and who became landgrafs of Lower Alsace in 1156. Blazon: Gules, a bend argent cotised fleury the same.

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.

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:[13] 28,186

Weighting of the major economic sectors

Trades: 11 358 companies comprising:

• Supply: 11%
• Production: 21%
• Building: 37%
• Services: 31%

Food industry : 568 units employing 15,884 employees

Commerce:

• Hypermarkets : 15
• Supermarkets : 117
• Other retail: 7,507 including non-food 5,229

Tourism: 3,216 hotels with 11,100 rooms

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.

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 (Haguenau-Wissembourg, Molsheim, Saverne, Sélestat-Erstein, and Strasbourg)[15] and 23 cantons.[16]

Through its secondary and higher education institutions, Alsace is a very important region for students and is very internationally oriented. Strasbourg alone welcomes 75% of students in its university. Since the merger of three faculties and the IUT of Illkirch and of Schiltigheim it has become one of the largest universities in France. There are also renowned institutions such as the National School of Administration (ENA), the National Institute of Territorial Studies (INET), the Higher European Institute of Management, and the National School of Physics of Strasbourg.

Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg

The Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg: built in the 12th century, the castle of Haut-Koenigsbourg dominates the plain of Alsace more than 700 metres (2,297 feet) above sea level. Destroyed during the Thirty Years War, it was restored from 1900 to 1908 by the German Emperor Wilhelm II. It houses a large collection of weapons and period furniture.

The Château du Fleckenstein: early 12th century, built by the imperial family of Hohenstaufen, the castle was occupied and turned into an impregnable fortress by the Fleckenstein family. Many activities are offered such as the "Castle of challenges". There is a large selection of 20 games crossing the forest and in the secret rooms of the castle to discover life in the Middle Ages.

The Château de Lichtenberg: built in the early 13th century on a hill overlooking the village, the site includes contemporary space-related cultural activities.

With more than 27 million tourists per year, Bas-Rhin is the 5th largest French department for the number of room-nights for visitors per year.

Other sites of interest are:

• Château de La Petite-Pierre
• Château du Haut-Barr
• Château de Diedendorf
• Château d'Andlau
• Château de Kintzheim

Religious monuments

Strasbourg Cathedral

Strasbourg Cathedral: Strasbourg Cathedral is a masterpiece of Gothic art. Measuring 142 metres high from the Parvise to the top of the tower, it is considered the second largest cathedral in France after that of Rouen. Its astronomical clock dates from the Renaissance and the mechanism dated 1492 is a masterpiece in itself.

The Mont Sainte-Odile: a living spiritual place. Rising to 764 metres, this mountain in Vosges is topped by a monastery founded by Saint-Odile, the patron saint of Alsace. It is a tourist attraction and also a place of pilgrimage.

• Arrondissements of the Bas-Rhin département
• Cantons of the Bas-Rhin département
• Communes of the Bas-Rhin department sorted by arrondissements and cantons
• Communities of Communes of the Bas-Rhin département
• Haut-Rhin

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bas-Rhin.

• General Council of Bas-Rhin website (in French)
• Prefecture website (in French)
• Bas-Rhin at Curlie (in English)
• Département du Bas-Rhin: The Accounts of the communes and groupings of Ba-Rhin: Individual data in the main budget - Consolidated data in the main budget and annexes (in French)
• Conseil général du Bas-Rhin (in French)
• Departmental Archives of Bas-Rhin (in French)
• Tourism Development agency for Bas-Rhin (in French)
• Official website for Tourism in Alsace (in French)