Singen ( Low Alemannic: ''Singe'') is an industrial city in the very south of

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

in southern

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

and just north of the

German-Swiss border The German-speaking part of Switzerland (german: Deutschschweiz, french: Suisse alémanique, it, Svizzera tedesca, rm, Svizra tudestga) comprises about 65 percent of Switzerland (North Western Switzerland, Eastern Switzerland, Central Switze ...

Location

Singen is an industrial city situated in the very south of

close to

Lake Constance Lake Constance (german: Bodensee, ) refers to three bodies of water on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps: Upper Lake Constance (''Obersee''), Lower Lake Constance (''Untersee''), and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Lak ...

just north of the German-Swiss border and is the most important city in the Hegau area.

Landmarks

The most famous landmark of Singen is Hohentwiel, a volcanic stub on which there are the ruins of a fortress destroyed by French troops during the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fre ...

World War II 'Singen route'

Singen is notable in military history for the Singen route in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. This route into Switzerland was discovered by Dutch naval lieutenant Hans Larive in 1940 on his first escape attempt from an Oflag (prisoner's camp for officers) in Soest. After being captured at the Swiss border near Singen, the interrogating Gestapo officer was so confident the war would soon be won by Germany that he told Larive the safe way across the border. Larive did not forget and many prisoners later escaped using this route - that included Larive himself, Francis Steinmetz, Anthony Luteyn,

Airey Neave Airey Middleton Sheffield Neave, (;) (23 January 1916 – 30 March 1979) was a British soldier, lawyer and Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) from 1953 Abingdon by-election, 1953 until Assassination of Airey Neav ...

, Pat Reid and Howard Wardle in their escapes from

Colditz Castle Castle Colditz (or ''Schloss Colditz'' in German) is a Renaissance castle in the town of Colditz near Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz in the state of Saxony in Germany. The castle is between the towns of Hartha and Grimma on a hill spur over the ...

when Colditz was used in the war as Oflag IV-C.

Transport

Singen is an important regional train hub with three railway lines and the terminal of the Stuttgart-Hattingen railway with connections to

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the Sw ...

and the Swiss Schaffhausen.

Twin towns – sister cities

Singen is twinned with: * La Ciotat, France (1968) * Pomezia, Italy (1974) *

Celje ) , pushpin_map = Slovenia , pushpin_label_position = left , pushpin_map_caption = Location of the city of Celje in Slovenia , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Cou ...

, Slovenia (1989) * Kobeliaky, Ukraine (1993)

Notable people

* Herbert Haag (1915–2001), Swiss Catholic theologian * Knut Folkerts (born 1952), former terrorist Red Army Faction (RAF) * Beatrix Ruf (born 1960), director and curator of the Kunsthalle Zürich * Jens Truckenbrod (born 1980), footballer * Cédric Soares (born 1991), Portuguese footballer

References

External links

* Konstanz (district) Hegau Baden {{Konstanz-geo-stub