Stegen is a municipality in the Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald district,

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 ...

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 betwe ...

. It borders on the city of

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of about 230,000 (as o ...

, being about 8 km away as the crow flies, lying in the valley of the river

Dreisam The Dreisam ( Celtic: ''*tragisamā'', "the very fast one") is a 29 km long river (48.8 km including its source river Rotbach), and a tributary of the Elz in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. The waters of the Dreisam feed the fa ...

. The municipality includes three population centres: the town of Stegen (which itself includes the villages of Weiler, Oberbirken, Unterbirken and Rechtenbach) and the villages of Eschbach and Wittental. Economically, Stegen is partly an offshoot of Freiburg; for example, the Forest Zoology Institute of the

University of Freiburg The University of Freiburg (colloquially german: Uni Freiburg), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (german: Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg), is a public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemb ...

maintains a field station at Wittental. It also plays a role in

Black Forest The Black Forest (german: Schwarzwald ) is a large forested mountain range in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is t ...

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism mor ...

, with guest houses and other facilities catering to visitors. It is the first town that a hiker on the Freiburg-Lake Constance Black Forest Trail passes through when travelling eastwards on the path from Freiburg. Wittental

References

Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald Baden {{BreisgauHochschwarzwald-geo-stub