Laufenburg () is a town in

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, 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 i ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, part of the Waldshut district. It has approximately 4300 inhabitants (including 6 outskirts 8300 inhabitants). Laufenburg is separated from a

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

city with the

same name ''Same Name'' is an American reality television series in which an average person swaps lives with a celebrity of the same first and last name. It premiered on July 24, 2011 on CBS. The series received low ratings, and CBS pulled it after four-ep ...

by the river

Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...

Cities in the near vicinity

*Near surrounding (<15 km):

Bad Säckingen Bad Säckingen (; High Alemannic: ''Bad Säckinge'') is a rural town in the administrative district of Waldshut in the state of Baden-Württemberg in Germany. It is famous as the "Trumpeter's City" because of the book ''Der Trompeter von Säckin ...

Waldshut-Tiengen Waldshut-Tiengen (; ), commonly known as Waldshut, is a city in southwestern Baden-Württemberg right at the Swiss border. It is the district seat and at the same time the biggest city in Waldshut district and a "middle centre" in the area of the ...

, Rickenbach (Hotzenwald),

Albbruck Albbruck is a municipality of the district of Waldshut in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is on the southwestern border of Germany with Switzerland. History In 1805 during the process of German mediatisation, a restructuring of certain jurisdict ...

, Murg am Hochrhein, Stein AG *Further away (>15 km):

Lörrach Lörrach () is a city in southwest Germany, in the valley of the Wiese, close to the French and the Swiss borders. It is the district seat of the district of Lörrach in Baden-Württemberg. It is the home of a number of large employers, inclu ...

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

Brugg Brugg (sometimes written as Brugg AG in order to distinguish it from other ''Brugg''s) is a Switzerland, Swiss Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality and a List of towns in Switzerland, town in the canton of Aargau and is the seat of the Bru ...

Aarau Aarau (, ) is a List of towns in Switzerland, town, a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality, and the capital of the northern Swiss Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Aargau. The List of towns in Switzerland, town is also the capital of the d ...

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

Schaffhausen Schaffhausen (; ; ; ; ), historically known in English as Shaffhouse, is a list of towns in Switzerland, town with historic roots, a municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in northern Switzerland, and the capital of the canton of Schaffh ...

St. Blasien St. Blasien (; sometimes spelled in full as Sankt Blasien) is a small town located in the Waldshut district in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated in the Southern Black Forest, 17 km northeast of Waldshut-Tiengen. St. Blaise's Ab ...

Todtmoos Todtmoos is a village and municipality in the district of Waldshut in the southern part of Baden-Württemberg, Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea ...

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau or simply Freiburg is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of abou ...

City administration

The city of Laufenburg encompasses also Binzgen, Grunholz, Hauenstein, Hochsal, Luttingen, Rhina, Rotzel, Stadenhausen.

Brief history

The city was first noted in 1207. In November 1638 one side of the city was taken by Imperialist forces. The bridge across the Rhine was burned afterwards. Laufenburg was one city until about 1800 when

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

divided the city, ordering that the

should become the border. Ever since the two cities have been separated by nationality. The city was well placed on major rapids of the Rhine, which allowed the town to collect taxes as well as catch

salmon Salmon (; : salmon) are any of several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the genera ''Salmo'' and ''Oncorhynchus'' of the family (biology), family Salmonidae, native ...

. In the early 20th century the rapids were demolished in order to build a hydroelectric power plant.

Bridge construction

In December 2004 a new bridge was opened to the east of the city, replacing the previous bridge which had become too congested, because the roads connecting the bridge were single lane roads but were being used for two way traffic. With the opening of the new bridge a new shopping development was erected to the east of the town. Its construction was hampered by a major engineering mistake. For reasons of politics and budgets, Switzerland and Germany each constructed half the bridge, rather than one unified contractor doing everything. The half-bridges needed to align precisely on height. Switzerland and Germany use different references for sea-level: the Mediterranean Sea and North Sea respectively. The result is that height above sea level differs by between the two references. This quirk was known to the engineers and they accounted for it, but the calculations made a sign error. Rather than cancelling out this known difference, it instead doubled it to .

References

External links

Laufenburg (Baden)

Laufenburg AG

Laufenburg
Divided cities Waldshut (district) Germany–Switzerland border crossings Hotzenwald Engineering failures {{Waldshut-geo-stub