Schönau im Schwarzwald (, ) is a town in the district of Lörrach 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 ...

. It is situated in the

Black Forest The Black Forest ( ) is a large forested mountain range in the States of Germany, 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 th ...

, on the river Wiese, northeast of

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 ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

, and south of

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 ...

Energy infrastructure

After the 1986

Chernobyl disaster On 26 April 1986, the no. 4 reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, located near Pripyat, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union (now Ukraine), exploded. With dozens of direct casualties, it is one of only ...

, a small group led by

Michael Michael may refer to: People * Michael (given name), a given name * he He ..., a given name * Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael Given name * Michael (bishop elect)">Michael (surname)">he He ..., a given nam ...

and Ursula Sladek founded the Parents for a Nuclear Free Future group, to research how they could limit the community's dependence on nuclear power. Their first approach was on saving energy and getting others to save energy. They reactivated small hydropower plants in the region. The couple developed the idea of a power system independent of nuclear power plants, generating electric power through distributed mini power plants from renewable sources. After ten years of campaigning and raising awareness, they founded the first German

green power Energy is sustainable if it "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." Definitions of sustainable energy usually look at its effects on the environment, the economy, and so ...

utility, the Elektrizitätswerke Schönau (EWS), in 1994. They took over providing power for the community in 1997. With a system that combined efficiency and power-saving strategies, it became possible to satisfy the power consumption of the community. Schönau was the first community in a Western country that became independent of the national power grid and could decide how its power would be produced.

Mayors

* 1945–1946: Albert Gutmann * 1946–1956: Karl Zimmermann * 1957–1977: Ludwig Morath (FWV) * 1977–1993: Richard Böhler (CDU) * 1993–2012: Bernhard Seger (CDU) * since 2012: Peter Schelshorn (CDU)

Notable people from Schönau

Fridolin Dietsche Fridolin Dietsche (31 October 1861 - 25 June 1908) was a German sculptor from Baden. Context Following unification in 1871 Germany underwent several decades of rapid economic modernisation and growth, which was coupled with government encouragemen ...

(1861–1908), sculptor *

Karl Geiler Karl Hermann Friedrich Geiler (10 August 1878 – 14 September 1953) was a German lawyer and politician. He was born in Schönau (Baden) and died in Heidelberg. Geiler, a university professor of economic law in Heidelberg and without affiliation t ...

(1878–1953), legal scientist and politician *

Albert Leo Schlageter Albert Leo Schlageter (; August 12, 1894 – May 26, 1923) was an Imperial German Army officer who served in World War I before joining several ''Freikorps'' groups and carrying out acts of sabotage against French occupational forces in the Ruhr ...

(1894–1923), German

Freikorps (, "Free Corps" or "Volunteer Corps") were irregular German and other European paramilitary volunteer units that existed from the 18th to the early 20th centuries. They effectively fought as mercenaries or private military companies, rega ...

fighter *

Michael Sladek Michael Sladek (1 October 1946 – 24 September 2024) was a German physician and environmentalist. After the Chernobyl disaster, he and his wife, Ursula Sladek, initiated a movement in their hometown Schönau im Schwarzwald to become independen ...

(1946–2024), ecologist

Sport

* Joachim (Jogi) Löw (born 1960), German footballer and coach of the national football team from 2006 to 2021 * Markus Löw (born 1961), former footballer, now a coach, brother of Jogi Löw

References

Lörrach (district) {{Lörrach-geo-stub