Strasbourg is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the European Parliament. Located at the border with Germany in the historic region of Alsace, it is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin department.
Bas-Rhin is a department in Alsace which is a part of the Grand Est super-region of France. The name means 'Lower Rhine', referring to its lower altitude among the two French Rhine departments: it is downstream of the Haut-Rhin department. Note that both belong to the European Upper Rhine region. It is, with the Haut-Rhin, one of the two departments of the traditional Alsace region which until 1871, also included the area now known as the Territoire de Belfort. The more populous and densely populated of the pair, it had 1,148,073 inhabitants in 2020. The prefecture is based in Strasbourg. The INSEE and Post Code is 67.
Alsace–Lorraine, now called Alsace–Moselle, is a historical region located in modern day France. It was created in 1871 by the German Empire after it had seized the region from the Second French Empire in the Franco-Prussian War with the Treaty of Frankfurt. Alsace–Lorraine reverted to French ownership in 1918 as part of the Treaty of Versailles and Germany's defeat in World War I.
Kehl is a town in southwestern Germany in the Ortenaukreis, Baden-Württemberg. It is on the river Rhine, directly opposite the French city of Strasbourg, with which it shares some municipal services – for example the Strasbourg tramway, which now reaches Kehl.
The siege of Strasbourg took place during the Franco-Prussian War, and resulted in the French surrender of the fortress on 28 September 1870.
Lauterbourg is a commune and Bas-Rhin department in the Grand Est administrative region in north-eastern France. Situated on the German border and not far from the German city of Karlsruhe, it is the easternmost commune in Metropolitan France. The German town across the border is Neulauterburg.
The Kinzig is a river in southwestern Germany, a right tributary of the Rhine.
The Central Commission for the Navigation of the Rhine is an international organisation with five member countries, whose function is to encourage European prosperity by guaranteeing a high level of security for navigation of the Rhine and environs. Founded in 1815, it is the world's oldest international organization still in operation. It has been based in Strasbourg, France, since 1920. Lucia Luijten from the Netherlands has been its Secretary General since November 1, 2021.
Souffelweyersheim is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department, Alsace, Grand Est, northeastern France, and is part of metropolitan Strasbourg.
Strasbourg-Ville station is the main railway station in the city of Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin, France. It is the eastern terminus of the Paris-Est–Strasbourg-Ville railway. The current core building, an example of historicist architecture of the Wilhelminian period, replaced a previous station inaugurated in 1852, later turned into a covered market and ultimately demolished.
With over 20 million passengers in 2018, Strasbourg-Ville is one of the busiest railway stations in France, second only to Lyon-Part-Dieu outside of the Île-de-France.
The Eurodistrict Strasbourg-Ortenau is a Franco-German eurodistrict, a cross-border administrative entity sharing common institutions, established on 17 October 2005 and definitely functional since 4 February 2010. The district is formed by the Eurométropole de Strasbourg, the Communauté de communes du Canton d'Erstein and the French State on the French side of the Rhine and the Ortenau district, comprising the cities of Achern, Kehl, Lahr, Oberkirch and Offenburg, in the Baden-Württemberg region on the German side. The population of the district was roughly 1,000,000 in 2022, and it covers an area of 2,468 km2 (953 sq mi)
Building on regional and Franco-German cooperation, it aims to develop bonds between citizens, associations, public administrations, educational establishments and corporations. It is also in the context of European integration, with the presence of European institutions in Strasbourg, and has been compared to a European version of Washington D.C.
The Battle of Salzbach, or Sasbach, took place on 27 July 1675 during the Franco-Dutch War, when an Imperial army under Raimondo Montecuccoli confronted a French force commanded by Marshal Turenne. The "battle" consisted primarily of an artillery duel, during which Turenne was killed by a cannonball.
The siege of Kehl lasted from 26 October 1796 to 9 January 1797. Habsburg and Württemberg regulars numbering 40,000, under the command of Maximilian Anton Karl, Count Baillet de Latour, besieged and captured the French-controlled fortifications at the village of Kehl in the German state of Baden-Durlach. The fortifications at Kehl represented important bridgehead crossing the Rhine to Strasbourg, an Alsatian city, a French Revolutionary stronghold. This battle was part of the Rhine Campaign of 1796, in the French Revolutionary War of the First Coalition.
The first railway bridge at Kehl across the Rhine was opened in May 1861. Since then the bridge has been partially or fully destroyed more than once.
The Freiburg–Colmar railway was an international railway that formerly connected Freiburg im Breisgau, in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, with Colmar, in the French department of Haut-Rhin. The line crossed the river Rhine on a bridge between Breisach and Neuf-Brisach. Since that bridge was destroyed in 1945, the line from Freiburg has terminated at Breisach, and this stretch of line is now commonly called the Freiburg–Breisach railway, or the Breisacherbahn. The section from Freiburg to Breisach was completed in 1871 and the remainder in 1878.
During the Battle of Kehl, a Republican French force under the direction of Jean Charles Abbatucci mounted an amphibious crossing of the Rhine River against a defending force of soldiers from the Swabian Circle. In this action of the War of the First Coalition, the French drove the Swabians from their positions in Kehl and subsequently controlled the bridgehead on both sides of the Rhine.
The Second Battle of Kehl occurred on 18 September 1796, when General Franz Petrasch's Austrian and Imperial troops stormed the French-held bridgehead over the Rhine river. The village of Kehl, which is now in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, was then part of Baden-Durlach. Across the river, Strasbourg, an Alsatian city, was a French Revolutionary stronghold. This battle was part of the Rhine Campaign of 1796, in the French Revolutionary War of the First Coalition.
The Battle of Strasbourg Bridge was fought during the Swedish phase of the Thirty Years' War near the Free city of Strasbourg, in the Holy Roman Empire. Having dealt a heavy defeat on the Swedish army at the Battle of Nördlingen in September, the armies of the Emperor, Spain and the Catholic League overran much of the Swedish-held southern Germany. As a result, the Swedish commander, Rheingrave Otto Louis, decided to retreat over the Rhine with his army, using the Strasbourg bridge.
Place de la République is one of the main squares of the city of Strasbourg, France. It is surrounded on three sides by five buildings only, of which none is residential: the Palais du Rhin, the National and University Library, the Théâtre national de Strasbourg, the Préfecture of Grand Est and Bas-Rhin, and the tax center Hôtel des impôts. All of these buildings are classified as monuments historiques. The fourth side of the square is devoid of buildings.
The Battle of Ortenbach, also known as the Battle of Gengenbach, took place on 23 July 1678 during the closing stages of the 1672-1678 Franco-Dutch War, in the modern German state of Baden-Württemberg. It featured a French army commanded by François de Créquy and an Imperial force under Charles V, Duke of Lorraine.
