Haut-Rhin

Haut-Rhin (French: [oʁɛ̃], ; Alsatian: Owerelsàss or ; German: Oberelsass) is a département in the Grand Est region, France, bordering both Germany and Switzerland. It is named after the river Rhine. Its name means Upper Rhine. Haut-Rhin is the smaller and less populated of the two departments of the former administrative Alsace region, the other being the Bas-Rhin (Lower Rhine). Especially after the 1871 cession of the southern territory known since 1922 as Territoire de Belfort, although it is still densely populated compared to the rest of metropolitan France. It had a population of 767,842 in 2020.

On 1 January 2021, the départements of Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin were merged into the European Collectivity of Alsace.

History

Haut-Rhin is one of the original 83 départements, created during the French Revolution, on 4 March 1790 through the application of the law of 22 December 1789 in respect of the southern half of the province of Alsace (Haute-Alsace).

Its boundaries have been modified many times:

  • 1798, it absorbed Mulhouse, formerly a free city, and the last Swiss enclave in the south of Alsace;
  • 1800, it absorbed the whole département of Mont-Terrible;
  • 1814, it lost the territories which had been part of Mont-Terrible, which were returned to Switzerland, except for the old principality of Montbéliard;
  • 1816, it lost Montbéliard, which was transferred to the département of Doubs;
  • 1871, it was mostly annexed by Germany (Treaty of Frankfurt). The remaining French part formed the Territoire de Belfort in 1922;
  • 1919, it was reverted to France (Treaty of Versailles) but remains administratively separated from Belfort.
  • 1940, it was annexed de facto by Nazi Germany.
  • 1944, it was recovered by France.

Geography

Haut-Rhin is bordered by the Territoire de Belfort and Vosges départements and the Vosges Mountains to the west, the Bas-Rhin département to the North, Switzerland to the south and its eastern border with Germany is also the Rhine. In the centre of the département lies a fertile plain. The climate is semi-continental.

Subdivisions

The department consists of the following arrondissements:

  • Altkirch
  • Colmar-Ribeauvillé
  • Mulhouse
  • Thann-Guebwiller

Principal towns

The most populous commune is Mulhouse; the prefecture Colmar is the second-most populous. As of 2020, there are 11 communes with more than 10,000 inhabitants:

CommunePopulation (2020)
Mulhouse108,038
Colmar68,294
Saint-Louis22,835
Wittenheim15,065
Illzach14,380
Rixheim14,020
Kingersheim13,230
Riedisheim12,258
Cernay11,559
Guebwiller10,988
Wittelsheim10,358

Demographics

Population development since 1801:

Law

Alsace and the adjacent Moselle department have a legal system slightly different from the rest of France. The statutes in question date from the period 1871 - 1919 when the area was part of the German Empire. With the return of Alsace-Lorraine to France in 1919, Paris accepted that Alsace and Moselle should retain some local laws in respect of certain matters, especially with regard to hunting, economic life, local government relationships, health insurance and social rights. It includes notably the absence of any formal separation between church and state: several mainstream denominations of the Christian church benefit from state funding, in contrast to principles applied in the rest of France.

Culture

  • Alsatian language

External links

Text taken from Wikipedia - Haut-Rhin under the CC-BY-SA-3.0 on April 13, 2023

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