Verenahof
Verenahof was until 1967 a tiny part of West Germany containing three houses and twenty-four residents, completely surrounded by land belonging to Switzerland. The West German territory was an enclave separated from the rest of the country by a strip of Swiss land about 200 to 300 metres wide.
In 1522, Emperor Charles V and his brother Archduke Ferdinand of Austria bought Verenahof at the same time when they bought other small pieces of land in the same region (Tengen, Kommingen, Wiechs am Randen) from Count Christoph von Nellenburg.
In the 17th and 18th centuries there were arguments between Tengen and Schaffhausen about access roads and the exact border of the enclave.
In 1964 West Germany and Switzerland agreed that Verenahof would become part of Switzerland. This happened on 4 October 1967.[1][2] Today Verenahof is part of the village of Büttenhardt.
At the Wiechs am Randen town hall there are some remaining border markers that became no longer needed with the land swap in 1967. In Büttenhardt, at the old school house, some old border markers from the 1930s have been used to frame bushes planted around the enclave.
References
[change | change source]- ↑ BGBl (German Federal Law Gazette) 1967 II, pp.2041–2043
- ↑ Vertrag zwischen der Schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft und der Bundesrepublik Deutschland über die Bereinigung der Grenze im Abschnitt Konstanz–Neuhausen am Rheinfall (Treaty between the Swiss Confederation and the Federal Republic of Germany concerning the settlement of the border in the Konstanz-Neuhausen am Rheinfall section). Verenahof is dealt with in Article 1, paragraphs 2 (e) and (f).