Bas-Rhin
Bas-Rhin is a department in Alsace, a part of the Grand Est super-region of France. The name means "Lower Rhine", geographically speaking it belongs to the Upper Rhine region, it is the more populous and densely populated of the two departments of the traditional Alsace region, with 1,121,407 inhabitants in 2016. The prefecture and the General Council are based in Strasbourg; the INSEE and Post Code is 67. The inhabitants of the department are known as Bas-Rhinoises; the Rhine has always been of great historical and economic importance to the area, it forms the eastern border of Bas-Rhin. The area is home to some of the foothills of the Vosges Mountains. To the north of Bas-Rhin lies the Palatinate forest in the German State of Rhineland-Palatinate, the German State of Baden-Württemberg lies to the east. To the south lies the department of Haut-Rhin, the town of Colmar and southern Alsace, to the west the department of Moselle. On its south-western corner, Bas-Rhin joins the department of Vosges.
The Bas-Rhin has a continental-type climate, characterised by cold, dry winters and hot, stormy summers, due to the western protection provided by the Vosges. The average annual temperature is 7 °C on high ground; the annual maximum temperature is high. The average rainfall is 700 mm per year. Established according to data from the Infoclimat station at Strasbourg-Entzheim, over the period from 1961 to 1990; this is the last French department to have kept the term Bas meaning "Lower" in its name. Other departments using this prefix preferred to change their names - e.g.: Basses-Pyrenees in 1969 became Pyrénées-Atlantiques and Basses-Alpes in 1970 became the department of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence. The same phenomenon was observed for the inférieur departments such as Charente-Inférieure, Seine-Inférieure, Loire-Inférieure. Bas-Rhin is one of the original 83 departments created on 4 March 1790, during the French Revolution. On 14 January 1790 the National Constituent Assembly decreed: "- That Alsace be divided into two departments with Strasbourg and Colmar as their capitals.
In 1871 Bas-Rhin was annexed by Germany and became Bezirk Unterelsass in Reichsland Elsaß-Lothringen. Strasbourg, the chef lieu of Bas-Rhin is the official seat of the European Parliament as well as of the Council of Europe; the demography of Bas-Rhin is characterized by high density and high population growth since the 1950s. In January 2014 Bas-Rhin had 1,112,815 inhabitants and was 18th by population at the national level. In fifteen years, from 1999 to 2014, its population grew by more than 86,000 people, or about 5,800 people per year, but this variation is differentiated among the 517 communes. The population density of Bas-Rhin is 234 inhabitants per square kilometre in 2014, more than twice the average in France, 112 in 2009; the first census was conducted in 1801 and this count, renewed every five years from 1821, provides precise information on the evolution of population in the department. With 540,213 inhabitants in 1831, the department represented 1.66% of the total French population, 32,569,000 inhabitants.
From 1831 to 1866, the department gained 48,757 people, an increase of 0.26% on average per year compared to the national average of 0.48% over the same period. Demographic change between the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and the First World War was higher than the national average. Over this period, the population increased by 100,532 inhabitants, an increase of 16.74%, compared to 10% nationally. The population increased by 9.23% between the two world wars from 1921 to 1936 compared to a national growth of 6.9%. Like other French departments, Bas-Rhin experienced a population boom after the Second World War, higher than the national level; the rate of population growth between 1946 and 2007 was 83.83%
German Empire
The German Empire known as Imperial Germany, was the German nation state that existed from the unification of Germany in 1871 until the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1918. It was founded in 1871 when the south German states, except for Austria, joined the North German Confederation. On 1 January 1871, the new constitution came into force that changed the name of the federal state and introduced the title of emperor for Wilhelm I, King of Prussia from the House of Hohenzollern. Berlin remained its capital, Otto von Bismarck remained Chancellor, the head of government; as these events occurred, the Prussian-led North German Confederation and its southern German allies were still engaged in the Franco-Prussian War. The German Empire consisted of 26 states, most of them ruled by royal families, they included four kingdoms, six grand duchies, five duchies, seven principalities, three free Hanseatic cities, one imperial territory. Although Prussia was one of several kingdoms in the realm, it contained about two thirds of Germany's population and territory.
Prussian dominance was established constitutionally. After 1850, the states of Germany had become industrialized, with particular strengths in coal, iron and railways. In 1871, Germany had a population of 41 million people. A rural collection of states in 1815, the now united Germany became predominantly urban. During its 47 years of existence, the German Empire was an industrial and scientific giant, gaining more Nobel Prizes in science than any other country. By 1900, Germany was the largest economy in Europe, surpassing the United Kingdom, as well as the second-largest in the world, behind only the United States. From 1867 to 1878/9, Otto von Bismarck's tenure as the first and to this day longest reigning Chancellor was marked by relative liberalism, but it became more conservative afterwards. Broad reforms and the Kulturkampf marked his period in the office. Late in Bismarck's chancellorship and in spite of his personal opposition, Germany became involved in colonialism. Claiming much of the leftover territory, yet unclaimed in the Scramble for Africa, it managed to build the third-largest colonial empire after the British and the French ones.
As a colonial state, it sometimes clashed with other European powers the British Empire. Germany became a great power, boasting a developing rail network, the world's strongest army, a fast-growing industrial base. In less than a decade, its navy became second only to Britain's Royal Navy. After the removal of Otto von Bismarck by Wilhelm II in 1890, the Empire embarked on Weltpolitik – a bellicose new course that contributed to the outbreak of World War I. In addition, Bismarck's successors were incapable of maintaining their predecessor's complex and overlapping alliances which had kept Germany from being diplomatically isolated; this period was marked by various factors influencing the Emperor's decisions, which were perceived as contradictory or unpredictable by the public. In 1879, the German Empire consolidated the Dual Alliance with Austria-Hungary, followed by the Triple Alliance with Italy in 1882, it retained strong diplomatic ties to the Ottoman Empire. When the great crisis of 1914 arrived, Italy left the alliance and the Ottoman Empire formally allied with Germany.
In the First World War, German plans to capture Paris in the autumn of 1914 failed. The war on the Western Front became a stalemate; the Allied naval blockade caused severe shortages of food. However, Imperial Germany had success on the Eastern Front; the German declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare in early 1917, contributed to bringing the United States into the war. The high command under Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff controlled the country, but in October after the failed offensive in spring 1918, the German armies were in retreat, allies Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire had collapsed, Bulgaria had surrendered; the Empire collapsed in the November 1918 Revolution with the abdications of its monarchs. This left a postwar federal republic and a devastated and unsatisfied populace, which led to the rise of Adolf Hitler and Nazism; the German Confederation had been created by an act of the Congress of Vienna on 8 June 1815 as a result of the Napoleonic Wars, after being alluded to in Article 6 of the 1814 Treaty of Paris.
German nationalism shifted from its liberal and democratic character in 1848, called Pan-Germanism, to Prussian prime minister Otto von Bismarck's pragmatic Realpolitik. Bismarck sought to extend Hohenzollern hegemony throughout the German states, he envisioned a Prussian-dominated Germany. Three wars led to military successes and helped to persuade German people to do this: the Second Schleswig War against Denmark in 1864, the Austro-Prussian War in 1866, the Franco-Prussian War against France in 1870–71; the German Confederation ended as a result of the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 between the constituent Confederation entities of the Austrian Empire and its allies on one side and the Kingdom of Prussia and its allies on the other. The war resulted in the partial replacement of the Confederation in 1867 by a North German Confederation, comprising the 22 states north of the Main; the patriotic fervour generated by the Franco-Prussian War overwhelmed the remaining opposition to a unified Germany in the four stat
Rhône
The Rhône is one of the major rivers of Europe and has twice the average discharge of the Loire, rising in the Rhône Glacier in the Swiss Alps at the far eastern end of the Swiss canton of Valais, passing through Lake Geneva and running through southeastern France. At Arles, near its mouth on the Mediterranean Sea, the river divides into two branches, known as the Great Rhône and the Little Rhône; the resulting delta constitutes the Camargue region. The name Rhone continues the name Latin: Rhodanus in Greco-Roman geography; the Gaulish name of the river was *Rodonos or *Rotonos. The Greco-Roman as well as the reconstructed Gaulish name is masculine; this form survives in the Spanish/Portuguese and Italian namesakes, el/o Ródano and il Rodano, respectively. German has adopted the French name but given it the feminine gender; the original German adoption of the Latin name was masculine, der Rotten. In French, the adjective derived from the river is rhodanien, as in le sillon rhodanien, the name of the long, straight Saône and Rhône river valleys, a deep cleft running due south to the Mediterranean and separating the Alps from the Massif Central.
Before railroads and highways were developed, the Rhône was an important inland trade and transportation route, connecting the cities of Arles, Valence and Lyon to the Mediterranean ports of Fos-sur-Mer, Marseille and Sète. Travelling down the Rhône by barge would take three weeks. By motorized vessel, the trip now takes only three days; the Rhône is classified as a Class V waterway for the 325 km long section from the mouth of the Saône at Lyon to the sea at Port-Saint-Louis-du-Rhône. Upstream from Lyon, a 149 km section of the Rhône was made navigable for small ships up to Seyssel; as of 2017, the part between Lyon and Sault-Brénaz is closed for navigation. The Saône, canalized, connects the Rhône ports to the cities of Villefranche-sur-Saône, Mâcon and Chalon-sur-Saône. Smaller vessels can travel further northwest and northeast via the Centre-Loire-Briare and Loing Canals to the Seine, via the Canal de la Marne à la Saône to the Marne, via the Canal des Vosges to the Moselle and via the Canal du Rhône au Rhin to the Rhine.
The Rhône is infamous for its strong current when the river carries large quantities of water: current speeds up to 10 kilometres per hour are sometimes reached in the stretch below the last lock at Vallabrègues and in the narrow first diversion canal south of Lyon. The 12 locks are operated daily from 5:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m. All operation is centrally controlled from one control centre at Châteauneuf. Commercial barges may navigate during the night hours by authorisation; the Rhône rises as an effluent of the Rhône Glacier in the Valais, in the Swiss Alps, at an altitude of 2,208 metres. From there it flows south through Gletsch and the Goms, the uppermost, valley region of the Valais before Brig. Shortly before reaching Brig, it receives the waters of the Massa from the Aletsch Glacier, it flows onward through the valley which bears its name and runs in a westerly direction about thirty kilometers to Leuk southwest about fifty kilometers to Martigny. Down as far as Brig, the Rhône is a torrent.
Between Brig and Martigny, it collects waters from the valleys of the Pennine Alps to the south, whose rivers originate from the large glaciers of the massifs of Monte Rosa and Grand Combin. At Martigny, where it receives the waters of the Drance on its left bank, the Rhône makes a strong turn towards the north. Heading toward Lake Geneva, the valley narrows, a feature that has long given the Rhône valley strategic importance for the control of the Alpine passes; the Rhône marks the boundary between the cantons of Valais and Vaud, separating the Valais Chablais and Chablais Vaudois. It enters Lake Geneva near Le Bouveret. On a portion of its extent Lake Geneva marks the border between Switzerland. On the left bank of Lake Geneva the river receives the river Morge; this river marks the border between Switzerland. The Morge enters Lake Geneva at a village on both sides of the border. Between Évian-les-Bains and Thonon-les-Bains the Dranse enters the lakewhere it left a quite large delta. On the right bank of the lake the Rhône receives the Veveyse, the Venoge, the Aubonne and the Morges besides others.
Lake Geneva ends in Geneva. The average discharge from Lake Geneva is 251 cubic metres per second. In Geneva, the Rhône receives the waters of the Arve from the Mont Blanc. After a course of 290 kilometres the Rhône leaves Switzerland and enters the southern Jura Mountains, it turns toward the south past the Bourget Lake which it is connected by the Savières channel. At Lyon, the biggest city along its course, the Rhône meets its biggest tributary, the Saône; the Saône carries 400 cubic metres per the Rhône itself 600 cubic metres per second. From the confluence, the Rhône follows the southbound
Francia
Francia called the Kingdom of the Franks, or Frankish Empire was the largest post-Roman barbarian kingdom in Western Europe. It was ruled by the Franks during the Early Middle Ages, it is the predecessor of the modern states of Germany. After the Treaty of Verdun in 843, West Francia became the predecessor of France, East Francia became that of Germany. Francia was among the last surviving Germanic kingdoms from the Migration Period era before its partition in 843; the core Frankish territories inside the former Western Roman Empire were close to the Rhine and Maas rivers in the north. After a period where small kingdoms inter-acted with the remaining Gallo-Roman institutions to their south, a single kingdom uniting them was founded by Clovis I, crowned King of the Franks in 496, his dynasty, the Merovingian dynasty, was replaced by the Carolingian dynasty. Under the nearly continuous campaigns of Pepin of Herstal, Charles Martel, Pepin the Short and Louis the Pious—father, grandson, great-grandson and great-great-grandson—the greatest expansion of the Frankish empire was secured by the early 9th century, by this point dubbed as the Carolingian Empire.
During the Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties the Frankish realm was one large kingdom polity subdivided into several smaller kingdoms effectively independent. The geography and number of subkingdoms varied over time, but a basic split between eastern and western domains persisted; the eastern kingdom was called Austrasia, centred on the Rhine and Meuse, expanding eastwards into central Europe. It evolved into the Holy Roman Empire; the western kingdom Neustria was founded in Northern Roman Gaul, as the original kingdom of the Merovingians it came over time to be referred to as Francia, now France, although in other contexts western Europe could still be described as "Frankish". In Germany there are prominent other places named after the Franks such as the region of Franconia, the city of Frankfurt, Frankenstein Castle; the Franks emerged in the 3rd century as a term covering Germanic tribes living on the northern Rhine frontier of the Roman Empire, including the Bructeri, Chamavi and Salians.
While all of them had a tradition of participating in the Roman military, the Salians were allowed to settle within the Roman Empire. In 357, having been living in the civitis of Batavia for some time, Emperor Julian, who forced the Chamavi back out of the empire at the same time, allowed the Salians to settle further away from the border, in Toxandria; some of the early Frankish leaders, such as Flavius Bauto and Arbogast, were committed to the cause of the Romans, but other Frankish rulers, such as Mallobaudes, were active on Roman soil for other reasons. After the fall of Arbogastes, his son Arigius succeeded in establishing a hereditary countship at Trier and after the fall of the usurper Constantine III some Franks supported the usurper Jovinus. Jovinus was dead by 413, but the Romans found it difficult to manage the Franks within their borders; the Frankish king Theudemer was executed by the sword, in c. 422. Around 428, the king Chlodio, whose kingdom may have been in the civitas Tungrorum, launched an attack on Roman territory and extended his realm as far as Camaracum and the Somme.
Though Sidonius Apollinaris relates that Flavius Aetius defeated a wedding party of his people, this period marks the beginning of a situation that would endure for many centuries: the Germanic Franks ruled over an increasing number of Gallo-Roman subjects. The Merovingians, reputed to be relatives of Chlodio, arose from within the Gallo-Roman military, with Childeric and his son Clovis being called "King of the Franks" in the Gallo-Roman military before having any Frankish territorial kingdom. Once Clovis defeated his Roman competitor for power in northern Gaul, Syagrius, he turned to the kings of the Franks to the north and east, as well as other post-Roman kingdoms existing in Gaul: Visigoths and Alemanni; the original core territory of the Frankish kingdom came to be known as Austrasia, while the large Romanised Frankish kingdom in northern Gaul came to be known as Neustria. Chlodio's successors are obscure figures, but what can be certain is that Childeric I his grandson, ruled a Salian kingdom from Tournai as a foederatus of the Romans.
Childeric is chiefly important to history for bequeathing the Franks to his son Clovis, who began an effort to extend his authority over the other Frankish tribes and to expand their territorium south and west into Gaul. Clovis converted to Christianity and put himself on good terms with the powerful Church and with his Gallo-Roman subjects. In a thirty-year reign Clovis defeated the Roman general Syagrius and conquered the Kingdom of Soissons, defeated the Alemanni and established Frankish hegemony over them. Clovis defeated the Visigoths and conquered all of their territory north of the Pyrenees save Septimania, conquered the Bretons and made them vassals of Francia, he conquered most or all of the neighbouring Frankish tribes along the Rhine and incorporated them into his kingdom. He incorporated the various Roman military settlements scattered over Gaul: the Saxons of Bessin, the Britons and the Alans of Armorica and Loire valley or the Taifals of Poitou to name a few prominent ones. By the end of his life, Clovis ruled all of Gaul save the Gothic province of Septimania and the Burgundian kingdom in the southeast.
The Merovingians were a hereditary monarchy. The Frankish kings adhered to th
European watershed
The main European watershed is the drainage divide which separates the basins of the rivers that empty into the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea and the Baltic Sea from those that feed the Mediterranean Sea, the Adriatic Sea and the Black Sea. It stretches from the tip of the Iberian Peninsula at Gibraltar in the southwest to the endorheic basin of the Caspian Sea in Russia in the northeast; the Watershed runs northwards through Spain in the Iberian Peninsula towards the Bay of Biscay along the basins of Guadalquivir, Guadiana and Douro in the west to the sources of the Ebro in Cantabria. It follows the main ridge of the Pyrenees eastwards up to Andorra, where it again turns to the north through France along the catchment areas of Garonne and Seine in the west and that of the Rhone in the east, marked by the Cévennes mountain range between the sources of the Allier and Ardèche tributaries. At the Belfort Gap south of the Vosges Mountains it separates the Rhone basin in the southwest from the drainage of Meuse and Rhine in the northeast, turns southwards to the Swiss Jura Mountains and passes between Lake Geneva and Lake Neuchâtel.
It reaches the Bernese Alps. Mt. Witenwasserenstock marks the triple watershed of the Rhone, Rhine and Po rivers, further to the east along the Grison Alps it reaches the tripoint of the Rhine, Po and Danube basins at the "roof of Europe" Piz Lunghin west of the Maloja Pass; the divide continues northwards along the Albula Alps to Julier Pass, Albula Pass and Flüela Pass south of Davos between the catchment area of the Rhine, which empties into the North Sea via the Netherlands, the Danube, which flows eastward emptying into the Black Sea. It enters Austria at Piz Buin in the Silvretta Alps running along the Arlberg massif and forming the border between the states of Tyrol and Vorarlberg, it reaches Bavaria, Germany via the crest of the Allgäu Alps and leaves the High Alps at the Adelegg range near Kempten. Within the Alpine foothills it runs north of the Schussen catchment area of Lake Constance towards the sources of the Brigach and Breg headwaters of the Danube in the Black Forest, it follows the main ridge of the Swabian and Franconian Jura with the crossing of the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal northeastwards up to the Fichtelgebirge and southeastwards along the Bohemian Forest, forming the border between Germany and the Austrian Mühlviertel and Waldviertel regions with the Czech Republic, where the large Bohemian basin is drained by the Elbe River.
It again turns northeastwards along the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands-Javořice Highlands to the Śnieżnik Mountains of the Eastern Sudetes at the border with Poland, where the tripoint of Orlice and Morava, Danube and Eastern Neisse, Oder is located at the peak of Trójmorski Wierch. The Watershed continues in eastern direction along the Jeseníky Mountains down to Moravian Gate and uphill into the Beskids, with the Oder and Vistula basins in the north, reaching the tripoint of Poland with Slovakia and Ukraine in the Bieszczady Mountains; the Watershed goes northeast near the Poland–Ukraine border, passes through the city of Lviv and, via Volyn, enters Belarus. It runs east-northeast along Belarusian Ridge and continues to the Smolensk Oblast of Russia, ending at the tripoint with Caspian drainage basin in the Sychyovsky District, near the midpoint of Western Russia's cities Smolensk and Tver; the watershed is not a defined divide. Tectonics in the area, now the Upper Rhine Plain, created the River Rhine.
As its headward erosion is much stronger than that of the much older River Danube, the Rhine and its tributaries intrude deeper into phreatic zones of the Swabian Karst and capture the upper Danube and its surface tributaries. It is expected that the Danube's upper course will one day disappear in favour of the Rhine. Continental Divide of the Americas Continental divide Category:Drainage basins
House of Württemberg
The Württemberg family is a German royal family and dynasty from Württemberg. The House has its origins, according to recent research in the vicinity of the Salian dynasty. Around 1080 the ancestors of modern Württemberg, called "Wirtemberg", settled in the Stuttgart area. Conrad of Württemberg built the Wirtemberg Castle. Around 1089, he was made Count, their domains only the immediate surroundings of the castle included, increased mainly through acquisitions such as those from impoverished homes of Tübingen. At the Diet of Worms in 1495, Count Eberhard V was raised to Duke by the German King Holy Roman Emperor, Maximilian I. During 1534 to 1537 Duke Ulrich introduced the Protestant Reformation, the country became Protestant. Duke Ulrich became head of the local Protestant Church. In the 18th Century, the Protestant male line became extinct, the Head of the House was succeeded by Duke Charles Alexander a Roman Catholic. Despite having a Catholic royal family, Protestantism survived as the established church, run by a church council composed by members of the nobility of Württemberg.
From 1797, with the accession of Duke Frederick II, the royal family was again Protestant. Due to the political upheavals during the reign of Napoleon I, being an ally of Napoleon, Württemberg became a part of the Confederation of the Rhine, Duke Frederick II was made Elector in May 1803, he collected and received secularized and mediated dominions, which enlarged his country in territorial extension. In January 1806 he was made King of Württemberg. In 1828 King William I adopted a new house law, the rights and obligations of the ruling family have been established, including the exclusive primogeniture in the male line as well as marriage restrictions on coequal level. In 1867 the House created the Royal Dukedom of Urach for a younger cousin, Prince Wilhelm, 1st Duke of Urach, whose parents had married morganatically in 1800, whereby their sons were excluded from ruling the kingdom. In 1871 the Royal Dukedom of Teck was created for the same dynastic reason for Francis, Duke of Teck. At the end of World War I during the German Revolution all the monarchies in Germany were abolished, King William II abdicated on 30 November 1918.
When former King William II died in 1921 the senior branch line of the House of Württemberg became extinct, the headship of the House passed to a distant relative, Duke of Württemberg. The legal line of succession of the house of Württemberg has continued to the present, although the house no longer plays any political role. For rulers, see List of Ministers-President of Württemberg. Heads of the House of Württemberg since 1918 King Wilhelm II, 1918-1921. Duke Albrecht, 1921-1939. Duke Philipp, 1939-1975. Duke Carl, since 1975; the former royal family still owns the castles Monrepos and Friedrichshafen. All branches descend from Frederick II Eugene, Duke of Württemberg on the basis of Agnatic primogeniture The first branch descends from Frederick I of Württemberg; this branch became extinct at the death of William II of Württemberg in 1921. The second branch descends from Duke Louis of Württemberg, belonged to the Teck family; this branch became extinct at the death of George Cambridge, 2nd Marquess of Cambridge in 1981.
It was not considered dynastic due to the morganatic marriage of Duke Alexander of Württemberg to Countess Claudine Rhédey von Kis-Rhéde. A female line descendant from this branch is Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom; the third branch "Carlsruhe" descends from Duke Eugen of Württemberg. This branch became extinct at the death of Duke Nicholas of Württemberg in 1903; the fourth branch descends from Duke William Frederick Philip of Württemberg, belongs to the Urach family. This branch is extant, but as the Teck branch, it is not considered dynastic because of the morganatic marriage of Duke William Frederick Philip to Baroness Wilhelmine von Tunderfedt-Rhodes in 1800; the first Duke was however created a "Serene Highness" in the 1860s. The current head of this branch is Wilhelm Duke of Urach; the fifth "Altshausen" branch descends from Duke Alexander of Württemberg. The current pretender to the throne of Württemberg, Duke Carl, belongs to this branch. Through the marriages of its female members, many royal families, descend from any of the Württemberg branches.
Royal houses include: Bourbon, Orléans, Wied-Neuwied, etc. Coat of arms of Württemberg History of Württemberg Robert Uhland: 900 Jahre Haus Württemberg. Leben und Leistung für Land und Volk. Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-17-008536-0 Gerhard Raff: Hie gut Wirtemberg allewege I. Das Haus Württemberg von Graf Ulrich dem Stifter bis Herzog Ludwig. Mit einer Einleitung von Hansmartin Decker-Hauff. Stuttgart 1988, ISBN 3-89850-110-8 Gerhard Raff: Hie gut Wirtemberg allewege II. Das Haus Württemberg von Herzog Friedrich I. bis Herzog Friedrich III. Mit den Linien Stuttgart, Mömpelgard, Neuenbürg, Neuenstadt am Kocher und Oels in Schlesien. Degerloch 1993, ISBN 3-89850-108-6 Gerhard Raff: Hie gut Wirtemberg allewege III. Das Haus Württemberg von Herzog Wilhelm Ludwig bis Herzog Friedrich Karl. Mit den Linien Stuttgart, Neuenstadt am Kocher, Neuenbürg, Mömpelgard und Oels, Bernstadt und Juliusburg in Schlesien und Weiltingen. Degerloch 2002, ISBN 3-89850-084-5 Sönke Lorenz, Dieter Mertens, Volker Press: Das Haus Württemberg.
Ein biographisches Lexikon. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-17-013605-4 Harald Schukraft: Kleine Geschichte des Hauses Württemberg. Tübingen 2006, ISBN 3-87407-725-X Sabine Thomsen: Goldene Bräute. Württembergische Prinzessinnen auf europäischen Thronen, Silberberg Verlag, Tübingen 2010 ISBN 978-3-87407-867-2 Hofkammer des Hauses Württemberg
Belfort
Belfort is a city in northeastern France in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté région, situated between Lyon and Strasbourg. It is the biggest town and the administrative centre of the Territoire de Belfort département. Belfort is 141 km from Strasbourg, 290 km from Lyon and 150 km from Zürich; the residents of the city are called "Belfortains". The city is located on the Savoureuse river, on a strategically important natural route between the Rhine and the Rhône – the Belfort Gap or Burgundian Gate, it is located 16 km south from the base of the Ballon d'Alsace mountain range, source of the Savoureuse. The city of Belfort has 50,199 inhabitants. Together with its suburbs and satellite towns, Belfort forms the largest agglomeration in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region with an urban population of 308,601 inhabitants. Belfort's strategic location, in a natural gap between the Vosges and the Jura, on a route linking the Rhine and the Rhône, has attracted human settlement since Roman times, has made it a frequent target for invading armies.
The site of Belfort was inhabited in Gallo-Roman times. It was subsequently recorded in the 13th century as a possession of the counts of Montbéliard, who granted it a charter in 1307. An Austrian possession, Belfort was transferred to France by the Treaty of Westphalia, which ended the Thirty Years' War; the town's fortifications were extended and developed by the military architect Vauban for Louis XIV. Until 1871, Belfort was part of the département of Haut-Rhin, in Alsace; the Siege of Belfort was resisted until the garrison was ordered to surrender 21 days after the armistice between France and Prussia. The region was not annexed by Prussia like the rest of Alsace and was exchanged for other territories in the vicinity of Metz, it formed, the Territoire de Belfort. The siege is commemorated by the Lion of Belfort, by Frédéric Bartholdi. Alsatians who sought a new French home in Belfort made a significant contribution to its industry; the town was bombarded by the German army during World War I and occupied by it during World War II.
In November 1944 the retreating German army held off the French First Army outside the town until French Commandos made a successful night attack on the Salbert Fort. Belfort was liberated on 22 November 1944. On 5 June 1892, Le Petit Journal organised a foot-race from Paris to Belfort, a course of over 380 kilometers, the first large scale long distance running race on record. Over 1,100 competitors registered for the event and over 800 started from the offices of Le Petit Journal, at Paris Opera; this had been the start point for the inaugural Paris–Brest–Paris cycle-race the previous year. The newspaper's circulation increased as the French public followed the progress of race participants, 380 of whom completed the course in under 10 days. In Le Petit Journal on June 18, 1892, Pierre Giffard praised the event as a model for the physical training of a nation faced by hostile neighbours; the event was won by Constant Ramoge in 100 hours 5 minutes. Belfort is a centre for heavy engineering industries dedicated to railways and turbines.
Belfort is the hometown of Alstom where the first TGVs were produced, as well as being the GE Energy European headquarter and a centre of excellence for the manufacturing of gas turbines. Like many other European cities, the volume of road traffic in Belfort continues to increases and dominates transport. Belfort is situated at only 25 mi from the commercial port of Mulhouse-Rhin which allows international trade; the motorway A36 from Beaune to Mulhouse follows a route to the south and east of the city, forms the main axis linking Belfort to other French and European cities. N19 is another major route which joins the south of Belfort with Paris and Switzerland. EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg is located about 60 km east of Belfort. Belfort is well connected with the rest of France, with direct connections by train to major destinations such as Paris, Besançon, Strasbourg, Marseille and Lille, including high-speed trains; some trains operate into Switzerland, such as Zürich stations. There is a train service to Frankfurt am Main in Germany.
Regional services connect Belfort to Montbéliard, Besançon, Vesoul, Épinal and Nancy. Gare de Belfort is the main railway station in the centre of the city. Gare de Belfort – Montbéliard TGV is the high speed railway station, 9 km south of the city. From 2017, regional trains will connect Belfort with Belfort-Montbéliard TGV station using the new Belfort–Delle railway link; this service will link Belfort and the surrounding area to Switzerland, the high-speed train link will connect Swiss towns such as Delémont, Bern and Lausanne to Paris and other cities. Before 2020, the service Épinal-Belfort will be modernized; this will allow a link between LGV Est and LGV Rhin-Rhône in Belfort-Montbéliard TGV station, opening new destinations like Nancy and Luxembourg. A local bus network Optymo operates within Belfort. Tickets can be bought from any newsagent in the city, or a bus passenger can send a sms'BUS' to 84100 and show the confirmation sms as a ticket; the region of Belfort offers around 70 km of cycling tracks with more under construction.
Visit the local tourist office for information on the latest additions including the'Coulée verte
