Lauterbourg
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This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in the French Wikipedia. (December 2008) Click [show] on the right for instructions.
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Lauterbourg |
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| Railway station with German train | |
 Lauterbourg
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Location within Alsace region
Lauterbourg
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| Administration | |
|---|---|
| Country | France |
| Region | Alsace |
| Department | Bas-Rhin |
| Arrondissement | Wissembourg |
| Canton | Lauterbourg |
| Intercommunality | Lauter |
| Mayor | Jean-Michel Fetsch (2001–2008) |
| Statistics | |
| Elevation | 104–129 m (341–423 ft) (avg. 115 m or 377 ft) |
| Land area1 | 11.25 km2 (4.34 sq mi) |
| Population2 | 2,229 (2006) |
| - Density | 198 /km2 (510 /sq mi) |
| INSEE/Postal code | 67261/ 67630 |
| 1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. | |
| 2 Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once. | |
Coordinates: 48°58′34″N 8°10′28″E / 48.9761°N 8.1744°E
Lauterbourg (German: Lauterburg) is a commune and Bas-Rhin department in Alsace 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 (excluding the island of Corsica). The German town across the border is Neulauterburg.
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[edit] Geography
Lauterbourg lies near the Lauter and Rhine rivers.
The commune contains several small lakes in the flat land directly on the west of the Rhine, with which they connect.
The commune is the confluence of more than one ecotone: an ecotone between river and agrisystem and one between agrisystem and the forest (Forêt du Bienwald), whose northern edge coincides with the German frontier. The commune is entirely set on the alluvial land fronting the River Rhine, but the foothills of the north Vosges Mountains, where the River Lauter has its source, are not far away. In anthropological and cultural terms, Lauterbourg is at the meeting point with the two German territories (formerly separate states) of Baden-Württemberg and Rheinland-Pfalz. On the other hand, it is also adjacent to a major river and land route which for centuries has been a focus of commercial and cultural currents, but also of major military currents in times of war.
Lauterbourg is connected by a railway line with Strasbourg to the south Wörth am Rhein to the north. The town has had its own railway station since 1876, and since the reversion of Alsace to French control it has thereby been connected to both the French and German rail networks. The lines have never been electrified, however, and in recent decades the trains have been diesel powered.
Close by, to the west, is the northern end of the A35 Autoroute, the principal north-south highway in Alsace which link to Strasbourg and, beyond that, Mulhouse and Basel (St Louis). A linking autobahn to the north has not been constructed, but there is a narrow road running north through Germany towards the Autobahn network, linking to nearby cities such as Ludwigshafen and Karlsruhe.
Lauterborg contains a metal works, a chemical factory and a fertilizer factory. Other significant businesses include a car delivery firm whose work includes transferring cars between the railway depot and the harbour, as well as a large gravel works. The harbour on the Rhine also provides employment. The harbour is almost exclusively devoted to goods transport, including the delivery of raw materials by river tanker for the chemical and fertilizer factories, and the transportation of bridge sections and other smaller sub-assemblies involving the metal business.
[edit] Sport
In the 2006/2007 season, ASL Lauterbourg, the local rugby football team, was able to celebrate victory in the Alsace championship league.
[edit] Notable people
- Leopold Caspari, businessman from Natchitoches and a member of both houses of the Louisiana State Legislature between 1884 and 1914, was born in Lauterbourg in 1830.[1]
- Georges Holderith, academic and leading education inspector was born in Lauterbourg in 1912.
- Antoine Levy (1832 - ?) French rabbi and teacher of German, was known also as the first rabbi of the Jewish Choral Temple in Bucharest, Romania.
- Mayer Halff (1836-1905) Prominent Jewish merchant and rancher in San Antonio, Texas, was born in Lauterbourg. [2]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "Caspari, Leopold". Louisiana Historical Association, A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography (lahistory.org). http://www.lahistory.org/site20.php. Retrieved December 22, 2010.
- ^ http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/HH/fha16.html
[edit] External links
- Official website (French)
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