Büchen

Büchen
Municipality
Coat of arms
Location of Büchen within Herzogtum Lauenburg district
Country	Germany
State	Schleswig-Holstein
District	Herzogtum Lauenburg
Municipal assoc.	Büchen
Government
• Mayor	Uwe Möller (SPD)
Area
• Total	16.85 km2 (6.51 sq mi)
Elevation	20 m (70 ft)
Population  (2022-12-31)
• Total	6,617
• Density	390/km2 (1,000/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Postal codes	21514
Dialling codes	04155
Vehicle registration	RZ
Website	www.buechen.de

Büchen is a municipality in the district of Lauenburg, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is seat of the Amt ("collective municipality") Büchen.

Büchen is situated on the Elbe-Lübeck Canal, approx. 13 km northeast of Lauenburg/Elbe, and 45 km east of Hamburg. Büchen station is on the Berlin-Hamburg and the Lübeck–Lüneburg lines.

History

Between 1945 and 1990 Büchen served as West German inner German border crossing for rail transport. The crossing was open for trains travelling between the Soviet Zone of occupation in Germany (till 1949, thereafter the East German Democratic Republic, or West Berlin) and the American zone of occupation and thereafter Federal Republic of Germany. The traffic was subject to the Interzonal traffic regulations between West Germany and West Berlin which followed the special regulations of the Transit Agreement (1972).