Lörrach

Lörrach (German pronunciation: [ˈlœrax][3]) is a town in southwest Germany, in the valley of the Wiese, close to the French and the Swiss borders. It is the capital of the district of Lörrach in Baden-Württemberg. It is the home of a number of large employers, including the Milka chocolate factory owned by Mondelez International. The city population has grown over the last century, with only 10,794 in 1905, it has now increased its population to 49,382.[4]

Lörrach
Town
Aerial view at Lörrach from the north
Aerial view at Lörrach from the north
Coat of arms of Lörrach
Coat of arms
Location of Lörrach within Lörrach district
Lörrach is located in Germany
Lörrach
Lörrach
Lörrach is located in Baden-Württemberg
Lörrach
Lörrach
Coordinates: 47°37′N 7°40′E
CountryGermany
StateBaden-Württemberg
Admin. regionFreiburg
DistrictLörrach
Government
 • Lord mayor (2022–30) Jörg Lutz[1] (Ind.)
Area
 • Total39.43 km2 (15.22 sq mi)
Elevation
294 m (965 ft)
Population
 (2021-12-31)[2]
 • Total49,318
 • Density1,300/km2 (3,200/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+01:00 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Postal codes
79501-79541
Dialling codes(+49) 07621
Vehicle registrationLÖ
Websiteloerrach.de

Nearby is the castle of Rötteln on the Wiesental, whose lords became the counts of Hachberg and a residence of the Margraves of Baden; this was destroyed by the troops of Louis XIV in 1678, but was rebuilt in 1867. Lörrach received market rights in 1403, but it did not obtain the privileges of a city until 1682.

After the Napoleonic epoch, the town was included in the Grand Duchy of Baden. On 21 September 1848, Gustav Struve attempted to start a revolutionary uprising in Lörrach as part of the Revolutions of 1848–49. It failed, and Struve was caught and imprisoned. Still, Lörrach was officially the capital of Germany for a day.

Geography

Lörrach is located in the southernmost part of the Rhine Rift valley. The depression is created by tectonic movements, and the area has a high earthquake risk. Several times a year, Lörrach is afflicted by slight and medial earthquakes.

The city is located in a valley of the Quaternary period. Lörrach is surrounded by slopes on two sides. The slopes create the southern part of the Wiesental, that is the valley where the Wiese river flows.

Geographical locations of the subdistrict Lörrach:

  • Elevation of the deepest place: 272 m (in the valley Wiesental at the border with Switzerland)
  • Elevation of the highest place: 570 m (in the forest of Rötteln)

The extent of the urban area from south to north is 6.0 km and from east to west 4.6 km. Lörrach is also the capital city of Markgräflerland and a part of the tri-national agglomeration area of Basel (Switzerland). Stuttgart is 220 km away from Lörrach, and it takes one hour to drive to Bern or Zürich. The city has several forested hills along the valley Wiesental: Schädelberg, Homburg, Röttler Wald, and Tüllinger Berg.

Lörrach is bounded by many municipalities and the city of Riehen (Switzerland). In addition, it is located in the foothills of the Black Forest and on the border of Switzerland.

Binzen Rümmingen Steinen
Weil am Rhein Rheinfelden
Riehen (CH) Inzlingen
Grenzach-Wyhlen

Climate

Lörrach's climate is mild, and in the summer, it is often hot. The region of Markgräflerland is the warmest in Germany because of the Mediterranean air current from the valley of the Rhône. Because of its numerous sunny days, the region is dubbed the German Tuscany (German: Die Toskana Deutschlands).

Boroughs and districts
Lörrach with its boroughs and districts

Lörrach is subdivided into three boroughs and three districts. In sum, the three boroughs have an area of 18.6 km2.

Year of
incorporation
Boroughs and districts Area (km²)
1935Borough Tumringen4.4
1935Borough Tüllingen2.1
1908Borough Stetten4.6
1974District Haagen3.6
1975District Brombach9.8
1975District Hauingen7.4

The three districts have their own administrations with a chief magistrate (Ortsvorsteher). Every five years, the citizens of Lörrach elect the council of the districts. The satellite city Salzert was developed in 1963. Inzlingen, close to Lörrach, is an independent municipality, but Lörrach oversees its administration.

History
Year Event
1102 Lörrach was first mentioned as the settlement Lorracho.
1403 Rupert of Germany declared Lörrach a market town.
1678 The castle of Rötteln was destroyed by the French.
1682 Lörrach was granted town privileges by Frederick VII, Margrave of Baden-Durlach.
1702 Battle of Käferholz against the French.
1756 The town received a new civic law and its first town hall.
1783 Johann Peter Hebel became a teacher at the boarding school.
1803 Stetten became a part of Baden, having previously belonged to Austria.
1808 In Lörrach, numerous buildings in the classical style were built (synagogue, Stadtkirche, and Fridolinskirche).
1835 The state Baden joins the Zollverein.
1848 In September, Gustav Struve declared the new 'German Republic' from the town hall of Lörrach after the failed revolution. Some days later, he was arrested.
1862 The Wiesentalbahn between Basel, Lörrach, and Schopfheim was opened. A railway connection to Weil and Säckingen was extended to Lörrach in 1890. Also, Carl Christian Renaux was born on 11 March.
1863 Lörrach became a district town.
1871 The first elementary school was opened.
1880 Philippe Suchard created a chocolate factory in Lörrach.
1908 Incorporation of Stetten; later, Tüllingen und Tumringen (1935), Haagen (voluntary 1974), Brombach und Hauingen (1975), were incorporated.
1945 Air raid on Brombach and Lörrach: On 24 April, French troops occupied the city.
1963 Start of construction of the district of Salzert.
1983 The fourth Landesgartenschau of Baden-Württemberg (a national horticultural show) was held in the new park area in the Grütt.
1984 The finished motorway section between High Rhine and Upper Rhine relieved the heavy traffic of the city.
1991 Inauguration of the new pedestrian precinct and the transformation of the city centre.
2010 Two were killed and one injured in a shooting incident at the Saint Elizabeth Hospital.[5]

Population development
Population development
Year Population Year Population
18709,103197544,179
189011,475198140,064
191416,293199042,500
193820,041199243,976
195022,698199644,756
196030,546200045,679
196531,324200146,272
197333,885200246,741
197436,231200446,754

source: Statistisches Landesamt Stuttgart, Statistischer Jahresbericht der Stadt Lörrach.[6]

Coat of arms
Ruins of Rötteln Castle in Lörrach
St. Ottilien church in Tüllingen
View to a street with church (die Germanuskirche) in Brombach

Lörrach received its city rights in 1682 when it became the capital of the Oberamt Rötteln-Sausenberg. At the same time, its arms were granted. The arms show a canting lark (Lerche). In 1756, both the city rights and the arms were regranted by Margrave Charles Frederick of Baden. The colours are also the colours of Baden. Even though the arms have not changed since, the shape and size of the lark have changed considerably. The present arms have been used since the early 1960s and show a very modern variation of the lark. After municipal reforms, the coat of arms was reconfirmed on 11 November 1975.

Religion
Church in Brombach

Christianity:

Lörrach initially belonged to the diocese of Konstanz and was under the archdiocese of Breisgau. In 1529, after the Reformation had been introduced there, the parsonage of Lörrach was occupied from Basel. The reformation in the city was introduced in 1556. After that, Lörrach was for many centuries a predominantly Protestant city. In Rötteln, an archdiocese had existed since the beginning of the 15th century, which at the end of the 17th century, shifted to Lörrach. The Protestant pastor of Lörrach was from 1682 an intendant, too. The Stadtkirche is the main church of Lörrach (first mentioned in the 12th century). In addition, Lörrach has a few parishes: Johannespfarrei (founded in the 20th century), Pauluspfarrei for the northern city (founded in 1906), Matthäuspfarrei for the eastern city, Inzlingen (founded in 1949), Markuspfarrei (founded in 1956), Salzertgemeinde (founded in 1969), and Friedensgemeinde for the district of Homburg (founded in 1974).

The borough of Stetten was controlled by Austria until 1803. Therefore, Stetten has a Catholic tradition, although the reformation had been introduced years before. Because of a contract with Austria, Stetten again became Catholic. At first, the parish of Stetten also served the resident Catholics of Lörrach. They held their church services in the new church, the Fridolinskirche (1822). The original church of Stettens was founded in the 13th century. Between 1864 and 1867 in Lörrach, its own parish church (St. Bonifatius) was built, at which a curacy was created that was raised to the status of a parsonage in 1882. A second Catholic church (St. Peter) was built in 1964. In Brombach, they had already built in 1900 a church (St. Josephskirche), which has been a parsonage since 1911. All Catholic parishes of Lörrach today form together with the neighbouring parishes of St. Peter and Paul in Inzlingen a group pastoral ministry within the deanery of Wiesental belonging to the archbishopric Freiburg.

Today, a slight predominance of the Lutheran denomination exists. In the borough of Stetten exists a relative Catholic majority.

Beside the two large churches, some parishes belong to free churches. For example, the Freie evangelische Gemeinde or FeG Lörrach (English: Free Evangelical community).

Politics

Political proportion
Town Hall of Lörrach (cognomen: Langer Egon)

The municipal council of Lörrach consists of 32 volunteer aldermen and alderwomen, whose chairman is the Oberbürgermeisterin (mayor). The municipal council is elected for a period of five years by the citizenry.

The last election from 13 June 2004 had a percentage of voting of 41.2% and resulted in the following allocation of seats in the city hall of Lörrach:

Party Proportion * Seats *
CDU33.3%-5.0%11-7
SPD21.0%-2.5%7-4
Freie Wähler15.8%+1.7%5-3
GRÜNE15.7%+4.0%5±0
FDP8.0%+5.1%2+1
KUL (1)6.1%-0.5%2-1
total100%32-14

Source:[7]
(1) Kommunale Unabhängige Liste (English: Municipal autonomous list)
* variance to the municipal council elections of 1999.

Heads of city

The chronicle of Lörrach reports of a Johann von Schallbach in the year 1366 as the first Vogt. The office designation of mayor was reserved for the local chiefs of the cities. The first mayor of Lörrach was Marx Christoph Leibfried, who took office in 1882, the year of the first German town law of the city. He was employed by the Markgraf. Since 1956, the city head is the Oberbürgermeister, who is selected directly by the citizens.

Mayors since 1804
Jörg Lutz is mayor of Lörrach since 2014
Curatorship Name Curatorship Name
1804–1807Johann Martin Strohmeier1861–1863Karl Wenner
1807–1810Johann Jakob Grether1863–1869Paul Feldkirchner
1810–1814Johann Kaspar Schöffel1869–1871Karl Robert Gebhardt
1814–1820Johann Georg Grether1872–1906Johann Josef Grether
1820–1826Jakob Rupp1906–1927Erwin Gugelmeier*
1826–1831Friedrich Hüglin1927–1933Heinrich Graser
1831–1832Ernst Schultz1933–1945Reinhard Boos
1832–1835Johann Georg Grether1945–1948Joseph Pfeffer
1835–1841Ernst Schultz1948–1960Arend Braye*
1841–1844Friedrich Hüglin1960–1984Egon Hugenschmidt*
1844–1849Karl Wenner1984–1995Rainer Offergeld*
1849–1861Johann Ludwig Calame1995–2014Gudrun Heute-Bluhm*
1861–1863Karl Wenner2014–2023Joerg Lutz*

Source:[8]
* Oberbürgermeister

Economics and infrastructure

The town supports approximately 18,300 jobs. Retailers gained a business volume of 342.7 million euros in the year 2004. Approximately a fifth of this business volume was generated by customers from Switzerland.

Transport
Bundesautobahn 98

Bundesautobahn 98 passes Lörrach. Thereby it has a direct connection to the Bundesautobahn 5 and to the A35 autoroute in France. The A2 motorway and the A3 motorway of Switzerland are also near Lörrach. The Bundesstraße B 317, from Titisee-Neustadt across the pass of the Feldberg, is the most important arterial road of the city. The Bundesstraße 317 is interrupted by Switzerland. At present the B 317 is built through the Swiss territory as duty-free road.

The principal railway station in Lörrach is Lörrach Hauptbahnhof, with frequent service provided by the Basel S-Bahn. There are a half-dozen other stations within the municipality. The terminal connects Lörrach with Hildesheim, Bremen, Hamburg and Berlin. From 1919 to 1939 as well as from 1947 to 1967 Line 6 of the tram of Basel operated as the urban tram of Lörrach. Lörrach has some local and regional bus connections. They belong to the Regio Verkehrsverbund Lörrach. The nearest international airport, the EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg, is 14 km away from Lörrach.

Administrative bodies, organisations and courts

Lörrach as a district accommodates the district administration office and a highway maintenance depot. Lörrach has several schools of all school types plus a Folk high school, a municipal library with over 65,000 books, a scientific regional library,[9] a school of music, and two other smaller libraries. The local court of Lörrach is responsible for cities and municipalities in the district. Furthermore, there is a labour court in Lörrach, which constitutes the first jurisdiction for the districts of Lörrach and Waldshut. In addition there are three Superior Courts of Justice in Radolfzell am Bodensee. Lörrach also has a tax office, a labour office, a motorway police (German: Autobahnpolizei), and a criminal investigation department. Lörrach's hospital opened on 1 October 1845, at that time as an urban infirmary. On 1 January 1994 the three hospitals of Lörrach, Rheinfelden, and Schopfheim were pooled into a GmbH. Today the hospital of Lörrach has 351 beds.

Companies in Lörrach

One of the most well-known companies and employers in Lörrach is the chocolate manufacturer Mondelez Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG, well known for the brand of chocolate confectionary Milka and Suchard. Lörrach was the home of the GABA Deutschland GmbH, a pharmaceutical company that produced the famous elmex, meridol and aronal toothpaste. Colgate-Palmolive acquired Gaba's parent company Gaba Holding AG in 2004[10] and closed down the Lörrach-based factory in 2012.[11]

Other companies of note:

  • KBC Fashion GmbH & Co. KG, textile finishing company
  • Tally Weijl Retail Germany GmbH, the German arm of the Basel based fashion label
  • A. Raymond GmbH & Co. KG, the German arm of the international enginnering group
  • Streck Transportges. mbH, Transport & Logisitcs company
  • Midro Lörrach GmbH, pharmaceutical company
  • Migros, headquarters of Migros Germany
  • Brauerei Lasser GmbH, brewery with 70 employees

Two daily newspapers are based in Lörrach and have a local editorial office: Badische Zeitung and Die Oberbadische. Die Oberbadische (formerly Oberbadisches Volksblatt), published in the city, is Lörrach's oldest newspaper (founded 1885). In addition the Oberbadische Verlagshaus publishes the two newspapers Weiler Zeitung und Markgräfler Tagblatt. The city magazine Puls is published monthly and reports on events in and around Lörrach.

Broadcast and television

The radio programme of Südwestrundfunk has a regional office in Lörrach. There they produce parts of the radio program SWR4 Baden-Württemberg.

Culture

Lörrach is the home to an annual voice festival (Stimmen) that takes place in early summer, in 2010 from 14 July to 8 August. The festival has many venues in and around Lörrach including Weil am Rhein. The motto of the festival is "Passion that sounds" (German: Leidenschaft, die klingt) (alternate translation: "Passion you can hear"). The festival exists since 1994.

Twin towns – sister cities
See also: List of twin towns and sister cities in Germany

Lörrach is twinned with:[12]

Annually, numerous meetings and exchanges between schools and associations take place. The Hebel Gymnasium School in Lörrach takes part in an annual school exchange with The Mountbatten School in Romsey, England. With Vyshhorod in the Ukraine exists a friendly connection. In 2004 Loerrach International was created, an association for the advancement of the partnerships between cities and international friendships. In 2005 a cultural partnership was substantiated with Edirne in Turkey.

Notable people

Associated with the city

See also

References
  1. Oberbürgermeisterwahl Lörrach 2022, Staatsanzeiger, accessed 3 August 2022.
  2. "Bevölkerung nach Nationalität und Geschlecht am 31. Dezember 2021" [Population by nationality and sex as of December 31, 2021] (CSV) (in German). Statistisches Landesamt Baden-Württemberg. June 2022.
  3. Duden Das Aussprachewörterbuch (6 ed.). Dudenverlag. p. 518. ISBN 978-3-411-04066-7.
  4. Bevölkerung nach Nationalität – vierteljährlich [Population by Nationality – quarterly] (Website) (in German), Statistisches Landesamt Baden-Württemberg, 2020, retrieved 16 May 2020
  5. "Fatal shooting at German hospital". BBC News. 19 September 2010.
  6. "Population development from Statistischen Landesamt Stuttgart". Statistik-bw.de. 29 July 2011. Archived from the original on 5 March 2008. Retrieved 15 January 2012.
  7. "Results of the municipal council election of 2004". Statistik-bw.de. 29 July 2011. Archived from the original on 5 March 2008. Retrieved 15 January 2012.
  8. Lörrach: Landschaft – Geschichte – Kultur, Seite 683 f
  9. "The history of the Wissenschaftliche Regionalbibliothek Lörrach (WRB)". Foerderkreis-regionalbibliothek.de. Archived from the original on 1 March 2012. Retrieved 15 January 2012.
  10. "Colgate Announces Acquisition of GABA Holding AG – Strengthening its Oral Care Business in Europe & Confirms 4th Qtr. & Full Year 2003 Earnings Estimates | Colgate-Palmolive Company". investor.colgatepalmolive.com. Retrieved 18 July 2022.
  11. Zeitung, Badische. "Elmex-Hersteller Gaba streicht 142 Stellen in Lörrach – Lörrach – Badische Zeitung". badische-zeitung.de (in German). Retrieved 18 July 2022.
  12. "Partnerstädte & Städtefreundschaften". loerrach.de (in German). Lörrach. Retrieved 19 February 2021.
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