Austria–Germany border
A long Alpine border between two neighbours. It includes one of the world’s rare quadripoints, where the Austrian village of Jungholz touches the rest of Austria at a single mountaintop, and in 2015 it was on the front line of Europe’s refugee crisis.
Written from cited sourcesLast checked 29 September 2026Suggest a correction
See it on the globe:Austria →Germany →
Jungholz
At the summit of Mount Sorgschrofen in the Allgäu Alps, the border meets itself at a single point, forming four quadrants: Germany to the east and west, Austria to the north and south. The Austrian village of Jungholz lies in the northern quadrant, so although on the map it touches the rest of Austria at that point, its residents cannot travel home to the rest of their country without passing through Germany.[1]
Jungholz used the German mark rather than the Austrian schilling until 2002, and mail can be addressed with either a German or an Austrian postal code.[1]
“her human inhabitants cannot physically travel from their homes to the rest of their country without leaving Austria”[1]
2015
On 13 September 2015, facing a surge of refugees arriving through Austria, Germany reintroduced passport checks at its border with Austria, effectively suspending the Schengen agreement there. At the Freilassing crossing near Salzburg, officers stopped three Syrians who said they wanted to go to Germany, and Austrian railways suspended all trains to Germany for 12 hours at the German railway’s request.[2]
Timeline
More borders
Sources
- [1]The Jungholz Quadripoint · Atlas Obscura
- [2]Germany reinstates Austrian border checks · The Local Austria · 13 September 2015
Map geometry from Natural Earth via world-atlas. See credits.