![]() That there is no secondary school, but an agreement that lets children go to a German school, 40 minutes away in Bavaria. That they use doctors and dentists in Germany because there are none in Jungholz. That they have two different postal codes and, until the 1990s, two telephone codes. That food and drink comes from Germany, but telephone and internet from Austria. They meant that most people are born in Germany (since the nearest Austrian hospital is too far away), but everyone gets an Austrian passport. ![]() When they told me how complex life could be here, they didn't just mean its bizarre geography. The village might have felt constricting after a day had it not been for its fascinating history and spirited locals. The last thing I read is how, on, a state treaty between Austria and Bavaria enveloped the rural backwater into the German economic area – meaning, unlike the rest of Austria, Jungholz traded freely with its close neighbour for almost 90 years before the European Economic Community was created and a century before the European Union came into being. ![]() Also here, one can learn how the tiny exclave was ruled by Austria over the next half millennium, despite feudalism fizzling out in medieval Europe and the modern borders of Germany and Austria tightening their grip around Jungholz's edges. And it is here that an outsider can learn how the land first changed hands on 24 June 1342, from Hermann Häselin, a farmer from Wertach in Germany, to Heinz Lochpyler, an Austrian taxman from nearby Tannheim. The fault lines that carved out Jungholz's place in history can be traced in the village's archives at the bottom of the main chairlift. It is extraordinarily tiny and from the top of its highest T-bar lift at 1,390m it is possible to see all of Jungholz, from the atypical Tirolean church to the multi-winged Berghotel Tirol, in one swift head turn. Today, it is guesthouse owners like Hoek, as well as the ski lift company, who keep the Austrian village alive. "So it felt natural to decide to move to Germany – but almost by mistake we found a B&B just over the border in Jungholz instead." "My parents loved southern Bavaria and we used to drive down from the Netherlands for long summer holidays in nearby Pfronten," he told me, wistfully. The paradox, of course, is that most of them think they are still in Germany.Įven Elze-Jan Hoek, a Dutch transplant who came from outside Utrecht with his wife to set up a farm and raise his children, was first brought to Jungholz by accident. ![]() On a busy winter's day, some 3,000 of them journey to the exclave to ski Jungholz's modest collection of chairlifts and T-bars, besieging the village in helmets and with ski poles. It is also very common to meet tourists from the nearest German cities of Munich and Stuttgart who aren't aware of its geographic complexity. My interest in its incongruous geography deepened. Many Austrians are also unfamiliar with the mountain village before making the trip, I asked locals in the Tirolean towns of Kitzbühel and Innsbruck what to expect and no one was any wiser than I. Jungholz had never crossed my mind prior to this winter, and it is highly likely you have never heard of it either. The only way Austrians in the exclave can reach their homeland is via Bavaria. Because Jungholz, population 302, is as Austrian as Vienna or Salzburg – yet it is surrounded by Germany on all sides, with no road connection to Austria. No matter the absurdity, it is utterly necessary. And almost unbelievably, this strip of connecting land is less than 1m wide. While it pales in significance to other mightier Alpine peaks, it fires the mind of cartophiles for a wholly unusual reason.įor the cross at its top – an almost abstract feature on any map – marks the only geographical point where the Tirolean village and the rest of Austria meet. It is called the Sorgschrofen, it is 1,636m high, and it is marked by a G ipfelkreuz, or summit cross, which stands above a sheer-sided cliff face of white-webbed rock.įormed from reef limestone, the knuckle looms above the triangle-shaped village of Jungholz in the western Tirol of Austria. There is a mountain in the Allgäu Alps that is probably the most ludicrous in all of Europe.
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