Why Lahr/Schwarzwald
Lahr/Schwarzwald, officially designated as such in 1978, is a city situated in western Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Located where the Schutter Valley meets the Upper Rhine River Plains along the western rim of the Black Forest, the municipality is positioned roughly 40 kilometers southeast of Strasbourg, 50 kilometers north of Freiburg im Breisgau, and 95 kilometers southwest of Karlsruhe. It serves as the second-largest urban center within the Ortenau district and acts as a central hub for several neighboring towns.
The local landscape is defined by the Schutter River, which flows northwestward through several outlying districts before passing through the core city. Lahr's historic center, or Altstadt, sits along the right bank of this waterway. Over time, the city expanded by merging with several long-established local communities, including Burgheim, Dinglingen, Reichenbach, Kuhbach, Sulz, and Langenwinkel. A number of smaller, distinct neighborhoods and rural settlements—such as Brudertal, Schutterlindenhof, and Dammenmühle—are also situated within these various outlying districts.
The settlement originally grew around the Storchenturm, or stork tower, established by the House of Geroldseck in the early thirteenth century, and received its official city charter around 1278. Significant tax privileges granted in the eighteenth century enabled the town to develop into an active trading post. Throughout its history, Lahr experienced joint governance under different ruling families, the adoption of the Protestant Reformation, and severe damage when French troops burned the town in 1677. During the nineteenth century, Lahr emerged as a notable location for the printing industry. In the mid-twentieth century, it served as a military base for French forces and later housed the European headquarters for Canadian NATO forces from 1967 until 1994.
Architectural and historical features across the city reflect its complex cultural past. The early Chapel of Our Lady became the municipal parish church in the late fifteenth century, replacing an earlier Augustinian monastic presence in the area. Following the nineteenth-century return of Catholic residents, the Church of St. Peter and Paul was constructed starting in 1846, complemented later by the mid-twentieth-century Church of St. Marien. Other historic religious sites are scattered throughout the boroughs, including a church in Sulz that operated as a shared place of worship for both Catholic and Protestant congregations for nearly two centuries.
Lahr features an oceanic climate characterized by mild temperature variations between summer highs and winter lows, accompanied by sufficient precipitation throughout the entire year.
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