Robinson is wrong in his text tho'. He claims there is a gap a hundred
metrez wide or so on the monutain top, so that Jungholz is a salient into
Germany. This is a mistake form only looking at maps at 1:250 000 or so.
Jungholz is like an inverted triangle, its apex, in the south, joining the
rest of austria. But it doesn't have completely straight sides, and there
is a kink near the apex, that on a 1:250 000 or similar scaled map makes
the border look like there is an austrian strip over the top of the
mountain connecting austria and the village. Close inspection of 1:50k or
1:25k maps fomr either Germnay or austria however reveals that the mountain
peak is where the apex of the triangle lies, and that on this peak Jungholz
and the rest of Austria meet at a single point. Thus Germany wraps around
Jungholz, also meeting at a point there. ON this point is a cross, liker on
many Alp sumjits. Tourists get photos straddling the cross, one foot in
each part of austria. This is the only place in the world that has such a
singularity for an exclave. So while it is still a pene exclave by
robinson's definition, it is not narrowly connected to austria at all.
While it is not a true enclave, in that it is not 100% surrounded by
Germany, neither is it 100% connected to austria. the connection is a
single point, which while it exists, may as well not for all practical
purposes, because even a fibre optic cable can't cross this point from
Junholz to Austria without violating German territory or airspace.
If you speak German, try phoning the postmaster in Jungholz who provided
some of the info I had to a friend who passed it on to me.
This singularity makes it unique at an international level. Similar
point-connections exist amongst US municipalities in many places where the
municipality is made up of fragments or exclaves, some joined diagonally
across property lines or x-intersections in roads.
Brendan Whyte
exclave freak
University of Melbourne
At 10:33 16/04/99 -0400, Bradford Thomas wrote:
>Dear Jesper,
>
>I don't know of anything on the history of Jungholz, but it is discussed
>briefly as an example of a "pene-exclave" in G.W.S. Robinson's article
>"Exclaves" in the Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol.
>49, No. 3 (September 1959), pp. 283-295 (see especially discussion, pages
>283 and 291-292, and map on page 286).
>
>Brad Thomas
>International Boundary Consultants
>Washington, DC, USA
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