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All Germany Pfronten The Jungholz Quadripoint

The Jungholz Quadripoint

Two nations form a rare four-sided border at the peak of a mountain, philosophical questions result.

Pfronten, Germany

Added By
Sarah Brumble
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The cross site at the peak of Mt. Sorgschrofen, viewed from below   Kauk0r
The cross site at the peak of Mt. Sorgschrofen, viewed from below   Kauk0r
Jungholz looks so normal, when not viewed on a map   ChrisE
Summit of Mt. Sorgschrofen   michaelgoertzen / Atlas Obscura User
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About

The are very few places so geographically curious as a single point atop Mount Sorgschrofen. Here, their borders meet at an infinitesimally small point at the summit of the mountain, extending in four directions down its slopes, forming quadrants of Germany (to the East and West) and Austria (to the North and South).

Geographers call these freak sociopolitical-cartographic features "quadripoints," and there are just three of them in the world. When viewed from above, as on a political map, the borders look like crosses.  Though odd and inefficient, such quadripoints or "boundary crosses" would be exercises in inconsequential absurdity were it not for the town full of real, live Austrians going about their business in the most isolated quadrant of this political boundary. The silly thing, after all, about national borders is that once we draw them, even in a foolish manner, we tend to respect them.

Delightfully esoteric, almost Borgesian questions tumble forth once you start to think about the point uniting the Jungholz Quadripoint. Jungholz's residents remain attached to their Austrian motherland tenuously at best. Until 2002, the town used the German mark rather than the Austrian schilling, and mail can be addressed with either a German or Austrian postal code. Were they to travel to and from the rest of their country through this point, it physically would require them to leave Austrian territory, thereby transgressing into German space in order to achieve such a trip.

So, while according to maps Jungholz is not officially surrounded on all sides by Germany thanks to this lone mountaintop, her human inhabitants cannot physically travel from their homes to the rest of their country without leaving Austria. While a border post at the Tyrol-Bavarian crossing (#110) exists for normal, non-philosophical quests, none exists at the very peak of Mt. Sorgschrofen, leaving the point itself a no-man's-land.

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Geographic Markers Border Crossings Borders

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Pass directly over the mountaintop. Do not veer to the east or west by so much as a hair.

Community Contributors

Added By

littlebrumble

Edited By

linkogecko, cdanesh, michaelgoertzen

  • linkogecko
  • cdanesh
  • michaelgoertzen

Published

March 3, 2016

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Sources
  • http://www.futilitycloset.com/2016/01/24/point-of-interest-2/
  • http://jungholz.enclaves.org/
  • http://www.howderfamily.com/blog/jungholz-quadripoint-boundary-cross/
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jungholz
The Jungholz Quadripoint
Pfronten, 87459
Germany
47.555791, 10.454443

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