FREIBURG

Regierungsbezirk (administrative district), southwestern Baden-Wrttemberg Land (state), southwestern Germany. Freiburg is bordered by Switzerland to the south, France to the west, and the Regierungsbezirke of Karlsruhe to the north and Tbingen to the east. The district is coextensive with the southern portion of the larger historic region of Baden. The title margrave of Baden originated in 1112. Baden was made a grand duchy in Napoleon's reorganization of Germany in 1806 and a Land of the German Reich under the constitution of 1919. Three post-World War II states of West GermanyBaden, Wrttemberg-Baden, and Wrttemberg-Hohenzollernwere merged in 1952 to form the present state of Baden-Wrttemberg. Southern Baden, roughly encompassing the current district of Freiburg, became the new Land's southwestern Regierungsbezirk of Sdbaden. In 1973 an administrative reform altered the boundaries of Sdbaden and changed its name to Freiburg, for the largest city and administrative seat of the district. The southern Black Forest (Schwarzwald), the heart of Germany's largest continuous forest area and source of the Danube and Neckar rivers, occupies nearly all of Freiburg. Dense fir forests that give the region its name lie on an undulating plateau of granite and gneiss topped with higher rounded hills. The plateau is broken by many river valleys including the deep Kinzig valley, the boundary between the northern and southern Black Forest. In western Freiburg the plateau rises some 2,600 feet (800 m) in a steep scarp from the fertile Upper Rhine Plain. The forest extends approximately 40 miles (60 km) in width before its more gentle eastern slopes meet the valleys of the upper Danube and Neckar rivers on the Baar plateau. The Swabian Jura (Schwbische Alb) borders the Baar to the east. The highest peak in the Black Forest, Mount Feld (Feldberg), reaches 4,897 feet (1,493 m) in elevation in southwestern Freiburg and is surrounded by the beautiful glacial Lakes Titi (Titisee) and Schluch (Schluchsee). Farmers specialize in livestock production in the higher districts of the Black Forest, where mountain pastures above the tree line are used for summer grazing and permanent pastureland is found in valley basins. Harsh climatic conditions limit arable cultivation to hardy cereals. Fruit is grown in valleys cutting into the western escarpment, most commonly grapes, plums, and cherries used in kirsch, a famous Black Forest cherry brandy. Specialized industries comprise an important sector of the Black Forest economy. Lumbering is widely dispersed at valley sites where natural water power is available. Large woodworking industries such as furniture factories and paper mills, however, are generally located on the western fringes of the plateau, reducing transportation costs to market areas. The manufacture of modern clocks and precision and optical instruments has grown from the traditional wood-carving and cuckoo clock industries. Well-known clock factories are located in Schramberg, Villingen, and Schwenningen. Trossingen is famous for its organs and accordions. The textile industry has spread into southern villages from Switzerland, and tourism continues to grow. Numerous health spas and year-round holiday resorts have made the Black Forest one of Europe's most visited tourist areas. Freiburg im Breisgau, situated on the western slopes, is the economic and cultural centre of the Black Forest and has a flourishing tourist trade. The city produces electrical equipment and chemicals and is an important timber and wine trade centre. West of the Black Forest the mild climate and fertile loess soils of the Upper Rhine Plain's Ortenau and Breisgau regions favour intensive cultivation. Many farmers specialize in vegetable gardening and in crops such as tobacco, sugar beets, hops, and malting barley, in addition to vineyards and orchards. Offenburg is the principal city of the Ortenau wine and fruit-growing district and a publishing centre. Vineyards around the volcanic Kaiserstuhl massif and in the Markgrfler Land at the Black Forest's southwestern termination produce some of Germany's finest wines. The Dinkelberg and Hotzenwald border the Rhine River in southern Freiburg, and in the southeast the Hegau region with its volcanic cones extends to Lake Constance (Bodensee), Germany's largest lake. The economy of Konstanz, the chief town on the lake, is based on tourism, commerce, and electrical, textile, and metal-processing industries. The majority of the population of Freiburg are descendants of the Alemanni, a Suebic people who occupied the territory from the 3rd century AD. The predominant language of the district is the Alemannic dialect, merging into Swabian in the east. In the Black Forest isolated farmsteads and small hamlets are the dominant forms of rural settlement. The population is predominantly Roman Catholic. Area 3,613 square miles (9,357 square km). Pop. (1996 est.) 2,087,001.