Battle of Kehl (1796)

Kehl (German pronunciation: [keːl] (listen); Low Alemannic: Kaal) is a town in southwestern Germany in the Ortenaukreis, Baden-Württemberg. It is on the river Rhine, directly opposite the French city of Strasbourg, with which it shares some municipal services – for example the Strasbourg tramway, which now reaches Kehl.

The Second Battle of Kehl occurred on 18 September 1796, when General Franz Petrasch's Austrian and Imperial troops stormed the French-held bridgehead over the Rhine river. The village of Kehl, which is now in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, was then part of Baden-Durlach. Across the river, Strasbourg, an Alsatian city, was a French Revolutionary stronghold. This battle was part of the Rhine Campaign of 1796, in the French Revolutionary War of the First Coalition. In the 1790s, the Rhine was wild, unpredictable, and difficult to cross. Its channels and tributaries created islands of trees and vegetation that were alternately submerged by floods or exposed during the dry seasons. A complex of bridges, gates, fortifications and barrage dams linked Kehl with Strasbourg. These had been constructed by the fortress architect Sébastien le Préstre de Vauban in the seventeenth century. The crossings had been contested before: in 1678 during the French-Dutch war, in 1703 during the War of the Spanish Succession, in 1733 during the War of the Polish Succession, and earlier in Battle of Kehl, when the French crossed into the German states on 23–24 June. Critical to French success would be the army's ability to cross the Rhine at will. The crossings at Hüningen, near the Swiss city of Basel, and at Kehl, offered access to most of southwestern Germany; from there, French armies could sweep north, south, or east, depending on their military goal. In late summer of 1796, the Austrian force reacquired most of the territory lost to the French earlier in the summer. On 18 September 1796, the Austrians temporarily acquired control of the tête-du-ponts (bridgeheads) joining Kehl and Strasbourg until a strong French counter-attack forced them to retreat, leaving the French in control of the bridges but the Austrians in control of the territory surrounding them. The situation remained in status quo until late October. Control of the surrounding territory there prevented the French from crossing to safety in Strasbourg, and required the French commander, Jean Victor Marie Moreau, to withdraw toward Basel. Immediately after the Battle of Schliengen (24 October 1796), while most of Moreau's army retreated south to cross the Rhine at Hüningen, Count Baillet Latour moved his Austrian force to Kehl to begin a 100-day siege.

The siege of Kehl (14–28 October 1733) was one of the opening moves of the French Rhineland campaign in the War of the Polish Succession, at the fortress town of Kehl in the upper Rhine River valley in the Holy Roman Empire. A large French army under the command of the Duke of Berwick besieged and captured the fortress, which was lightly garrisoned and in poor condition.

Mother Kinzig (German: Mutter Kinzig) is a 1861 cast iron statue in the German city of Kehl. It represents a "beautiful, dreamy, and sexy", "marvelously pretty" nude woman, who has been called "the most beautiful girl of Kehl".

The Battle of Strasbourg Bridge was fought during the Swedish phase of the Thirty Years' War near the Free city of Strasbourg, in the Holy Roman Empire. Having dealt a heavy defeat on the Swedish army at the Battle of Nördlingen in September, the armies of the Emperor, Spain and the Catholic League overran much of the Swedish-held southern Germany. As a result, the Swedish commander, Rheingrave Otto Louis, decided to retreat over the Rhine with his army, using the Strasbourg bridge. The vanguard of the Emperor's and the Catholic League's army, led by Duke Charles IV of Lorraine and general Johann von Werth, caught up with Otto's rearguard at Willstätt, where he barely escaped capture. The Imperials then attacked the entrenchments near the Strasbourg bridge in Kehl, as the Swedish army was in the process of crossing the Rhine. The battle lasted for three hours and culminated with fighting on the bridge. In the end, at least 300 Swedes, or possibly 1,500 or more, were killed or captured. The Rheingrave Otto along with most of his forces saved themselves inside Strasbourg.

The 1703 siege of Kehl was a military action of the War of the Spanish Succession, in which French and Spanish forces under the command of the Duc de Villars captured the fortress of the Holy Roman Empire at Kehl, opposite Strasbourg on the Rhine River. Siege operations began on 20 February 1703, following Villars's early departure from winter quarters. The fortress, defended by 3,500 troops of Louis William, the Margrave of Baden-Baden, capitulated on 10 March.

Kehl station is a railway station in Kehl, a town in southwestern Germany in the Ortenaukreis, Baden-Württemberg. It is situated on the Appenweier–Strasbourg railway, with trains crossing the Rhine into France to reach the latter destination. Both sides being within the Schengen Area, no passport or border controls apply.

The siege of Kehl lasted from 26 October 1796 to 9 January 1797. Habsburg and Württemberg regulars numbering 40,000, under the command of Maximilian Anton Karl, Count Baillet de Latour, besieged and captured the French-controlled fortifications at the village of Kehl in the German state of Baden-Durlach. The fortifications at Kehl represented an important bridgehead crossing the Rhine to Strasbourg, an Alsatian city, a French Revolutionary stronghold. This battle was part of the Rhine Campaign of 1796, in the French Revolutionary War of the First Coalition. In the 1790s, the Rhine was wild, unpredictable, and difficult to cross, in some places more than four times wider than it is in the twenty-first century, even under non-flood conditions. Its channels and tributaries wound through marsh and meadow and created islands of trees and vegetation that were alternately submerged by floods or exposed during the dry seasons. At Kehl and the city of Strasbourg lay a complex of bridges, gates, fortifications and barrage dams. These had been constructed by the fortress architect Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban in the seventeenth century. The crossings had been contested before: in 1678 during the French-Dutch war, in 1703 during the War of the Spanish Succession, in 1733 during the War of the Polish Succession, and earlier in 1796, when the French crossed into the German states on 23–24 June. Critical to French success was the army's ability to cross the Rhine at will. The crossings at Hüningen, near the Swiss city of Basel, and the crossing at Kehl, gave them ready access to most of southwestern Germany; from there, French armies could sweep north, south, or east, depending on their military goal. Throughout the summer of 1796, the French and the Austrians had chased each other back and forth across the south German states. By October, the Habsburg force, under the command of Archduke Charles, had pushed the French back to the Rhine. With the conclusion of the Battle of Schliengen on 24 October, the French army withdrew south and west toward the Rhine. The French commander, Jean Victor Marie Moreau, offered an armistice that the Archduke was inclined to accept. The Archduke wanted to secure the Rhine crossings so he could send troops to northern Italy to relieve Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser at besieged Mantua; an armistice with Moreau would allow him to do that. However, his brother, Francis II, the Holy Roman Emperor, and the civilian military advisers of the Aulic Council categorically refused such an armistice, forcing Charles to order simultaneous sieges at Hüningen and Kehl. These tied his army to the Rhine for most of the winter.On 18 September 1796, the Austrians temporarily acquired control of the têtes-de-ponts (bridgeheads) joining Kehl and Strasbourg until a strong French counter-attack forced them to retreat. The situation remained in status quo until late October. Immediately after the Battle of Schliengen, while most of Moreau's army retreated south to cross the Rhine at Hüningen, Count Baillet Latour moved north to Kehl to begin the siege. On 22 November, the French defenders at Kehl, under Louis Desaix and the overall commander of the French Army of the Rhine and Moselle, Jean-Victor-Marie Moreau, almost ended the siege when they executed a sortie that nearly captured the Austrian artillery park. In early December, though, the Austrians expanded the siege, connecting a grand parallel with a series of batteries in a semi-circle around the village and the bridges. By late December, the completed Austrian batteries connected with the captured French fortification called Bonnet de Prêtre; from these positions, the Austrians bombarded the French defenses with enfilade fire. After the defenses were thoroughly riddled by heavy bombardment from the besiegers, the French defenders capitulated and withdrew on 9 January 1797.

The first railway bridge at Kehl across the Rhine was opened in May 1861. Since then the bridge has been partially or fully destroyed more than once. The Kehl railway bridge constructed in 1956, was a single track railway bridge between Strasbourg and Kehl, crossing in the process both the Rhine and the frontier between Germany and France. A replacement double track railway bridge was first used on 10 October 2010 and formally opened in December 2010 in order to permit trains to cross the river more rapidly. The speed limit on the new bridge is 160 km/h (100 mph).

The Independent Port of Strasbourg (French: Port autonome de Strasbourg; P.A.S.) is a port on the Rhine river, in the city of Strasbourg, France. Created in 1926, it is a public transport hub under the control of the French transport ministry. The port is the second biggest river port of France after Paris, and the third largest port on the Rhine after Rotterdam and Duisburg. There are two terminals for containers equipped with three multimodal gantry cranes. The port extends over 100 km and comprises the main port of Strasbourg as well as the ports of Lauterbourg, Beinheim and Marckolsheim, Rhin à Seltz, Fort-Louis, Dalhunden, Drusenheim, Offendorf, Gerstheim and Rhinau.

The Schutter is a 57-kilometre-long (35 mi) river in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, and a left tributary of the Kinzig.

The Lycée Franco-Allemand de Strasbourg (German: Deutsch-Französisches Gymnasium Straßburg, abbreviated as DFG / LFA Strasbourg) is a French-German public secondary school opened in September 2021. It is the fifth DFG / LFA to open and the second of its type in France. Shortly after the opening, the French education minister at the time, Jean-Michel Blanquer visited the school and said that his goal was to have more schools of this type in France.The school is run by the school authority (académie) of Strasbourg. It is situated on the premises of the Collège Vauban, an international school with Korean, Polish, and Portuguese international branches (sections internationales). The LFA Strasbourg replaced its German branch.