of Verenahof In 1522, Emperor
Charles V and his brother
Archduke Ferdinand of Austria purchased Verenahof along with other territories in the vicinity (Tengen, Kommingen, Wiechs am Randen) from Count , who expressly wished not to sell these possessions to the Swiss
Canton of Schaffhausen. In the 17th and 18th centuries there were repeated disputes between Tengen and the adjacent Schaffhausen over the access roads and the exact delimitation of the enclave. Residents of Verenahof were Catholic at that time whereas the inhabitants of Büttenhardt were Protestant. On Catholic holidays Verenahof denied the inhabitants of Büttenhardt rights of transit. In 1806, the
Grand Duchy of Baden inherited sovereign rights over Verenahof, which became an enclave within the canton of Schaffhausen. In 1815 and 1839 Swiss attempts to obtain Verenahof were unsuccessful. In 1829 a schoolhouse was built in Wiechs am Randen where the children from the Verenahof enclave could attend school. with the transfer of of West German land parcels (that had administratively been part of the German towns of
Konstanz,
Öhningen,
Rielasingen, Wiechs am Randen, Altenburg,
Stühlingen, Weizen and
Grimmelshofen) in exchange for the transfer to the
Federal Republic of Germany of an equal area of Swiss land parcels (which had administratively been part of the Swiss towns of
Kreuzlingen,
Hemishofen, Büttenhardt,
Opfertshofen, and
Merishausen). Verenahof now forms part of the Swiss municipality of
Büttenhardt. Meanwhile, the exclave of
Büsingen am Hochrhein continued to administratively remain part of Germany. Subsequent to the land swap treaty involving Verenahof coming into force on 4 October 1967, Büsingen am Hochrhein was made part of the
Switzerland-Liechtenstein customs area; no border checks have been carried out between Büsingen and Switzerland since. At the Wiechs am Randen town hall there are some remaining border markers that became obsolete with the land swap in 1967; in Büttenhardt, at the old school house, some old border markers from the 1930s have been used to frame bushes planted around the enclave. ==See also==