Lörrach (German pronunciation: [ˈlœrax][3]) is a city in southwest Germany, in the valley of the Wiese, close to the French and the Swiss borders.

It is the home of a number of large employers, including the Milka chocolate factory owned by Mondelez International.

[4] Nearby is the castle of Rötteln on the Wiesental, whose lords became the counts of Hachberg and a residence of the Margraves of Baden; this was destroyed by the troops of Louis XIV in 1678, but was rebuilt in 1867.

On 21 September 1848, Gustav Struve attempted to start a revolutionary uprising in Lörrach as part of the Revolutions of 1848–49.

The slopes create the southern part of the Wiesental, that is the valley where the Wiese river flows.

Lörrach is also the capital city of Markgräflerland and a part of the tri-national agglomeration area of Basel (Switzerland).

Stuttgart is 220 km away from Lörrach, and it takes one hour to drive to Bern or Zürich.

The city has several forested hills along the valley Wiesental: Schädelberg, Homburg, Röttler Wald, and Tüllinger Berg.

[clarification needed] The region of Markgräflerland is the warmest in Germany because of the Mediterranean air current from the valley of the Rhône.

Christianity Lörrach initially belonged to the diocese of Konstanz and was under the archdiocese of Breisgau.

Between 1864 and 1867 in Lörrach, its own parish church (St. Bonifatius) was built, at which a curacy was created that was raised to the status of a parsonage in 1882.

The municipal council of Lörrach consists of 32 volunteer aldermen and alderwomen, whose chairman is the Oberbürgermeisterin (mayor).

The last election from 13 June 2004 had a percentage of voting of 41.2% and resulted in the following allocation of seats in the city hall of Lörrach: Source:[7] (1) Kommunale Unabhängige Liste (English: Municipal autonomous list) * variance to the municipal council elections of 1999.

The chronicle of Lörrach reports of a Johann von Schallbach in the year 1366 as the first Vogt.

The first mayor of Lörrach was Marx Christoph Leibfried, who took office in 1882, the year the municipality was first awarded town privileges.

The Bundesstraße B 317, from Titisee-Neustadt across the pass of the Feldberg, is the most important arterial road of the city.

Lörrach was the home of the GABA Deutschland GmbH, a pharmaceutical company that produced the famous elmex, meridol and aronal toothpaste.

[11] Other companies of note: Two daily newspapers are based in Lörrach and have a local editorial office: Badische Zeitung and Die Oberbadische.

In addition the Oberbadische Verlagshaus publishes the two newspapers Weiler Zeitung und Markgräfler Tagblatt.

The city magazine Puls is published monthly and reports on events in and around Lörrach.

Lörrach is the home to an annual voice festival (Stimmen) that takes place in early summer, in 2010 from 14 July to 8 August.

Lörrach is twinned with:[12] Annually, numerous meetings and exchanges between schools and associations take place.