Lauterbourg (French pronunciation: [lotɛʁbuʁ] or [lautəʁbuʁ]; German: Lauterburg) (historically in English: Lauterburgh) is a commune and Bas-Rhin department in the Grand Est administrative region in north-eastern France.
The commune is entirely set on the alluvial land fronting the Rhine, but the foothills of the north Vosges Mountains, where the Lauter has its source, are not far away.
In anthropological and cultural terms, Lauterbourg is at the meeting point between the two German territories (formerly separate states) of Baden-Württemberg and Rheinland-Pfalz.
Close by, to the west, is the northern end of the A35 Autoroute, the principal north-south highway in Alsace which links to Strasbourg and, beyond that, Mulhouse and Basel (St Louis).
Lauterbourg is one of the coldest low lying places in France and can experience cold east winds most Winters.
In the early 18th century, Lauter, as developed into a French fortification of the Lauter-line, defined as the border of France in the Congress of Vienna of 1815.
There was an attempt at taking Lauterbourg on 15 December 1944 by the US 79th Infantry Division, who were forced to hold out against Operation Nordwind until the German offensive was stopped on 25 January 1945.
Lauterbourg was taken by the French 1st Army and U.S. VI Corps on 19 March 1945 after assaulting the Siegfried Line fortifications in the Bienwald during a week of heavy combat.