Free State of Bottleneck
former quasi-state in western Germany
The Free State of Bottleneck (German: Freistaat Flaschenhals) was a short-lived quasi-state that existed from 10 January 1919 until 1 July 1920. It was formed from part of the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau as a consequence of the occupation of the Rhineland following World War I. The Bottleneck is now part of the German states of Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate.
History
Creation
Following the Armistice of 1918, Allied forces occupied the German territory west of the Rhine. To maintain a military presence on the eastern side, the Allied powers extended their zones of occupation by creating three semi-circular bridgeheads of 30 km (19 mi) radius, radiating from Cologne (British zone), Koblenz (American zone), and Mainz (French zone).
The French and American zones did not meet entirely, leaving a narrow gap on the eastern side of the Rhine containing the Wisper valley, the towns of Lorch and Kaub, and villages of Lorchhausen, Sauerthal, Ransel, Wollmerschied, Welterod, Zorn, Strüth and Egenrod.
Surrounded by the two Allied bridgeheads, the Rhine to the south-west and no roads nor any railways towards the north-east, this small region was effectively cut off from the rest of Germany and subsequently separated from the administration of the Weimar Republic.
Owing to the circular nature of the Allied bridgeheads, this enclosed territory took on the shape of a bottleneck, hence the name that was given to the microstate, when it was declared on 10 January 1919.
Self-governance
The region contained approximately 17,000 people and its largest town, Lorch, was established as the capital. The Mayor of Lorch, Edmund Pnischeck, was subsequently elected president of the small territory. Pnischeck headed the Bottleneck's administration for all of its existence, which even oversaw the production of its own stamps.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q694858. VIAF identifies the subject as 240136017. Authority coordinates are 50.162, 7.921. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1919, 1920 and 1918.
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This entry incorporates text from “Free State of Bottleneck” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.