Mittelberg is a municipality in the district of Bregenz

Bregenz (district)

The Bezirk Bregenz is an administrative district in Vorarlberg, Austria. It comprises the Bregenzerwald region, the Leiblach valley, and the Austrian part of Lake Constance....

, Vorarlberg

Vorarlberg

Vorarlberg is the westernmost federal-state of Austria. Although it is the second smallest in terms of area and population , it borders three countries: Germany , Switzerland and Liechtenstein...

, Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

. The municipality of Mittelberg is congruent with the Kleinwalsertal

Kleinwalsertal

Kleinwalsertal is a part of Austria, but only accessible from Germany to the north, and thus is an Austrian "practical exclave" or "pene-exclave". Prior to Austria joining the European Union, the area had tax-free status....

, a valley that is only accessible by road from Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. Although it is not an exclave in strict sense (it is contiguous with the rest of Austria), its geographic position created a special situation. For instance, it has both Austrian and German postal code

Postal code

A postal code is a series of letters and/or digits appended to a postal address for the purpose of sorting mail. Once postal codes were introduced, other applications became possible.In February 2005, 117 of the 190 member countries of the Universal Postal Union had postal code systems...

s. Since 1891 Kleinwalsertal enjoyed a customs union with Germany, a free border, and used the Deutsche Mark. Since Austria joined the European Union in 1995, the signing of the Schengen Agreement

Schengen Agreement

The Schengen Agreement is a treaty signed on 14 June 1985 near the town of Schengen in Luxembourg, between five of the ten member states of the European Economic Community. It was supplemented by the Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement 5 years later...

 (1997) and the introduction of the Euro

Euro

The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...

(2002), this special status no longer applies.