Which river separates Germany and France?

The Rhine River separates Germany and France along much of their shared eastern-western frontier.

The river forms the international boundary through the Upper Rhine Plain, with France’s Alsace region on the west and Germany’s Baden-Württemberg on the east. This border section runs generally northward from the area near Basel toward the vicinity of Karlsruhe.

The Rhine is one of Europe’s major rivers, rising in the Swiss Alps and flowing through or along Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Germany, France and the Netherlands before reaching the North Sea. Its name comes from the Latin Rhenus and older Celtic and Germanic forms.

A common misconception is that the Rhine marks the entire France–Germany border. It does not: farther north, the border leaves the river and passes through parts of Lorraine, Saarland and Rhineland-Palatinate. The Rhine is nevertheless the iconic river associated with the two countries’ boundary.