It is interesting that the Hamburg part of the Wadden Sea is part of
the Central district of the city. But it is not unique. The parts of
West Berlin that nevertheless became part of the GDR were first part
of the Central district of Berlin, too. This was the case with West
Staaken, which belonged to Greater Berlin, but was given to the
Soviets in an area swap with the British. The point was that the
Greater Berlin boundary crossed two airfields and cut them in half:
Staaken and Gatow. So the border was changed, and the Soviets got
Staaken airfield, and the British Gatow airfield. But the area of
West Staaken remained inside Berlin for a while, administratively
attached to "Mitte", or the Central district (in the Soviet zone). As
this was highly unpractical, it was changed at a later date, and West
Staaken became part of the adjacent countryside district (and thus
changed from the Soviet sector of Berlin to the Soviet occupation
zone). It is interesting to see that this boundary adjustment (West
Staaken) was reversed after the re-unification, but the other one at
Gatow wasn't. All other boundary adjustments (following the 4 Powers
Agreement, and the one in 1988) were, as far as I know, respected
after re-unification.

Brendan mentioned the Chinese outlying city quarters. Maybe he can
give me (us) some information about the "why" of that other strange
outlying territory, "Canberra-on-Sea" (on my maps the A.C.T. chunk on
the shore there, also called Jervis Bay). Is it part of the A.C.T.,
or is it another, albeit equally federal territory?

And there is still the only municipal exclave I know of that remained
in the Netherlands: Amsterdam South-East, commonly known as
Bijlmermeer and infamous because of the aircraft crash on a high rise
estate that took place there some years ago. The interesting part
here is that this territory was first given to Amsterdam only
temporarily, because the government was reluctant to "give" it
outright to the capital; the government wanted Amsterdam to "prove"
first that they could manage the newly-built city quarter. They
apparently proved they could, and it was ceded permanently to
Amsterdam.

Former municipal exclaves or outlying bits in the Netherlands that I
know of are the Hook of Holland (Rotterdam municipality, used to be
detached of the city but not anymore), Barchem (Laren (Gelderland)
municipality) and Lent (Elst municipality). There probably are more
of these. The problem in the Netherlands is that municipal boundaries
change all the time, and municipal mergers are taking place on an
almost regular basis. Provincial boundaries are not sacred, too...

And I'm still wondering about the St. Gillis/St. Gilles exclave in
Brussels, near the Louiza/Louise Gate, which I can find on older maps
but not on newer ones. Has it been abolished? The other Brussels
municipality that is cut in two by the municipality of Brussels-
Capital, Elsene/Ixelles, still consists of two parts.

The shape of Brussels-Capital is a strange one, indeed. Far outlying
parts of the city are connected to it by (sometimes narrow, like the
Louizalaan/Avenue Louise) strips of land, just that no exclaves are
formed. It is interesting that this is exactly what is going to
happen in the Netherlands, too: The Hague municipality is annexing a
big area to the south of the city, which is going to be connected by
a little strip of land. People living in that strip (but also
practically all other people living in the municipalities that have
to give up territory because of this enlargement of The Hague)
protested vehemently, but in vain.

Peter S.