Germany Institutes Border Controls with Austria
 

This came about as a result of the migrant/refugee crisis. Having lived in Germany before controls were lifted and having waited to cross the border into Austria numerous times, I have to imagine it must be quite chaotic at the major crossings esp. without any train service.

Germany Institutes Border Controls with Austria, Shuts Down Trains Between the 2 CountriesAbove was published in FBT, where I serve as Ed.Dir.

Is flying from Austria into Germany currently hit by these temporary German checks?

From what I've seen it's only land border crossings as that's how the migrants are entering.
Cheers
Howie

Refugees and others have also been entering Germany by air, but traditionally most intra-Schengen flight passengers arriving into Germany aren't checked for immigration/customs control purpose. I'm just wondering if say Austria-Germany flights now get a gate-area "reception" like say some international AMS-Schengen flights.

Oh this should be fun for us if they don't change it in the next couple of weeks. We're planning on driving into Innsbruck after Oktoberfest.

Hmm, given that the "problem" flow is unidirectional, are the controls also in place going from Germany to Austria?

One-way, international car rentals are often considerably more expensive than rentals where the car is returned to the same location and/or country as in which it was rented.

A rental car from say Germany or Italy going into Innsbruck is highly likely to be returning to the country in which it was initially rented (for example, Germany or Italy).

I remember border crossings in pre-Schengen times as being pretty painless. Usually, most cars were simply waved through, some had to stop and folks had to hand their passports over to the border agent.

It may take a bit of time until it will all run smoothly, but I'm sure it will eventually be fine, at least for cars. I'm expecting more checks of trucks though.

I wouldn't know, but we have to drive back from Austria into Germany. We live in France. Innsbruck is just a quick day trip for us from Neuschwanstein.

We're renting the car in France (Enterprise is about a block from our home) and returning it in France, so that isn't an issue to us. Our route takes us through Switzerland to Munich, down to Innsbruck and back through Germany and Switzerland.

As a heads-up, you'll need to get an Austrian "Vignette" for your car to drive it on most of the highways in Austria. It's possible your rental will already have one, but very unlikely if it's a French car. You can order one in advance, or get one at any of the gas stations in Germany close to the Austrian border. Costs about €9 if I remember correctly. If you don't have one, you can face a significant fine, around €300.

It's indeed a little less than 9EUR for ten days of Austrian highway driving.

I get my Austrian or Swiss vignettes on my French, German, Italian and Swiss rental cars right on the side of the major highways at stores at/near the border crossings.

Thanks, as I said, I live in France, so I've driven quite a bit in Europe. Most of the cars here have the Swiss vignette, as we're very close to that border. That one is a good bit more expensive than the Austrian one.

Which receptions are you speaking of?

Passport and/or customs control questioning at the arrival gates/jetbridge.

And where, for Schengen departures ex-AMS, are they done?

I've seen them, for example, for AMS-ARN/CPH/HEL/OSL.

Could Germany just annex Austria? It's been done before I think.