Schengen is, in fact, named after a village situated in Luxembourg, a small country surrounded entirely by Belgium, France and Germany. In 1985, the cooperation of governments directed to the signing of an agreement, in this agreement it was fixed a gradual abolition on checks and control on the border, easing the free movement of the european working population, that needs entering and exiting those borders.
In 1990, there was the implementation of this agreement, it started with 7 EU States in 1995 and now, is implemented as part of the body of rules governing the European Union.
German 
English