Lake constance
The Lake Constance (in German): Bodensee, German pronunciation:/ıbo devoted to the(
listen)) is surrounded by Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Its surface is 536 km2 and the average level is 395 m high. The Rhine River enters the lake by the southeast near Bregenz (Austria) and leaves the lake by the west at Stein am Rhein (Switzerland).
In its area of influence live around 2.5 million people, mostly German-speaking. Constance is the largest city, on the shores of the lake and with more than 83,000 inhabitants. Through this city, the Rhine leaves the lake, heading towards the North Sea. Some notable places in its surroundings are Friedrichshafen, Bregenz, Lindau and Meersburg. The German Half-Timbered Architecture Tour ends at Lake Constance.
History
- Wurtemberg Yacht Club
The WYC was founded in January 1911 and originally registered in the local Tettnang registry as Royal Yacht Club of Wurtemberg ("Königlich Württembergischer Yacht-Club" in German), under the patronage of King William II of Wurtemberg. Shortly after its creation, a small building was built as headquarters.
Despite living in a kingdom without exit to the sea, King William was an enthusiast of navigation. He had a vision of a German Fleet penetrating deeply into the country through the rivers. The king was instrumental at the foundation of the Württembergischer Yacht Club. This movement continued with the creation of nautical clubs in the neighbouring kingdoms of Bavaria, Austria and Baden at that time.
In 1918, King William was deposed from the throne along with the rest of German reigning monarchs in the November Revolution (in German: Novemberrevolution). In 1920, despite the ravages of World War I, the club had 358 members. The old King William II, the founder of the club, died on October 2, 1921.
In 1937, during the Nazi government in Germany, the Reich Sports Office abolished the power and freedom of all German sports associations. As a result, the Württembergischer Yacht Club was forced to merge ("Einverleibt") with other German nautical clubs, being the most outstanding among them the Kaiserlicher Yacht Club of Kiel and the Bavarian Nautical Club (Náutico de Bavaria).Bayerischer Yacht-Club) of Munich to form a massive entity, the Yacht-Club von Deutschland (Nautical Club of Germany).
The members of the House of Wurtemberg, the former ruling family of Wurtemberg, are still closely involved with the club, the honorary title of the Comforter of the Württenberg Yacht Club He was first held by King William II and later passed to Albert, Duke of Wurtemberg, then to his son Felipe Alberto, Duke of Wurtemberg and eventually to the son of the latter, Charles, Duke of Wurtemberg and head of the royal house of Wurtemberg, the current honorary Comforter of the Yacht Club of Wurtemberg.- Air accident at Lake Constance in 2002
The tragedy covered the lives of 71 people, including children, adults and the ship crew. There were no survivors. It is estimated that remnants of the cargo plane fell in the northern part of Lake Constance, where there was a scary search. The authorities reported that a black box was located in a nearby forest.
The remains of the aircraft were scattered within a radius of 30 to 40 kilometres on the northern shore of Lake Constanza, which is located in the border area between Germany and Switzerland, causing some fires that were suffocated. Among other things, a school, a farm and several houses were set on fire, fearing at the beginning that there would also be fatalities here.Occasions when the lake has frozen over
According to statistics, the lake completely freezes over every seventy years or so. For that, an extremely cold summer, very persistent easterly winds and very cold weather in autumn and winter are necessary, so that in January or February there can be total freezing.
The known cases of Seegfrörnen (this is the word used to designate these phenomena) took place in the years:
- 1077 (not safe),
- 1326 (partial), 1378 (partial),
- 1435, 1465 (partial), 1477 (partial), 1491 (partial?),
- 1517 (partial), 1571 (partial), 1573,
- 1600 (partial), 1684, 1695,
- 1709 (partial), 1795,
- 1830, 1880 (partial),
- 1929, 1963
A marble monolith on the banks in Lochau/Hörbranz documents the Seegfrörnen of the years 1830, 1880 and those of 1929 and 1963. Since 1573 on the occasion of every Seegfrörni an image of Saint John is carried in a festive procession on the ice, alternately from the Münsterlingen Monastery in Switzerland to the German one in Hagnau am Bodensee; in the next Seegfrörnen will take it back. Since 1963 the image has been in the parish church of the former Benedictine monastery in Münsterlingen.
Origin of name
The current German name "Bodensee" is derived from the place name Bodman and therefore means "lake near Bodman". This site, located at the western end of Lake Überlingen, was of great importance in the Early Middle Ages, as it was first a Germanic ducal seat and then a Frankish royal palatinate and also a mint. It is first attested as Bodungo (a misspelling of Bodumo) in 496/506 (13th century copy/XIV after copy around 700); other early mentions are Bodomo (839) and Podoma (887). This place name goes back to Old High German bodam, which as a generic word means "earth, ground, base" and as a place name it means "low place of settlement" or "place on a plain". The lake's name is first mentioned in 840 in a Latinized form as in lacum Potamicum, followed in 890 (a more recent copy) by ad lacum Podamicum, in 902 and 905 by prope lacum Potamicum, and in 1087. by German Bodinse, Bodemse. The original Old High German pronunciation is *Bodamsē or, with the second phonetic change, *Potamsē. In the Middle Ages, the name of the royal palatinate displaced all attested names for parts of Lake Constance since Roman times. The Latinized name was mistakenly traced to the Greek word potamos for "river" by monastic scholars such as Walahfrid Strabo and interpreted as a river-lake. The idea that the Rhine flows through the lake may also have played a role in this. The German name Bodensee has been adopted by numerous other languages, especially in Northern and Eastern Europe.
After the Council of Constance of 1414-1418, the alternative name Lacus Constantinus spread in the area of Romance (Catholic) languages, a form already attested in 1187 as Lacus Constantiensis, which refers to the city of Constance located in the mouth of the Rhine of Lake Superior. The city owes its name - Constantia in Latin - to the Roman emperor Constantius Chlorus (292-305 AD).[10] Examples are the French Lac de Constance and the Italian Lago di Costanza.
Geography
Islands
- Mainau
- Reichenau
The island has been documented since Roman times. Important works of German literature, since the time of Minnesang (loving songs), have been found in this monastery. Some of them are still preserved in their library and others in Baden's communal museum.
After the Second World War, most of the population of Reichenau was evicted for two and a half months for some 3,000 French prisoners released from the Dachau concentration camp in quarantine before returning to their country of origin.- Lindau
Thanks to its privileged position and mild climate attracts a large number of visitors. It has a port to which the lighthouse and a statue of the Bavarian Lion stand out.
This garden city has a medieval center and a beautiful Town Hall. Other attractions include the house Cavazzen (art museum) and the church San Pedro (with Holbein frescoes).
Thanks to the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings (meetings between Nobel Prize-winning scientists and young researchers) and the weeks of psychotherapy, Lindau becomes a science center twice a year even if there is no university.Surrounding towns and cities
| Germany | |
From the entrance of the Rhine, east or right bank:
Austria (all in Vorarlberg)
| SwitzerlandFrom the entrance of the Rhine, southeast or left bank:
|
Wildlife
Birds
With its nature reserves, such as the Wollmatinger Ried or the Mettnau Peninsula, Lake Constance is also home to many species of birds. So far 412 species have been recorded. From 1980 to 2012, the number of birds on Lake Constance decreased by around 25%, from 465,000 to 345,000 breeding pairs. Ground-nesting birds were especially affected by the decline.
Fish
About 36 species of fish live in Lake Constance. The annual yield of the fishery is 1.5 million kg. A special feature of the lake is the presence of whitefish (Coregonus spec.) and char (Salvelinus alpinus).
Leisure and tourism
The tourism industry is an important economic factor for the region: the annual turnover amounts to about 1.8 billion euros, and overnight visitors and day visitors each contribute half of the turnover of tourism. A distinctive tourism infrastructure and a network of attractions and excursion destinations are essential.
The decisive factors are a well-developed tourist infrastructure and a network of attractions and excursion destinations. The cities of Constance, Überlingen, Meersburg, Friedrichshafen and Lindau stand out, but also the Rhine Falls near Schaffhausen, the island of Mainau, the pilgrimage church of Birnau, castles and palaces such as Salem Castle or Meersburg Castle, all the museum landscape, such as the Zeppelin Museum, the Dornier Museum, the Seemuseum (Kreuzlingen), the Jewish Museum in Hohenems, and the UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Reichenau Island and the prehistoric mounds of Unteruhldingen.
In the east, where the foothills of the Alps come very close to the Obersee, there are several cable cars whose valley stations are quite close to the shore. On the way up, you can see the lake. The best-known cable car on Lake Constance is the Pfänderbahn, which has its valley station in Bregenz.
Since 2001, state-of-the-art zeppelins have once again flown over the lake on regular round trips from Friedrichshafen Airport.
In cooperation with tourism service providers, tourism organizations and public institutions from Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, the Internationale Bodensee Tourismus GmbH (IBT GmbH) is responsible for tourism marketing in the Lake Constance region.
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