A Three-Part Guide to the Lake of Threes
Part 1 | Lake Constance is unique in many ways. The shores of this scenic body of water are located in three different countries that don’t all agree on the location of the national borders that crisscross the lake, known in their shared language as the Bodensee (BOH-den-zay).
The sun sets over Lake Constance (der Bodensee), viewed from the island of Lindau in the Bavarian section of the lake. PHOTO: Hyde Flippo
Austria, Germany, and Switzerland share Lake Constance. With an area of 218 square miles (564 sq km), it is Europe’s third largest freshwater lake by surface area* (second by volume), and is divided into three main sections (also see the map below):
- The Upper Lake (Obersee) is the larger northern section, including Lake Überlingen (Überlingener See), the northwestern finger that takes its name from the city of Überlingen on its north shore, and lies north of the Bodanrück Peninsula.
- The Lake Rhine (Seerhein) is the river-like connecting body of water that flows from the Upper Lake into the Lower Lake, beginning at Konstanz.
- The Lower Lake (Untersee) lies south of the Bodanrück Peninsula. The Lower Lake itself has several sections. See below for more on that.
*After Lake Geneva (Switzerland and France) and Lake Balaton (Hungary)
Lake Constance owes its existence to the Rhine Glacier that formed it, as well as parts of the river. After the end of the last glacial period, some 10,000 years ago, the three sections mentioned above were still part of a larger single lake. Today the lake’s deepest point, in the Upper Lake, lies under 833 feet (254 m) of water, just offshore from the city of Konstanz.
Lake Constance also has three main islands: Lindau, Mainau, and Reichenau. Each one has its own unique features and attractions. There are ten more islands, all much smaller and less populated, or unpopulated. Learn more in Part 3, Lake Constance: The Islands.
The Alpine Rhine flows from its origins in the Swiss Alps into Upper Lake Constance, west of Bregenz, Austria, then passes through the lake before becoming the Lake Rhine (Seerhein) at Konstanz, Germany, a river-like segment that flows into Lower Lake Constance, which is just under a foot (30 cm) lower than the Upper Lake. The Rhine then exits the Lower Lake at Stein am Rhein as the High Rhine, before plunging rather dramatically over the Rhine Falls at Schaffhausen on its way westward to Basel, Switzerland before flowing north between France and Germany, headed for its final destination, the North Sea, at Rotterdam and the Rhine Delta in the Netherlands.
The Lower Lake (der Untersee), like Lake Constance itself, also has three main sections. Situated around the Island of Reichenau, they are loosely divided into the Gnadensee (“Lake Mercy”) north of the island, the Zeller See, south of Radolfzell and northwest of Reichenau, and the Rheinsee (Rhine Lake, not to be confused with the Seerhein, the Lake Rhine).
The Origin of the Name Bodensee
Most linguists think that the lake’s German name comes from the historic settlement known as Bodman, which in turn may have derived its name from Old High German bodamon, meaning “on the soils.” Bodman, located on the northern shore of the Bodanrück Peninsula, still exists, and is now part of the municipality of Bodman-Ludwigshafen (see below). In modern German, der Boden means soil, ground, floor, or land. On the other hand, English and the Romance languages derived the lake’s name from the city of Konstanz (Constance), probably influenced by the historic four-year Council of Constance (1414-1418), a significant ecclesiastical conclave that brought together European Catholic Church leaders from all across Europe to resolve serious theological divisions and disputes, including rival popes. The renovated medieval Konzil (Council Building) still stands in Konstanz. (Learn more about Konstanz and other lakeside towns in Part 2, Lake Constance: The Cities)
The Three Nations on the Lake’s Shores
The Lake Constance region is a fascinating, scenic collection of towns, cities, and harbors sprinkled along the lake’s shore shared by three countries. The largest portion of the shoreline, about 62 percent, mostly on the north side, is part of Germany. A large majority of the German territory is part of the state of Baden-Württemberg. A smaller section to the east, in the Lindau area, lies in Bavaria, Germany’s largest state by area. Lindau is only a short distance from the Bavaria-Vorarlberg border that is also the German-Austrian line.
Austria’s 11 percent share of Lake Constance, the smallest portion among the three nations, is on the eastern shore, mostly around the Bay of Bregenz (die Bregenzer Bucht). Just west of Bregenz, the capital of Vorarlberg province, is where the Alpine Rhine enters the lake. The smaller Old Rhine (Alter Rhein) forms the Austrian-Swiss border.
Switzerland’s share (about 33 percent) is mostly on the lake’s southern shore, except for the area that comprises the Old Town section of the German city of Konstanz, south of the Rhine and just north of the Swiss city of Kreuzlingen. This is the part of the Bodensee where it sometimes can be complicated to figure out whether you’re in Germany or Switzerland.
A map of the Bodensee (Lake Constance) showing its three main sections: Obersee (Upper Lake), Seerhein (Lake Rhine), and Untersee (Lower Lake). The countries surrounding the lake are shown in green (Switzerland), tan (Germany), and orange (Austria). The map also indicates where the Alpenrhein (Alpine Rhine) enters the lake near Bregenz at its eastern end, and where it exits the lake as the Hochrhein (High Rhine) near Stein am Rhein on the western end. IMAGE: Thoroe (Wikimedia Commons)
The Lake’s Fuzzy National Borders
An interesting aspect of the lake’s three-way international division is that the national borders that run into and through Lake Constance are not precisely established and agreed on. Each of the three nations sharing the Bodensee has its own opinion on where the borders are or should be. Perhaps someday there will be an official tripartite agreement that clearly delineates the invisible borders, but for now the three nations simply ignore the issue, and life somehow goes on normally.
Latin and the Lake
The humorous “Swabian Sea” nickname for Lake Constance originated from a misunderstanding of the Roman (Latin) name Mare Suebicum, which actually referred to the Baltic Sea, not Lake Constance. The Suebi were a Germanic tribe originally from the Elbe river region. But for a time the Latin term was also used to refer to the Bodensee/Lake Constance, and that erroneous name stuck. Today “Swabian Sea” is only used jokingly to refer to Swabia and the former Duchy of Swabia that once bordered the lake, and also included parts of today’s Switzerland.
Another Latin name seen on older maps of the Bodensee was Lacus Potamicus, a term that a Benedictine monk in 833 erroneously based on the Greek word potamus, for river (i.e., the Rhine that flows through the lake). The Catholic Church used Lacus Constantinus even before the Council of Konstanz/Constance. The earliest known name, from Pliny the Elder in 75 CE, was lacus reatiae Brigantinus – for Bregenz, which at the time was occupied by the Romans.
NEXT | Part 2: Lake Constance: Cities and Towns
Related Pages
MORE CITIES/COUNTRIES
- City Guides: Austria
- City Guides: Germany
- Switzerland for Tourists
- Travel and Tourism in German-speaking Europe
MORE AT THE GERMAN WAY
0 Comments