Editing Lake Constance (section)

==History==
Lake Constance was formed by the [[Rhine Glacier]] during the [[Quaternary glaciation]] ice age and is a ''[[Zungenbecken]]'' or Tongue lake. After the end of the [[Würm glaciation|last glacial period]], about 10,000 years ago, the Obersee and Untersee still formed a single lake. The [[downward erosion]] of the [[High Rhine]] caused the lake level to gradually sink and a sill, the ''Konstanzer Schwelle'', to emerge.

The Rhine, the [[Bregenzer Ach]], and the [[Dornbirner Ach]] carry sediments from the [[Alps]] to the lake, thus gradually decreasing the depth and reducing the extension of the lake in the southeast.

In antiquity, the two lakes had different names; later, for reasons which are unknown, they came to have the same name.

In the 19th century, there were five different local [[time zone]]s around Lake Constance. Constance, belonging to the [[Grand Duchy of Baden]], adhered to [[Karlsruhe]] time, Friedrichshafen used the time of the [[Duchy of Württemberg]], in Lindau, the Bavarian Munich time was observed, and Bregenz used Prague time, while the Swiss shore used Berne time. One would have needed to travel only {{convert|46|km}} to visit five time zones. Given the amount of trade and traffic over Lake Constance, this led to serious confusion. Public clocks in harbors used three different clock faces, depending on the destinations offered by the boat companies. In 1892, all German territories used [[Central European Time|CET]], the Austrian railways had already introduced CET the previous year and Switzerland followed in 1894. Because traffic timetables had not been yet updated, CET became the sole valid time around and on Lake Constance in 1895.<ref>[[:de:Fünf Ortszeiten am Bodensee|"Fünf Ortszeiten am Bodensee"]] in the German Wikipedia, version used 2018-01-08.</ref>

=== Name ===
The earliest recorded reference to the lakes is by [[Roman Empire|Roman]] geographer [[Pomponius Mela]] around AD&nbsp;43, calling the upper lake ''Lacus Venetus'' and the lower lake ''Lacus Acronius'', the Rhine passing through both. Around AD&nbsp;75, the naturalist [[Pliny the Elder]] called them both ''Lacus Raetiae Brigantinus'' after the main Roman town on the lake, ''[[Bregenz|Brigantium]]'' (later Bregenz). This name is associated with the [[Celts|Celtic]] [[Brigantii]] who lived here, although it is not clear whether the place was named after the tribe or the inhabitants of the region were named after their main settlement. [[Ammianus Marcellinus]] later used the form ''Lacus Brigantiae''.<ref name=Reitzenstein>{{cite book |editor=Wolf-Armin Freiherr von Reitzenstein |title=Lexikon schwäbischer Ortsnamen. Herkunft und Bedeutung. |publisher=[[Verlag C. H. Beck]] |location=Munich, Germany |date=2013 |isbn=978-3-406-65209-7 |page=68 |language=de |url={{Google books|EY6iAAAAQBAJ|page=68|plainurl=yes}}}}</ref>

The current German name of ''Bodensee'' derives from the place name [[Bodman-Ludwigshafen|Bodman]], which probably originally derived from the [[Old High German]] ''bodamon'' which meant "on the soils", indicating a place on level terrain by the lake.<ref name=AB>{{cite journal |author=Arno Borst |title=Bodensee – Geschichte eines Wortes |journal=Schriften des Vereins für Geschichte des Bodenseeraums |volume=99, 100 |date=1982 |issue=Heft 1981/1982 |language=de |publisher=Selbstverlag des Bodenseegeschichtsvereins |location=Friedrichshafen}}</ref>{{rp|500}} This place, situated at the west end of Lake Überlingen (''Überlinger See''), had a more supraregional character for a certain period in the [[early Middle Ages]] as a [[Franks|Frankish]] [[Kaiserpfalz|imperial palace]] (''Königspfalz''), [[Alamanni]]an ducal seat and [[mint (facility)|mint]], which is why the name may have been transferred to the lake ("lake, by which Bodman is situated" = ''Bodmansee''). From 833 or 834, in Latin sources, the name appears in its [[Latinization (historical)|Latinised]] form ''lacus potamicus''.<ref>{{cite book |author=Rolf Zimmermann |title=Am Bodensee |publisher=Stadler Verlagsgesellschaft |location=Konstanz, Germany |date=2004 |isbn=3-7977-0504-2 |page=5 |language=de}}</ref> Therefore, the name actually derived from the Bodman ''Pfalz'' (Latinized as ''Potamum'') was wrongly assumed by monastic scholars like [[Walahfrid Strabo]] to be derived from the Greek word ''potamos'' for "river" and meant "river lake". They may also have been influenced by the fact that the Rhine flowed through the lake.<ref name=AB/>{{rp|501ff}}

[[Wolfram von Eschenbach]] describes it in [[Middle High German]] as the ''Bodemensee'' or ''Bodemsee''<ref>{{cite book |author=Wilhelm Martens |title=Geschichte der Stadt Konstanz |publisher=Gess |location=Konstanz, Germany |pages=6–7 |date=1911 |language=de}}</ref> which has finally evolved into the present German name, ''Bodensee''. The name may be linked to that of the [[Bodanrück]], the hill range between Lake Überlingen and the Lower Lake, and the history of the [[House of Bodman]].

[[File:Alamannien Hochburgund ca 1000.png|thumb|upright=1.5|Location of Lake Constance within the Duchy of Swabia (yellow), 911–1268]]

The German name of the lake, ''Bodensee'', has been adopted by many other languages, for example: Dutch: ''Bodenmeer'', Danish: ''Bodensøen'', Norwegian: ''Bodensjøen'', Swedish: ''Bodensjön'', Finnish: ''Bodenjärvi'', Russian: ''Боденское озеро'', Polish: ''Jezioro Bodeńskie'', Czech: ''Bodamské jezero'', Slovak: ''Bodamské jazero'', Hungarian: ''Bodeni-tó'', Serbo-Croatian: ''Bodensko jezero'', Albanian: ''Liqeni i Bodenit''.

After the [[Council of Constance]] in the 15th century, the alternative name ''Lacus Constantinus'' was used in the (Roman Catholic) Romance language area. This name, which had been attested as early as 1187 in the form ''Lacus Constantiensis'',<ref name=Reitzenstein/> came from the town of Konstanz at the outflow of the Rhine from the Obersee, whose original name, Constantia, was in turn derived from the Roman emperor, [[Constantius Chlorus]] (around 300 AD). Hence the French: ''Lac de Constance'', Italian: ''Lago di Costanza'', Portuguese: ''Lago de Constança'', Spanish: ''Lago de Constanza'', Romanian: ''Lacul Constanța'', Greek: ''Λίμνη της Κωνσταντίας – Limni tis Konstantias''. The Arabic, بحيرة كونستانس ''buħaira Konstans'' and the Turkish, ''Konstanz gölü'', probably go back to the French form of the name. Even in Romance-influenced English the name "Lake Constance" gained a foothold and was then exported into other languages such as Hebrew: ימת קונסטנץ ''yamat Konstanz'' and Swahili: ''Ziwa la Konstanz''. In many languages both forms exist in parallel e.g. [[Romansch language|Romansh]]: ''Lai da Constanza'' and ''Lai Bodan'', Esperanto: ''Konstanca Lago'' and ''Bodenlago''.{{citation needed|date=March 2018}}

The poetic name, "[[Swabia]]n Sea", was adopted by authors of the [[early modern era]] and the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] from ancient authors, possibly [[Tacitus]]. However, this assumption was based on an error (similar to that of the [[Teutoburg Forest]] and the [[Taunus]]): the Romans sometimes used the name ''Mare Suebicum'' for the [[Baltic Sea]], not Lake Constance. In times when the Romans had located the so-called "[[Suebi]]", then an [[Elbe Germanic tribe]] near a sea, this was understandable. The authors of the [[Early Modern Period]] overlooked this and adopted the name for the largest lake in the middle of the former [[Duchy of Swabia]], which also included parts of today's Switzerland.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Karl Heinz Burmeister |title=Der Bodensee im 16. Jahrhundert |journal=Montfort, Vierteljahreszeitschrift für Geschichte und Gegenwart Vorarlbergs |publisher=Vorarlberger Verlagsanstalt |location=Dornbirn, Austria |volume=57 |date=2005 |issue=Heft 3 |pages=228–262 |url=http://www.vorarlberg.gv.at/pdf/m053burmeisterbodensee.pdf |language=de |via=vorarlberg.gv.at |access-date=2018-03-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120131092421/http://www.vorarlberg.gv.at/pdf/m053burmeisterbodensee.pdf |archive-date=31 January 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Today the name Swabian Sea (''Schwäbisches Meer'') is only used jocularly as a hyperbolic term for Lake Constance.<ref>{{cite news |author=Klaus Zintz |url=http://www.seezeichen-bodensee.de/files/media/cdn.php?params=%7B%22id%22%3A%22MDB-723c6b68-c469-4906-9424-0df9998ce220-MDB%22%2C%22type%22%3A%22download%22%2C%22date%22%3A%221453829719%22%7D&Stuttgarter-Zeitung_07.08.2015.pdf |title=Der Bodensee lädt nicht nur zum Baden ein. |newspaper=[[Stuttgarter Zeitung]] |location=Stuttgart, Germany |date=7 August 2015 |language=de |via=www.seezeichen-bodensee.de |access-date=2018-03-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161009124006/http://www.seezeichen-bodensee.de/files/media/cdn.php?params=%7B%22id%22:%22MDB-723c6b68-c469-4906-9424-0df9998ce220-MDB%22,%22type%22:%22download%22,%22date%22:%221453829719%22%7D&Stuttgarter-Zeitung_07.08.2015.pdf |archive-date=2016-10-09 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

=== Key facts ===
[[File:Columban und Gallus auf dem Bodensee.jpg|thumb|Saints [[Columbanus]] and [[Saint Gall|Gallus]] on Lake Constance, from a 15th-century manuscript]]
No [[Paleolithic]] finds have been made in the immediate vicinity of the lake, because the region of Lake Constance was long covered by the [[Rhine Glacier]]. The discovery of stone tools ([[microlith]]s) indicate that [[hunters and gatherers]] of the [[Mesolithic]] period (Middle Stone Age, 8,000–5,500 BC) frequented the area without settling, however. Only hunting camps have been confirmed. The earliest Neolithic farmers, who belonged to the [[Linear Pottery culture]], also left no traces behind, because the Alpine foreland lay away from the routes along which they had spread during the 6th millennium BC.<ref>{{cite magazine |author=Helmut Schlichtherle |title=Pfahlbauten: die frühe Besiedelung des Alpenvorlandes |magazine=Spektrum der Wissenschaft |volume=1989 |issue=Siedlungen der Steinzeit |publisher=Spektrum-Verlag |location=Heidelberg, Germany |date=1989 |isbn=3-922508-48-0 |pages=140 ff |language=de}}</ref> This changed only in the middle and late [[Neolithic]] when shore settlements were established, the so-called [[pile dwelling]] and [[wetland settlement]]s, which have now been uncovered mainly on Lake Überlingen, the [[Constance Hopper]] and on the Obersee. At [[Unteruhldingen]], a pile dwelling village has been reconstructed, and now forms an open air museum.
In 2015, a 20&nbsp;km line of about 170 man-made {{ill|Stone mounds in Lake Constance|de|Steinhügel im Bodensee|lt=under-water stone mounds}} dated in the Neolithic period or early Bronze Age was discovered on the south-west shore of the lake between Bottighofen and Romanshorn.<ref name="Leuzinger_2018">{{cite web |title=Rätselhafte Steinstrukturen im Bodensee |language=de-CH |date=2018 |editor-first=Urs |editor-last=Leuzinger |publisher=Amt für Archäologie |location=Thurgau, Switzerland |url=https://archaeologie.tg.ch/public/upload/assets/65113/2018_Medienmitteilung_H%3Fgeli_Uttwil.pdf |access-date=2022-07-27 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220401010814/https://archaeologie.tg.ch/public/upload/assets/65113/2018_Medienmitteilung_H%3Fgeli_Uttwil.pdf |archive-date=2022-04-01}} (3 pages)</ref><ref name="Schaer_2019">{{cite magazine |title=Bohren nach dem Rätsel |language=de-CH |date=2019-06-11 |author-first=Markus |author-last=Schär |magazine=thurgaukultur.ch |department=Wissen |url=https://www.thurgaukultur.ch/magazin/bohren-nach-dem-raetsel-4050 |access-date=2022-07-27 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190621150024/https://www.thurgaukultur.ch/magazin/bohren-nach-dem-raetsel-4050 |archive-date=2019-06-21}}</ref><ref name="NZZ_2019">{{cite news |title=Die rätselhaften Steinhügel im Bodensee stammen vermutlich aus der Bronzezeit |language=de-CH |newspaper=[[Neue Zürcher Zeitung]] |department=Wissenschaft |date=2019-06-07 |url=https://www.nzz.ch/wissenschaft/raetselhafte-steinhuegel-im-bodensee-bohrproben-entnommen-ld.1487604 |access-date=2022-07-27 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220727180229/https://www.nzz.ch/wissenschaft/raetselhafte-steinhuegel-im-bodensee-bohrproben-entnommen-ld.1487604?reduced=true |archive-date=2022-07-27}}</ref><ref name="Meile_2018">{{cite web |title=Steinhügel im Bodensee: Was haben sich die Pfahlbauer bloss dabei gedacht? |language=de-CH |date=2018-11-25 |author-first=Silvan |author-last=Meile |work=Tagblatt |url=https://www.tagblatt.ch/ostschweiz/frauenfeld/gruebeln-unter-wasser-was-haben-sich-die-pfahlbauer-dabei-bloss-gedacht-ld.1072604 |access-date=2022-07-27 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210613214928/https://www.tagblatt.ch/ostschweiz/frauenfeld/gruebeln-unter-wasser-was-haben-sich-die-pfahlbauer-dabei-bloss-gedacht-ld.1072604 |archive-date=2021-06-13}}</ref><ref name="SRF_2019">{{cite web |title=Mysteriöse Steinhügel im Bodensee |language=de-CH |date=2019-09-27 |work=SRF News |url=https://www.srf.ch/wissen/natur-tiere/raetsel-geloest-bodensee-stonehenge-stammt-aus-der-jungsteinzeit |access-date=2022-07-27 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220727180513/https://www.srf.ch/wissen/natur-tiere/raetsel-geloest-bodensee-stonehenge-stammt-aus-der-jungsteinzeit |archive-date=2022-07-27}} [0:49]</ref>

Grave finds from [[Singen am Hohentwiel]] date to the beginning of the Early [[Bronze Age]] and shore settlements were repeatedly built during the [[Neolithic Period]] and the Bronze Age (up to 800 BC). During the following [[Iron Age]] the settlement history is interrupted. The settlement of the shore of Lake Constance during the [[Hallstatt period]] is attested by [[grave mounds]], which today are usually found in forests where they have been protected from the destruction by agriculture. Since the late Hallstatt period, the peoples living on Lake Constance are referred to as the [[Celts]]. During the [[La Tène period]] from 450 BC, the population density decreases, as can be deduced partly due from the fact that no more grave mounds were built. For the first time, written reports on Lake Constance have survived. Thus, we learn that the [[Helvetians]] settled by the lake in the south, the [[Rhaetians]] in the area of the [[Alpine Rhine Valley]] and the [[Vindelici]] in the north-east. The most important places on the lake were [[Bregenz]] (Celtic ''Brigantion'') and today's [[Konstanz|Constance]].

In the course of the Roman [[Augustine Alpine Campaign|Alpine campaign]] of 16/15 BC, the Lake Constance region was integrated into the [[Roman Empire]]. During the campaign, there was also supposed to have been a [[Battle of Lake Constance|battle on Lake Constance]]. The geographer, [[Pomponius Mela]], makes the first mention in 43 AD of Lake Constance as two lakes – the ''Lacus Venetus'' (Upper Lake) and the ''Lacus Acronius'' (Untersee) – with the Rhine flowing through both. [[Pliny the Elder]] referred to Lake Constance as ''Lacus Brigantinus'' for the first time. The most important Roman site was Bregenz, which soon became subject to Roman municipal law and later became the seat of the Prefect of the Lake Constance fleet. The Romans were also in [[Lindau (Lake Constance)|Lindau]], but settled only on the hills around Lindau as the lakeshore was swampy. Other Roman towns were ''Constantia'' (Constance) and ''Arbor Felix'' ([[Arbon]]).

After the borders of the Roman Empire were drawn back to the Rhine boundary in the 3rd century BC, the Alemanni gradually settled on the north shore of Lake Constance and, later, on the south bank as well. After the introduction of [[Christianity]], the cultural significance of the region grew as a result of the founding of [[Reichenau Abbey]] and the [[Bishopric of Constance]]. Under the rule of the [[Hohenstaufen]]s, [[Imperial Diet (Holy Roman Empire)|Imperial Diets]] (''Reichstage'') were held by Lake Constance. In Constance, too, a treaty was drawn up between the Hohenstaufen emperor and the [[Lombard League]]. Lake Constance also played an important role as a trading post for goods being traded between German and Italian states.

During the [[Thirty Years' War]], there were various conflicts over the control of the region during the [[Lake War]] (1632–1648).

After the [[War of the Second Coalition]] (1798–1802), which also affected the region and during which Austrian and French [[flotilla]]s operated on Lake Constance, there was a reorganisation of state relationships.

=== Historical maps ===
[[File:Lacus Constantiensis 1540.jpg|thumb|1540 map of the Lake Constance region]]
* 1540: the map ''Lacus Constantiensis'' by [[Johannes Zwick]] and [[Thomas Blarer]] shows topographic names, towns and the Rhine.{{citation needed|date=March 2018}}
* 1555: the map of the route of the Rhine (''Rhinelaufkarte'') by [[Caspar Vopel]] includes a topographical map of Lake Constance with its larger towns, the tributaries and the course of the Rhine.{{citation needed|date=March 2018}}
* 1633: the Swabian map by [[Johannes Janssonius]], Amsterdam: ''Totius Sveviae novissima tabula'' shows Lake Constance with islands, tributaries, towns and villages.<ref>{{Citation |author=Rolf Zimmermann |title=Am Bodensee |language=de |location=Constance |date=2004 |page=endpaper and 112}}</ref>
* 1675: The Lake Constance map, ''Lacos Acronianus sive Bodamicus'', by Nikolaus David Hautt based on Andreas Arzet [[Jesuits|SJ]] shows Lake Constance with the adjacent lands.<ref>{{Citation |url=https://aleph.unibas.ch/F/?local_base=DSV01&con_lng=ENG&func=find-b&find_code=SYS&request=001066422 |title=Der Bodensee (Latin: ''Lacvs Acronianvs siue Bodamicvs'') |type=copper print 38 x 51 cm |publisher=University of Berne |date=1970 |orig-year=1675 |location=Berne, Switzerland}}</ref>