So in this situation, Austria (which has the shortest shore line but wants to share the lake equally) is like the guy who orders two appetizers and the biggest steak and a couple of beers, and then suggests everyone just split the check three ways; Germany is the one who regrets not asking for separate checks at the beginning and wants someone else to make the decision; and Switzerland is the one who pulls the pocket calculator out and figures out who owes what down to the penny.
@@DidamDFP Check your history facts. Someone who is holding a gun behind you is not democratic thus making the 'Anschluss' basically an annexion. Check also the voting paper where you can only answer with a big YES and a petite No. Everyone who voted no got problems with the Gestapo.
@@henryblack323 Its not that easy, their was many People especial younger ones, who wants the "anschluss" thats why Kurt von Schuschigg wanted to exclude this People from the voting by saying you only can vote if you are 24 years old.
Eugene Cherish Germany seems to do that more often. There's another dispute over territorial waters with the Netherlands that's has been resolved by an "agree to disagree" policy.
@@Quintinohthree well, we have some history an a set of burned hands concerning aggressive border politics. We learnt our lesson well and are aware that others might get nervous if we get forceful or insistent. Also, as the largest (by quite a bit and in multiple factors) actor in this "dispute," we have little to gain and much to lose from a fight over a lake with few resources and friendly neighbours on the other side.
Luda Stout switzerland is not in the EU there is the only Problem offically this is a outline boarder of the EU and should be protected from Austria and Germany but everbody is like meh have better things to do
I laughed at how Wikipedia describes Germany's position: "Switzerland holds the view that the border runs through the middle of the lake, Austria is of the opinion that the contentious area belongs to all the states on its banks, which is known as a 'condominium', and Germany holds an ambiguous opinion".
@@anna-flora999 No, Germany and Austria had no war. Prussia and Austria did but that was within the entirety of german lands (that austria is part of themselves) before Germany existed, so you can hardly call it a war between Austria and Germany. And even so, it wasn’t about something ridiculous as ownership of a lake.
If you're wondering why my coat looks ridiculous, it's because there was about a 30mph wind blowing off the lake, and it was either freeze to death or accept a certain loss of dignity...
Citizenship wouldn't be an issue. None of the three countries offer citiezenship to those who are born within it's borders (ius soli) but the parents' nationality (ius sangiunis)
Actually, on a slightly more serious note: countries don't have to ask other ones whom they give citizenship (even in the EU, I thunk, but Switzerland is not in it). So, none of the three countries have to care what the others think where Lake Constance is. So for Austria, you can live anywhere on it, for Switzerland half and Germany would need to make up ots mind.
However, if a stateless child is born on the lake, one of the 3 countries has to give it citizenship as per anti-statelessness laws. Which one gives in?
@@DrDiHai we wouldn't have to make up our mind actually. If your parents were German and lived 20 years on this lake in Germany and you are born by them you are German. You can have more than one nationality according to our current laws so there is no problem. Most people with an Swiss and an German nationality that live in Germany that I know tend to drop their Swiss nationality at the age of 18 because they would have to join the army for some time or just have the German nationality and then claim the second nationality at the age of 26 (I think) where it is save that you do not have to join the army anymore. All this is no uncommon thing.
1:47 that wouldn't be a problem: In Austria, Switzerland and Germany the citizenship doesn't depend on the place of birth like in the US or UK (ius soli). A newborn on Lake Constance would simply get his / her parents' citizenship (ius sanguinis).
@@ludastout2852 Not really, according to ius soli, even if both of the parents are not German the kid will/can get the German citizenship if the parents have lived for 8 years straight in Germany.
I've seen enough speedruns to know that if you break a law on the center of that lake the world will glitch out and you can wrongwarp to the final boss.
I live right there i in Constance and I must admit, that sometimes it is really funny explaining this subject to people, that don't know about this, especially americans are like "whut, how can this happen???" But I also, have to say, that your Statement is not entirely true, because in the so called "Konstanzer Trichter", the Constance bay, there in fact is a fixed borderline between Germany and Switzerland in the middle of the bay. But because nobody knows exactly where that middle is (and nobody really cares about it) it is not an issue at all. Water Police from either Country is allowed to check your license and personality anywhere on the lake and they also always work together in search and rescue missions. I am really happy about how all countries are really relaxed with the current situation.
@@alishak8241 Actually the German word is "Waserschutzpolizei" which if translated word by word is "water protection police"..... and if you now add grammar into the descriptive part of the language it means this police is there to protect the water.... ;-)
It's sometimes a difficult choice when there's a local name and an English name: because both are used, in this case I went with the one that I found easier to pronounce and fit into the script!
Wait a second: The English name is "Lake of Constance" so it is named after the city of Constance/Konstanz which is in Germany. Therefore the lake should belong to Germany. Problem solved :-)
The lake is so large compared to Konstanz, it would be more suitable to call Konstanz the Place Of The Lake Constance. Except that's not useful in that there are a lot of places around that lake... since it is so large.
Another fact involving this lake: the world's shortest international flight flies over this lake and lasts just 8 minutes linking Switzerland to Southern Germany. And that is something you may not have known!
St. Gallen to Friedrichshafen. Additional fun fact: Overall shortest scheduled flight in the world is from Westray to Papa Westray in the Orkney Islands, is 1.7 miles long and takes around 2 Minutes depending on the wind (record is 53 seconds)
Unknown Name nope, actually we have 13 airlines. With "InterSky" we had an airline based in Friedrichshafen, but they are insolvent. After that we had an airline hub from the belgian "FlyVLM". But they are broke too. Greetings from Friedrichshafen
I’m Swiss, live on Lake Constance and i’ve never heard anyone argue about which part of the lake is theirs. Germans come across to Switzerland and we travel to Germany, no big deal.
@@patrickfitzgerald2861 the funny thing is, it wasn't even an issue during this time, the locals stood together and the swiss helped many people to escape the Reich across the lake and also took care of many local german children during the bomb raids
@@georgobergfell Okay, but I'm certain the Nazis thought it WAS an issue, and that's exactly my point. Have you noticed that extremism is on the rise in Europe (and elsewhere) these days? Well-defined borders aren't a perfect thing, but they can help to prevent "misunderstandings." 😉
I grew up on the Austrian side. Some creepy trivia: The criminal investigation department of Lindau (city on German shore) reckoned in 2012 that there are at least 95 bodies still in the lake. Due to cold water temperatures in maximum 251m depths the bodies decompose very slowly, thus not developing enough gas to create buoyancy, once they sink below 40-50m they won't come up again.
“What happens if a baby is born in the middle of the lake?” As far as I know neither of the three countries has Birth Right Citizenship so I guess... meh?
What's the name of the sculpture btw? I guess it's supposed to demonstrate the different base altitude levels used by Germany (Amsterdam sea level) and Switzerland (Adria sea level)?
I actually wondered where he plans to build that wall, because the US/Mexico border is in the center of the river. People depend on access to the river on both sides for fishing and other uses, so you can't just build the wall on one bank or the other because it would be stealing the other side's access to the water. So where would the wall even go?
We currently have fences. Where the border is on the Rio Grande (in Spanish, el Río Bravo del Norte; it isn't always), the fence lies in the U.S. some hundred-odd feet inland on the U.S. side. These fences cut through Native lands and cemeteries, and do absolutely naff all to prevent incoming immigrants. Though with Trump's record of both wanton environmental destruction and complete lack of knowledge with respect to anything he does, I wouldn't be surprised if he tries to build a wall straight centrally in the water.
You do realize that the border of Switzerland, Austria and Germany is a bit different compared to the border of USA and Mexico? Trump is not building a wall between Canada and USA for the same reasons.
As a German, I have to agree with you, that our stance is just great. :3 Although as a human I prefer Austria's stance. Could serve as an example to all humankind.
I agree there should be a defined border BUT I think it should simply be at the coast and the lake is international waters DO YOU KNOW WHAT I'M SAYING? NO RULES^^
Tom, I am so impressed that you manage to explain anything in an amusing and enlightening manner, without any hesitations, fill words or frequent cuts. Are you just that good - or are there lots of failed takes that we never see?
The only place where the true spirit of a European Union almost exist. If only the Swiss would chill out. This comment was made with humorous intent to stimulate lighthearted conversation.
so you could have a twin, born in the same place as you a few minuites later that has a different citizenship than you, if you time it correctly, also based on which timezone !?
I'll make sure to commit all of my crimes on the lake, so that nobody bothers to prosecute because they don't want to spend years working out the jurisdiction!
ShapelessMonstrosity Trust me, Europe has the "who has jurisdiction" figured out. With open borders you have to know how to chase people across the border
seems like they are going with the Austrian claim now (no borders), but maybe my browser is biased I.e. I'm not located in Austria right now, but logged in with my google account which has that information that I'm Austrian. I'd be curious what a Swiss browser/account/location would display.
I am always amazed at how well those European neighbours get along with each other. I am from India, and we have Pakistan and China as our neighbours...
tbh, only because it's a lake. would it be solid ground (and ownable land, taxable people, etc), the incentive to sort things out would be much higher, or the dispute bigger (unlikely nowadays). lots of these small border problems are.made obsolete nowadays because of EU membership (and similar treaties in Switzerland's case). it's only becomes a problem if one country decides to leave...
Konstanz is a good example for more confusing state-border-issues: The area of »Trägermoos« is legally a part of the Swiss municipality of Trägerwilen, but some legal issues, e.g. land survey, is in the responsibility of the German city of Konstanz.
Tom has a series called things you may not know and also one called amazing places. Kyle just made a joke combining the two names because this video is about an amazing place and something you may not know. It stops being funny when you explain it.
Therer are quite a few places on earth, where neighbouring countries have a different oppinion about the exact borderline, but found a way to live with it. For example in northgermany/netherlands the border in the Dollart Bay between Groningen and Emden.-
That means that I once was in Germany, Switzerland and Austria at the same time. But what I really like about this is that they dont fight over it. Just imagine how much better the wold would be if every territorial dispute was solved this way.
Indeed. That's what always exasperates me about the endless anti-EU rants you find on the internet; they always go on the assumption that every country is inherently in a state of natural competition and moderate hostility with other countries, which is simply not true. As the EU countries (except Switzerland, but they do associate with the EU quite a bit) in this video prove, it's perfectly possible to have utterly friendly and cooperative relations between two countries that needn't ever result in any obstruction. I'm not going to pretend that the EU is what made Lake Constance a succesful condominium - after all, the friendly relations between Austria, Germany and Swizterland go back much further to the Holy Roman Empire - but it does show what nuisance countries can avoid if they just open themselves up to one another in a friendly way, rather than endlessly shouting about closing borders and building walls.
Coming from this region myself I was kinda shocked to hear that in other parts of the world, you will have lots of problems moving over such a border. When you are used to this kind of freedom, it is mind-blowing that you have to jump through a lot of hoops to cross the border from e.g. Canada to the US.
Austria, Germany and Switzerland meet to fix the border issue at the Bodensee. Austria: "We should all get equal rights at the lake and share it equally between us three." Germany: "OK" Switzerland: "Wait, wait, thats not fair. You have the smallest (border) of us three. Your part should be smaller. The border should be like this!" *Switzerland shows a map* Germany: "OK" Austria & Switzerland: "Whats wrong with u germany? Why u dont care about your borders?" Germany: "I stopped caring about those border issues. In the past looking at borders, and trying to move them always made me angry. And people dont like me when i am angry. Do u guys want to make me angry?" Austria and Switzerland nervously sweatting: "Its, Ok, we dont care either... its fine, Bye!"
Actually, who cares about germany? They didn't take it at ww2. Why should they now. And if they take it... the water comes from the alps in switzerland ... we are good in building tunnels...
I'm assuming you do know that Lake Constance feeds the largest river in Western Europe; the Rhine, right? In fact, the Rhine is also connected to the Danube through the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal, so without ever leaving fresh water, you could anchor your houseboat in significantly more than three countries if you started at Lake Constance.
Robert Faber Yes, a houseboat would be able to travel between 5 to 6 countries in that river and lake. It's probably possible to be a resident of UK and all the other countries would treat you like tourist on a 3 month long vacation, if we anchor that boat in a different country every 3 month.
There are other condominions in Europe that work perfectly, for example the river Mosel between Germany and Luxemburg. I think this is a really good solution to a lot of border problems. You need to solve them together by nature.
It'd be nice for us European (dutch, german, swiss, austrian) viewers if you atleast mentioned the native name for Lake Constance, which is Bodensee :). Now I had to look it up which lake it was, while I've been taught in primary school already about the bodenmeer, or just bodensee :). I believe in a recent vid you mentioned the pronounciation of the american patent office, so when you're in germany/austria/switserland you could atleast mention the german name :). Then again, the 'thing I might not know' here is also 'the English have a different name for the Bodensee, they actually use the french name' :).
@@nico.s1608 For Switzerland it is probably more of a convenience thing. In the south west there is a lake as big as lake constance between switzerland and france and there the border goes right trough the middle of the lake.
Almost all of the Austrian shore is available for public access (except for some strongly protected nature preserves), this is not true for the german and swiss shores, this makes the Austrian part of the shore very special.
I live in Munich and have been to Lake Constance. I love the lake and the surrounding towns. If you go, please check out the Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichshafen (provided it survives the current shutdowns, that is). When I was last there several years ago, they still offered Zeppelin flights over the lake (which I sadly couldn't do timewise). I don't know what the current status is, though. And be prepared to dress like Tom because the wind coming off the lake can be quite cold and strong. The Zeppelin flights are grounded when it's too windy.
From 1414 to 1418, the Council of Constance was held in the city, where the highest ecclesiastical dignitaries from all over Europe met to end the Roman schism. This made the city famous throughout Europe, and with it the lake, which - like many lakes around the world - was named after the city at its outflow. Today, Lake Constance is called Lago di Costanza in Italian, Lago de Constanza in Spanish, Lac de Constance in French and Lake Constance in English.
Just one point: The »special case« is located on the »Obersee« (the bigger area of the Bodensee aka. Lace Constance). For the »Untersee« (smaller part of the lake) and the »Seerhein«-areas (river between the two parts of the lake) there are borders defined.
I went to Lake Constance a few years ago. I stayed in Friedrichshafen, Germany and got a ferry over to Switzerland and Austria. I saw zeppelin airships fly over the lake which was amazing.
Thank you. I have watched all of the videos on the Park Bench ever made and I am very close to finishing all of them on this channel. This is a very nice video (especially as someone hoping to study Politics, History and Geography at A level). Please keep making videos like this.
I lived on the lake for almost 20 years and nobody had a problem. We all shared it and good neighborhood is the parole of the day and the centuries. Lake Constance - Bodensee always was an international waterway and in the middle ages nobody cared because all of it belonged to the holy roman empire of german nations. How wonderful a place without lines to be disputed because there an none.
You made an error at 1:25 with the graphic: The small, western "mini-lake" (the Untersee) has defined borders (although i am not sure how they handled it) and only the big part (Obersee) has the problem with the borders.
Nice video! As far as I know, the people in this region are generally very laid back. They constantly cross the borders everyday and dont really care about this issues. It might come in handy, that all three countries are german speaking (switzerland in this part of the country) and the culture and laws are not that different from each other.
the only time i had to care about that border was when we've been in Military service (Switzerland has compulsory service for all Males) and we didn't have too much to do and thougth oh, we'll visit Kreuzlingen, which is the Swiss City there. If we'd crossed the border accidentally that would've counted as a declaration of war technically since we've been on military duty. fun lil countries we are.
So Austria is using Socialist-model that everyone have it, Switzerland using Individualist-model that every specific area is owned by someone, and Germany just say "Whatever, I don't care"
I didn't even know abou the border dispute and I've been living just 200 kilometres north of there all my life. I've also been there only twice so it does make sense that I wouldn't know a lot.
I'm in Konstanz right now, visiting friends for New Years. Biked and walked that Swiss - German border a few times in the past few days. Didn't see Tom, alas.
There is other people this concerns: skippers. if you - like me - want to do your "boat driver's license" in Germany you need to take a special exam to drive on this lake, called Bodenseeschifferpatent. It's controversial since it isn't really much different than any other lake and international nautical law states that any skipper must acquaint himself with the local specifics of any body of water anyway.
You know, that would make an excellent location for a German-language adaptation of The Bridge (Swedish-Danish crime series, later adapted for a US-Mexican one). Someone finds a dead body in the middle of the lake, the body is tied to some kind of conspiracy, the different countries can't agree on which jurisdiction has the responsibility, so they combine efforts in a small team of quirky investigators, and off you go.
There is actually a TV Series called "Die Toten vom Bodensee" where a team consisting of an Austrian-German pair of detectives solve Lake Constance murder cases.
By getting from Germany to Switzerland on a ferry boat it makes clear that rules and laws of the operator apply. Swiss ferry boat from Friedrichshafen (GER) to Romanshorn (SUI) => Swiss railway fares and in pandemic times: Swiss pandemic rules apply.
Another interesting fact surrounding Lake Constance is that the whole Lake (well, the sky above it) is considered Swiss airspace and Swiss air traffic control is responsible for Lake Constance's airspace.
That is not correct. Swiss air traffic control controls quite a lot of foreign airspace, also from France, Austria and Italy. But this airspace is not Swiss, it is just delegated to be controlled by another country for practical traffic flow reasons. And German delegated airspace to Switzerland is a lot bigger than Lake Constance.
@@anonUK it is a problem if you take goods like cigarettes or whiskey from one country to another. So, if you go fishing and have a lot of tobacco or alcohol with you, taxes depend on where you are checked by which customs officers.
Vasectomy Fail Austrians: We can share everything! Let's be an example for the world. Germany: Sure, zhere is nothin zhere anyway. Switzerland: Yes, there is. Our lake.
Bir Tiwal! On the border between Egypt and Sudan. The border's disputed: if other country accepts a border that includes Bir Tiwal, then they'll lose a much more valuable bit of land elsewhere...
Oh I know a fun riddle about lake Constance. I hope I translated it correctly :) An airplane crashes in Lake Constance. Lake Constance borders on Germany, Austria and, Switzerland. Where will the survivors get buried?
There actually was a major air crash in the region; the "Überlingen mid-air collision" (look it up on Wikipedia), where 71 people died. Two planes collided over Lake Constance, the wreckage missed the lake by only a few miles and landed on the German side.
