Der Bodensee [antikvár]

Past gloriesThe laké and its environs are extremely diver-sified. Three European states share its shores. The surrounding countiyside is made up of at least a dozen different types of landscape. And there are contradictions, too; because the water can have both a unifying and a divisive effect. At the north-western end of the laké there is the volcanic Hegau district, the south-eastern tip is embraced by the Bregenz Forest. The Alpstein massif, töpped by Mt. Santis, rises like a buttress and orientation point in the south, while orchards and vineyards characterize the fertile Linzgau district to the north. Three islands grace the varied surface of the laké like natural jewels. At one time, a thousand years ago, and even still during the Hohenstaufen period, when the great monasteries of St. Gallen and Reichenau and the diocese of Constance were not only spiritual, but alsó political powers, the country surrounding the laké was much closer-knit, and itself förmed the centre of a homogeneous culture. The formádon of the nation states divided the country surrounding the laké among powers of a different kind which did not begin at the laké, but ended there. The Federal Republic of Germany, Switzerland, and the Republic of Austria are federal in character, but the centres of power nevertheless lie far away from Laké Constance. The laké is now at the edge of one state which extends right up to the North Sea, of a second whose southern bordér lies along the fringe of the Po Valley, and of a third whose frontier abuts on southeast Europe and the Balkans. Only historical evidence reminds