The Großer Plöner See ("Great Plön Lake") or Lake Plön ("Plöner See", ) is the largest

lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

(30 km²) in

Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; ; ; ; ; occasionally in English ''Sleswick-Holsatia'') is the Northern Germany, northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical Duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of S ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. It is located near the town of

Plön Plön (; ) is the district seat of the Plön district in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, and has about 8,700 inhabitants. It lies right on the shores of Schleswig-Holstein's biggest lake, the Great Plön Lake, as well as on several smaller lakes, ...

. Its main tributary, as well as its main outflow, is the

River Schwentine The Schwentine is a river in the North German state of Schleswig-Holstein. It is approximately long and rises on the hill of Bungsberg, the highest point in the state, near the village of Kasseedorf in Ostholstein. It then runs from its source t ...

Geography

General

With an area of about 30 km² and a depth of up to 58 m, the Großer Plöner See is the largest and deepest lake in the state of Schleswig-Holstein. It lies wholly within the Holstein Switzerland Nature Park.
On its north shore lies the county town of

, whose emblem depicts the lake below

Plön Castle Plön Castle () in Plön is one of the largest castles in the north German state of Schleswig-Holstein and the only one located on a hill.

situated on a hill. Other settlements on the shore of the Großer Plöner See are Bosau, Dersau and

Ascheberg Ascheberg () is a municipality in the district of Coesfeld in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The neighbouring cities, towns and municipalities of Ascheberg are (clockwise, starting in the North) the city Münster, the town Drenst ...

Origin

The Große Plöner See emerged as a consequence of the glaciation of Schleswig-Holstein after the last ice age. It is a typical Weichselian

glacial lake A glacial lake is a body of water with origins from glacier activity. They are formed when a glacier erodes the land and then melts, filling the depression created by the glacier. Formation Near the end of the last glacial period, roughly 10,0 ...

known as a ''

Zungenbecken A ''Zungenbecken'' (), also called a tongue basin or tongue-basin, is part of a succession of ice age geological landforms, known as a glacial series. It is a hollow that is left behind by the ice mass, as the snout of the glacier () recedes, ...

'', whose shape may be especially well seen on the southern shore between Bosau and Nehmten. Two glaciers were largely responsible for forming the 58 m deep Plön Basin in the east and shallower 30 m deep Ascherberger Basin in the west. The northern boundary of the lake consists of a

land bridge In biogeography, a land bridge is an isthmus or wider land connection between otherwise separate areas, over which animals and plants are able to cross and colonize new lands. A land bridge can be created by marine regression, in which sea le ...

between the Great and Little Plön Lakes, which was formed during a later advance of the ice sheet as a terminal moraine.

Islands

The eastern and the western parts of the lake are connected by an area of shallow water which was designated in 1992 as a

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, funga, or features of geologic ...

. This area is the largest of the islands, providing a sheltered and quiet, breeding and moulting area for bird species such as

white-tailed eagle The white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), sometimes known as the 'sea eagle', is a large bird of prey, widely distributed across temperate Eurasia. Like all eagles, it is a member of the family Accipitridae (or accipitrids) which also ...

goldeneye ''GoldenEye'' is a 1995 spy film, the seventeenth in the List of James Bond films, ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions, and the first to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional Secret Intelligence Service, MI6 agent James Bond (lit ...

goosander The common merganser (North American) or goosander (Eurasian) (''Mergus merganser'') is a large sea duck of rivers and lakes in forested areas of Europe, Asia, and North America. The common merganser eats mainly fish. It nests in holes in trees. ...

, and

greylag goose The greylag goose (''Anser anser'') is a species of large goose in the waterfowl family Anatidae and the type species of the genus ''Anser (bird), Anser''. It has mottled and barred grey and white plumage and an orange beak and pink legs. A lar ...

. The Princes' Island (''Prinzeninsel''), which became a peninsula in the 19th century when the water level was artificially lowered, extends from here for 2 km to the north and is a popular summer destination for tourists.
Another nature reserve that has existed since 1955, is located in the western part of the lake around the Ascheberger Warder. Overall, there are more than 20 islands scattered around the Großer Plöner See.

History

Settlement

The lakeshore was used during the

Middle Stone Age The Middle Stone Age (or MSA) was a period of African prehistory between the Early Stone Age and the Late Stone Age. It is generally considered to have begun around 280,000 years ago and ended around 50–25,000 years ago. The beginnings of ...

(c. 10000–4300 BC) by hunters, gatherers, and fishers. From the

New Stone Age The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide- ...

(c. 4300–2300 BC), through the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

(c. 2300–550 BC) and into the

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

(c. 550 BC–400 AD) it was settled by farmers more or less continuously.
From the 8th to the 12th century the region around the Plöner See was settled by

Slavs The Slavs or Slavic people are groups of people who speak Slavic languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout the northern parts of Eurasia; they predominantly inhabit Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe, and ...

. There is still evidence of this in the Olsborg, an island south of Plön, that was heavily fortified. The Slavs called it Plune, which meant "ice-free water". In 1139 the Holstein count Adolf II of Schauenburg destroyed the fort and ended Slav rule over the Plön region.

Economic use

The lake area is divided amongst several private owners as well as the state of Schleswig-Holstein. About 900 ha of the lake is rented out until 2020. The lake is fished by several professional fishermen. Species of fish include

eel Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes (), which consists of eight suborders, 20 families, 164 genera, and about 1000 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the early larval stage to the eventual adult stage ...

perch Perch is a common name for freshwater fish from the genus ''Perca'', which belongs to the family Percidae of the large order Perciformes. The name comes from , meaning the type species of this genus, the European perch (''P. fluviatilis'') ...

bream Bream (, ) are species of freshwater fish belonging to a variety of genera including '' Abramis'' (e.g., ''A. brama'', the common bream), '' Ballerus'', '' Blicca'', '' Brama'', '' Chilotilapia'', '' Etelis'', '' Lepomis'', '' Gymnocranius'', ...

, pike,

tench The tench or doctor fish (''Tinca tinca'') is a freshwater, fresh- and brackish water, brackish-water fish of the order Cypriniformes found throughout Eurasia from Western Europe including Great Britain, Britain and Ireland east into Asia as far ...

carp The term carp (: carp) is a generic common name for numerous species of freshwater fish from the family (biology), family Cyprinidae, a very large clade of ray-finned fish mostly native to Eurasia. While carp are prized game fish, quarries and a ...

, whiting, and whitefish.

Tourism and leisure facilities

The lake and its surroundings are a popular recreational area for residents of the metropolitan areas of Kiel, Lübeck, and Hamburg as well as a centre of tourism within Holstein Switzerland. There are a total of 15 bathing sites. Some campsites (including Bosau and Ruhleben) are located directly on the lakeshore. There is a wide range of recreational activities such as boating, sailing, diving, and fishing. During the summer pleasure boats ply the lake.

Fishing

In order to make the Holsteinische Schweiz fishing area more attractive to tourists, the fishing licensees have decided to combine their leases into a single guest fishing permit allowing fishing over the entire lake area. The responsible authority is the Landessportfischerverband Schleswig-Holstein e.V. In summer, fishing at night is permitted for an additional fee. Boat rentals can be found in Plön. There are also plenty of slipways on the shores for those who want to use their own boat for fishing at Großer Plöner See.

References

Sources

* Muuß, Uwe; Petersen, Marcus; König, Dietrich (1973). ''Die Binnengewässer Schleswig-Holsteins.'' 162 pp., numerous photos, Wachholtz-Verlag Neumünster.

External links

*
Environmental report on the Plöner See by the state of Schleswig-Holstein

Tourism on the Plöner See

Boating map

* ttps://archive.today/20121210214838/http://sh.juris.de/cgi-bin/landesrecht.py?d=http://sh.juris.de/sh/ABgWarderNatSchGV_SH_rahmen.htm Nature reserve law: "Ascheberger Warder im Großen Plöner See * {{DEFAULTSORT:Grosser Ploner See Ploner See, Grosser Nature reserves in Schleswig-Holstein LPlonersee, Grosser Plön