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

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

(30 km²) in

Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; da, Slesvig-Holsten; nds, Sleswig-Holsteen; frr, Slaswik-Holstiinj) is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Sch ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. It is located near the town of

Plön Plön (; Holsatian: ''Plöön'') 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 ...

. 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 to ...

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 (german: Plöner Schloss) 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 Bosau () is a municipality on the Great Plön Lake the district of Ostholstein, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is situated approximately 13 km west of Eutin, and 30 km southeast of the state capital of Kiel. Parishes The followin ...

, 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 Drenste ...

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 The Weichselian glaciation was the last glacial period and its associated glaciation in northern parts of Europe. In the Alpine region it corresponds to the Würm glaciation. It was characterized by a large ice sheet (the Fenno-Scandian ice sheet) ...

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 (German: ''Glets ...

'', 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 Colonisation (biology), colonize new lands. A land bridge can be created by marine regre ...

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, or features of geological or ...

. 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'') is a very large species of sea eagle widely distributed across temperate Palearctic, Eurasia. Like all eagles, it is a member of the family Accipitridae (or accipitrids) which includes other diur ...

goldeneye ''GoldenEye'' is a 1995 spy film, the seventeenth in the ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions, and the first to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Directed by Martin Campbell, it was the first in the ser ...

goosander The common merganser (North American) or goosander (Eurasian) (''Mergus merganser'') is a large seaduck 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 or graylag goose (''Anser anser'') is a species of large goose in the waterfowl family Anatidae and the type species of the genus ''Anser''. It has mottled and barred grey and white plumage and an orange beak and pink legs. A ...

. 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 pa ...

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

New Stone Age The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...

(c. 4300–2300 BC), through the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

(c. 2300–550 BC) and into the

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

(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 Slavs are the largest European ethnolinguistic group. They speak the various Slavic languages, belonging to the larger Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout northern Eurasia, main ...

. 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, 19 families, 111 genera, and about 800 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the early larval stage to the eventual adult stage ...

perch Perch is a common name for fish of the genus ''Perca'', freshwater gamefish belonging to the family Percidae. The perch, of which three species occur in different geographical areas, lend their name to a large order of vertebrates: the Percif ...

bream Bream ( ) are species of freshwater and marine fish belonging to a variety of genera including ''Abramis'' (e.g., ''A. brama'', the common bream), ''Acanthopagrus'', '' Argyrops'', ''Blicca'', '' Brama'', ''Chilotilapia'', '' Etelis'', ''Lepo ...

pike Pike, Pikes or The Pike may refer to: Fish * Blue pike or blue walleye, an extinct color morph of the yellow walleye ''Sander vitreus'' * Ctenoluciidae, the "pike characins", some species of which are commonly known as pikes * ''Esox'', genus of ...

tench The tench or doctor fish (''Tinca tinca'') is a fresh- and brackish-water fish of the order Cypriniformes found throughout Eurasia from Western Europe including the British Isles east into Asia as far as the Ob and Yenisei Rivers. It is also ...

carp Carp are various species of oily freshwater fish from the family Cyprinidae, a very large group of fish native to Europe and Asia. While carp is consumed in many parts of the world, they are generally considered an invasive species in parts of ...

, 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 with which you can fish the entire lake area. The responsible authority is the Landessportfischerverband Schleswig-Holstein e.V. In summer, you can also fish at night for an additional fee. Boat rentals can be found in Plön. Of course, 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

* ttp://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