Plansee is a

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 ...

Reutte District The is an administrative district () in Tyrol, Austria. It borders Bavaria (Germany) in the north, the districts Imst and Landeck in the south, and Bregenz and Bludenz (both in Vorarlberg) in the west. The district is also referred to as . The di ...

Tyrol Tyrol (; historically the Tyrole; de-AT, Tirol ; it, Tirolo) is a historical region in the Alps - in Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Emp ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

, located at . Its surface is approximately 2.87 km² and its maximum depth is 78 metres. It lies on Austrian Federal Highway B 179, which crosses the

Ammersattel The Ammer Saddle (german: Ammersattel, 1,082 m, 3,550 ft) is a high mountain pass in the Alps on the border between Tyrol, Austria and Bavaria, Germany. The pass is located in the Ammergau region of southern Bavaria. It leads from Ettal nea ...

into

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 ...

History

Plansee and

Heiterwanger See Lake Heiterwang is a lake in the Tirol, Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one o ...

are probably the remains of an Ice Age meltwater reservoir that once covered the entire Zwischentoren ( de:Zwischentoren) area up to the Ehrwald Basin ( de:Ehrwalder Becken). The lake is first mentioned in a border description of the diocese of Freising from the years 1073/78 as Planse, other early names include; Please , Plense and Plase. The Tyrolean princes and the

Steingaden Steingaden is a town and municipality in the Weilheim-Schongau district of Upper Bavaria, Germany. It is the site of the 12th-century Steingaden Abbey (''Kloster Steingaden'') and the Wies Church, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Geography The commun ...

monastery held the fishing rights on the Plansee, as the

Stams Stams is a municipality in Imst District, in the Austrian state of Tyrol. It is chiefly known for Cistercian Stams Abbey (''Stift Stams''), founded in 1273 by Count Meinhard II of Gorizia-Tyrol and his wife.Chizzali. ''Tyrol: Impressions of Tyrol. ...

monastery in the 15th century through gift or acquisition. Duke Siegmund and his successor,

Emperor Maximilian I Maximilian I (22 March 1459 – 12 January 1519) was King of the Romans from 1486 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1508 until his death. He was never crowned by the pope, as the journey to Rome was blocked by the Venetians. He proclaimed himself Ele ...

, tried to get their hands on the best fishing waters in the country. Lake Achen from the Georgenberg monastery, and the Plansee from the Stams monastery. In Maximilian's fishing book from 1500, the Heiterwanger and Plansee are described as two particularly important lakes for the sovereign's hunting and fishing pleasures. However, the Stams monastery insisted on its rights and was granted a limited fishing right, which was confirmed in a contract of 1631 by Archduke Leopold V. In 1902, the Plansee power plant was put into operation, and in 1908 the canal to the Heiterwanger See was built, and was eventually widened in 1951. Thanks to the greater generation of electricity brought about by

Hermann Stern Hermann Stern (24 May 1878 – 24 August 1952) was an Austrian lawyer, local politician, and economic pioneer. Early life Born in Bolzano, South Tyrol, Hermann Stern was the seventh of the ten children of Johann Joachim Stern, a Jew who conver ...

who succeeded in 1922 in persuading

Paul Schwarzkopf Paul Schwarzkopf (13 April 1886 – 27 December 1970) was an Austrian inventor and industrialist. Schwarzkopf is also credited with pioneering powder metallurgy. Career After studying technical sciences in Prague (where he also became active ...

to found the Plansee metal works. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, a subcamp of

Dachau concentration camp , , commandant = List of commandants , known for = , location = Upper Bavaria, Southern Germany , built by = Germany , operated by = ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) , original use = Political prison , construction ...

for men and women was located here. Among others, the French politician

Jean Ybarnégaray Michel Albert Jean Joseph Ybarnégaray (; 16 October 1883 – 25 April 1956) was a French Basque politician and founder of the International Federation of Basque Pelota. Jean Ybarnegaray was born in Uhart-Cize, Department of Pyrénées-Atlan ...

was sent there in 1943.

References

Lakes of Tyrol (state) Ammergau Alps Reutte District {{Tyrol-geo-stub