Großer Plöner See
The Großer Plöner See ("Great Plön Lake") or Lake Plön ("Plöner See", ) is the largest lake (30 km2) in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is located near the town of Plön. Its main tributary, as well as its main outflow, is the River Sc ...
southwest of 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, ...
in the north German state of
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 ...
.
Princes' Island was turned into a
peninsula
A peninsula is a landform that extends from a mainland and is only connected to land on one side. Peninsulas exist on each continent. The largest peninsula in the world is the Arabian Peninsula.
Etymology
The word ''peninsula'' derives , . T ...
in the 19th century by the artificial lowering of the water level. It is about 2 km long and only about 30 m wide in places. At the southern end is the ''Niedersächsisches Bauernhaus'' ("Lower Saxon farmhouse") dating to the 17th century, which is now operated as a restaurant and breeds geese and moorland sheep of the ''
Heidschnucke
The Heidschnucke is a group of three types of moorland sheep from northern Germany. Like a number of other types from Scandinavia and Great Britain, they are Northern European short-tailed sheep. The three breeds of Heidschnucke (in order of pop ...
'' variety. Princes' Island is mainly forested, but some areas of the shoreline are also swampy. It is closed to motor traffic.
The sons of the last German Emperor William II learned agricultural skills on the old farm which their father had purchased, while they lived in the
Princes' House
The Princes' House () in Plön in the North German state of Schleswig-Holstein is a former royal summer residence in the grounds of the park at Plön Castle. It is the only surviving maison de plaisance in Schleswig-Holstein.
It was given its pr ...
on the bank of the lake. The southern tip of the Prinzeninsel was a favourite spot of the last German Empress,
Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein
Augusta Viktoria of Schleswig-Holstein (Auguste Viktoria Friederike Luise Feodora Jenny; 22 October 1858 – 11 April 1921) was the last German Empress and Queen of Prussia by marriage to Wilhelm II, German Emperor.
Biography Early life and fa ...
. The current owner of the island is
Georg Friedrich, Prince of Prussia
Georg Friedrich, Prince of Prussia (born 10 June 1976, as ''Georg Friedrich Ferdinand Prinz von Preußen'') is a German heir who is the current head of the Prussian branch of the House of Hohenzollern, the former ruling dynasty of the German Em ...
.
The boats of the ''Großer-Plöner-See-Rundfahrt'', that make round trips of the lake, land near the ''Niedersächsisches Bauernhaus''.
At the farmhouse is an inscription: ''melior nihil nihil homini libero dignius agricultura 1901'': "Nothing is better, nothing more worthy of free people, than farming."
The peninsula also has an outdoor swimming pool, which goes under the name of ''Prinzenbad'' ("Princes' pool"), because the
Hohenzollern
The House of Hohenzollern (, ; , ; ) is a formerly royal (and from 1871 to 1918, imperial) German dynasty whose members were variously princes, electors, kings and emperors of Hohenzollern, Brandenburg, Prussia, the German Empire, and Romania. ...
sons learnt to swim there. It has a fine sandy beach on the west side where the lake bed shelves very gently so that, 30 metres offshore, the depth is just 1.20 metres. Whilst from 1947-1963 there was a campsite and restaurant here on a very small scale, bathers are now largely on their own. In the modern buildings that have replaced the old ones, there is, ''inter alia'', a lifeguard station of the DLRG in Plon.