Tägermoos
Encyclopedia
The Tägermoos is an area of 1.54 km² in Thurgau
, Switzerland, wedged between the outskirts of the German city of Constance
and the core village the Swiss municipality Tägerwilen
. It lies on the south bank of the Seerhein
. In the east, it borders the district Paradies
of Constance
. In the south-east, it borders the district Emmishofen of the municipality of Kreuzlingen
.
The remarkable status of Tägermoos was fixed in 1831 by a treaty which is still in force today. Under this treaty, the area is part of Switzerland at the state
level and part of the Swiss municipality
of Tägerwilen
. However, certain administrative tasks are exercised by the German city of Constance, in accordance with Thurgau municipal law. Other tasks are exercised by the authorities of Tägerwilen. In particular, land survey
is the responsibility of Constance, making Tägermoos a of the city of Constance.
The City of Constance legally owns about two-thirds of the land; the rest is held by Swiss authorities and private citizens. It was once a marshy commons, but has since been drained
and is now mostly used for agriculture
, primarily vegetable
production and allotments. At the Eastern edge, there are two border crossings, the larger Tägermoos crossing and the smaller .
, the Tägermoos belonged to the possession in Thurgau of the Diocese of Constance, the so-called . Bishop Hermann I of Arbon (term 1138-1165), donated the land to the Scots Abbey St. James in Paradies
, which had been founded in 1142. In 1293, the City Council of Constance purchased the Tägermoos from the Abbey, for use as a commons. It was used for cattle essentially unchanged from the 13th century until its privatisation in 1800.
Outside the Constance city walls, a gallows
was built in 1384. It was used by the court in Constance until it was demolished in 1833. In 1466 a brickyard
was constructed, which was later known as the Ziegelhof ("brick court").
In 1417, the Imperial Free City of Constance acquired the jurisdiction
over the county of Thurgau
as a pledge. In 1460, Constance lost the low justice over most of the Thurgau when the Old Swiss Confederacy
conquered the area; Constance only retained low justice over the bailiwick
s of Eggen, Raitigericht and Altnau. During the Swabian War
of 1499, high justice
in the Thurgau was lost to the court in Frauenfeld
. During the 14th Century, the City of Constance managed to incorporate the neighbouring village of Paradies
(at the time known as Eggenhusen). However, attempts to incorporate the Tägermoos failed.
During the Thirty Years' War
, a fortress with a moat were constructed in Paradies, as a second line of defence against attacks from the southern side of the Rhine. The Tägermoos itself lay outside this ring, which was meant to protect the settlements of Paradies and theBrühl, the urban festival grounds, against enemy attacks. The Heerstraße ("army road") led from the "Outer Paradies Gate" through the Tägermoos to Ermatingen
.
in 1798, a Swiss national state was established, with its borders corresponding to the former areas of high justice
. The existing rights of low justice were redistributed; only the right of high justice determined the borders of the new state. The right of high justice in the Tägermoos had been held by the Confederacy since 1499; the Tägermoos and surrounding parts of Thurgau were therefore awarded to the new Helvetic Republic, while maintaining habitual ownership and rights of use held by the city remained.
During the War of the Second Coalition
, Constance was occupied by French troops and largely removed from the sovereignty of Further Austria
. In 1800, the magistrate of Constance ordered the commons of Tägermoos surveyed and divided into plot. Leases for the plots were awarded to those interested using a lottery. What had previously been a public pasture, available to all, was now divided into plots of 18 are and leased out. Most of the new plots were cultivated are arable land and are so used to this day. This resulted in a small-scale surface with complicated and frequently changing contractual relationships.
and the Canton of Thurgau
, which is still in force and can only be terminated by mutual agreement.
The background of this treaty was a series of disputes about the border. In Thurgau, it was felt felt that the Tägermoos belonged to the canton, and so Thurgau raised taxes from the landowners. Baden disagreed and demanded freedom from Swiss taxation in the Tägermoos; in 1821 Baden even started raising toll on the road to Tägerwilen. Similar disputes existed in other areas on the High Rhine, for example Diessenhofen
and Büsingen am Hochrhein. In these cases had belonged to Swiss monateries before 1803 and were now held by Baden.
In 1829, the parties reached a compromise. Details were laid down in a treaty signed on 28 March 1831. Constance retained its rights in the Tägermoos and in return Diessenhofen acquired similar rights on the German side at Gailingen
. The old moat between Paradies and the Tägermoos was declared to be the boundary between Baden and Thurgau. In 1878 and 1938, minor changes to the Swiss-German border in the Constance area were made with mutual agreement, but these were not related to the Tägermoos.
and Gottlieben
and continues to Ermatingen
. This region is bounded on the south by a hill ridge. The emphasis in agricultural use is on the vegetable
farming, but there are also apple trees
and and allotment
area. The bank of the Seerhein
is only partially fixed. There is an official lido
, and an unofficial one at Kuhhorn, 200m upriver. Other parts of the embankment are fixed with reed bed
s and deciduous trees. The whole area is only one or two meters above the water level of the Seerhein, and is occasionally flooded, most recently in June and July of 1999.
There are six inhabited properties
in Tägermoos with a total of about 20 inhabitants:
The Ziegelhof ("brick yard") is by far the oldest building on the Tägermoos and for four centuries was the only one. It used to be the urban brick yard of the city of Constance, which was transferred here in 1446. Bricks were still produced here in the early 19th century. The Ziegelhof stood just west of the city gallows, which served as a scaffold well into the 19th century. Near the entrance to the Ziegelhof is a small bakery with an 18th century open fireplace. Bread for the inhabitants of the Tägermoos used to be baked here. Dairy farming in the Tägermoos ceased in 1971 and the area has since concentrated on vegetable gardening.
The second oldest occupied property in the Tägermoos is the Zollhof, which was constructed as a Swiss customs house in the second half of the 19th century.
The Trompeterschlössle was built in 1903 and 1904 by the German Anton Reiser only a few meters from the border, without a construction permit, from neither Tägerwilen nor Constance. It was originally a spices store. A hall was added where dances took place. It is now used as a hotel.
The Weiherstrasse ("Pond Road") was constructed in the late 1940 in the so-called Nopelsgut the southeast of the Tägermoos. It runs on the west along the brick pond and continues south, crossing the border into Kreuzlingen. Later the roads Hochstrass and Ribi-Brunnegg were constructed in the south; these also connect to roads in Kreuzlingen. There are also isolated greenhouses and other farm utility buildings.
In the southeast the Tägermoos extends to the 2.4-acre Ziegelweiher ("Brick Pond") in a field named Sauösch. About half a hectare of the pond is on Tägermoos's territory.
Since 2000, the German and Swiss customs operate a joint customs facility at the point where the Swiss A7 motorway connects to the German B33. This facility was created to relieve the border crossing facility in the city. For the construction of this new facility, the City of Constance sold a portion of their land holdings in the Tägermoos to the Swiss Federal Customs Administration.
A much smaller customs facility named exists at the site of the former city gate of Paradies. Nearby is a transformer substation
of the City of Constance Utilities Division.
As part of its land use policy, the City of Constance plans to buy more land in the Tägermoos from private owners.
has not assigend a separate code number to the area, but includes it under Community Identification Number 4649 (Tägerwilen). The State Statiscical Office of Baden-Württemberg agrees that Tägermoos is in Switzerland, and hence does not report on it.
At the municipal level, the tasks are divided between the City of Constance and the municipality of Tägerwilen.
The City of Constance is responsible in the following areas:
The responsibilities of Tägerwilen include:
Also for taxation of the land, there are some derogations in the state treaty: property owners who live in Constance, do not pay property tax or income tax to the municipality of Tägerwilen but only the property tax to the canton of Thurgau. Property owners living in Thurgau do pay income tax, but are exempt from the Swiss property tax.
Legal historian Hans-Wolfgang Strätz holds the view that the treaty makes the City of Constance de jure
a municipality in Thurgau, with all the rights and obligations this entails, even if the City does not itself carry out some of the responsibilities.
In February 2006, the municipalities of Constance, Kreuzlingen and Tägerwilen announced that they will seek to have the 175 years old treaty revised. Since the legal successors of the treaty signatories, the State
of
Baden-Württemberg
and the Canton
of Thurgau
are no longer authorized to conclude treaties of this kind, negotiations about a change of legal status will have to take place on the level of the federal governments. Any change of the treaty would also require a referendum
in the affected Swiss communities.
between Germany and Switzerland in the Tägermoos, known as or . Farmers from Constance can cross here duty-free. The "open border" at the Tägermoos has often been used for smuggling
. In days gone by, farmers drove their cattle illegally across the border here, in order to sell it in Switzerland, without paying duties, or to circumvent export restrictions. Smuggling of goods in the opposite direction was also observed frequently. During the economic crisis of the 1920s in particular, the farmers of Paradies smuggled luxury goods and building materials and lived a wealthier lifestyle than their farming income could have afforded.
Nevertheless, the border was sometimes completely closed, most recently during World War II
from 1940-46. With the border closure both states - Switzerland and Nazi Germany - would ensure that refugees could not reach Switzerland. Germany also feared a military informations might leak across the border. During World War II, Switzerland stationed troops in German-Swiss border towns such as Tägermoos in other to protect the border, and it never came to attacks on the neutral territory of Switzerland.
To close the border, Germany and Switzerland constructed a 2.60 m high and 2700 m long border fence from mesh
and barbed wire
, popularly known as the "Jews fence". The first part of the fence between the railway station and Kreuzlinger customs post was constructed in 1939 and funded by Swiss authorities. The German authorities in Stuttgart completed the closure of the Tägermoos in November 1940. The best known border incident is perhaps the arrest of the resistance fighter Georg Elser
at the Kreuzlingen customs post.
In October 2006 the city council of Constance decided to trim the remaining border fence in Tägermoos from 2.60 m down to the "fence height" of 1.40 meters. The fence is now located primarily on private land. A 20 m long section of fence is scheduled tombecome a memorial
.
Tëgar = "big" and Moos = "marsh". So it means "big marsh", a common name in southern Germany for wetlands or marshes. In fact, geologically speaking, it is not a peat bog, but a "anmoor", a mineral soil with a very high proportion of undecomposed organic matter.
The nearby Thurgau Hills are glacial moraines, which consist of till
. Upstream of the moraine is a 500 meter wide border of clay
, which was washed out of the glacial material. About this clay, we find a several meter high layer of sediments of from periods when the water level of Lake Constance
was higher. Water can be trapped in these sediments by intercalated clay layers, thereby forming stagnosol
, a soil type that is usually moist due to being waterlogged, but can also dry out completely. Close to the Seerhein
, a more recent layer of river sediments lies on top of all this.
The area of the Tägermoos has only a very slight slope and is approximately one to two meters above the water level of the Seerhein. The moist soil required comprehensive drainage
to allow intensive agricultural use. It is, however, very fertile, due to its high humus content.
Thurgau
Thurgau is a northeast canton of Switzerland. The population, , is . In 2007, there were a total of 47,390 who were resident foreigners. The capital is Frauenfeld.-History:...
, Switzerland, wedged between the outskirts of the German city of Constance
Constance
Constance is a female given name that derives from Latin and means "constant." Variations of the name include Connie, Constancia, Constanze, Constanza, Stanzy, and Konstanze.Constance may refer to:-People:*Constance Bennett , American actress...
and the core village the Swiss municipality Tägerwilen
Tägerwilen
Tägerwilen is a municipality in the district of Kreuzlingen in the canton of Thurgau in Switzerland.-Geography:Tägerwilen has an area, , of . Of this area, or 47.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 37.4% is forested...
. It lies on the south bank of the Seerhein
Seerhein
The Seerhein is a river of about four kilometer long, in the basin of Lake Constance. It is the outflow of the Upper Lake Constance and the main tributary of the Lower Lake Constance. The water level of the lower lake is about 30 cm below the level of the Upper Lake...
. In the east, it borders the district Paradies
Paradies (Constance)
Paradies is a former village, now a quarter of Konstanz, Germany. The district is located west of the Old Town on the southern shore of the Seerhein; with an area of about 63.2 hectare and 6176 inhabitants ....
of Constance
Constance
Constance is a female given name that derives from Latin and means "constant." Variations of the name include Connie, Constancia, Constanze, Constanza, Stanzy, and Konstanze.Constance may refer to:-People:*Constance Bennett , American actress...
. In the south-east, it borders the district Emmishofen of the municipality of Kreuzlingen
Kreuzlingen
Kreuzlingen is a municipality in the district of Kreuzlingen in the canton of Thurgau in north-eastern Switzerland. It is the seat of the district and is the second largest city of the canton, after Frauenfeld, with a population of over 18,000...
.
The remarkable status of Tägermoos was fixed in 1831 by a treaty which is still in force today. Under this treaty, the area is part of Switzerland at the state
Sovereign state
A sovereign state, or simply, state, is a state with a defined territory on which it exercises internal and external sovereignty, a permanent population, a government, and the capacity to enter into relations with other sovereign states. It is also normally understood to be a state which is neither...
level and part of the Swiss municipality
Municipality
A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...
of Tägerwilen
Tägerwilen
Tägerwilen is a municipality in the district of Kreuzlingen in the canton of Thurgau in Switzerland.-Geography:Tägerwilen has an area, , of . Of this area, or 47.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 37.4% is forested...
. However, certain administrative tasks are exercised by the German city of Constance, in accordance with Thurgau municipal law. Other tasks are exercised by the authorities of Tägerwilen. In particular, land survey
Cadastre
A cadastre , using a cadastral survey or cadastral map, is a comprehensive register of the metes-and-bounds real property of a country...
is the responsibility of Constance, making Tägermoos a of the city of Constance.
The City of Constance legally owns about two-thirds of the land; the rest is held by Swiss authorities and private citizens. It was once a marshy commons, but has since been drained
Drainage
Drainage is the natural or artificial removal of surface and sub-surface water from an area. Many agricultural soils need drainage to improve production or to manage water supplies.-Early history:...
and is now mostly used for agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
, primarily vegetable
Vegetable
The noun vegetable usually means an edible plant or part of a plant other than a sweet fruit or seed. This typically means the leaf, stem, or root of a plant....
production and allotments. At the Eastern edge, there are two border crossings, the larger Tägermoos crossing and the smaller .
Middle Ages and Early Modern Period
During the Early Middle AgesEarly Middle Ages
The Early Middle Ages was the period of European history lasting from the 5th century to approximately 1000. The Early Middle Ages followed the decline of the Western Roman Empire and preceded the High Middle Ages...
, the Tägermoos belonged to the possession in Thurgau of the Diocese of Constance, the so-called . Bishop Hermann I of Arbon (term 1138-1165), donated the land to the Scots Abbey St. James in Paradies
Paradies
The term Paradies may refer to*Paradies , an album by Silly*Paradies , a song by Die Toten Hosen*Paradies , a district of Constance*Paradies, a film by Želimir Žilnik...
, which had been founded in 1142. In 1293, the City Council of Constance purchased the Tägermoos from the Abbey, for use as a commons. It was used for cattle essentially unchanged from the 13th century until its privatisation in 1800.
Outside the Constance city walls, a gallows
Gallows
A gallows is a frame, typically wooden, used for execution by hanging, or by means to torture before execution, as was used when being hanged, drawn and quartered...
was built in 1384. It was used by the court in Constance until it was demolished in 1833. In 1466 a brickyard
Brickyard
A brickyard is a place or yard where the earthen building material called bricks are made, fired, and stored, or sometimes sold or otherwise distributed from.-See also:...
was constructed, which was later known as the Ziegelhof ("brick court").
In 1417, the Imperial Free City of Constance acquired the jurisdiction
Jurisdiction
Jurisdiction is the practical authority granted to a formally constituted legal body or to a political leader to deal with and make pronouncements on legal matters and, by implication, to administer justice within a defined area of responsibility...
over the county of Thurgau
Thurgau
Thurgau is a northeast canton of Switzerland. The population, , is . In 2007, there were a total of 47,390 who were resident foreigners. The capital is Frauenfeld.-History:...
as a pledge. In 1460, Constance lost the low justice over most of the Thurgau when the Old Swiss Confederacy
Old Swiss Confederacy
The Old Swiss Confederacy was the precursor of modern-day Switzerland....
conquered the area; Constance only retained low justice over the bailiwick
Bailiwick
A bailiwick is usually the area of jurisdiction of a bailiff, and may also apply to a territory in which the sheriff's functions were exercised by a privately appointed bailiff under a royal or imperial writ. The word is now more generally used in a metaphorical sense, to indicate a sphere of...
s of Eggen, Raitigericht and Altnau. During the Swabian War
Swabian War
The Swabian War of 1499 was the last major armed conflict between the Old Swiss Confederacy and the House of Habsburg...
of 1499, high justice
High Justice
High Justice is a 1974 collection of science fiction short stories by Jerry Pournelle. It was republished in a omnibus edition with Exiles to Glory in 2009 as Exile -- and Glory....
in the Thurgau was lost to the court in Frauenfeld
Frauenfeld
Frauenfeld is the capital of the canton of Thurgau in Switzerland.-Early history:The earliest trace of human settlement are several La Tène era graves to the east of Langdorf. The Roman road from Oberwinterthur to Pfyn ran through what is now the Allmend in Frauenfeld. Two Roman villas were...
. During the 14th Century, the City of Constance managed to incorporate the neighbouring village of Paradies
Paradies
The term Paradies may refer to*Paradies , an album by Silly*Paradies , a song by Die Toten Hosen*Paradies , a district of Constance*Paradies, a film by Želimir Žilnik...
(at the time known as Eggenhusen). However, attempts to incorporate the Tägermoos failed.
During the Thirty Years' War
Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was fought primarily in what is now Germany, and at various points involved most countries in Europe. It was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history....
, a fortress with a moat were constructed in Paradies, as a second line of defence against attacks from the southern side of the Rhine. The Tägermoos itself lay outside this ring, which was meant to protect the settlements of Paradies and theBrühl, the urban festival grounds, against enemy attacks. The Heerstraße ("army road") led from the "Outer Paradies Gate" through the Tägermoos to Ermatingen
Ermatingen
Ermatingen is a municipality in the district of Kreuzlingen in the canton of Thurgau in Switzerland.-History:The Stone Age Westerfeld and Büge shoreline settlements were discovered in 1861 and studied extensively 1981-83, with finds from the Pfyn, Horgen and Corded Ware cultures An Alamanni...
.
Helvetization and privatization around 1800
With the collapse of the Old Swiss Confederation and the founding of the Helvetic RepublicHelvetic Republic
In Swiss history, the Helvetic Republic represented an early attempt to impose a central authority over Switzerland, which until then consisted mainly of self-governing cantons united by a loose military alliance, and conquered territories such as Vaud...
in 1798, a Swiss national state was established, with its borders corresponding to the former areas of high justice
High Justice
High Justice is a 1974 collection of science fiction short stories by Jerry Pournelle. It was republished in a omnibus edition with Exiles to Glory in 2009 as Exile -- and Glory....
. The existing rights of low justice were redistributed; only the right of high justice determined the borders of the new state. The right of high justice in the Tägermoos had been held by the Confederacy since 1499; the Tägermoos and surrounding parts of Thurgau were therefore awarded to the new Helvetic Republic, while maintaining habitual ownership and rights of use held by the city remained.
During the War of the Second Coalition
War of the Second Coalition
The "Second Coalition" was the second attempt by European monarchs, led by the Habsburg Monarchy of Austria and the Russian Empire, to contain or eliminate Revolutionary France. They formed a new alliance and attempted to roll back France's previous military conquests...
, Constance was occupied by French troops and largely removed from the sovereignty of Further Austria
Further Austria
Further Austria or Anterior Austria was the collective name for the old possessions of the House of Habsburg in the former Swabian stem duchy of south-western Germany, including territories in the Alsace region west of the Rhine and in Vorarlberg, after the focus of the Habsburgs had moved to the...
. In 1800, the magistrate of Constance ordered the commons of Tägermoos surveyed and divided into plot. Leases for the plots were awarded to those interested using a lottery. What had previously been a public pasture, available to all, was now divided into plots of 18 are and leased out. Most of the new plots were cultivated are arable land and are so used to this day. This resulted in a small-scale surface with complicated and frequently changing contractual relationships.
Treaty of 1831
The City of Constance retained special rights in Tägermoos that went beyond what was otherwise the case for previous owners of a newly organized territory. The special status was defined in a bilateral treaty, signed in 1831, between the Grand Duchy of BadenGrand Duchy of Baden
The Grand Duchy of Baden was a historical state in the southwest of Germany, on the east bank of the Rhine. It existed between 1806 and 1918.-History:...
and the Canton of Thurgau
Thurgau
Thurgau is a northeast canton of Switzerland. The population, , is . In 2007, there were a total of 47,390 who were resident foreigners. The capital is Frauenfeld.-History:...
, which is still in force and can only be terminated by mutual agreement.
The background of this treaty was a series of disputes about the border. In Thurgau, it was felt felt that the Tägermoos belonged to the canton, and so Thurgau raised taxes from the landowners. Baden disagreed and demanded freedom from Swiss taxation in the Tägermoos; in 1821 Baden even started raising toll on the road to Tägerwilen. Similar disputes existed in other areas on the High Rhine, for example Diessenhofen
Diessenhofen
Diessenhofen is a municipality in Frauenfeld District in the canton of Thurgau in Switzerland.-History:Diessenhofen is first mentioned in 757 as Deozincova. In 2000, the village of Willisdorf was incorporated into the municipality...
and Büsingen am Hochrhein. In these cases had belonged to Swiss monateries before 1803 and were now held by Baden.
In 1829, the parties reached a compromise. Details were laid down in a treaty signed on 28 March 1831. Constance retained its rights in the Tägermoos and in return Diessenhofen acquired similar rights on the German side at Gailingen
Gailingen
Gailingen is a town in the district of Konstanz in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany.It is situated in the southern part of the landscape called Hegau in a unique location on the northern bank of the Rhine River just across from Switzerland and close to the Lake of Constance. It is therefore...
. The old moat between Paradies and the Tägermoos was declared to be the boundary between Baden and Thurgau. In 1878 and 1938, minor changes to the Swiss-German border in the Constance area were made with mutual agreement, but these were not related to the Tägermoos.
Properties
The Tägermoos is part of a small-scale farming region that extends past the villages of TägerwilenTägerwilen
Tägerwilen is a municipality in the district of Kreuzlingen in the canton of Thurgau in Switzerland.-Geography:Tägerwilen has an area, , of . Of this area, or 47.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 37.4% is forested...
and Gottlieben
Gottlieben
Gottlieben is a municipality in the district of Kreuzlingen in the canton of Thurgau in Switzerland.-History:Gottlieben is first mentioned around the end of the 10th Century as Gotiliubon. It was originally part of the land owned by the Bishop of Constance. In 1251, Eberhard von Waldburg built a...
and continues to Ermatingen
Ermatingen
Ermatingen is a municipality in the district of Kreuzlingen in the canton of Thurgau in Switzerland.-History:The Stone Age Westerfeld and Büge shoreline settlements were discovered in 1861 and studied extensively 1981-83, with finds from the Pfyn, Horgen and Corded Ware cultures An Alamanni...
. This region is bounded on the south by a hill ridge. The emphasis in agricultural use is on the vegetable
Vegetable
The noun vegetable usually means an edible plant or part of a plant other than a sweet fruit or seed. This typically means the leaf, stem, or root of a plant....
farming, but there are also apple trees
APPLE
This article is about the satellite APPLE. For the fruit apple, see Apple. For other uses see Apple . HI MY NAME IS gRANNY SMITH APPLE...
and and allotment
Allotment
Allotment may refer to:* Allotment , a small area of land, let out at a nominal yearly rent by local government or independent allotment associations, for individuals to grow their own food...
area. The bank of the Seerhein
Seerhein
The Seerhein is a river of about four kilometer long, in the basin of Lake Constance. It is the outflow of the Upper Lake Constance and the main tributary of the Lower Lake Constance. The water level of the lower lake is about 30 cm below the level of the Upper Lake...
is only partially fixed. There is an official lido
Lido
The Lido is an 11 km long sandbar located in Venice, northern Italy, home to about 20,000 residents. The Venice Film Festival takes place at the Lido every September.-Geography:...
, and an unofficial one at Kuhhorn, 200m upriver. Other parts of the embankment are fixed with reed bed
Reed bed
Reed beds are natural habitats found in floodplains, waterlogged depressions andestuaries. Reed beds are part of a succession from young reed colonising open water or wet ground through a gradation of increasingly dry ground...
s and deciduous trees. The whole area is only one or two meters above the water level of the Seerhein, and is occasionally flooded, most recently in June and July of 1999.
There are six inhabited properties
Property
Property is any physical or intangible entity that is owned by a person or jointly by a group of people or a legal entity like a corporation...
in Tägermoos with a total of about 20 inhabitants:
- Ziegelhof
- Zollhof
- Trompeterschlössle
- Weiherstrasse
- Unter-Hochstrass
- Ribi-Brunnegg
The Ziegelhof ("brick yard") is by far the oldest building on the Tägermoos and for four centuries was the only one. It used to be the urban brick yard of the city of Constance, which was transferred here in 1446. Bricks were still produced here in the early 19th century. The Ziegelhof stood just west of the city gallows, which served as a scaffold well into the 19th century. Near the entrance to the Ziegelhof is a small bakery with an 18th century open fireplace. Bread for the inhabitants of the Tägermoos used to be baked here. Dairy farming in the Tägermoos ceased in 1971 and the area has since concentrated on vegetable gardening.
The second oldest occupied property in the Tägermoos is the Zollhof, which was constructed as a Swiss customs house in the second half of the 19th century.
The Trompeterschlössle was built in 1903 and 1904 by the German Anton Reiser only a few meters from the border, without a construction permit, from neither Tägerwilen nor Constance. It was originally a spices store. A hall was added where dances took place. It is now used as a hotel.
The Weiherstrasse ("Pond Road") was constructed in the late 1940 in the so-called Nopelsgut the southeast of the Tägermoos. It runs on the west along the brick pond and continues south, crossing the border into Kreuzlingen. Later the roads Hochstrass and Ribi-Brunnegg were constructed in the south; these also connect to roads in Kreuzlingen. There are also isolated greenhouses and other farm utility buildings.
In the southeast the Tägermoos extends to the 2.4-acre Ziegelweiher ("Brick Pond") in a field named Sauösch. About half a hectare of the pond is on Tägermoos's territory.
Since 2000, the German and Swiss customs operate a joint customs facility at the point where the Swiss A7 motorway connects to the German B33. This facility was created to relieve the border crossing facility in the city. For the construction of this new facility, the City of Constance sold a portion of their land holdings in the Tägermoos to the Swiss Federal Customs Administration.
A much smaller customs facility named exists at the site of the former city gate of Paradies. Nearby is a transformer substation
Substation
Substation can refer to:*Electrical substation*Police substation, a mini police station with limited services*The Substation, a Singaporean contemporary arts centre*SubStation Alpha, a subtitle file format...
of the City of Constance Utilities Division.
As part of its land use policy, the City of Constance plans to buy more land in the Tägermoos from private owners.
Legal Status
The odd status of the area can be explained from the State Treaty of 28 March 1831. At the state level, the Tägermoos belongs to Switzerland, to the canton of Thurgau, and to the municipality of Tägerwilen. The Swiss Federal Statistical OfficeFederal Statistical Office (Switzerland)
The Federal Statistical Office is a Federal authority of the Swiss Confederation. It is the Statistics Office of Switzerland, situated in Neuchâtel and attached to the Federal Department of Home Affairs ....
has not assigend a separate code number to the area, but includes it under Community Identification Number 4649 (Tägerwilen). The State Statiscical Office of Baden-Württemberg agrees that Tägermoos is in Switzerland, and hence does not report on it.
At the municipal level, the tasks are divided between the City of Constance and the municipality of Tägerwilen.
The City of Constance is responsible in the following areas:
- SurveyingSurveyingSee Also: Public Land Survey SystemSurveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, and science of accurately determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional position of points and the distances and angles between them...
and land registry are provided by the City Planning and Survey Office. The Tägermoos forms a separate within the city (§ 3 of the Tägermoos Statute). The coordinate systemEasting and northingThe terms easting and northing are geographic Cartesian coordinates for a point. Easting refers to the eastward-measured distance , while northing refers to the northward-measured distance...
used in the Tägermoos is the Gauss–Krüger coordinate system used in Germany and not the Swiss coordinate systemSwiss coordinate systemThe Swiss coordinate system is a geographic coordinate system used in Switzerland for maps and surveying by the Swiss Federal Office of Topography .The map projection used is Oblique Mercator on an 1841 Bessel ellipsoid....
. Heights above mean sea levelAbove mean sea levelThe term above mean sea level refers to the elevation or altitude of any object, relative to the average sea level datum. AMSL is used extensively in radio by engineers to determine the coverage area a station will be able to reach...
in the Tägermoos are measured with respect to the AmsterdamAmsterdamAmsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
datum, like in Germany, not the MarseilleMarseilleMarseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...
datum used in the rest of Switzerland. The difference between the two datums is about 25 cm.
- Road construction and maintenance. Traffic signs are mixed: both German and Swiss traffic signs are found in the Tägermoos
- Enforcement of certain rules and regulations (§ 4).
- The City of Constance supplies gas and drinking water to the area.
The responsibilities of Tägerwilen include:
- Decisions on construction permitConstruction permitA construction permit or building permit is a permit required in most jurisdictions for new construction, or adding on to pre-existing structures, and in some cases for major renovations. Generally, the new construction must be inspected during construction and after completion to ensure compliance...
s. - Various administrative tasks. Some lawyers believe, however, that due to the growth of municipal functions since the conclusion of the treaty has created a legal gap.
Also for taxation of the land, there are some derogations in the state treaty: property owners who live in Constance, do not pay property tax or income tax to the municipality of Tägerwilen but only the property tax to the canton of Thurgau. Property owners living in Thurgau do pay income tax, but are exempt from the Swiss property tax.
Legal historian Hans-Wolfgang Strätz holds the view that the treaty makes the City of Constance de jure
De jure
De jure is an expression that means "concerning law", as contrasted with de facto, which means "concerning fact".De jure = 'Legally', De facto = 'In fact'....
a municipality in Thurgau, with all the rights and obligations this entails, even if the City does not itself carry out some of the responsibilities.
In February 2006, the municipalities of Constance, Kreuzlingen and Tägerwilen announced that they will seek to have the 175 years old treaty revised. Since the legal successors of the treaty signatories, the State
States of Germany
Germany is made up of sixteen which are partly sovereign constituent states of the Federal Republic of Germany. Land literally translates as "country", and constitutionally speaking, they are constituent countries...
of
Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg is one of the 16 states of Germany. Baden-Württemberg is in the southwestern part of the country to the east of the Upper Rhine, and is the third largest in both area and population of Germany's sixteen states, with an area of and 10.7 million inhabitants...
and the Canton
Cantons of Switzerland
The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the member states of the federal state of Switzerland. Each canton was a fully sovereign state with its own borders, army and currency from the Treaty of Westphalia until the establishment of the Swiss federal state in 1848...
of Thurgau
Thurgau
Thurgau is a northeast canton of Switzerland. The population, , is . In 2007, there were a total of 47,390 who were resident foreigners. The capital is Frauenfeld.-History:...
are no longer authorized to conclude treaties of this kind, negotiations about a change of legal status will have to take place on the level of the federal governments. Any change of the treaty would also require a referendum
Referendum
A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...
in the affected Swiss communities.
The Tägermoos as a border crossing
Since 1803 there has been a border crossingBorder Crossing
Border Crossing may refer to:* Border Crossing , an album by saxophonist Mike Osborne.* Border Crossing , a UK hip hop collective musical group.* Border Crossing , a 2001 novel by English author Pat Barker....
between Germany and Switzerland in the Tägermoos, known as or . Farmers from Constance can cross here duty-free. The "open border" at the Tägermoos has often been used for smuggling
Smuggling
Smuggling is the clandestine transportation of goods or persons, such as out of a building, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations.There are various motivations to smuggle...
. In days gone by, farmers drove their cattle illegally across the border here, in order to sell it in Switzerland, without paying duties, or to circumvent export restrictions. Smuggling of goods in the opposite direction was also observed frequently. During the economic crisis of the 1920s in particular, the farmers of Paradies smuggled luxury goods and building materials and lived a wealthier lifestyle than their farming income could have afforded.
Nevertheless, the border was sometimes completely closed, most recently during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
from 1940-46. With the border closure both states - Switzerland and Nazi Germany - would ensure that refugees could not reach Switzerland. Germany also feared a military informations might leak across the border. During World War II, Switzerland stationed troops in German-Swiss border towns such as Tägermoos in other to protect the border, and it never came to attacks on the neutral territory of Switzerland.
To close the border, Germany and Switzerland constructed a 2.60 m high and 2700 m long border fence from mesh
Mesh
Mesh consists of semi-permeable barrier made of connected strands of metal, fiber, or other flexible/ductile material. Mesh is similar to web or net in that it has many attached or woven strands.-Types of mesh:...
and barbed wire
Barbed wire
Barbed wire, also known as barb wire , is a type of fencing wire constructed with sharp edges or points arranged at intervals along the strand. It is used to construct inexpensive fences and is used atop walls surrounding secured property...
, popularly known as the "Jews fence". The first part of the fence between the railway station and Kreuzlinger customs post was constructed in 1939 and funded by Swiss authorities. The German authorities in Stuttgart completed the closure of the Tägermoos in November 1940. The best known border incident is perhaps the arrest of the resistance fighter Georg Elser
Georg Elser
Johann Georg Elser was a German opponent of Nazism. He is most remembered for his unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler, but he also wanted to assassinate Hermann Göring and Joseph Goebbels in 1939....
at the Kreuzlingen customs post.
In October 2006 the city council of Constance decided to trim the remaining border fence in Tägermoos from 2.60 m down to the "fence height" of 1.40 meters. The fence is now located primarily on private land. A 20 m long section of fence is scheduled tombecome a memorial
Memorial
A memorial is an object which serves as a focus for memory of something, usually a person or an event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or art objects such as sculptures, statues or fountains, and even entire parks....
.
Geology
The name "Tägermoos" is derived from the Old High GermanOld High German
The term Old High German refers to the earliest stage of the German language and it conventionally covers the period from around 500 to 1050. Coherent written texts do not appear until the second half of the 8th century, and some treat the period before 750 as 'prehistoric' and date the start of...
Tëgar = "big" and Moos = "marsh". So it means "big marsh", a common name in southern Germany for wetlands or marshes. In fact, geologically speaking, it is not a peat bog, but a "anmoor", a mineral soil with a very high proportion of undecomposed organic matter.
The nearby Thurgau Hills are glacial moraines, which consist of till
Till
thumb|right|Closeup of glacial till. Note that the larger grains in the till are completely surrounded by the matrix of finer material , and this characteristic, known as matrix support, is diagnostic of till....
. Upstream of the moraine is a 500 meter wide border of clay
Clay
Clay is a general term including many combinations of one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure.- Formation :Clay minerals...
, which was washed out of the glacial material. About this clay, we find a several meter high layer of sediments of from periods when the water level of Lake Constance
Lake Constance
Lake Constance is a lake on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps, and consists of three bodies of water: the Obersee , the Untersee , and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Seerhein.The lake is situated in Germany, Switzerland and Austria near the Alps...
was higher. Water can be trapped in these sediments by intercalated clay layers, thereby forming stagnosol
Stagnosol
A stagnosol in the FAO World Reference Base for Soil Resources is a soil with strong mottling of the soil profile due to redox processes caused by stagnating surfacewater. Stagnosols are periodically wet and mottled in the topsoil and subsoil, with or without concretions and/or bleaching. The...
, a soil type that is usually moist due to being waterlogged, but can also dry out completely. Close to the Seerhein
Seerhein
The Seerhein is a river of about four kilometer long, in the basin of Lake Constance. It is the outflow of the Upper Lake Constance and the main tributary of the Lower Lake Constance. The water level of the lower lake is about 30 cm below the level of the Upper Lake...
, a more recent layer of river sediments lies on top of all this.
The area of the Tägermoos has only a very slight slope and is approximately one to two meters above the water level of the Seerhein. The moist soil required comprehensive drainage
Drainage
Drainage is the natural or artificial removal of surface and sub-surface water from an area. Many agricultural soils need drainage to improve production or to manage water supplies.-Early history:...
to allow intensive agricultural use. It is, however, very fertile, due to its high humus content.