Five local times on Lake Constance

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By the end of the 19th century were in the countries bordering the Lake Constance, five different local times for specifying the time of day that affected very small areas, especially in the German North Shore.

The five countries bordering Lake Constance with five different time measures (local times of the respective main towns ), before 1895

The situation at Lake Constance

The special situation at only 46 km and 0 ° 34 'geographic difference in length long Bodensee - five small areas of five measures of time for specifying the time of day - arose in the 19th century by five littoral states with their own time scales (local times of the main towns). On the shores of Lake Constance in Baden the “ Karlsruhe time” was decisive, on the Württemberg one the “ Stuttgart time”, on the Bavarian “ Munich time”, on the Austrian “ Prague time” and on the Swiss shores the “ Bern time”. Accordingly, the railway and ship timetables contained information on the time differences.

The diversity had various consequences: The administrations of the regional railways, to which the respective shipping companies were subordinate, had to guarantee the connection possibilities of the ships and railways, for which the association of the "United Steamship Administrations" was founded. The harbor clocks indicated different times at the same time; the one in Romanshorn therefore had three dials. The captains announced for security exit each quarter of an hour earlier by a cannon shot, and ringing the ship's bell on. They also had to adjust the clock on their ships every few kilometers. And the passengers had to take the different times into account when planning their appointments.

An example:

A passenger boarded the ship to Constance in Bregenz to take a cab to neighboring Kreuzlingen . The five local times as contained in the following table (only one landing stage is listed per local time) had to be observed:

port country Local time Arrivals Departure Local time
Local time Prague time Local time Prague time Minutes cumulative
Bregenz Austria Prague time 09:40 09:40
Lindau Bavaria Munich time 09:54 10:05 10:04 10:15 - 11 - 11
Friedrichshafen Württemberg Stuttgart time 11:19 11:40 11:29 11:50 - 10 - 21
Constancy to bathe Karlsruhe time 13:06 13:30 (13:10) (13:34) 0- 3 - 24
Kreuzlingen Switzerland Bern time (13:16) (13:44) 0- 4th - 28

The journey by ship from Bregenz to Konstanz took three hours and 50 minutes in real time, i.e. without taking the time difference into account, but only three hours and 26 minutes, i.e. 24 minutes less, when this was taken into account (read on local clocks). On arrival in Kreuzlingen (Bern time) the maximum time difference was reached with 28 minutes. On the return trip, this apparent “time gain” was canceled out again.

Central European Time as the solution

In 1890, the state railways organized in the Association of German Railway Administrations agreed on Central European Time (CET) as the common operating time. From April 1, 1892, CET became binding for the German Grand Duchy of Baden , Kingdom of Bavaria and Kingdom of Württemberg as a general time in everyday life. The CET was introduced in the Austrian railway and telegraph service as early as 1891. In Switzerland, the (cantonal) Bernese government council issued a directive according to which Central European Time was to be introduced for civil and official life from June 1, 1894. All public clocks (church clocks and others) should be advanced by 30 minutes. This Bern regulation was also adopted by the other Swiss cantons . However, since the Swiss Lake Constance ship schedule was already valid at that time, Swiss passengers had to deduct these 30 minutes from the new time until the next schedule change. From 1895 there was only one zone time on Lake Constance, the CET.

See also

literature

  • Dietmar Bönke: paddle wheel and impeller. The history of the railroad on Lake Constance. GeraMond Verlag, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-86245-714-4 . P. 154f
  • Federal Railway Directorate Karlsruhe - Lake Constance Office - Constance Ship Operations (publisher): 150 years of shipping on Lake Constance and the Rhine 1824–1974 , Konstanz no year.
  • Friedrich Pernwerth von Bärnstein: Steam navigation on Lake Constance and its historical development in cooperation with the railways during its second main period (1847–1900) . Deichert, Leipzig 1906 ( digitized version )

References and comments

  1. ↑ The information relates to the Obersee , because this largest part of the lake is already affected by the five different time measures.
  2. ^ Rolf Lehnhardt: Steamship nostalgia in Constance . In: Südkurier from June 15, 1974. Report on the exhibition in the Lake Constance Museum of Nature 150 years of steam navigation on Lake Constance.
  3. ↑ To be more precise: Between Bregenz and Lindau after a three-kilometer drive, between Wasserburg and Kressbronn after a 12-kilometer drive and between Friedrichshafen and Immenstaad after a 23-kilometer drive.
  4. ↑ 61 km course with ten stations and four local times.
  5. ↑ The ship reached the Karlsruhe time zone before Immenstaad, arriving at 12:20 p.m. Prague time or 11:56 a.m. Karlsruhe time.
  6. ↑ CET corresponds to time in Prague +2 minutes, time in Munich +13 minutes, time in Stuttgart +23 minutes, time in Karlsruhe +26 minutes, time in Bern +30 minutes.