Lining plain

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Linthebene with the Benkner Büchel , from Bachtel seen from

The Linth Plain is a geographical region in Eastern Switzerland between Lake Zurich and Lake Walen , which is named after the Linth River . Politically, the region belongs to the cantons of Schwyz , St. Gallen and Glarus .

The right-hand Lint plain belongs to the canton of St. Gallen and forms part of the Gaster and See region . The guests include the villages Weesen , Schänis , Rufi , Maseltrangen , Kaltbrunn , Benken . Uznach and Schmerikon are not counted as guests , they are partly in the Linth plain and belong to the former See district .

The lower part of the left-hand Lint plain belongs to the canton of Schwyz and is part of the March region . It includes the villages of Tuggen , Schübelbach , Buttikon and Reichenburg . The upper part of the left-hand Lint plain with the villages of Bilten , Niederurnen , Oberurnen , Näfels and Mollis belongs to the canton of Glarus .

history

After the last ice age , Lake Zurich and Lake Walen were connected to one another, and today's Linth plain was covered with water. The current Buchberg , Gasterholz and Benkner Büchel hills already existed as islands . The Linth plain increasingly silted up due to bed load deposits from the various bodies of water flowing laterally into the plain, especially the Linth River. In the early Middle Ages , Lake Zurich and Lake Walen were already separated. The Obersee, however, protruded far into the plain and formed the Tuggenersee between Tuggen and Benken , which finally silted up around 1550.

Engraving of the Linth Plain around 1811; the old Linthlauf re-colored

The Linth originally flowed directly from Mollis to Ziegelbrücke , where it met with the Maag , the natural runoff of the Walensee. Since the Linth correction from 1807–1822 under Hans Conrad Escher von der Linth , the Linth now flows into the Walensee via the Escherkanal . The runoff from the Walensee is channeled directly into Lake Zurich via the Linth Canal . The Linth originally branched out into numerous branches in the plain to Niederurnen and Mollis. Therefore it could not be used to produce the energy required in industry. For this reason, the early industrialization was limited to the Glarnerland. The Lin Plain remained mostly agricultural.

Kaltbrunner Riet

From the 18th century it was mentioned again and again how fertile the Linth Plain used to be. The plain has become marshy due to recurring enormous floods. This led to crop failures, poverty and disease. These statements were half-truths and were intended to make the plight of the area and its residents clear to the general public in order to be able to implement the planned Linth correction. In fact, the Linth plain cannot have been used for agriculture because of its history as a silted-up lake and the poor soils associated with it. Even after the Linth had been corrected, the plain was not drained, but was even artificially watered to extract litter from reeds. The construction of the Linth dams served exclusively to protect against uncontrolled flooding

Remnants of the original reed landscape are the Kaltbrunner Riet and the Grosse Allmeind in Schmerikon.

Flood protection Linth 2000: Construction work on the old Benken-Giessen bridge from 1888

In World War II, the military has been flooding the Linthebene prepared because the Linthebene was a strategically important part of the military defense of the Swiss army against an enemy invasion from the north. The planned flooding and swamping would have created the medieval Tuggenersee again.

The drainage of the Linth as part of the Linth melioration from 1937 was intended to generate fertile farmland. During the Second World War, in particular, the development of additional land for agriculture as part of the “ cultivation battle” enjoyed high priority in order to ensure that Switzerland was supplied with food. The hoped-for miracle yields never materialized, however, as the soils that were drained by drainage are not suitable for arable farming. To this day, the agricultural land obtained is only used for grazing, for grass production or for the cultivation of fodder grain. The downsides of amelioration are the soil compaction that occurs everywhere as a result of the lowering of the groundwater level - in some cases the soil was lowered by up to 2 m - and the extinction of species. Since the 1980s the ground has sunk so much that it threatens to become swamp again. A further strengthening of the groundwater pumping stations will hardly be able to solve the problem, as the level threatens to sink below the level of Lake Zurich.

The rehabilitation of the Linth plant (Linthkorrektion 1807-1822) found under the name Project Flood Protection Linth 2000 from 2008 to the end of 2013 instead. The project included work in the service of the safety of humans and animals, the development of nature and local recreation

literature

  • Melioration of the lineal plain. Final report . Uznach, 1965, DNB 577413619 .
  • Daniel Speich Chassé : Linth Canal. The corrected landscape - 200 years of history . Baeschlin, Glarus 2002, ISBN 3-85546-142-2 .
  • Daniel Speich Chassé: The reorganization of the social relationships to nature on the Linth (1783–1823) . (= Helvetic Improvements, Volume 6). Chronos, Zurich 2003, ISBN 3-0340-0664-0 .
  • Städler Guido: "Walensee-Schifffahrt / Linth-Schifffahrt", 175 years of steam and motor navigation on the Walensee 1837-2012, Sarganserländer Verlag 2012, ISBN 3-907926-60-9

Web links

Commons : Lining plain  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Linthrat: Decision of the hearing for presenting Linthkorrektion 200 years ago: From the bottom of the old Confederation , Stefan Paradowski. Retrieved February 25, 2020
  2. ↑ Linth.net: Das Linthwerk , history. 2003. Retrieved February 15, 2020
  3. ↑ Linthwerk: "linthwerk: Project Flood Protection Linth 2000". Accessed on February 25, 2020


Coordinates: 47 ° 7 '33.9 "  N , 9 ° 5' 11.6"  E ; CH1903:  725 032  /  220769