Thurgau in the 19th century

Remark: The basic text of this article is under work. Missing text is marked with "tbd" (=to be done)

Project Goal

The project goal is to create a Map of Thurgau in the 19th century on basis of the Dufour Map as of 1850. Please visit the map here: Thurgau in the 19th century.

Overall

The mapping should emcompass a complete street and water and village network as of 1850 but also include historical buildings including their exact start and end dates. The map heavily relies on the Dufour map, but also includes a historical view on the street network and its development throughout the century. The reason for choosing the 19th century for this mapping exercise is manifold:

• In the 19th century for the first time a street network is documented on large scale for the canton of Thurgau. These streets can be seen as permanent lines of traffic throughout the year.
• Several maps serve as sources for this endeavour. These maps are mainly mapped on behalf of the canton and thus represent official documents. They are now more than "descriptions" of the landscape but scientifically advanced and precise enough to meet modern standards.
• In the second half of the century railways are being built, which have a large impact on the development and growth of cities and villages. Therefore they ned to be added to the map
• In the late 18th and 19th century human intervention in the natural river system started to change the landscape on a large scale. Waters therefore are not constant data sets but historically grown and changeablein its appearance.

Street and Railway Network

In the 18th century the streets of Thurgau formed a rather loose network, heavily dependant of weather conditions. Though, his was a situation to be observed all over Europe in these times. A study on the development of the traffic infrastructure of the Canton emphasizes, that in the 18th century streets generally lacked a solid foundation, bridges over waterways and permanent maintainance and repair. Artificial road building (dt.: "Kunstrassenbau") using solid streed foundations and reliable drainage systems only started slowly in the second half of the 18th and beginning 19th century. These new "artificial streets" were free to adapt and partly overcome the natural land surface by using bridges and dams. A new street network started to develop.

A modern street newtwork started only in the beginning of the 18th century, when Thurgau became an independant member of the Swiss Confederation in 1803. The "Reglement über das Strassenbauwesen" as of 1805 laid down the rules for road construction and divided the road network in the following classes: (1) Heer oder Hauptstrassen ("Military- and Main Roads", (2) Landstrassen ("Country Roads"), (3) Komunikationsstrassen ("Communication Roads") and (4) Bau- oder Güterstrassen ("Construction roads or Roads for Goods and Services"). Each class had its own regulations concerning width, dehydration system profile and maintainance. Later on these categories were changed into the following categories: tbd . These are also used in the Dufour map.

By the middle of the 19th century, the main road network in Thurgau had been built, but it faced competition from the railway: around 1855 with the first railway line between Winterthur and Romanshorn. Only the local traffic remained on the streets, the main traffic was oriented towards the new centres of traffic, the train stations.

Water network

The history of human interventions into the water systems of Switzerland goes back to the Medieveal Ages. They usually served different purposes: for example, to make the river navigable for ships, for land reclamation, or to permanently define land, community and property boundaries. Flood protection became important due to climate change in the 18th and 19th century. But only the late 18th and 19th century saw systematic river regulation, which completely changed the natural landscape. In the 19th century, the rapidly growing population required more and more space.

The prerequisite for these sustainable interventions in hydrology was the ongoing technological progress.

tbd

Villages and Towns

Demographic, economic and social developments favoured a profound increase in population growth (upto more than 10 per cent) in Switzerland in the 19th century. Industrialisiation and Urbanisation on the other hand caused a decrease of population in mountainous aereas, Only since 1850 has a census been carried out every 10 years. The one from 1836/37 is incomplete and its methodology is questionable. It was only between 1880 and 1889 that both the quality and the scope of the data collected increased.

Conveniences

We propose the following conveniences:

1. Each data set created will be based on reliable sources and should be named in the data set.
2. Basis is the Dufour Map, for the canton Thurgau sheet number IV tbd and sheet number IX tbd . The maps are available on Map Warper.
3. The following street categories should be used: "Hauptverkehrsstrasse" and "Nebenstrasse" without any further specification. tbd
4. Villages and towns should consist of the following categories: tbd

Please use the discussion facilities of this wiki if you wish to comment on details of this proposal.

Maps

Atlas Suisse (1786 - 1802)

The Atlas Suisse is the oldest map series that covers the whole of Switzerland and uses scientific surveying techniques. The 17 individual sheets were produced between 1786 and 1802. The sheets show Switzerland at a scale of approx. 1:120.000. Until the publication of the Dufour Map (1845-1865), the Atlas Suisse remained the most accurate comprehensive map of Switzerland.

Sulzberger Maps (1825, 1838)

• Frauenfeld Map (1825): The map of the municipality of Frauenfeld produced by Johann Jakob Sulzberger (1802 - 1855) at a scale of 1: 21,600 was created trigonometrically and was published in 1825. The map is public domain and can be downloaded from Wikimedia Commons.
• Thurgau Map (1838): Sulzberger surveyed Thurgau from 1926 to 1930 in his capacity as the Canton's Strassenbaumeister. Following the success of the sample map, he was commissioned to produce 14 maps, which were first published in 1938.Scale: 1.21.500 and 1:25.00. The map is public domain and can be downloaded from Wikimedia Commons.

Dufour Map (1845 - 1865)

The "Topographische Karte der Schweiz" (Dufour map is the oldest official map series covering the territory of Switzerland. It was published between 1845 and 1865. Sheet 4 covers the area of Frauenfeld and St. Gallen and was published in 1850. Data of this sheet are made publicy available by swisstopo. They may be used, distributed, be enriched and processed. The map can be downloaded from Wikimedia Commons .

Siegfried Map

• Siegfried map (): not public domain
• Orthofoto 1946 first one, then starting 1980s [maybe use 2017 from OSM, others unclear?]

Railroads were built in the 1850s and 1860s, mapping on basis of OSM and Wikipedia is ongoing.

Location of cities, towns and villages are currently added on basis of the Dufour map