I just had yet another look at Wolfgang's documents, and it is clear
from those that:
1. At the time of the fixing of the boundary, there _was_ no
condominium. It is explicitly stated that the boundary is formed by
the main channel of the boundary rivers, and that all islands therein
are either Dutch or Prussian territory according to their position in
relation to the main channel. The little sketches show this, too.
Thus, the condo is of later date. A peculiar thing is, by the way,
that 1:20k Luxembourgish maps do show the condo, but 1:25k German
(topo!) maps I've seen draw the border in the middle of the river(s).
2. The Emmerich protocols dealt with the boundary between Prussia and
the part of the Netherlands which was the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.
Which means it didn't concern the boundary between Prussia and other
parts of the Netherlands. But it probably _did_ concern the Rippach
boundary, as it was the northernmost border of the G.D. of
Luxembourg, and to the north was at that time Prussia (now it is
Belgium).
3. There were placed boundary markers: A) One per number when it was
a land boundary (i.e. Vianden), B) Two when they were on both sides
of the river, and C) Three at river mouths, where the tributary was
also a boundary river: At the mouth of the Sauer, and at the mouth of
the Our. But there are _also_ three markers at the mouth of the
Rippach!!
A question: when the condominium was formed (when was this, by the
way?), did all the islands in the boundary rivers automatically
belong to it? Or are they de or lu exclaves in condominial waters
nowadays? In other words: are there dry parts in the condominium
(apart from the small dam at Apach/Perl/Schengen, and the extended
bridgeheads, like the one with the tourist info building at
Keppeshausen, these things possibly being man-made and therefore more
recent than these islands)?
I still would very much welcome a detailed map of the bedelu "thing",
like Wolfgang provided for the defrlu one (btw, I know I still owe
you some pictures of that spot, but as they are slides, I'll first
have to have them made into photographs, and than scan them. But I've
not forgotten about them, you'll see them). My guts say it would be
ridiculous that the Rippach would be a condominium, but for now all
the evidence I've seen suggests otherwise. These three stones at
bedelu are intriguing. They used to be "Abzielsteine" (Targeting
stones?), but that is from the time there was no condo, and the
boundary was spot in the middle of the two (and here three) stones.
And finally: those stones have dilapidated a fair deal since the time
the photographs I've seen now have been taken. Perhaps not the stones
themselves, but the vegetation and dead wood at these places don't
suggest the three states care a lot.
Peter S.
--- In BoundaryPoint@y..., "Michael Donner" <barbaria_longa@h...>
wrote:
> jesper
> it is my guess that there are actually 2 delu condo areas
> one running north from defrlu almost up to vianden
> & the other running north from just above vianden to bedelu
> & that both defrlu & bedelu are actually trilines not tripoints
> m
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