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Stand at the shore of Lake Constance on a clear morning and you can see Germany , Austria , and Switzerland at the same time . The lake stretches 63 kilometres from east to west , sitting at the point where all three nations meet . Most international lakes are divided by agreed borders . Lake Constance is a rare exception . The three countries have never signed a treaty defining where their national territories end in the water . Switzerland argues the lake should be divided along its middle line . Austria prefers the idea of a " condominium " — shared sovereignty with no dividing line at all . After more than a century of talks , no agreement has been reached . In practice , the absence of a border has become an asset . Fishing rights are governed by a joint commission , founded in the nineteenth century , which sets catch limits across the whole lake regardless of nationality . Police from all three countries patrol the water cooperatively . Passport checks at the lake 's ferry crossings effectively disappeared when Austria joined the Schengen Area in 1997 . The lake also supplies drinking water to roughly four million people across the region . The International Water Protection Commission for Lake Constance coordinates pollution controls that no single country could enforce alone . What Lake Constance demonstrates is practical . Leaving a border unresolved is not always a failure of diplomacy . Sometimes it is the very condition that makes cooperation possible .
