To rise and fall in sea level in Scandinavia: Langer Controversy over Eustasie or isostasy

The phenomenon of the rise of the Scandinavian shield during the Holocene and the concomitant fall in level of the Baltic Sea has been investigated for centuries. Already in medieval times, there were reports about the coastlines of the Gulf of Bothnia that are full of relevant observations. During the eighteenth century, scientists such as Celsius and Linnaeus collected observations such as these. The result was that the search for the possible explanations of this rise-and-fall phenomenon intensified. The generally favoured explanation was that there was an active sinking of sea level in the Baltic rather than an active rising of the land surface in Fennoscandia. This was because water was seen as mobile, in contrast to a "terra firma". The relevant discussion was often emotional, and here, we try to illustrate it using material from the Geologenarchiv Freiburg (von Hoff, von Buch and Goethe). No more than a few decades later, it became obvious by the theory of Ice Age that both the sea level and the land could be mobile (eustatic sea level changes-glacial isostasy). Additionally, of course, plate tectonics had some influence: Norway is situated at the western end of the Eurasian plate and is part of a passive continental margin. There are still open research problems, many of which can be addressed using modern methods of satellite-based geophysics and geodesy. Some other aspects as the permanent uplift trend of Scandinavia since the Cambrium or the rhythmic to and fro of magma in the upper mantle during the Pleistocene are mentioned.Original Abstract: Schon im Mittelalter wurde berichtet, dass der Meeresspiegel im Bottnischen Meerbusen, dem Arm der Ostsee, der zwischen Schweden und Finnland am weitesten nach Norden vorstost, laufend absinkt. Es wurde dort beobachtet, dass sich Zufahrten von Haefen verflachen, neue Schaeren auftauchen, Kuestenland anwaechst oder weit landein Strandwaelle mit Muschelschill vorkommen. In der Mitte des 18. Jahrhunderts sammelten Forscher wie Celsius oder Linne viele solcher Daten. So kam es zu einer allgemeinen Diskussion der moglichen Ursachen dieses Absinkens. In erster Linie wurde an ein Absinken des Wassers-also durch Eustasie und nicht an eine Hebung des Landes-also Isostasie gedacht, was um 1810 am prominentesten von Buch vertrat. Noch 1822 aber deutete von Hoff alle genannten Beobachtungen mit juristischer Spitzfindigkeit um. Goethe, aller Gewalttaetigkeit abhold, konnte sich mit einer Hebung der Erdfeste bis an sei