The Cospudener See (sometimes translated as Lake Cospuden) is an artificially constructed lake situated directly on the southern outskirts of Leipzig, Germany. Leipzig, Markkleeberg and Zwenkau have shares in the lake which is on the site of a former open cast mine. The lake is popularly known as "Cossi", more rarely "Cospi", and has become highly popular with the local population, with long stretches of sand beaches (some clothing-optional, following the East German tradition of public nude bathing) and with a sauna directly located at the lake. There is also a small sailing harbor. The lake is a part of the Central German Lake District. Etymology of the name Cospuden The name comes from the owner of the seigneurial domain (Rittergut) located there: Heinricus de Kozebude around 1216. The name then evolved from Kozbude (1240), Kossebude (1350), Kossebode (1378), Kostworde (1564) to Kospuden in 1875. Otto von Dieskau built a paper mill here in 1599. It became a hamlet to which Johann Sebastian Bach refers in his Peasant Cantata written in 1740. Cospuden is then attached to the municipality of Gautzsch in 1875 which is in turn attached to Markkleeberg 1934. The population was 54 in 1871. Origin of the lake The opening of the Cospuden opencast mine (1981) as a branch from the Zwenkau opencast mine coincided with the radical coal mining policy that had been in operation in the GDR since the mid-1970s, in which the aim was to maximize the use of domestic lignite as a result of the oil crisis. The opencast mine was to be operated in several fields with an annual output of approx. 5-6 million tons until around 1996. The excavation of the floodplain landscape of the White Elster, which is used for agriculture and forestry, destroyed a hitherto popular local recreation area south of Leipzig. In addition, several small settlements, such as the former manor Lauer, were devastated and resettled a total of 43 residents. The eponymous village of Cospuden (38 inhabitants), whose inhabitants had already been resettled in 1974 in connection with the Zwenkau opencast mine, was finally dredged over in the course of 1981. The economic structural change and massive acceptance problems in the population resulted in the establishment of the broad citizen initiative Stop Cospuden in 1989. This led to the suspension of production in 1992. Until then, the opencast mine had taken up an excavation area of and