The klafter is an historical unit of length, volume and area that was used in Central Europe.
As a unit of length, the klafter was derived from the span of a man's outstretched arms and was traditionally about 1.80 metres (m).
The survey of Austria-Hungary began in 1762 with the construction of the Vienna Neustadt Baseline (Wiener Neustädter Grundlinie) which was 6,410, later 5,000, klafters long, represented by 5 measuring rods of 1 klafter in length made of varnished wood.
[3] By comparison the North American cord, used to measure firewood and pulpwood, is slightly larger at 3.62 m³.
[4] In Switzerland, Werdenfelser Land and parts of Lower Franconia, a klafter of logs corresponds to 3.0 m³ (steres) of stacked firewood since the introduction of the metric system.
[5] In the adjoining Principality of Liechtenstein, the square klafter is still used today for the measurement of land areas.