Meiringen
Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox Swiss town
Meiringen ({{#invoke:IPA|main}}) is a municipality in the Interlaken-Oberhasli administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. Besides the village of Meiringen, the municipality includes the settlements of Balm, Brünigen, Eisenbolgen, Hausen, Prasti, Sand, Stein, Unterbach, Unterheidon, Wylerli and Zaun. The municipal coat of arms shows a black eagle in a yellow field. ("Or an Eagle displayed Sable crowned, beaked, langued and membered of the first."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>) Formerly the coat of arms of the entire Oberhasli Talschaft, this design continues the imperial coat of arms.<ref>Wappenscheibe of 1680: Veröffentlichungen aus dem Stadtarchiv Innsbruck, 1988, p. 405. Gerhard Winterberger, Alexandre Jetzer, Ordo et libertas, 1982, p. 15. Die Rechtsquellen des Kantons Bern: Rechte der Landschaft, H. R. Sauerländer & Company, 1984, p. xxxii. </ref>
Meiringen is famous for the nearby Reichenbach Falls, a waterfall that was the setting for the final showdown between Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional detective Sherlock Holmes and his nemesis Professor Moriarty.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The village is also known for its claim to have been the place where meringue was first created.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
GeographyEdit
Meiringen is located in the eastern Bernese Oberland region, in a valley of the upper reaches of the river Aare, called Haslital, upstream of Lake Brienz. It lies at the foot of several mountain passes, including the Brünig Pass to the valley of the Sarner Aa and hence central Switzerland, the Joch Pass to Engelberg, the Susten Pass to the upper valley of the Reuss, the Grimsel Pass to the valley of the Rhone and hence southern Switzerland, and the Grosse Scheidegg Pass to Grindelwald.<ref name=swmap>Template:Cite map</ref><ref name=hdsresti>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
On the right bank of the Aare, the municipality of Meiringen rises from an elevation of Template:Convert on the valley floor to the Brünig Pass at Template:Convert and beyond that to a point at Template:Convert on the slopes of the Wilerhorn. On the left bank it stretches up into the Alps and reaches an elevation of Template:Convert at the summit of the Wellhorn. It includes the village of Meiringen and the settlements of Sand, Stein, Eisenbolgen, Hausen, Balm, Unterbach and Unterheidon in the valley, the village of Brünigen in the Brünig Pass and the hamlets of Prasti, Zaun and Wylerli on the slopes above the valley.<ref name=swmap/>
The municipality has an area, Template:As of, of Template:Convert. Of this area, Template:Convert or 43.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while Template:Convert or 32.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, Template:Convert or 7.5% is settled (buildings or roads), Template:Convert or 1.3% is either rivers or lakes and Template:Convert or 15.0% is unproductive land.<ref name=BFS_land>Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics 2009 data Template:In lang accessed 25 March 2010</ref>
Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 3.1% and transportation infrastructure made up 3.3%. Out of the forested land, 29.7% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 3.3% is used for growing crops and 17.8% is pastures and 22.5% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is in rivers and streams. Of the unproductive areas, 5.6% is unproductive vegetation and 9.4% is too rocky for vegetation.<ref name=BFS_land/>
HistoryEdit
Etching by Heinrich Müller
Meiringen is first mentioned in 1234 as Magiringin. Due to its strategic location at the foot of several alpine passes, the area around Meiringen was settled at least in the Early Middle Ages. The first village church was built in the 9th or 10th century. When it was destroyed in a flood the new church of St. Michael (first mentioned in 1234) was built about Template:Convert above the old church. The current church of St. Michael dates from the 15th century and was renovated in 1683–84. The Restiturm castle was constructed in the 13th century, whilst the Wyghus fortress in the Brünig Pass was first mentioned in 1333, though it was destroyed later.<ref name=HDS/>
Meiringen was always the political capital of the surrounding valley (Talschaft). It was the capital of the Imperial reichsfrei bailiwick of Hasli. In 1275 it formed an alliance with the city of Bern. In 1311, Hasli was given to the house of Weissenburg by Henry VII. After an unsuccessful revolt in 1334, Hasli passed to the city of Bern as a subject territory in name but regained most of its earlier privileges. Under Bernese control it was the capital of the District of Oberhasli until 1798. Following the 1798 French invasion and the creation of the Helvetic Republic it was the capital of the district of Oberhasli in the Canton of Oberland (1798–1803) and then the capital of the District of Oberhasli in the canton of Bern. The village was the home of the Talschaft council and the regional court met at the cross street in front of the churchyard. Today it is still home to the Bernese District authorities, though many of the administrative offices and the district court are now in Interlaken.<ref name=HDS/>
Meiringen was the only market town in the valley with a yearly fair starting in 1417. In 1490 this became a weekly market. Traders from the lowlands of Lombardy came here to purchase cattle, horses, and cheese. Located at the foot of Brunig, Grimsel, Susten and Joch passes, Meiringen was a hub in the trade from the lowlands through the passes. Outside of Meiringen village the main occupation was agriculture or cattle farming until the 19th century. Originally there were six Bäuert (farming collectives) among the villages and hamlets in the valley.<ref name=HDS/>
In the 1550s, a series of floods of the Aare destroyed the valley floor villages of Balm and Bürglen, both of which were abandoned. The old village of Unterheid was destroyed in 1762 when the Aare changed its course, though the village was rebuilt in a new location. In 1734 the Alpbach wall was built to protect against the river, though this problem was not solved until the 1866–80 Aare water correction project.<ref name=HDS/>
The population growth after 1800 led to impoverishment and forced many to emigrate, mainly to America. Beginning in 1880, the growth of tourism brought new wealth into the valley. Increasing tourist traffic came over the roads that were opened over the Brünig (1859–61), the Grimsel (1847–94) and the Susten (1939–46) passes. The Brünigbahn (Brünig railway) opened in 1888, making it easier for tourists to come into the valley. Following fires in 1879 and 1891, much of the village was rebuilt with tourists in mind. In 1913 Meiringen had 18 hotels with 500 beds. In 1912, the Meiringen–Reichenbach–Aareschlucht tramway was constructed to link the village to the Reichenbach Falls and Aare Gorge, two of the principle local tourist attractions; the line survived until closure in 1956.<ref name=HDS/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In 1892 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle visited the Reichenbach Falls outside Meiringen and subsequently used them as the setting for the struggle between Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty in his story The Final Problem.<ref name="vicweb">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
During World War II, the tourism industry collapsed, so the Federal Government created jobs by opening the Unterbach military airfield; the federal armory; the SBB depot; the power plants at Oberhasli AG and in hospitals. The municipal museum was founded in 1968 and the Sherlock Holmes Museum opened in 1991.<ref name=HDS/>
DemographicsEdit
Meiringen has a population (Template:As of) of Template:Swiss populations.Template:Swiss populations ref Template:As of, 14.2% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000–2010) the population has changed at a rate of −2.1%. Migration accounted for −0.2%, while births and deaths accounted for −0.9%.<ref name=SFSO>Swiss Federal Statistical Office Template:Webarchive accessed 31-January-2012</ref>
Most of the population (Template:As of) speaks German (4,190 or 88.7%) as their first language, Serbo-Croatian is the second most common (120 or 2.5%) and Portuguese is the third (77 or 1.6%). There are 43 people who speak French, 62 people who speak Italian and 2 people who speak Romansh.<ref name=STAT2000/>
Template:As of, the population was 48.7% male and 51.3% female. The population was made up of 1,888 Swiss men (41.2% of the population) and 342 (7.5%) non-Swiss men. There were 2,044 Swiss women (44.6%) and 309 (6.7%) non-Swiss women.<ref name=BE_Stat>Statistical office of the Canton of Bern Template:In lang accessed 4 January 2012</ref> Of the population in the municipality, 1,761 or about 37.3% were born in Meiringen and lived there in 2000. There were 1,326 or 28.1% who were born in the same canton, while 720 or 15.2% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 751 or 15.9% were born outside of Switzerland.<ref name=STAT2000/>
Template:As of, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 23.9% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 58.9% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 17.2%.<ref name=SFSO/>
Template:As of, there were 1,940 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 2,222 married individuals, 356 widows or widowers and 205 individuals who are divorced.<ref name=STAT2000>STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 – 2000 Template:Webarchive Template:In lang accessed 2 February 2011</ref>
Template:As of, there were 1,968 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.2 persons per household.<ref name=SFSO/> There were 695 households that consist of only one person and 114 households with five or more people. Template:As of, a total of 1,893 apartments (81.6% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 337 apartments (14.5%) were seasonally occupied and 90 apartments (3.9%) were empty.<ref name=Housing>Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB – Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 – Gebäude und Wohnungen Template:Webarchive Template:In lang accessed 28 January 2011</ref> Template:As of, the construction rate of new housing units was 2.2 new units per 1000 residents.<ref name=SFSO/> The vacancy rate for the municipality, Template:As of, was 0.28%.<ref name=SFSO/>
The historical population is given in the following chart:<ref name=HDS>Template:HDS</ref><ref>Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Bevölkerungsentwicklung nach Region, 1850–2000 Template:Webarchive Template:In lang accessed 29 January 2011</ref> <timeline> Colors=
id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8)
ImageSize = width:1020 height:210 PlotArea = top:10 left:100 bottom:50 right:100 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:4900 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:1000 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:200 start:0 PlotData=
color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1764 from:start till:964 text:"964" bar:1850 from:start till:2358 text:"2,358" bar:1860 from:start till:2514 text:"2,514" bar:1870 from:start till:2786 text:"2,786" bar:1880 from:start till:2807 text:"2,807" bar:1888 from:start till:2838 text:"2,838" bar:1900 from:start till:3077 text:"3,077" bar:1910 from:start till:3173 text:"3,173" bar:1920 from:start till:2996 text:"2,996" bar:1930 from:start till:3103 text:"3,103" bar:1941 from:start till:3285 text:"3,285" bar:1950 from:start till:3640 text:"3,640" bar:1960 from:start till:3749 text:"3,749" bar:1970 from:start till:3759 text:"3,759" bar:1980 from:start till:4072 text:"4,072" bar:1990 from:start till:4346 text:"4,346" bar:2000 from:start till:4723 text:"4,723"
</timeline>
SightsEdit
The Hotel Sauvage, the Swiss Reformed church with outbuildings, and the Reichenbachfall-Bahn are listed on the Swiss inventory of cultural property of national and regional significance. The urbanized village of Meiringen and the hamlet of Brünigen are both on the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The ruined castle of Restiturm lies just to the east of the centre of Meiringen, and once commanded the various trade routes that passed through the village.<ref name=hdsresti/>
A museum dedicated to Holmes is located in the basement of the deconsecrated English Church, located in what has now been named Conan Doyle Place. Its highlight is a detailed and authentic recreation of the sitting room at 221B Baker Street, London. The museum was officially opened by Air Cdt Dame Jean Conan Doyle, Lady Bromet, the younger daughter of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in May 1991.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="shmuseum">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
PoliticsEdit
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 41.85% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SPS (25.15%), the FDP (12.54%) and the Green Party (11.29%). In the federal election, a total of 1,432 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 44.4%.<ref>Swiss Federal Statistical Office, Nationalratswahlen 2007: Stärke der Parteien und Wahlbeteiligung, nach Gemeinden/Bezirk/Canton Template:Webarchive Template:In lang accessed 28 May 2010</ref>
EconomyEdit
Template:As of, Meiringen had an unemployment rate of 1.9%. Template:As of, there were 186 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 72 businesses involved in this sector. 528 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 55 businesses in this sector. 1,762 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 202 businesses in this sector.<ref name=SFSO/>
Template:As of the total number of full-time equivalent jobs was 2,021. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 110, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 490 of which 84 or (17.1%) were in manufacturing, 6 or (1.2%) were in mining and 369 (75.3%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 1,421. In the tertiary sector; 263 or 18.5% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 174 or 12.2% were in the movement and storage of goods, 190 or 13.4% were in a hotel or restaurant, 36 or 2.5% were the insurance or financial industry, 93 or 6.5% were technical professionals or scientists, 56 or 3.9% were in education and 339 or 23.9% were in health care.<ref>Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Betriebszählung: Arbeitsstätten nach Gemeinde und NOGA 2008 (Abschnitte), Sektoren 1–3 Template:Webarchive Template:In lang accessed 28 January 2011</ref>
Template:As of, there were 1,029 workers who commuted into the municipality and 560 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 1.8 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving.<ref name=commuter>Swiss Federal Statistical Office – Statweb Template:In lang accessed 24 June 2010</ref> Of the working population, 10.6% used public transportation to get to work, and 36.8% used a private car.<ref name=SFSO/>
ReligionEdit
From the Template:As of, 815 or 17.3% were Roman Catholic, while 3,134 or 66.4% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 49 members of an Orthodox church (or about 1.04% of the population), and there were 153 individuals (or about 3.24% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There was 1 individual who was Jewish, and 153 (or about 3.24% of the population) who were Islamic. There were 7 individuals who were Buddhist, 16 individuals who were Hindu and 2 individuals who belonged to another church. 270 (or about 5.72% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and another 194 individuals (or about 4.11% of the population) did not answer the question.<ref name=STAT2000/>
TransportEdit
Meiringen is served by Meiringen station on the Brünig line, a narrow-gauge railway from Interlaken to Lucerne. The same line's Brünig-Hasliberg station, on the Brünig Pass, is also within the municipal boundaries. Both stations are served by an hourly InterRegio service between Interlaken and Lucerne, whilst Meiringen is also the terminus of an hourly Regio service from Interlaken.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Meiringen station is also the terminus of the local Meiringen–Innertkirchen railway, which links the village with the nearby village of Innertkirchen. The first two intermediate stations on this line, at Alpbach and Aareschlucht West, are also within the municipal boundaries.
The lower terminus of the Reichenbachfall Funicular, which links the village to the Reichenbach Falls, is located at Willigen, some 20 minutes walk, or a 6-minute bus ride, from Meiringen station. On the opposite side of the valley, a cable car runs to Reuti, from where a system of Gondola lifts runs to Planplatten, at over Template:Convert, via Mägisalp.
The village is located on one of the two south-western road approaches to the Brünig Pass, which provides a connection from the Brünig Pass to the Grimsel Pass, and hence a route between Central Switzerland and the Rhone Valley. The other south-western approach to the Brünig Pass, from Interlaken, passes west of the village but through part of the municipality. A third road joins the previous two along the valley of the Aare, providing a route from Interlaken to the Grimsel Pass and Susten Pass.
The Meiringen air base is one of three main air bases of the Swiss Air Force. It is the only Swiss Air Force Base to still use its aircraft cavern regularly. It is located in Unterbach. Among other aircraft, it operates mainly F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets.
EducationEdit
In Meiringen about 1,846 or (39.1%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 451 or (9.5%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). Of the 451 who completed tertiary schooling, 63.4% were Swiss men, 22.4% were Swiss women, 6.7% were non-Swiss men and 7.5% were non-Swiss women.<ref name=STAT2000/>
The Canton of Bern school system provides one year of non-obligatory Kindergarten, followed by six years of Primary school. This is followed by three years of obligatory lower Secondary school where the students are separated according to ability and aptitude. Following the lower Secondary students may attend additional schooling or they may enter an apprenticeship.<ref>Template:Cite report</ref>
During the 2009–10 school year, there were a total of 635 students attending classes in Meiringen. There were 5 kindergarten classes with a total of 91 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 6.6% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 8.8% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The municipality had 15 primary classes and 289 students. Of the primary students, 12.8% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 12.4% have a different mother language than the classroom language. During the same year, there were 12 lower secondary classes with a total of 228 students. There were 6.6% who were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 5.7% have a different mother language than the classroom language.<ref name=School>Schuljahr 2009/10 pdf documentTemplate:In lang accessed 4 January 2012</ref>
Template:As of, there were 105 students in Meiringen who came from another municipality, while 59 residents attended schools outside the municipality.<ref name=commuter/>
Meiringen is home to the Bibliothek Kapellen library. The library has (Template:As of) 9,916 books or other media, and loaned out 20,617 items in the same year. It was open a total of 169 days with average of 8 hours per week during that year.<ref>Swiss Federal Statistical Office, list of libraries Template:In lang accessed 14 May 2010</ref>
Notable peopleEdit
- Christian Menn (1927–2018), a bridge designer from Switzerland.<ref>Billingtion, David P. "The Art of Structural Design a Swiss Legacy", 1st ed. Vol. 1. Princeton New Jersey: Princeton University Art Museum, 2003. 164–201</ref>
- Pierre Haubensak (born 1935) a painter
ClimateEdit
This area has a long winter season with 5 months average temperature more than 10 °C, with little precipitation mostly in the form of snow, and low humidity. The Köppen Climate System classifies the climate in Meiringen as temperate oceanic climate, and abbreviates this as Cfb.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Template:Weather box
ReferencesEdit
External linksEdit
- Template:Commons category-inline
- Template:Wikivoyage inline
- Template:Cite EB1911
- Municipality of Meiringen web site (in German)
Template:Municipalities of the administrative district of Interlaken-Oberhasli Template:Authority control