Гриндельвальд: Швейцарская деревня в Бернских Альпах

Municipality in Canton of Bern, Switzerland

Grindelwald is a village and municipality in the Interlaken Oberhasli administrative district in the canton of Berne. In addition to the village of Grindelwald, the municipality also includes the settlements of Alpiglen, Burglauenen, Grund, Itramen, Mühlebach, Schwendi, Tschingelberg and Wargistal. Grindelwald village is located at above sea level. Mentioned for the first time in 1146, it has become an important tourist destination of both Switzerland and the Alps since the golden age of alpinism in the 19th century. It is overlooked by a section of the Bernese Alps from the Wetterhorn to the Eiger, which create a natural barrier. Together with the adjacent valley of Lauterbrunnen, the valley of Grindelwald forms part of the Jungfrau Region of the Bernese Oberland, between Interlaken and the main crest of the Bernese Alps. Similarly to Lauterbrunnen, Grindelwald is connected to Interlaken by the Bernese Oberland Railway and is the start of the Wengernalp Railway, leading to Kleine Scheidegg. The latter resort is the start of the Jungfrau Railway, the highest railway in Europe and a gateway to the Jungfrau Aletsch protected area.

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Gules on a Bar Argent a Semi Chamois rampant issuant Sable between seven, 4 3, Mullets of the second.

Grindelwald was first mentioned in 1146 as Grindelwalt. The oldest traces of a settlement in the area are scattered neolithic tools which have been discovered around Grindelwald village. Several Roman era coins have also been found in the municipality. A castle was built on the Burgbühl hill above the village during the High Middle Ages. The tourism industry began in Grindelwald in the late 18th century as foreigners discovered the scenic town. Pictures of the vistas were widely reprinted, quickly making the village internationally famous. In the 19th century many Englishmen came to the village to climb the alpine peaks around the valley. The Finsteraarhorn , the Wetterhorn , the Eiger , the Schreckhorn and the Gross Fiescherhorn were all climbed during the 19th century, an ascent of the Wetterhorn marking the beginning of the golden age of alpinism. The ascent of the north face of the Eiger, in 1938, was also a milestone in mountaineering history. The Grindelwald road was built in 1860–72, and the Bernese Oberland railway reached the village in 1890, both of which transformed an arduous journey into a simple trip and allowed tourists to flood into the village. In 1888, Grindelwald was the first resort in the Bernese Oberland to also become a winter destination, attractions being sleigh rides, curling, skating and, from 1891, skiing. The first resort opened in 1888, there were 10 hotels in 1889, and by 1914 there were 33 in Grindelwald. A rack railway was built to Kleine Scheidegg in 1893, and it was expanded to the Jungfraujoch in 1912. Numerous ski lifts, cable cars, hiking trails and alpine huts were built in the late 19th and 20th centuries to allow tourists to explore the mountains, notably the Wetterhorn Elevator, one of the first modern aerial tramways. Today, almost the entire economy of Grindelwald is based on tourism. Grindelwald has an area of Of this area, or 28.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 16.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 1.8% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.8% is either rivers or lakes, and or 52.1% is unproductive land. Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 1.0% and transportation infrastructure made up 0.6%. Out of the forested land, 12.9% of the total land area is heavily forested, and 2.3% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 5.1% is pastures and 23.8% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 6.6% is unproductive vegetation, 24.0% is too rocky for vegetation, and 21.6% of the land is covered by glaciers. On 31 December 2009, Amtsbezirk Interlaken, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Interlaken Oberhasli.

Grindelwald has a population of as of 2010, 18.0% of the population are resident foreign nationals. In the period from 2000 to 2010, the population changed at a rate of −1.3%. Migration accounted for 0.2%, while births and deaths accounted for −1.7%. Most of the population (as of 2000) spoke German (3,531 or 86.8%) as their first language, Portuguese is the second most common (183 or 4.5%) and French was the third (69 or 1.7%). There were 60 people who speak Italian and four people who spoke Romansh. as of 2000, there were 679 households that consisted of only one person and 82 households with five or more people. In 2000, a total of 1,581 apartments (44.9% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 1,750 apartments (49.6%) were seasonally occupied and 194 apartments (5.5%) were empty. as of 2010, the construction rate of new housing units was 13.1 new units per 1000 residents.

The Jungfraubahn, a mountain railway up the Jungfrau mountain, is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance. The land around the Kleine Scheidegg is part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites. Both Jungfraubahn and Kleine Scheidegg are shared between the municipalities of Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen.

In the 2011 federal election, the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 54.2% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (14.8%), the FDP. The Liberals (8.8%) and the Green Party (6.9%). In the federal election, a total of 1,194 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 44.4%.

The principal commercial artery of Grindelwald is the Dorfstrasse, which is the prolongation of the Grindelwaldstrasse, the main access road of the village. as of 2011, Grindelwald had an unemployment rate of 1.48%. as of 2008, there were a total of 2,714 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 334 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 130 businesses involved in this sector. 393 people were employed in the secondary sector, and there were 51 businesses in this sector. 1,987 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 229 businesses in this sector. In 2000, there were 432 workers who commuted into the municipality and 265 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 1.6 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving. Of the working population, 9.2% used public transportation to get to work, and 36.2% used a private car. As the municipality territory stretches from Lütschental (approx. 730 metres above sea level) to the summit of the Mönch (4,110 metres), huge differences in average temperature are naturally found. The Montane zone and the Subalpine zone extend from the bottom of the valley to the tree line, at approx. 2,000 metres. There, coniferous trees and snowfall progressively replace deciduous tree and rainfall. Above that is the Alpine zone, consisting of Alpine tundra. The last region, above 3,000 metres, is the Ice cap climate zone.

Grindelwald railway station, in the centre of Grindelwald village, is served by trains of the Berner Oberland Bahn (BOB), which run to Interlaken, and by trains of the Wengernalpbahn (WAB), which run to Kleine Scheidegg and on to Wengen and Lauterbrunnen. At Kleine Scheidegg, a connection can be made with the Jungfraubahn, which ascends inside the Eiger to the Jungfraujoch. The recently built Eiger Express, connects directly Grindelwald to Eigergletscher, on the Jungfraubahn. Both Männlichen and Eiger Express cable transport start at the Grindelwald Terminal. Both mountain locations of First and Pfingstegg are also accessible by cable transport. In addition, during the summer season, buses run from Grindelwald to Meiringen via the Grosse Scheidegg, at nearly 2,000 metres above sea level.

Long famed as a winter tourist destination with slopes for beginners, intermediates and the challenges of the Eiger glacier for the experienced, there are activities for the non skiers, from tobogganing to groomed winter hiking tracks. It is the usual starting point for ascents of the Eiger and the Wetterhorn. Nowadays Grindelwald is also a popular summer activity resort with many miles of hiking trails across the Alps. The first person to ski there was Englishman, Gerald Fox (who lived at Tone Dale House) who put his skis on in his hotel bedroom in 1881 and walked out through the hotel bar to the slopes wearing them.

In Grindelwald, about 1,647 or (40.5%) of the population have completed non mandatory upper secondary education, and 302 or (7.4%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). Of the 302 who completed tertiary schooling, 57.9% were Swiss men, 24.5% were Swiss women, 9.3% were non Swiss men and 8.3% were non Swiss women. During the 2010 11 school year, there were a total of 341 students attending classes in Grindelwald. There were three kindergarten classes with a total of 55 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 27.3% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 20.0% had a mother language different from the classroom language. The municipality had 12 primary classes and 187 students. Of the primary students, 15.0% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 12.8% had a mother tongue different from the classroom language. During the same year, there were six lower secondary classes with a total of 99 students. There were 8.1% who were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 5.1% who had a mother tongue different from the classroom language. as of 2000, there were 20 students in Grindelwald who came from another municipality, while 39 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

The 1969 James Bond movie On Her Majesty's Secret Service includes a chase through a skating rink and a Christmas festival in Grindelwald. The 1972 movie and television series George were filmed in the village. The show features a large St. Bernard that grew up in New York and that comes for a permanent stay with his new owner in the Swiss Alps. Zsa Zsa Gabor appeared in an episode. The 1975 movie The Eiger Sanction (starring Clint Eastwood) featured the Hotel Bellevue des Alpes at Kleine Scheidegg as the film location where the group of climbers stayed during their attempt on the summit of the Eiger. In the summer of 1974, Clint Eastwood and his cast and crew stayed at the Hotel Bellevue des Alpes during filming. Grindelwald's mountains were used as the basis for the view of Alderaan in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005). Many scenes of the IMAX documentary film The Alps (2007) were shot in the region of Grindelwald, particularly on the north face of the Eiger. Some of the action scenes in The Golden Compass (2007) were shot in Grindelwald. The Beckoning Silence, a British 2007 television movie, retraced the 1936 Eiger north face climbing disaster. It was filmed on location. North Face (2008, international), another movie retracing the 1936 disaster, was partially filmed on location. The character Gellert Grindelwald features in the Harry Potter universe. Grindelwald is where one of the Gran Turismo 2 circuits is set.