История города Берна

the history of the Swiss city of Bern

The city of Bern is one of the Zähringer foundations of the late 12th century (traditional date 1191). By the end of the 13th century, it had acquired de facto imperial immediacy. It became a full member of the Old Swiss Confederacy in 1353, and during the 15th century managed to significantly expand its sphere of influence, notably with the conquest of Aargau in 1415. With the acquisition of Vaud in 1536, Bern became the most powerful city republic north of the Alps, and one of the leading Protestant cities in early modern Switzerland. The canton of Bern in the Restored Confederacy of 1815 even after the loss of Aargau and Vaud remained the largest Swiss canton, relegated to second rank only with the secession of Jura in 1979. Since 1848 Bern has served as the federal city (capital) of Switzerland.

The etymology of the name Bern is uncertain. Local legend has it that Berchtold V, Duke of Zähringen, the founder of the City of Bern, vowed to name the city after the first animal he met on the hunt; as this turned out to be a bear, the city had both its name and its heraldic beast. However, the connection between Bern and Bär (bear) is a folk etymology. It has long been considered likely that the city was named after the Italian city of Verona, which at the time was known as Bern in Middle High German. The Bern zinc tablet, which was found in the 1980s, indicates that the former oppidum's possible Celtic name Brenodor was still known in Roman times. Since that time, it has been supposed that Bern may be a corruption (folk etymological re interpretation) of the older, similar sounding Celtic name. The etymology of the Celtic would be related to the Middle Irish word berna ‘gap, chasm’ (cf. Irish bearna, Scottish beàrn). In the late medieval period, Berne was very strongly identified with its heraldic animal, which was used as an allegory of the military and feudal power of the canton within the Old Swiss Confederacy. The Bernese citizen soldiers were depicted as armed bears, and from at least the 16th century also referred to as mötz, motzlin, a dialectal word for "bear". This term became Mutz in the modern language, and was in the 19th century applied to the city or canton (as a political or military power) itself. The city of Berne was also jestingly referred to as Mutzopolis.

The earliest evidence of human settlements in the Aare valley dates back to the Neolithic period. However, the earliest known settlement in the area of the city of Bern was on the Engehalbinsel to the north of the later city. This late La Tène culture settlement was founded around 300 to 200 BCE and fortified in the 2nd century BCE. It is thought to have been one of the twelve oppida of the Helvetii mentioned by Caesar. In addition to the Engehalbinsel there were La Tène settlements in the Breitenrain, Kirchenfeld and Mattenhof districts as well as at Bümpliz, now a city district of Bern, some from the medieval city. After the Roman conquest, a small Gallo Roman settlement, a vicus, was re founded at the same place. To the south of the vicus lay the burial ground with over 160 graves (some from the La Tène period). The vicus had a small amphitheater, a temple district with three small Gallo Roman temples, several private buildings with attached workshops and at the northern end, a bathing facility. The main road led from the Vicus westward to Aventicum. The only other nearby Roman settlements were three farms, one near the Vicus, one in Haspelmatte and a widely spread farming complex in Bümpliz during the 2nd and 3rd century CE. The vicus at Engehalbinsel was abandoned between 165 and 211 CE. During the second half of the 12th century, Berchtold V of Zähringen built a small castle at Nydegg on the eastern part of the peninsula to guard the Aare. The castle stood on the border between the German speaking Alamannians and the French speaking Burgundians. Whether there was already a settlement there when the castle was built or if the town was first founded near the castle in 1191 by Berthold V and the extent of the first town are all debated. Bern requested support from their Swiss Confederation allies and was able to raise a force of 6,000 from Bern, Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden, and other allies (Simmental, Weissenburg, Oberhasli). When the Fribourg forces laid siege to the Bernese border town of Laupen, the Bernese army marched out to raise the siege. While outnumbered two to one, the Bernese forces formed strong pike blocks that destroyed the Fribourg infantry and the heavy cavalry. The decisive Bernese victory allowed Bern to consolidate their power and brought them closer to the Forest Cantons. In 1353 Bern upgraded its pact with the forest cantons to an eternal alliance, thus becoming a permanent member of the Old Swiss Confederacy. With Bern's accession, the confederacy had now reached the count of Acht Orte (Eight Cantons), concluding its formative period and entering its period of successful consolidation. Bern became a leading member of the Confederacy, significantly encouraging the expansionist policy it pursued during the later 14th and throughout the 15th century. in 1528 the Oberland rose up in resistance to the Protestant Reformation and in 1641 Thun revolted.

At its founding, the city is estimated to have had some 400 to 600 inhabitants, which grew to 3,000 by about 1300. During the city's rapid growth in the 13th century, the older castle of Nydegg around which the early settlement was built, was demolished, the Aare slopes fortified and the layout of today's Old Town established. The strong Neustadt fortifications, which closed off the peninsula, formed the limit for the city's growth up until the 19th century. The city grew out towards the west of the boundaries of the peninsula formed by the river Aare. Initially, the Zytglogge tower marked the western boundary of the city from 1191 until 1256, when the Käfigturm took over this role until 1345, which, in turn, was then succeeded by the Christoffelturm (located close to today's train station) until 1622. During the time of the Thirty Years' War two new fortifications, the so called big and small Schanze (entrenchment), were built to protect the whole area of the peninsula. After a major blaze in 1405, the original wooden buildings were gradually replaced by half timbered houses and later the sandstone buildings that came to be characteristic for the Old Town. Despite the waves of pestilence that hit Europe in the 14th century, the city continued to grow mainly due to immigration from the surrounding countryside. In the Middle Ages, upwards mobility and access to public offices was relatively easy for successful traders and craftsmen, but Bernese society became ever more stratified and aristocratic as the power and wealth of the city grew. By the 17th century, citizenship had become an inherited prerogative, all political bodies elected one another and officials were elected for life.

Bern was occupied by French troops in 1798 during the French Revolutionary Wars, when it was stripped of parts of its territories. The Bernese Oberland was stripped away to become the Canton of Oberland. Within the new canton, historic borders and traditional rights were not considered. As there had been no previous separatist feeling amongst the conservative population, there was little enthusiasm for the new order. The 1801 Malmaison Constitution proposed reuniting the Oberland with Bern, but it was not until the Act of Mediation, two years later, with the abolition of the Helvetic Republic and the partial restoration of the ancien régime, that the two cantons were reunited. Following the Congress of Vienna of 1814 newly acquired the Bernese Jura, once again becoming the largest canton of the confederacy as it stood during the Restoration, and further until the secession of the canton of Jura in 1979. In 1848 Bern was made the Federal City (seat of the Federal Assembly) of the new Swiss federal state. A number of congresses of the socialist First and Second Internationals were held in Bern, particularly during World War I when Switzerland was neutral; see Bern International. The city's population rose from about 5,000 in the 15th century to about 12,000 by 1800 and to above 60,000 by 1900, passing the 100,000 mark during the 1920s. Population peaked during the 1960s at 165,000, and has since decreased slightly, to below 130,000 by 2000. As of 31 December 2009, resident population was at 130,289 of which 101,627 were Swiss citizens and 28,662 (22%) resident foreigners. Another estimated 350,000 people live in the immediate urban agglomeration.