Innertkirchen
Innertkirchen is a village and municipality in the Interlaken-Oberhasli administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. On 1 January 2014, the former municipality of Gadmen was merged into the municipality of Innertkirchen.
History
Innertkirchen
The name of the municipality is of recent origin and first appeared in print in 1834. It was formed from the farming settlements of Grund, Bottigen, Wyler-Schattseite, Wyler-Sonnseite and the agricultural cooperative of Äppigen.Both Roman coins and the remains of a Roman rest station have been found in the municipality. During the Middle Ages a number of small farming communities developed in the high valleys and alpine meadows of the modern municipality. Originally they were under the authority of the Imperial Vogtei of Hasli, which was acquired by Bern in 1334. Under Bernese rule, a number of distant landowners ruled over the small communities. At around the same time they became part of the parish of Meiringen. In 1713, the communities of Innertkirchen united with the municipalities of Gadmen and Guttannen to form the parish of Hasle. When Gadmen and Guttannen became independent parishes in 1816, Innertkirchen rejoined Meiringen. A filial church was built in Grund in 1835 and in 1860, it became the center of the Innertkirchen parish.
After 1334 the communities banded together into Bäuerten to share and regulate usage of the seasonal alpine meadows and farm land. Beginning in the 15th century the Bäuerten often squabbled with neighboring communities and Engelberg Abbey over land rights and the borders between municipalities. The border between Bern and Unterwalden was not officially set until 1828-29. Until the 20th century, the villages economies relied on seasonal alpine herding to raise horses, cattle and to produce cheese as well as trade over the Grimsel Pass, the Susten Pass and the local Joch Pass. An iron mine, blast furnace and forge were built in Wyler in the 16th century. It remained in operation until the 19th century.
The villages that made up Innertkirchen remained small. In 1783, the largest settlement, Brügg only had 32 houses and the entire Grund Bäuert, consisting of Brügg, Winkel and Unterstock had a total of 62. In 1814, the road from Meiringen through Innertkirchen and over the Susten Pass began to open up the villages to the outside world. This was followed in 1873 by a road over the Grimsel Pass and in 1957 by the Engstlenalp road. In the 19th century over-exploitation of the forests caused flooding and increased avalanches. This coupled with a growing population and limited farmland forced many residents to emigrate to escape poverty and starvation. In 1925, the Oberhasli AG company built power plants in the municipality, providing jobs and improving the standard of living. Construction for the power plants also opened Innertkirchen up to tourism. Today KWO is the main employer in Innertkirchen. Tourism is an important secondary industry and very few residents are involved in agriculture full-time.
Gadmen
Gadmen is first mentioned in 1382 as im Gadmen.During the Middle Ages, the Gadmen area was part of the Vogtei of Hasli and part of the Meiringen parish. In 1334 the entire Vogtei was acquired by Bern. During the Middle Ages a chapel was built in the village. In 1713 Gadmen became part of the parish of Innertkirchen and in 1722 the chapel expanded into a filial church. In 1816 the church became a parish church and Gadmen became an independent parish.
The residents of the village generally lived on farming, seasonal alpine herding and from traffic over the Susten Pass. During the 19th century, the farms became increasing mechanized and many residents were forced to emigrate to North America for jobs. The construction of the Susten Road in 1939-45 opened up the village to tourism and provided additional jobs. During construction and after its completion, the Oberhasli AG power plant became the largest employer in the municipality.
Geography
After the merger Innertkirchen has an area of. Before the merger it had an area of. As of 2012, a total of or 15.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 20.1% is forested. The rest of the municipality is or 0.8% is settled, or 1.6% is either rivers or lakes and or 61.8% is unproductive land.During the same year, housing and buildings made up 0.3% and transportation infrastructure made up 0.3%. All of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 2.4% is pasturage and 13.2% is used for alpine pastures. Of the water in the municipality, 0.8% is in lakes and 0.8% is in rivers and streams. Of the unproductive areas, 11.5% is unproductive vegetation, 29.0% is too rocky for vegetation and 21.3% of the land is covered by glaciers.
The large alpine municipality is located at the confluence of the Urbach and Gadmer streams into the Aare river. It includes the Urbach valley, the Gadmen valley, the Gen valley, the Wetterhorn mountain and the Gauli Glacier. Innertkirchen was created out of the Bäuerten of Grund, Bottigen, Wyler-Schattseite, Wyler-Sonnseite and the agricultural cooperative of Äppigen in 1834. The merger with Gadmen almost doubled the size the municipality. Gadmen lies in the Bernese Oberland with the Susten Pass on the eastern border of the former municipality. The municipal borders stretch from the valley floor, with an elevation of, up to the nearby mountain peaks at about. It is located on the border of the Canton of Bern with the Cantons of Obwalden, Nidwalden, Uri and Valais.
The municipality of Gadmen merged on 1 January 2014 into the municipality of Innertkirchen.
On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Oberhasli, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Interlaken-Oberhasli.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is ''Per chevron inverted Or an Eagle displayed Sable crowned of the first and Gules.''Demographics
After the merger Innertkirchen has a population of. , 6.7% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last year the population has changed at a rate of -2.3%. Migration accounted for -4.2%, while births and deaths accounted for -0.2%.Most of the population speaks German as their first language, Portuguese is the second most common and Italian is the third. There are 4 people who speak French.
, the population was 49.7% male and 50.3% female. The population was made up of 400 Swiss men and 26 non-Swiss men. There were 402 Swiss women and 29 non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 406 or about 43.4% were born in Innertkirchen and lived there in 2000. There were 290 or 31.0% who were born in the same canton, while 110 or 11.8% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 77 or 8.2% were born outside of Switzerland.
, children and teenagers make up 19.1% of the population, while adults make up 60.8% and seniors make up 20.1%.
, there were 350 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 493 married individuals, 58 widows or widowers and 35 individuals who are divorced.
, there were 109 households that consist of only one person and 23 households with five or more people. , a total of 365 apartments were permanently occupied, while 87 apartments were seasonally occupied and 36 apartments were empty. The vacancy rate for the municipality,, was 1.09%. In 2011, single family homes made up 53.6% of the total housing in the municipality.
Historic population
The historical population is given in the following chart:Colors=
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bar:1850 from: 0 till:739 text:"739" color:GA
bar:1860 from: 0 till:754 text:"754" color:GA
bar:1870 from: 0 till:783 text:"783" color:GA
bar:1880 from: 0 till:759 text:"759" color:GA
bar:1890 from: 0 till:731 text:"731" color:GA
bar:1900 from: 0 till:672 text:"672" color:GA
bar:1910 from: 0 till:568 text:"568" color:GA
bar:1920 from: 0 till:477 text:"477" color:GA
bar:1930 from: 0 till:434 text:"434" color:GA
bar:1940 from: 0 till:523 text:"523" color:GA
bar:1950 from: 0 till:485 text:"485" color:GA
bar:1960 from: 0 till:510 text:"510" color:GA
bar:1970 from: 0 till:482 text:"482" color:GA
bar:1980 from: 0 till:363 text:"363" color:GA
bar:1990 from: 0 till:301 text:"301" color:GA
bar:2000 from: 0 till:272 text:"272" color:GA
bar:1850 from: 739 till:2114 text:"1,375" color:IN
bar:1860 from: 754 till:2104 text:"1,350" color:IN
bar:1870 from: 783 till:2166 text:"1,383" color:IN
bar:1880 from: 759 till:2197 text:"1,438" color:IN
bar:1890 from: 731 till:2019 text:"1,288" color:IN
bar:1900 from: 672 till:1777 text:"1,105" color:IN
bar:1910 from: 568 till:1608 text:"1,040" color:IN
bar:1920 from: 477 till:1414 text:"937" color:IN
bar:1930 from: 434 till:1508 text:"1,074" color:IN
bar:1940 from: 523 till:1885 text:"1,362" color:IN
bar:1950 from: 485 till:1679 text:"1,194" color:IN
bar:1960 from: 510 till:1740 text:"1,230" color:IN
bar:1970 from: 482 till:1546 text:"1,064" color:IN
bar:1980 from: 363 till:1329 text:"966" color:IN
bar:1990 from: 301 till:1299 text:"998" color:IN
bar:2000 from: 272 till:1208 text:"936" color:IN