The city of Berne, founded in 1191 and first mentioned in a document in 1208, grew to become the biggest aristocratic city-state north of the Alps and a major power in the Old Swiss Confederacy. Her reach extended over what are today the cantons of Bern, Vaud and large parts of Aargau.
Since 1848, Berne has been the Federal City (capital) of Switzerland.
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The etymology of the name Bern is uncertain. Local legend has it that Berchtold V, Duke of Zähringen, the founder of the city of Berne, 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 Berne zinc tablet, which was found in the 1980s, indicates that the former oppidum′s possible celtic name Brenodor was still known in Roman times. A derivation from Brenodor to Bern is linguistically not considered possible, but it is assumed that the city′s name is of celtic origin, possibly *berna “cleft”, a toponym which, still in use, would have been adopted by the German speaking founders of the city.[1]
The earliest evidence of human settlements in the Aare valley dates back to the Neolithic period. The earliest known settlement in the area of the city of Berne was on the Engehalbinsel to the north of the later city, founded around 300 to 200 BEC, the late La Tène culture, and fortified in the 2nd century BCE. It is thought to have been one of the twelve oppida of the Helvetii mentioned by Caesar.[2] After the Roman conquest, a small Gallo-Roman settlement, a vicus, was re-founded at the same place. It was abandoned between AD 165 and 211.[3]
In the Early Middle Ages, there was a 7th to 10th centuries settlement with a church and a Burgundian Königshof (“castle”) with wooden fortifications in Bümpliz, now a city district of Berne, some 4 km from the medieval city.[4] No archaeological evidence indicating a settlement on the site of the old town of today′s city prior to the 12th century have been found so far.
The history of the city of Berne proper begins when Berchtold V, Duke of Zähringen founded the city in the late 12th century - 1191 being the official date. At that time, much of today's Switzerland (then considered part of southern Burgundy) was under the authority of the house of Zähringen. The Zähringer leaders, although with no actual duchy of their own, were styled dukes by decree of the German king and exercised imperial power south of the Rhine. To establish their position there, they founded or expanded numerous settlements, including Fribourg (in 1157), Bern, Burgdorf and Morat.[5]
After the founder Berchtold V died heirless, Berne gained her town privileges in the Goldene Handfeste (traditionally dated to 1218) from Emperor Frederick II. Now an Imperial Free City, Berne was a de facto independent city-state within the Holy Roman Empire.
In 1353 Bern joined the Swiss Confederacy, becoming one of the "eight cantons" of the formative period of 1353 to 1481. Bern invaded and conquered Aargau in 1415 and Vaud in 1536, as well as other smaller territories, thereby becoming the largest city-state north of the Alps, by the 18th century comprising most of what is today the canton of Berne and the canton of Vaud.
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.[6]
As Berne was not situated at any of the major trading routes, agriculture quickly became of principal economic importance and remained so throughout Bernese history. Tannery also became an important industry, and leather goods one of Berne's main exports. In the 14th century, as the importance of European commerce began to rise, numerous wealthy trading families emerged as the city's aristocracy. They mainly turned to government and mercenary service in the 15th century, though, and trade stagnated as the city's autocratic rule over the countryside strengthened. Bernese commerce and crafts, organised in guilds, bloomed in the 16th and 17th century, with Bernese glass paintings being especially in demand across Europe.[7]
The traditional constitution of Berne, established in 1294, remained largely unchanged until 1798.[8] It provided for a Grosser Rat (Grand Council) of two hundred members and a Kleiner Rat (Small Council) of 27 members. The latter included the Schultheiss (mayor) as chief executive and the holders of other public offices such as guild representatives, Stadtschreiber (city clerk), Seckelmeister (bursar) and Grossweibel (Grand Bailiff).[9]
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.[10] In effect, public offices were now the exclusive prerogative of the gnädige Herren, the "merciful lords", as the small number of noble families now ruling Bern came to be called. These offices became very lucrative as the Bernese territories grew. Patrician Landvögte, sheriffs, ruled the politically powerless countryside, often using armed force to put down peasant revolts.
Berne was occupied by French troops in 1798 during the French Revolutionary Wars, when it was stripped of parts of its territories. It regained the Bernese Oberland in 1802, and 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 Berne 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 Berne 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.[11]