Englisberg

coat of arms of the village of Englisberg

Englisberg, southwestern view

Englisberg, aerial view with Gurten mountain in the background

Englisberg, with Gantrisch mountain in the background

Tax-exemption deed, the villagers of Englisberg buy themselves free of taxation in 1649, original document in village archive of Englisberg

map of Englisberg and surrounding area by Thomas Schöpf dated 1580

Englisberg is a village in the district of Seftigen in Canton Bern, Switzerland. On January 1, 2004, the independent municipality merged with Zimmerwald to form the new municipality of Wald BE. Situated on the Längenberg, above the valley of the Aare river, it combines the villages of Englisberg and Kühlewil. Englisberg is first documented in 1166 [Endlisperc]. It is believed that Englisberg was created out of the much older village of Kühlewil [Cullenwil, Cullenwilare - originally of Celtic origin] the latter of which having since attained the status of a hamlet of the former. In the 14th century a castle is documented in Englisberg, owned by the family of the same name. It was abandoned by the following 15th century and quickly fell into disrepair and disintegration. The feudal rights over Englisberg were acquired by the von Erlach family of Bern in 1433 and passed in 1542 to the Baumgartner family of the same place. After 1570, these feudal rights were sold to local farming families Guggisberg and Zimmermann which over the course of several generations were split into 70 shares. In the 18th century, these rights were successively purchased by the aristocratic von Graffenried and von Tscharner families seated at the Lohn estate in Kehrsatz only to lose it all when Switzerland was invaded by the French in 1798 that resulted in the abolishment of the ancient order. Englisberg belonged until 1798 to the high court district of Seftigen. Ecclesiastically Englisberg was part of the evangelical reformed parish church of neighboring Belp till 1699 and thereafter was integrated into the newly created parish of Zimmerwald.

Census Data: 1764: 223 inhabitants;1850: 275 inhabitants; 1900: 567 inhabitants;1950: 564 inhabitants; 2000: 214 inhabitants

Predominant surnames with long-established ancestry preceding 1798: - Balsiger, since the 16th century / - Guggisberg, since the 15th century / - Hosmann and Hossmann since the 17th century / - Streit, since the 16th century / - Zimmermann, since the 16th century

Englisberg is the birthplace of the Swiss ice hockey and current Philadelphia Flyers player Mark Streit.

Sources

Urkundensammlung, Udelbuch of 1389, Contractmanuale of Seftigen District 16th - 18th century; Staatsarchiv Bern, Falkenplatz 4, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland

Urkundensammlung, Gemeinderatsprotokolle; Gemeindearchiv Englisberg, CH-3086 Wald BE, Switzerland

Allgemeines Helvetisches, Eydgenössisches, Oder Schweitzerisches Lexicon, Zürich 1746-1765 by Johann Jacob Leu

Historische, geographische und physikalische Beschreybung des Schweizerlandes, Band 2, by Ludwig F. König, Bern 1783

Versuch einer physisch-statistisch-ökonomischen Beschreibung der Gemeinde Wiegewohnt, manuscript by pastor Gottlieb Gruner, 1823, Stadt- und Universitätsbibliothek Bern, Münstergasse 61, 3011 Bern, Switzerland

Der Kanton Bern, by Albert Jahn, Bern 1853

Fontes Rerum Bernensium, Berns Geschichtsquellen, volumes 1 through 10, published by Stämpfliverlag Bern, 1883-1956

Geographisches Lexikon der Schweiz, volume 2, by Charles Knapp, Maurice Borel, Victor Attinger and Heinrich Brunner, Société neuchâteloise de géographie, Neuchâtel 1904

Heimatkunde des Amtes Seftigen, Bern 1906

Historisch-Biographisches Lexikon der Schweiz, volume 3, Neuchâtel 1927

Die Herrschaft Englisberg, in "Berner Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Heimatkunde", by Heinz Weilenmann, Bern 1961

Beiträge zur Geschichte und Heimatkunde des Längenberges, Wie entstand unsere Gemeinde, parts 1 and 2, by Fritz Brönnimann-Glaser, published by the village of Zimmerwald, 1988

Feuerstättenzählung 1558 in der Kirchgemeinde Belp, by Daniel Guggisberg, Mitteilungen der Genealogisch-Heraldischen Gesellschaft Bern. - Bern. - volume 19 (31 May 2000), pages 14–27

Architektonische Gebäudeinschriften-Bestandsaufnahme von Englisberg, by Daniel Guggisberg, Redondo Beach, CA, USA 2002 [privately published]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Englisberg.

• Englisberg in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.

Coordinates: 46°53′53″N 7°28′12″E / 46.89806°N 7.47000°E / 46.89806; 7.47000