Adelboden (Alemannic German: Adelbode) is a mountain village and a municipality in Switzerland, located in the Frutigen-Niedersimmental administrative district in the Bernese Highlands.
Geography
Adelboden lies in the west of the Bernese Highlands, at the end of the valley of the river Entschlige (High German: Engstlige), which flows in Frutigen into the Kander.
Adelboden is a traditional Swiss mountain village on a terrace looking south to the Engstligen waterfalls. Also part of the village are the inhabited valleys of Gilbach, Stigelschwand, Boden, Hirzboden, and Ausserschwand. The church and main street are at , the highest point of the area is the Grossstrubel with , and the lowest point is at in the Engstligen valley.
The vegetation is alpine and sub-alpine, partially wooded, the slopes, the plateaus, and terraces usually alp meadows.
The most salient mountains are Lohner (), Steghorn (), Wildstrubel (), Fitzer (), Tschenten () (mountain railway), Albristhorn () and Gsür ().
Adelboden has an area of . Of this area, or 41.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 18.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 2.5% is settled (buildings or roads), or 1.7% is either rivers or lakes and or 36.2% is unproductive land.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics 2009 data accessed 25 March 2010
Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 1.5% and transportation infrastructure made up 0.8%. Out of the forested land, 14.4% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.0% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 8.5% is pastures and 32.9% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 9.6% is unproductive vegetation, 25.6% is too rocky for vegetation and 1.1% of the land is covered by glaciers.
On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Frutigen, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Frutigen-Niedersimmental.Nomenklaturen – Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz accessed 4 April 2011
Coat of arms The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Argent on a Mount Vert an Eagle displayed Sable beaked, langued and membered Gules.Flags of the World.com accessed 22-February-2013
History
Adelboden is first mentioned in 1409 as in valle Adelboden. In 1453, it was mentioned as Adelboden alias silva.
The alps Engstligenalp and Silleren belonging to Adelboden first appeared in historical records in the 13th century. The inhabitants of Engstligental are referred to as forest people. In the 15th century, Adelboden established its own church and there were over 50 house fathers vouching for the salary of the minister.
In the 16th century, when Adelboden joined the Reformation, the Catholic priest fled over the Hahnenmoospass to the Catholic Canton of Fribourg.
Prior to the 19th century, the primary method of reaching Frutigen was by travelling along the steep southern south slope of the Engstligen Valley, a journey that was often rendered impassable in winter months. However, in the late 19th century, a road was constructed along the river Entschlige, improving accessibility and connecting the town of Adelboden to the rest of the world.
In the 1870s the first boarding house was opened by one of the local teachers. Over time, it evolved into a hotel, which remains under the ownership of the same family (known as Hotel Hari im Schlegeli). This was accompanied by a significant increase in the town's population, thanks to the influx of tourists around the turn of the century.
Adelboden was the destination of the first packaged winter sports holidays (vacations), organised by Sir Henry Lunn in 1903.
Into the 1930s the aerial ropeway to the Engstligenalp was built with further ropeways following. The Silleren area was up into the 1980s accessible by buses.
World War Two
During World War Two, Adelboden was an internment camp with converted chalets and hotels used to house internees. Adelboden was chosen because it was isolated, surrounded by mountains and so relatively hard to escape from. The US Government paid the local hotels for the internees' room and board.
Internees included British, German, Polish, Russian, Czech, and French combatants. American internees named the area “Camp Maloney” after the first American internee to die.
Main sights and cultural events
Engstligen Falls: the river Entschlige falls over rocks into the depth and forms one of the most impressive waterfalls in the Bernese Highlands. Very impressive is the "Alpaufzug" when 350 cows are driven upward on the narrow seam path through the cliff to the summer pasture on the Engstligenalp in early summer. Engstligenalp: plateau at elevation The town's church, with early-20th-century glassworks by Augusto Giacometti. Our Chalet – A Guiding world centre and an international meeting place for Girl Guides and Girl Scouts.
Cultural events include: World Cup Men's alpine ski races (January) the men's giant slalom course is one of the most challenging on the World Cup circuit. Vogellisi-Festival (Live music, July) Vogellisi Lauf (Mountain running race in July) Kammermusic-festival (Chamber music, July) Langlauf night – every 30 December – Cross Country races on the main street of town
Demographics
Adelboden has a population of (). According to a 2010 census, 6.9% of the population consists of foreign nationals residing in the area.Statistical office of the Canton of Bern accessed 4 January 2012 The population has experienced a slight decrease of -0.2% between the years 2000–2010. This change can be attributed to a decrease in migration of −1.2%, while births and deaths accounted for 2.2%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 22 February 2013
According to data from the year 2000, the majority of the population (3,453 individuals, making up 95.0% of the population) speak German as their first language. Serbo-Croatian ranks as the second most prevalent language spoken, with 36 speakers (1.0%), followed by Portuguese with 34 speakers (0.9%). In addition, 29 people reported speaking French, while Italian and Romansh were cited by 17 and 6 individuals, respectively.
, the population was 49.1% male and 50.9% female. The population was made up of 1,618 Swiss men (45.4% of the population) and 133 (3.7%) non-Swiss men. There were 1,699 Swiss women (47.7%) and 113 (3.2%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 2,124 or about 58.4% were born in Adelboden and lived there in 2000. There were 666 or 18.3% who were born in the same canton, while 365 or 10.0% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 290 or 8.0% were born outside of Switzerland.
, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 23.6% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 56.6% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 19.8%.
, there were 1,600 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 1,771 married individuals, 204 widows or widowers and 59 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 – 2000 accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 478 households that consist of only one person and 152 households with five or more people. , a total of 1,347 apartments (41.8% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 1,722 apartments (53.4%) were seasonally occupied and 154 apartments (4.8%) were empty.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB – Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 – Gebäude und Wohnungen accessed 28 January 2011 , the construction rate of new housing units was 5.3 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.06%.
The historical population is given in the following chart:Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Bevölkerungsentwicklung nach Region, 1850–2000 accessed 29 January 2011
Languages The language is Adelbodnertütsch, which belongs to the Berner Oberland dialects with some influences from Valais dialects. It is also classified as part of the Highest Alemannic language group.
Most of the population () speaks German (95.0%), with Serbo-Croat the second most common ( 1.0%), and Portuguese third ( 0.9%).
Government Legislation is adopted by the biannual general assembly. Executive is the local council with nine members, all of whom are honorary.
In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 41.7% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Federal Democratic Union of Switzerland (EDU) (20%), the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (10.4%) and the Evangelical People's Party (EVP) (9%). In the federal election, a total of 1,673 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 61.4%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election accessed 8 May 2012
Economics Adelboden has a mixture of agriculture, local industry (wood building companies, mineral water source) and tourism. People work in tourism, (approximately 490 persons), other services (approx. 500 persons), construction industry (approx. 310 persons), automobile industry (approx. 30 persons), mineral water source (approx. 45 persons) and agriculture (full-time approx. 45 persons), taxidermy (full-time approx. 16 persons).
, Adelboden had an unemployment rate of 1.29%. , there were a total of 2,084 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 366 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 133 businesses involved in this sector. 617 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 57 businesses in this sector. 1,101 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 150 businesses in this sector. There were 1,833 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 40.5% of the workforce.
there were a total of 1,675 full-time equivalent jobs. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 192, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 580 of which 88 or (15.2%) were in manufacturing and 450 (77.6%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 903. In the tertiary sector; 214 or 23.7% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 123 or 13.6% were in the movement and storage of goods, 370 or 41.0% were in a hotel or restaurant, 12 or 1.3% were in the information industry, 12 or 1.3% were the insurance or financial industry, 24 or 2.7% were technical professionals or scientists, 40 or 4.4% were in education and 42 or 4.7% were in health care.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Betriebszählung: Arbeitsstätten nach Gemeinde und NOGA 2008 (Abschnitte), Sektoren 1–3 accessed 28 January 2011
, there were 224 workers who commuted into the municipality and 211 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 1.1 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving.Swiss Federal Statistical Office – Statweb accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 9.7% used public transportation to get to work, and 38.1% used a private car.
Adelboden has an unemployment rate of 1.8%. , there were 366 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 143 businesses involved in this sector. 601 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 57 businesses in this sector. 1098 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 153 businesses in this sector.
Religion