Huttwil

Huttwil
State :	Switzerland
Canton :	Bern (BE)
Administrative district :	Oberaargau
BFS no. :	0954
Postal code :	4950
UN / LOCODE :	CH HWL
Coordinates :	631 219  /  218490 coordinates: 47 ° 7 '0'  N , 7 ° 51 '0 "  O ; CH1903:  six hundred thirty-one thousand two hundred and nineteen  /  218490
Height :	638  m above sea level M.
Height range :	596–832 m above sea level M.
Area :	17.24  km²
Residents:	4898 (December 31, 2018)
Population density :	284 inhabitants per km²
Mayor :	Walter Rohrbach ( BDP )
Website:	www.huttwil.ch
Marktgasse with the Rössli inn and the Reformed Church
Location of the municipality

Huttwil ( Bern German : Huttu) is a municipality in the Oberaargau administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland . The "flower town" is located in the south of the Oberaargau .

geography

Aerial photo from 400 m by Walter Mittelholzer (1922)

Huttwil is located in the Swiss plateau on the upper reaches of the Langete , about 16 km south of the city of Langenthal and roughly halfway between Lucerne and Bern . The town consists of the quarters Oberdorf, Neuhaus, Rütistalde, Moos and Uech, and the hamlets of Chaltenegg (in the far west at 762 m above sea level), Schwarzenbach near Huttwil (with the national sports center), Ettishäuser (Ettishüsere) also belong to the community. (at 702 m above sea level north of the town), Tschäppel, Nyffenegg, Nyffel and Hübeli as well as numerous courtyard groups and individual courtyards. The municipal area covers 17.24 km², of which 21.9% is wooded area, 64.4% is used for agriculture and 13.6% is used for settlement purposes.

Huttwil has a common border with a total of eight municipalities. These are:

• in the north: Auswil and Gondiswil ,
• in the east: Ufhusen ( Canton Lucerne ),
• in the south: Eriswil , Wyssachen and Dürrenroth and
• in the west: Rohrbachgraben BE and Rohrbach BE .

politics

Mayor is Walter Rohrbach ( BDP ) (as of 2017). Since 2009, the office of the municipal council presidium (executive) and that of the municipal presidium (legislative) have been combined. For this, the Vice Presidium was upgraded. The local council has the following party-political composition: 3  SVP , 1  SP , 1  FDP , 1 BDP, 1  EDU .

economy

Traditionally, Huttwil has a very distinct commercial structure. For decades, well-known furniture manufacturers were based in the village. These companies all went bankrupt in the late 1990s. At that time, the Huttwil region lost several hundred jobs within a few weeks. Today you can find businesses in the following sectors in the town: textiles, construction, food, graphics, various craftsmen, transports, machines and, for some years now, furniture again. In Huttwil there used to be a relatively large number of restaurants, in 2014 there were around 15.

The following nationally known companies are based in Huttwil:

• Biketec AG (leading manufacturer of electric bicycles)
• JOWA AG (formerly Walter Leuenberger AG); Pasta and mustard factory, now part of Migros
• Novex AG (manufacturer of school furniture)
• Nyffenegger Storenfabrik AG (manufacturer of blind systems)
• Wollspinnerei Huttwil AG (manufacturer of flat yarns for the carpet industry)
• Spycher-Handwerk AG (leading wool processing company in Switzerland)
• Afag Automation AG (manufacturer of assembly components and feeding solutions)
• Hans Mathys AG (transport, disposal and logistics)
• Lanz Transport AG (national / international transport)

population

Population development
year	1764	1850	1880	1900	1930	1950	1980	1990	2000	2010	2015
population	1678	3398	3122	3916	4164	4661	4612	4809	4825	4712	4692

traffic

Huttwil can be reached in around 16 km from Langenthal , around 16 km from Sumiswald and around 25 km from Sursee via the cantonal roads. Huttwil is far away from the motorways, which makes the location less attractive. The next motorway entrances are relatively far away with Sursee (25 km), Dagmersellen (20 km), Niederbipp (25 km) and Kirchberg (25 km). The large German-speaking cities of Bern , Lucerne , Zurich and Basel are all roughly the same distance away; the journey time to Lucerne and Bern is around 45 minutes, to Basel and Zurich around 60 minutes.

The railway has a long tradition in Huttwil . The United Huttwil-Bahnen (VHB) had its headquarters in Huttwil for decades . These railway lines are now operated by BLS AG . Huttwil is a station on the Langenthal – Willisau – Wolhusen – Lucerne railway line. Until 2006, Huttwil was a terminus of the Bern S-Bahn, since then this line has only operated from Bern to the Sumiswald station and the last section to Huttwil (around 12 km) is used by buses. Thus, Huttwil was cut off from the Bern S-Bahn line and from the direct connections to the federal city. Instead, the connection from Langenthal via Huttwil and Wolhusen is connected directly to the canton capital of Lucerne. Since the introduction of the Lucerne S-Bahn (December 12, 2004), the S6 has run directly to Lucerne every hour. On the line between Huttwil and Sumiswald, which has now been closed, the private Museumsbahn Emmental cooperative has been operating a charter and excursion company with partly historical rolling stock since 2009. In addition, the route is used for tests and approval runs of new rolling stock and new components by various companies and railway companies.

Schools and education

Huttwil has always been the center of the upper Langetental. This is also reflected in the Huttwil educational landscape: The town has three primary and secondary schools and a secondary school (Hofmatt) for the communities of Huttwil, Eriswil, Wyssachen, Gondiswil, Dürrenroth and parts of it from Rohrbachgraben. Classes in the 10th school year are also held in the vocational school building. In Schwarzenbach near Huttwil there is also the special education school.

The Huttwil Music School has been committed to the musical and instrumental education of children, young people and adults for decades.

Sport and Infrastructure

The place has numerous leisure facilities. The most important ones include the Huttwil swimming pool, the three gyms and sports facilities in Dornacker and the Schwarzenbach schoolhouse, as well as the Perspektiven campus (formerly the National Sports Center, NSZ for short) in the Schwarzenbach district. The Perspektiven campus includes an ice rink with around 4,500 seats and standing room, an event hall, an athletics facility with floodlights, a circular track and lawn, soccer fields, a restaurant, a sports shop, various seminar and course rooms, a triple gym (polyvalent usable) as well as two accommodation buildings. The Perspektiven campus is one of the most important economic pillars of Huttwil and the entire region. Since 2016, part of the available accommodation has been used for the temporary accommodation of unaccompanied, minor asylum seekers.

In 2006 the financial problems of the NSZ became public for the first time. Although the facilities have practically been used to full capacity for years, the sports center has not been able to generate black numbers. In the beginning of 2007, Jürg Schürch, the managing director and founder of the center, had to apply for a debt restructuring moratorium. In January 2008, after much speculation and negotiation, the solution was finally known: The Langenthal entrepreneur Markus Bösiger buys the NSZ and will operate it through a joint-stock company founded specifically for this purpose. The shares are 100% owned by Bösiger. Bösiger separated from the former managing director Jürg Schürch in 2010.

The NSZ was the venue of the Huttwil Falcons , which played in the 1st ice hockey league in Switzerland and won the amateur championship title in the 2010/2011 season. However, the Swiss Ice Hockey Federation did not issue any license to play in the NLB. This prompted the owner of the sports center, Markus Bösiger, to stop ice processing for the 2011/2012 season. This threw high waves far beyond the region.

The Kadetten Huttwil Association offers children and young people from Huttwil and the region an extensive selection of sports and music subjects that can be attended as desired. Over 200 people are currently participating in these school sports and music programs. The sports subjects as well as the cadet music are conducted by voluntary, expert leaders.

Severe weather 2007

On Friday, June 8th, 2007 the town of Huttwil and the neighboring communities Eriswil and Wyssachen were hit by severe storms. During violent thunderstorms and heavy rains, the region's streams, particularly the Langete , overflowed their banks and caused massive damage. The total amount of damage is estimated at CHF 40–50 million. In addition, two people lost their lives in Huttwil and one in Eriswil.

Attractions

See also : List of cultural assets in Huttwil

Impressions

• 

  Reformed Church of Huttwil

• 

  Stained glass in the reformed church

• 

  Main street in the old town

• 

  Ettishüsere

Personalities

• Fritz Ryser (1873–1916), racing cyclist, born in Huttwil
• Ernst Wildi (1878–1939), Rector of the Trogen Cantonal School, born in Huttwil
• Werner Weber (1919–2005), journalist and literary scholar, born in Huttwil
• Michael Hermann (* 1971), geographer and political scientist, born and raised in Huttwil
• Nikolaus Kredel (Grädel) (* ~ 1653 + 1723 Zell im Odenwald, Germany) was born in Huttwil and relocated to Germany

Web links

Wikisource: Huttwill in the Topographia Helvetiae, Rhaetiae et Valesiae (Matthäus Merian)  - sources and full texts

Commons : Huttwil  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website of the municipality of Huttwil
• Jürg Rettenmund: Huttwil. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Permanent resident population from STAT-TAB of the BfS , municipalities see also regional portraits 2020 on bfs.admin.ch, accessed on May 29, 2020
2. ↑ Parish data . Federal Office for statistics; Retrieved November 5, 2011
3. ↑ Information about the storm of June 8, 2007 on Meteoradar