Madiswil

Madiswil
State :	Switzerland
Canton :	Bern (BE)
Administrative district :	Oberaargau
BFS no. :	0332
Postal code :	4932 Gutenburg 4934 Madiswil 4935 Leimiswil 4936 Kleindietwil
Coordinates :	627 399  /  224030 coordinates: 47 ° 10 '0 "  N , 7 ° 48' 0"  O ; CH1903:  six hundred twenty-seven thousand three hundred and ninety-nine  /  224030
Height :	538  m above sea level M.
Height range :	506–767 m above sea level M.
Area :	23.17  km²
Residents:	3279 (December 31, 2018)
Population density :	142 inhabitants per km²
Mayor :	Ueli Werren ( Free Voters )
Website:	www.madiswil.ch
The church district of Madiswil
Location of the municipality

Madiswil ( in the local dialect [ˌmadisˈʋiu] , also casually Madis ) is a political municipality in the Oberaargau administrative district in the Swiss canton of Bern .

In addition to the resident community, there is also a civic community and an evangelical-reformed parish under the name Madiswil .

geography

Madiswil is located in Oberaargau in the Swiss plateau . Since the neighboring communities are very small and Madiswil is the largest community in terms of area in office, Madiswil borders on many communities. These are Lotzwil , Busswil near Melchnau , Melchnau , Reisiswil , Gondiswil , Auswil , Rorbach , Rohrbachgraben , Ursenbach , Ochlenberg and Rütschelen . The Langete River flows through the village to the west. In addition to the actual village, the municipality also includes the districts of Bisegg, Gutenburg, Mattenbach and Wyssbach as well as the hamlets of Ghürn, Rüppiswil and Roschbach / Hochrüti and, since January 1, 2011, the former municipalities of Kleindietwil and Leimiswil . The large area makes it necessary to maintain a road network of around 45 km.

politics

The president of the seven-member municipal council is Ueli Werren (as of 2019).

history

Until 1800

As fossil finds show, Madiswil was once in the Molasse Sea , like every area between the Alps, the Black Forest and the Swabian Alb . Fossilized teeth or shells from this period can be found relatively often and without great effort. Finds also prove the presence of Celts and Romans in Oberaargau. Celtic roots are suspected especially in Gutenburg. There are some refuges in Madiswil from the 4th and 5th centuries, but they could not be dated with certainty. One of these refuges is located near Bad Bürgisweier.

The first time Madiswil is mentioned under the name Madaletswilare in a document of the monastery of St. Gallen from the year 795 together with Rohrbach. It was a donation from the village church by Heribold, who bequeathed his church in Madiswil to St. Martin's Church in Rohrbach. This makes Madiswil one of the earliest mentioned localities in Oberaargau, along with Rohrbach. The name is a combination of an Old High German male personal name like Madalolt with Old High German wīlāri "hamlet, farmstead" and means "at the farmstead of Madalolt".

The rule over Madiswil was thus divided by spiritual and secular rulers. Above all those of Grünenberg and the St. Urban Monastery . Together with Leimiswil, Madiswil formed a secular and spiritual court. During the Old Zurich War , the Grünenberg remained loyal to Austria, so that Madiswil was besieged, occupied and incorporated by Bern in 1443/44. Without Leimiswil, it was initially added to the Langenthal district and later, during the Helvetic Republic, incorporated into the Aarwangen District Office.

Also noteworthy are the famous water mats of Madiswil and Lotzwil. In the 16th century, the monks of St. Urban began using the water of the Langete river to irrigate the fields.

Districts of Madiswil that were previously independent, such as Gutenburg, did not appear for the first time until much later: Gutenburg was first mentioned as Guotenberg in 1277. At first, Celts lived in Gutenburg, who owned their holy place on the Turmhubel. Gutenburg became politically significant when it was ruled by the barons of Utzigen. Their castle, the Gutenburg, was built on the tower hill, where the floor plan can still be seen today. From 1300 the noble family from Gutburg got involved in disputes with the monastery Sankt Urban and the Solothurners, so that in 1370 the rule went to the Dukes of Austria. The Grünenberg, based in Melchnau, were now masters of Gutenburg. Since they again had large debts, they had to sell their dominions to the then Upper Aargau town of Burgdorf. With that the rule of Gutenburg ended for good, as the city let the castle fall apart. The ruin tower was still in full height until 1799, before Burgdorf sold the stones to a farmer in Kleindietwil, who turned them into a mill. Today only the earth walls point to Gutenburg's once mighty past.

Bad Gutenburg, which has been handed down since the 11th century, is also remarkable . It was said to have healing powers and supposedly it should be able to heal scars completely. The "Bad Gutenburg" restaurant is one of the oldest in the Canton of Bern. The spring itself and the healing powers that were said to have been preserved until the Second World War. The spa died when the spring dried up, but the restaurant still exists today. Although both the pond and the restaurant are on Lotzwiler Boden, people still speak of Bad Gutenburg today.

Present: parish mergers

Aerial photo (1970)

The municipalities of Madiswil and Gutenburg (FSO No. 0327) merged with effect from January 1, 2007 to form the new municipality of Madiswil. At the community meeting on June 7, 2006, both communities approved the merger. The government council of the canton of Bern then applied to the Grand Council of the canton of Bern on June 15, 2006 to approve the merger and the merger agreements.

Under the motto “Three Villages - One Municipality”, the municipal assemblies of Madiswil, Kleindietwil and Leimiswil decided on another merger on December 12, 2009, which was approved by a large majority in all three municipalities. This created the new community of Madiswil on January 1, 2011 with around 3100 inhabitants and an area of ​​23 km².

Village legend

The story of Ueli, the left mower, is an old Madiswil legend. There are different variants:

Once upon a time there was a rich farmer. He had a beautiful daughter named Vreni, which many men liked. So also Ueli, who asked her father for the hand of the Holden. Vreni's father did not want to give it away so easily and asked Ueli to mow a cross in the Grossmatt. Because he was good at mowing with his left hand, he had to do this too. He was busy working until he suddenly felt a beat in his heart. This had to be his old war wound! He was almost done and was struggling for the final prank. But this cost him his life.

In other versions, the Junker Lombach, who is engaged to Vreni, also plays a role. Ueli raises his hand against him and so he is punished to mow a cross in the Grossmatt. In both versions, Vreni always loved Ueli and by no means the Junker. Sometimes Vreni also takes his own life at the end of the legend.

The legend was also processed literarily. The result was a total of three plays, a poem and a ballad. The event was mostly postponed to the 14th century. The left mower appears as a picture for the first time in 1737. It was a church window that the parish of Madiswil gave to the parish of Melchnau. However, the mower wielded the scythe with his right hand. The piece, which is still performed regularly in Madiswil today, was dated to the early summer of 1648.

The Madiswil coat of arms, which previously represented a turnip, was changed to a left mower long before the legend came back in 1847. However, it was never agreed which coat of arms was valid and what the left mower looked like. It was not until 1946 that the left mower on green ground officially became Madiswil's coat of arms. The turnip used to be the coat of arms of Madiswil because Madiswil was well known for its good turnips. Even today there are two local holidays when schoolchildren usually get free: beet Sunday (also known as "beet chilbi") and beet Monday, which are practiced in the last week of October.

Attractions

See also : List of cultural assets in Madiswil

photos

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  Gasthof "Bären"

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  Rectory (built in 1607) with barn and oven house floor

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  Parish hall of Madiswil

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  Reformed church and former tithe store

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  Interior of the church

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  Former tithe store

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  Barn in Kleindietwil

literature

• Anne-Marie Dubler : Madiswil. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Simon Kuert: 1200 years of Madiswil . Municipality of Madiswil, 1994, 2nd edition 1995.
• Christian Rümelin: The parish church in Madiswil. Canton Bern. Society for Swiss Art History, Bern 1996, ISBN 3-85782-591-X ( Swiss Art Guide 591, Series 60).
• Max Jufer (Red.): The Aarwangen district and its communities . Published by the district of Aarwangen and the 25 municipalities. Merkur, Langenthal 1991, ISBN 3-907012-10-0 .

Web links

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

• Official website of the municipality of Madiswil

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. ↑ ^{a b} Lexicon of Swiss municipality names . Edited by the Center de Dialectologie at the University of Neuchâtel under Andres Kristol. Frauenfeld / Lausanne 2005, p. 559 f.
3. ↑ Madiswil municipality. Retrieved February 7, 2019 .