Rüegsau

Rüegsau
State :	Switzerland
Canton :	Bern (BE)
Administrative district :	Emmental
BFS no. :	0956
Postal code :	3417
UN / LOCODE :	CH HRU (Hasle-Rüegsau) CH RUE (Rüegsauschachen)
Coordinates :	617 741  /  208133 coordinates: 47 ° 1 '26 "  N , 7 ° 40' 19"  O ; CH1903:  617,741  /  208133
Height :	589  m above sea level M.
Height range :	559–845 m above sea level M.
Area :	15.06  km²
Residents:	3260 (December 31, 2018)
Population density :	216 inhabitants per km²
Website:	www.ruegsau.ch
Location of the municipality

Rüegsau is a municipality in the Emmental administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland .

geography

Aerial photo of Rüegsauschachen from 300 m by Walter Mittelholzer (1922)

Rüegsau is located in the lower Emmental . From the Emme along the Rüegsbach, the community comprises the villages of Rüegsauschachen, Rüegsau, Rüegsbach and Rinderbach as well as several hamlets. It has the shape of a rectangle about 2 km wide and 8 km long. The lowest point is on the banks of the Emme at 560 m. ü. M., the highest point on the Höchi above the Vorderen Almisberg at 841 m. ü. M.

economy

The headquarters of Blaser Swisslube AG, one of the leading manufacturers of coolants and lubricants for the machine industry, and the engineering and surveying company of Hans Grunder , Grunder Ingenieure AG, are located in the municipality . In 2017 there were 67 farms in the municipality.

tourism

Rüegsau church with rectory

Chapel of St. Blasius Rüegsbach

Tourism only plays a small but not insignificant role, several typical Emmental inns offer rooms and farm holidays are also possible.

Attractions

See also : List of cultural assets in Rüegsau

A small history museum is located directly on the Emme. The oldest church bells in Switzerland (from the 12th and 13th centuries) are located in the St. Blasius chapel in the Rüegsbach district . The main attraction, however, is the wooden bridge over the Emme between the communities of Hasle and Rüegsau.

The bridge of Rüegsau

Old, covered bridge

The arched wooden bridge replaced a yoke bridge that was washed away in the Emmental in 1837 during the water crisis. Jeremias Gotthelf wrote about it:

« The Emme raged down the valley, hundreds of feet wide, almost from one Emmenrain to the other, to Hasle and the Rüegsauschachen. There the corner taverns had long since emptied themselves, fearfully leaving the triple yoke bridge, which with its narrow spaces prevented the masses of wood from free passage. Here, as in all upper places, no one thought of measures to shield the bridges, as was customary in earlier times and especially with the Hasle Bridge. The inhibited Emme reared fir after fir, Trämel after Trämel, the crashing piles of wood towered far above the bridge. On both sides the waters poured out with ever increasing violence and sought an uninhibited path for the current. A few more minutes and it would have been successful on the Hasle side. In the horror of death, the Kalchofen residents waited for the flood of water to break in, which devastated the entire upper castle area and would have dug a new bed for itself. The Rüegsauer fled through the rising water and there was a prayer everywhere that the bridge would want to move apart. »

The old bridge was washed away. In 1837 the Bern government approved the construction of a new arched wooden bridge. In 1955 this bridge was demolished and replaced by a modern concrete bridge. The wooden bridge was stored and rebuilt 600 m further down the Emme in 1957/1958. With an arch span of 60.15 m, it is the longest wooden arch tension bridge in Europe. and became the symbol of the communities Hasle and Rüegsau.

traffic

The station Rüegsau of BLS AG together with the community Rüegsauschachen used.

history

The name Rüegsau appears for the first time in a document from 1139 and comes from "ruggere aue", or "ruhe Aue". A Benedictine convent, the monastery of Rüegsau , which was abolished in 1528, shaped the entire medieval history of Rüegsau .

population

The community had 3260 inhabitants on December 31, 2018. After a significant population decline in the 1960s and 70s, the population has grown steadily since the 1990s.

Population development
year	1764	1850	1900	1950	1980	2000
Residents	959	2294	2567	2902	2611	2935

politics

The voting shares of the parties in the 2019 National Council election were: SVP 39.8%, BDP 14.1%, EDU 8.5%, SP 7.6%, FDP 5.1%, EPP 6.2%, GPS 7.2 %, glp 6.0%, DM 1.8%, CVP 1.0%.

schools

The community operates two primary schools, one in Rüegsbach and one in Rüegsauschachen. A secondary school will be run together with Hasle. Two other primary schools in Neuegg and Rinderbach were closed.

Personalities

• Born in the church
  • Alfred Held (1886–1973), farmer and politician
  • Werner Meister (1889–1969), entrepreneur and politician
  • Andrea Nicolas Salvisberg (* 1989), triathlete and Olympian

• With reference to the community
  • Johann Heinrich Otth (1651–1719), pastor in Rüegsau, Hebraist, orientalist
  • Walter Loosli (1932–2015), sculptor, glass painter, created the church windows in Rüegsau

Books

• Walter Laedrach: The Rüegsau Bridge , 1926
• Hans Würgler: Local history of Rüegsau , 1965
• Walter Lehmann: Üsi Gmein, üses Dörfli and dr Mucky , 2012

Web links

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

• Official website of the municipality of Rüegsau
• Anne-Marie Dubler: Rüegsau. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Anne-Marie Dubler: Rüegsauschachen. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Illustrated page for the wooden bridge at swiss-timber-bridges

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} Rüegsau community - facts and figures ( Memento from December 12, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) website of the community
3. ↑ Fir refers to the fir branches used to build river weirs and dams. Trämel, derived from tram , "beams" are round timbers such as those used in the construction of staircases. Cf. Alfred Helfenstein: The name of the Pilatus area. Keller, Luzern 1982, ISBN 3-85766-004-X , p. 38 f. ( Tänsch , Trämelegg ). See also tram and tram .
4. ↑ Jeremias Gotthelf: The water shortage in the Emmental on August 13, 1837 , story, first printed in 1852
5. ↑ Data on the bridge ( memento from September 11, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
6. ^ Hans Würgler: Heimatkunde von Rüegsau , 1965
7. ^ Anne-Marie Dubler : Rüegsau. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
8. ^ Results of the community of Rüegsau. State Chancellery of the Canton of Bern, October 20, 2019, accessed on July 31, 2020 . 
9. ↑ Berner Zeitung: The Neuegg becomes a seminar destination