Ruedertal
The Ruedertal is a nine kilometer long valley in the southwest of the canton of Aargau in Switzerland . The ue is not pronounced as an umlaut , but separately as ue
location
The valley lies for the most part in the territory of the communities Schlossrued and Schmiedrued , runs from southeast to northwest and is traversed by the Ruederche . This brook flows into the Suhre , a tributary of the Aare , at Schöftland .
The valley floor is seldom more than 50 meters wide and is bounded on both sides by an average of 650-800 meter high hills, whereby the eastern side is strongly fragmented and has numerous short side valleys with foothills in between. The west side is steeper, but has numerous small plateaus. The valley has around 2100 inhabitants, who are spread over several villages and hamlets. The largest settlements are (as seen from the source of the Ruederche) Schiltwald , Walde , Schmiedrued, Kirchrued and Schlossrued.
Due to its topography and the great importance of agriculture, the Ruedertal is often referred to as the " Emmental des Aargau", with which it used to have similarities in social terms.
Origin of name
The name of the valley goes back on the one hand to the clearing by the Alemanni during the 5th and 6th centuries, on the other hand to the Lords of Rued , who lived in the Rued Castle during the Middle Ages .
history
In the middle of the 19th century, the Ruedertal was affected by several bad harvests from 1845 and the population suffered from hunger, with several people dying around 1854. Children had to go begging for days and eat wooden sponges boiled in water , and fathers were so weak that they could not go to work. There were break-ins to get food. The structural reasons that led to the poor harvests leading to this extreme exacerbation of poverty were a lack of jobs, poor pay for home work in the textile and straw industry , outdated agriculture and the insufficient provision of community business by the authorities, their emergency aid was totally inadequate. As a result, there were waves of emigration to southern Germany and North America. The two municipalities concerned were out for a while under cantonal receivership .
literature
The Ruedertal gained fame as the setting for Hermann Burger's novel Schilten from 1976.
- Ursula Maurer: Hungerland - Poverty and economic hardship in the Ruedertal around 1850 . Contributions to Aargau History, Volume 19. Hier und Jetzt Verlag, Baden 2019. ISBN 978-3-03919-465-0 .