Habkern

Geschichte

Habkern is a municipality in the Interlaken-Oberhasli administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. The municipality includes the settlements of Bohlseiten, Bort, Schwendi and Mittelbäuert.Origin of the nameThe name Habkern comes from the Old High German word habuh (“hawk”) and the ending -arra, indicating that something is in large numbers. Habkern is thus “”the place where there are many hawks”.HistoryHabkern is first mentioned in 1275 as Habcherron.The land around Habkern was originally owned by the King of the Romans. In 1275, King Rudolph I granted the village to the Freiherr of Eschenbach. It was held briefly by the Habsburg family in Austria before they granted it to Interlaken Abbey. The Abbey remained a supporter of the House of Habsburg after the Swiss Confederation gained de facto independence from the Habsburgs in the early 14th century. The Abbey launched several raids into Unterwalden to support Habsburg ambitions. In response, in 1342, troops from Unterwalden attacked and burned Habkern. A few years later, in 1348−49, the village unsuccessfully rebelled against the Abbey. In 1528, the city of Bern adopted the new faith of the Protestant Reformation and began imposing it on the Bernese Oberland. Habkern joined many other villages and the Abbey in an unsuccessful rebellion against the new faith. After Bern imposed its will on the Oberland, they secularized the Abbey and annexed all the Abbey lands. By 1538, a traveling pastor preached one sermon a month in the filial church in Habkern.