Leissigen

Geschichte

Leissigen is a municipality in the Interlaken-Oberhasli administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.Origin of the nameThe name Leissigen comes from the Old High German personal name Lantgis and the toponymic suffix -ingun, meaning "of the people of Langtis."HistoryLeissigen is first mentioned in 1285 as Lensengne. In 1290 it was mentioned as Lenxingen.The oldest traces of a settlement in the area are scattered Bronze Age axes, daggers and swords. The first time the village appears in the historic record, during the Middle Ages, it belonged to the Herrschaft of Unspunnen-Rotenfluh. It was eventually inherited by the Freiherr of Weissenburg, who gave it to Interlaken Abbey in 1334. The village remained under the Abbey's control for almost two centuries. In 1528, the city of Bern adopted the new faith of the Protestant Reformation and began imposing it on the Bernese Oberland. Lauterbrunnen 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.