Wald (Berne)

Geschichte

Wald is a municipality in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.HistoryOn January 2004 it incorporated the two independent municipalities of Zimmerwald and Englisberg.Englisberg, population: 201Zimmerwald, population: 870 Englisberg is first mentioned in 1166 as Endlisperc.Zimmerwald was first mentioned in 1296 as Zymmerwalt. Until 1902 it was officially known as Obermuhlern und Zimmerwald.EnglisbergEnglisberg first appears in a historic record with the Kyburg Ministerialis (unfree knights in the service of a feudal overlord) family of Englisberg. By the 15th century Bernese patrician families owned the village and surrounding Herrschaft. The right to hold court in the Herrschaft was sold to the villagers in 1570 and then split into 70 shares. This situation remained until the 18th century, when Bernese patricians bought the majority of the shares back. It was originally part of the parish of Belp, but in 1699 became an independent parish.