The Brünig-Napf-Reuss line forms a geographical boundary in traditional

Swiss culture Switzerland lies at the crossroads of several major European cultures. Three of the continent's major languages, German, French and Italian, are national languages of Switzerland, along with Romansh, spoken by a small minority. Therefore, Swi ...

('' Kulturgrenze''). Running from the

Brünig Pass The Brünig Pass, at an altitude of , connects the Bernese Oberland and central Switzerland, linking Meiringen in the canton of Bern and Lungern in the canton of Obwalden. It is on the watershed between the upper reaches of the Aare, which flows ...

along the

Napf The Napf is a mountain on the border between the Swiss cantons of Bern and Lucerne. With an altitude of , it is the summit of the Napfgebiet (Napf region), the hilly region lying between Bern and Lucerne. It is counted geologically as part o ...

region to the Reuss (which joins the

Aare The Aare () or Aar () is a tributary of the High Rhine and the longest river that both rises and ends entirely within Switzerland. Its total length from its source to its junction with the Rhine comprises about , during which distance it descen ...

Brugg , neighboring_municipalities = Gebenstorf, Habsburg, Hausen, Holderbank, Lupfig, Riniken, Rüfenach, Schinznach, Untersiggenthal, Villigen, Villnachern, Veltheim, Windisch , twintowns = Rottweil (Germany) , website ...

), it partly separates western (

Bernese German Bernese German (Standard German: ''Berndeutsch'', gsw, Bärndütsch) is the dialect of High Alemannic German spoken in the Swiss plateau (Mittelland) part of the canton of Bern and in some neighbouring regions. A form of Bernese German is spoke ...

) and eastern ( Zurich German) varieties of

High Alemannic High Alemannic is a dialect of Alemannic German spoken in the westernmost Austrian state of Vorarlberg and in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Language area The High Alemannic dialects are spoken in Liechtenstein and in most of German-speaking S ...

, although some places east of the line belong to the western dialect group (

Schwyz The town of Schwyz (; french: Schwytz; it, Svitto) is the capital of the canton of Schwyz in Switzerland. The Federal Charter of 1291 or ''Bundesbrief'', the charter that eventually led to the foundation of Switzerland, can be seen at the ' ...

, Zug). The line runs across the cantons of Lucerne and Aargau. The concept was first proposed by Richard Weiss in 1947, and it reflects the cultural situation in Switzerland as established by ethnographic field work during the early 20th century. Some historians and ethnographers argued that this cultural boundary is of greater importance historically than the French-German language boundary (the Röstigraben), even though it is widely admitted that the "line" doesn't form a sharp division but especially in its northern part is "fanning out" into a gradient. The line coincides, for example, with the traditional distribution of Simmental Cattle (west) vs. Braunvieh (east), and with the traditional distribution of French vs. German playing cards.Günter Wiegelmann , ''Theoretische Konzepte der europäischen Ethnologie: Diskussionen um Regeln und Modelle'' (1991),
p. 165
The line also corresponds to the frontline during the

Swiss peasant war of 1653 The Swiss peasant war of 1653 () was a popular revolt in the Old Swiss Confederacy at the time of the Ancien Régime. A devaluation of Bernese money caused a tax revolt that spread from the Entlebuch valley in the Canton of Lucerne to the Emmen ...

. The High Alemannic regions west of the line correspond to medieval Argovia, the

marches In medieval Europe, a march or mark was, in broad terms, any kind of borderland, as opposed to a national "heartland". More specifically, a march was a border between realms or a neutral buffer zone under joint control of two states in which diff ...

between Burgundy and Alemannia. *East of the Brünig-Napf-Reuss line:

St. Gallen , neighboring_municipalities = Eggersriet, Gaiserwald, Gossau, Herisau (AR), Mörschwil, Speicher (AR), Stein (AR), Teufen (AR), Untereggen, Wittenbach , twintowns = Liberec (Czech Republic) , website = ...

, Zug,

Zürich , neighboring_municipalities = Adliswil, Dübendorf, Fällanden, Kilchberg, Maur, Oberengstringen, Opfikon, Regensdorf, Rümlang, Schlieren, Stallikon, Uitikon, Urdorf, Wallisellen, Zollikon , twintowns = Kunming, San Francisco Zürich ...

*West of the Brünig-Napf-Reuss line: Aarau, Bern, Liestal,

Solothurn Solothurn ( , ; french: Soleure ; it, Soletta ; rm, ) is a town, a municipality, and the capital of the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland. It is located in the north-west of Switzerland on the banks of the Aare and on the foot of the Weissens ...

References

Sources

*Helge Gerndt, "Alltagskultur im Alpenraum: regionale Differenzierungen" in ''Kulturwissenschaft im Zeitalter der Globalisierung'' (2002), pp. 51-56. *Richard Weiss, "Die Brünig-Napf-Reuss-Linie als Kulturgrenze zwischen Ost- und West-Schweiz auf Volkskundlichen Karten", ''Geographica Helvetica'' 2 (1947), 153-175. *A Hager, "Die 'Brünig-Napf-Reuss-Linie' von Richard Weis und die Verteilung der Rinderrassen in der Schweiz", ''Schweizer Volkskunde'' 72 (1982), 36-41. Swiss culture Cultural boundaries {{DEFAULTSORT:Brunig-Napf-Reuss Line

See also

References

Sources