Englisberg is a village in the district of Seftigen in

Canton Bern The canton of Bern or Berne (german: Kanton Bern; rm, Chantun Berna; french: canton de Berne; it, Canton Berna) is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. Its capital city, Bern, is also the ''de facto'' capital of Switzerland. ...

, Switzerland. On January 1, 2004, the independent municipality merged with

Zimmerwald Zimmerwald was an independent municipality in the Canton of Bern, Switzerland until 31 December 2003. It is located on a hill in the proximity of the city of Bern in the Bernese Mittelland. On 1 January 2004 Zimmerwald united with the municipal ...

to form the new municipality of Wald BE. Situated on the Längenberg, above the valley of the Aare river, it combines the villages of Englisberg and Kühlewil. Englisberg is first documented in 1166 ndlisperc It is believed that Englisberg was created out of the much older village of Kühlewil ullenwil, Cullenwilare - originally of Celtic originthe latter of which having since attained the status of a hamlet of the former. In the 14th century a castle is documented in Englisberg, owned by the family of the same name. It was abandoned by the following 15th century and quickly fell into disrepair and disintegration. The feudal rights over Englisberg were acquired by the von Erlach family of Bern in 1433 and passed in 1542 to the Baumgartner family of the same place. After 1570, these feudal rights were sold to local farming families Guggisberg and Zimmermann which over the course of several generations were split into 70 shares. In the 18th century, these rights were successively purchased by the aristocratic von Graffenried and von Tscharner families seated at the Lohn estate in Kehrsatz only to lose it all when Switzerland was invaded by the French in 1798 that resulted in the abolishment of the ancient order. Englisberg belonged until 1798 to the high court district of Seftigen. Ecclesiastically Englisberg was part of the evangelical reformed parish church of neighboring Belp till 1699 and thereafter was integrated into the newly created parish of Zimmerwald.Guggisberg, D. A.: Architektonische Gebäudeinschriften-Bestandsaufnahme von Englisberg, 2002, manuscript, Staatsarchiv Bern Census Data: 1764: 223 inhabitants;1850: 275 inhabitants; 1900: 567 inhabitants;1950: 564 inhabitants; 2000: 214 inhabitants Predominant surnames with long-established ancestry preceding 1798: - Balsiger, since the 16th century / - Guggisberg, since the 15th century / - Hosmann and Hossmann since the 17th century / - Streit, since the 16th century / - Zimmermann, since the 16th century Englisberg is the birthplace of former Swiss

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two o ...

player

Mark Streit Mark Thomas Streit (born 11 December 1977) is a Swiss former professional ice hockey defenceman. He was formerly the captain of both the New York Islanders and the Swiss national team. Streit was one of the few swingmen in the NHL who could pla ...

Prominent Englisberg citizens and residents

* Rudolf Joder (1950), Swiss politician, National Council *

(1977), hockey player

References

External links

* File:Coat of arms of the village of Englisberg.gif, coat of arms of Englisberg File:Village of Englisberg, south-eastern view towards the Gantrisch.jpg, village of Englisberg File:Schöpfkarte 1580 - area around Englisberg.jpg, 16th century map by Doctor Thomas Schöpf dated 1580 {{authority control Villages in the canton of Bern Former municipalities of the canton of Bern