Schattenhalb is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

in the Interlaken-Oberhasli administrative district in the

canton Canton may refer to: Administrative divisions * Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries * Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French Arts and entertainment * Canton (band), an It ...

Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. The municipality includes the settlements of Willigen, Geissholz, Falcheren and Lüögen.

History

John Brett - Der Gletscher von Rosenlaui

The municipality was created in 1834 from the cooperative farms ('' Bäuerten'') of "Willigen," "Geissholz," "Falchern" and "Lugen." The name Schattenhalb ("Shadow-half") refers to the shady face of the mountainside south of

Meiringen Meiringen () is a municipality in the Interlaken-Oberhasli administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. Besides the village of Meiringen, the municipality includes the settlements of Balm, Brünigen, Eisenbolgen, Hausen, Prasti, ...

. The oldest traces of settlements in the area are scattered

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

ax and spear heads and a

Roman era In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

coin A coin is a small object, usually round and flat, used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order to facilitate trade. They are most often issued by ...

hoard A hoard or "wealth deposit" is an archaeological term for a collection of valuable objects or artifacts, sometimes purposely buried in the ground, in which case it is sometimes also known as a cache. This would usually be with the intention of ...

. By the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

the scattered Bäuerten of Schattenhalb were part of the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

and the

Vogt An , sometimes simply advocate, (German, ), or (French, ), was a type of medieval office holder, particularly important in the Holy Roman Empire, who was delegated some of the powers and functions of a major feudal lord, or for an institutio ...

ei of Hasli. In 1334 the entire Vogtei was acquired by the city of

. Traditionally the villagers raised cattle and horses in seasonal alpine meadows and then sold the livestock and cheese to traders. During the 18th and 19th century authors, such as Charles Victor de Bonstetten and Jakob Samuel Wyttenbach, explored and described the natural beauty of the canyons, waterfalls and glaciers of the

Bernese Oberland The Bernese Oberland (; ; ), sometimes also known as the Bernese Highlands, is the highest and southernmost part of the canton of Bern. It is one of the canton's five administrative regions (in which context it is referred to as ''Oberland'' witho ...

including many sights near Schattenhalb. Tourists began to visit the area and explore the land around the municipality. In 1788 the Rosenlauibad (Rosenlaui baths or pools) opened and by the 19th century a hotel and spa developed at the Rosenlaui river. A spa opened along the Reichenbach river before 1800 followed by a hotel in 1835. A cable car was built in 1899 which allowed guests to travel to the top of the falls. Reichenbach hotel burned in 1901 and was rebuilt as a larger, luxury hotel. However, it was converted into a psychiatric hospital in 1919. The nearby

Aare The Aare () or Aar () is the main tributary of the High Rhine (its discharge even exceeds that of the latter at their confluence) and the longest river that both rises and ends entirely within Switzerland. Its total length from its source to i ...

gorge became a tourist destination in 1888. Between 1912 and 1956 a tram connected Meiringen, Schattnehalb and the Aare gorge. Today the municipality shares a post office and telephone exchange with Meiringen. While some residents still are involved in agriculture, about three-fourths of the jobs in Schattenhalb are in the services sector. A village school opened in Falchern in 1659, followed by one in Willigen in 1714 and Geissholz in 1788. The schools in Falchern and Geissholz closed in 1970 and 2004 respectively, leaving the Willigen school as the only primary school in the municipality.

Geography

Schattenhalb has an area of . As of 2012, a total of or 26.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 39.3% is forested. The rest of the municipality is or 2.2% is settled (buildings or roads), or 1.2% is either rivers or lakes and or 30.6% is unproductive land.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010 During the same year, housing and buildings made up 1.0% and transportation infrastructure made up 0.9%. A total of 33.8% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.3% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 6.2% is pasturage and 20.3% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 6.5% is unproductive vegetation, 21.3% is too rocky for vegetation and 2.8% of the land is covered by glaciers. Schattenhalb lies in the

in the Hasli valley, where the

River flows. It includes the villages of Willigen im Tal at an elevation of about , Geissholz am Kirchet () and Falchern, Schwendi and Lugen on a terrace above the valley at an elevation of about . The highest mountain is the Wellhorn, on the southwestern edge of the municipality (). Part of the municipality is covered by the

Rosenlaui Glacier The Rosenlaui Glacier () is a 5-km-long glacier (as of 2005) in the Bernese Alps in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. In 1973 it had an area of 6.14 km2. Johann Heinrich Müller, 1825-1894 H19 Rosenlauigletscher.JPG, Rosenlaui Glacier c. ...

. At a lower altitude is the Rosenlaui gorge, a tourist attraction, which can be reached from the Hasli valley via the

Reichenbachtal Reichenbachtal is an valleys of the Alps, Alpine valley in Oberhasli, canton of Bern, Switzerland. It is situated within the municipality of Schattenhalb, connecting Meiringen with the Grosse Scheidegg pass towards Grindelwald. Its water, the R ...

valley. At the lower end of this valley are the famous

Reichenbach Falls Reichenbach Falls () is a waterfall in the Bernese Oberland region of Switzerland, which drop a height of . At , the upper Grand Reichenbach Fall () is one of the highest waterfalls in the Alps. The Reichenbach loses of height from the top of ...

. On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Oberhasli, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Interlaken-Oberhasli.Nomenklaturen – Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz
accessed 4 April 2011

Coat of arms

The

blazon In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct an accurate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The visual d ...

of the municipal

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

is ''Per chevron Sable Five Mullets Or three and two and of the second an Eagle of the first crowned of the second.''

Demographics

Schattenhalb has a population () of . , 12.0% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last year (2010-2011) the population has changed at a rate of -2.5%. Migration accounted for -0.8%, while births and deaths accounted for -0.3%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 10 February 2014 Most of the population () speaks

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

(607 or 92.8%) as their first language,

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

is the second most common (19 or 2.9%) and Portuguese is the third (9 or 1.4%). There are 2 people who speak

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

and 4 people who speak

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

. , the population was 50.5% male and 49.5% female. The population was made up of 261 Swiss men (44.1% of the population) and 38 (6.4%) non-Swiss men. There were 251 Swiss women (42.4%) and 42 (7.1%) non-Swiss women.Statistical office of the Canton of Bern
accessed 4 January 2012 Of the population in the municipality, 271 or about 41.4% were born in Schattenhalb and lived there in 2000. There were 184 or 28.1% who were born in the same canton, while 75 or 11.5% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 73 or 11.2% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 21.8% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 56.2% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 22%. , there were 270 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 304 married individuals, 51 widows or widowers and 29 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 80 households that consist of only one person and 27 households with five or more people. , a total of 237 apartments (83.2% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 28 apartments (9.8%) were seasonally occupied and 20 apartments (7.0%) were empty.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen
accessed 28 January 2011 The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.3%. In 2011, single family homes made up 51.1% of the total housing in the municipality. The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width: auto height:200 barincrement:45 PlotArea = top:20 left:35 bottom:20 right:35 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:960 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:200 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:40 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width: 35 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1764 from:start till:298 text:"298" bar:1850 from:start till:767 text:"767" bar:1860 from:start till:751 text:"751" bar:1870 from:start till:821 text:"821" bar:1880 from:start till:850 text:"850" bar:1888 from:start till:782 text:"782" bar:1900 from:start till:772 text:"772" bar:1910 from:start till:766 text:"766" bar:1920 from:start till:855 text:"855" bar:1930 from:start till:864 text:"864" bar:1941 from:start till:884 text:"884" bar:1950 from:start till:954 text:"954" bar:1960 from:start till:888 text:"888" bar:1970 from:start till:830 text:"830" bar:1980 from:start till:754 text:"754" bar:1990 from:start till:706 text:"706" bar:2000 from:start till:654 text:"654" bar:2010 from:start till:588 text:"588"

Politics

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 45.5% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (24.9%), the Social Democratic Party (SP) (10.7%) and the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice. Green party platforms typically embrace Social democracy, social democratic economic policies and fo ...

(8.3%). In the federal election, a total of 198 votes were cast, and the

voter turnout In political science, voter turnout is the participation rate (often defined as those who cast a ballot) of a given election. This is typically either the percentage of Voter registration, registered voters, Suffrage, eligible voters, or all Voti ...

was 46.4%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election
accessed 8 May 2012

Economy

, Schattenhalb had an unemployment rate of 0.74%. , there were a total of 624 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 48 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 21 businesses involved in this sector. 89 people were employed in the

secondary sector In macroeconomics, the secondary sector of the economy is an economic sector in the three-sector theory that describes the role of manufacturing. It encompasses industries that produce a finished, usable product or are involved in constructi ...

and there were 6 businesses in this sector. 487 people were employed in the

tertiary sector The tertiary sector of the economy, generally known as the service sector, is the third of the three economic sectors in the three-sector model (also known as the economic cycle). The others are the primary sector (raw materials) and the ...

, with 14 businesses in this sector. There were 330 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 41.8% of the workforce. there were a total of 488

full-time equivalent Full-time equivalent (FTE), or whole time equivalent (WTE), is a unit of measurement that indicates the workload of an employed person (or student) in a way that makes workloads or class loads comparable across various contexts. FTE is often use ...

jobs. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 28, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 81 of which 11 or (13.6%) were in manufacturing and 43 (53.1%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 379. In the tertiary sector; 4 or 1.1% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 49 or 12.9% were in a hotel or restaurant, 5 or 1.3% were technical professionals or scientists, 5 or 1.3% were in education and 301 or 79.4% were in health care. , there were 81 workers who commuted into the municipality and 237 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 2.9 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. A total of 93 workers (53.4% of the 174 total workers in the municipality) both lived and worked in Schattenhalb.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 4.2% used public transportation to get to work, and 49.7% used a private car. In 2011 the average local and cantonal tax rate on a married resident, with two children, of Schattenhalb making 150,000 CHF was 13.4%, while an unmarried resident's rate was 19.6%. For comparison, the average rate for the entire canton in the same year, was 14.2% and 22.0%, while the nationwide average was 12.3% and 21.1% respectively. In 2009 there were a total of 249 tax payers in the municipality. Of that total, 68 made over 75,000 CHF per year. There were 2 people who made between 15,000 and 20,000 per year. The greatest number of workers, 72, made between 50,000 and 75,000 CHF per year. The average income of the over 75,000 CHF group in Schattenhalb was 101,716 CHF, while the average across all of Switzerland was 130,478 CHF. In 2011 a total of 1.7% of the population received direct financial assistance from the government.

Religion

From the , 501 or 76.6% belonged to the

Swiss Reformed Church The Protestant Church in Switzerland (PCS), formerly named Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches until 31 December 2019, is a federation of 25 member churches – 24 cantonal churches and the Evangelical-Methodist Church of Switzerland. The P ...

, while 105 or 16.1% were

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

. Of the rest of the population, there were 3 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.46% of the population), and there were 4 individuals (or about 0.61% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 6 (or about 0.92% of the population) who were

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

. There were 2 individuals who were

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

. 27 (or about 4.13% of the population) belonged to no church, are

agnostic Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, the divine, or the supernatural is either unknowable in principle or unknown in fact. (page 56 in 1967 edition) It can also mean an apathy towards such religious belief and refer to ...

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

, and 6 individuals (or about 0.92% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Schattenhalb about 57.3% of the population have completed non-mandatory

upper secondary education Secondary education is the education level following primary education and preceding tertiary education. Level 2 or ''lower secondary education'' (less commonly ''junior secondary education'') is considered the second and final phase of basic e ...

, and 11% have completed additional higher education (either

university A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

or a ''

Fachhochschule A (; plural ), abbreviated FH, is a university of applied sciences (UAS), in other words a Hochschule, German tertiary education institution that provides professional education in many applied sciences and applied arts, such as engineering, te ...

''). Of the 44 who had completed some form of tertiary schooling listed in the census, 65.9% were Swiss men, 20.5% were Swiss women. The Canton of Bern school system provides one year of non-obligatory

Kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cen ...

, followed by six years of Primary school. This is followed by three years of obligatory lower Secondary school where the students are separated according to ability and aptitude. Following the lower Secondary students may attend additional schooling or they may enter an

apprenticeship Apprenticeship is a system for training a potential new practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study. Apprenticeships may also enable practitioners to gain a license to practice in a regulat ...

. During the 2011-12 school year, there were a total of 42 students attending classes in Schattenhalb. There were no kindergarten classes in the municipality. The municipality had 3 primary classes and 42 students. Of the primary students, 9.5% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 11.9% have a different mother language than the classroom language.Schuljahr 2011/12 pdf document
accessed 9 May 2013 , there were a total of 20 students attending any school in the municipality. Of those, 18 both lived and attended school in the municipality, while 2 students came from another municipality. During the same year, 50 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

References

{{Authority control Oberhasli