, former home of Teutonic Knights' commandery (1922) Sumiswald is first mentioned in 1225 as
Smoldeswalt. The von Sumiswald family is first mentioned in 1135. They probably took their name from a now vanished castle in the area. The last member of the family, Lütold, donated the village, land and churches in Sumiswald and
Escholzmatt to the
commandery of the
Teutonic Knights of the "Ballei"
Swabia-Alsace-Burgundy. In 1525, the town bought its way out of
serfdom, but stayed a part of the Teutonic Knights even after the
Protestant Reformation was introduced in 1528; Sumiswald was sold to the city of
Bern for 36,000 Reichs
thaler in 1698. The village Church of St. Mary was first mentioned in 1225 along with the village. The old church was replaced with a new building between 1510 and 1512. When
Bern converted to Protestantism, the village converted and the municipality acquired the
patronage rights over the church.
Hans Haslibacher, who was
decapitated on October 20, 1571 in Bern because of his
Anabaptist conviction came from Sumiswald; his decapitation was the last execution of an Anabaptist in Bern. The village was surrounded by a number of alpine meadows and
seasonal alpine herding was an important part of the local economy. The first contracts governing ownership and access to the meadows are from 1498. In the following century many of the high forests were cleared to provide additional meadows for grazing. In 1572 the municipality passed laws to limit further clearing to prevent total deforestation. The settlements of Wasen, Ey and Grünen all developed out of small seasonal herding camps. In the following centuries ownership of the fields in the valley and the alpine meadows became firmly entrenched, creating a class of wealthy landowners and a class of poor artisans, day laborers and
sharecroppers. The poor were forced to begin
small scale spinning and weaving to supplement their income. By the 18th century, Sumiswald, was a local center of the yarn and cloth trade as well as horse breeding and cheese production. It attempted to become a
market town, but other surrounding market towns blocked the attempt five times in the 18th century. Finally in 1801, Sumiswald was granted the right to hold five yearly fairs. Following the
1798 French invasion, Sumiswald became the capital of the
Helvetic Republic district of Unteremmental. After the collapse of the Republic and 1803
Act of Mediation it joined the newly created
Trachselwald District. In the 19th century the local yarn and cloth industry declined and was replaced with other industries including manufacturing musical instruments. The construction of the Emmental road in 1875, the Ramsei-Huttwil railroad in 1908 and the Sumiswald-Wasen rail line in 1915 brought new factories and industry to the municipality. Today Sumiswald is a regional cultural and economic center, with workers commuting into the municipality from surrounding villages. There are secondary schools in Sumiswald and Wasen as well as a retirement home. ==Geography==