Meiringen

Meiringen is located in the eastern Bernese Oberland region, in a valley of the upper reaches of the river Aare, called Haslital, upstream of Lake Brienz. It lies at the foot of several mountain passes, including the Brünig Pass to the valley of the Sarner Aa and hence central Switzerland, the Joch Pass to Engelberg, the Susten Pass to the upper valley of the Reuss, the Grimsel Pass to the valley of the Rhone and hence southern Switzerland, and the Grosse Scheidegg Pass to Grindelwald. On the right bank of the Aare, the municipality of Meiringen rises from an elevation of on the valley floor to the Brünig Pass at and beyond that to a point at on the slopes of the Wilerhorn. On the left bank it stretches up into the Alps and reaches an elevation of at the summit of the Wellhorn. It includes the village of Meiringen and the settlements of Sand, Stein, Eisenbolgen, Hausen, Balm, Unterbach and Unterheidon in the valley, the village of Brünigen in the Brünig Pass and the hamlets of Prasti, Zaun and Wylerli on the slopes above the valley. Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 3.1% and transportation infrastructure made up 3.3%. Out of the forested land, 29.7% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 3.3% is used for growing crops and 17.8% is pastures and 22.5% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is in rivers and streams. Of the unproductive areas, 5.6% is unproductive vegetation and 9.4% is too rocky for vegetation. ==History==

in 1334 (depiction in the Spiezer Schilling, 1480s). Meiringen is first mentioned in 1234 as Magiringin. Due to its strategic location at the foot of several alpine passes, the area around Meiringen was settled at least in the Early Middle Ages. The first village church was built in the 9th or 10th century. When it was destroyed in a flood the new church of St. Michael (first mentioned in 1234) was built about above the old church. The current church of St. Michael dates from the 15th century and was renovated in 1683–84. The Restiturm castle was constructed in the 13th century, whilst the Wyghus fortress in the Brünig Pass was first mentioned in 1333, though it was destroyed later. In 1892 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle visited the Reichenbach Falls outside Meiringen and subsequently used them as the setting for the struggle between Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty in his story The Final Problem. During World War II, the tourism industry collapsed, so the Federal Government created jobs by opening the Unterbach military airfield; the federal armory; the SBB depot; the power plants at Oberhasli AG and in hospitals. The municipal museum was founded in 1968 and the Sherlock Holmes Museum opened in 1991. ==Demographics==

Meiringen has a population () of . , 14.2% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000–2010) the population has changed at a rate of −2.1%. Migration accounted for −0.2%, while births and deaths accounted for −0.9%. Most of the population () speaks German (4,190 or 88.7%) as their first language, Serbo-Croatian is the second most common (120 or 2.5%) and Portuguese is the third (77 or 1.6%). There are 43 people who speak French, 62 people who speak Italian and 2 people who speak Romansh. Of the population in the municipality, 1,761 or about 37.3% were born in Meiringen and lived there in 2000. There were 1,326 or 28.1% who were born in the same canton, while 720 or 15.2% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 751 or 15.9% were born outside of Switzerland. , there were 1,968 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.2 persons per household. , the construction rate of new housing units was 2.2 new units per 1000 residents. Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width:1020 height:210 PlotArea = top:10 left:100 bottom:50 right:100 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:4900 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:1000 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:200 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1764 from:start till:964 text:"964" bar:1850 from:start till:2358 text:"2,358" bar:1860 from:start till:2514 text:"2,514" bar:1870 from:start till:2786 text:"2,786" bar:1880 from:start till:2807 text:"2,807" bar:1888 from:start till:2838 text:"2,838" bar:1900 from:start till:3077 text:"3,077" bar:1910 from:start till:3173 text:"3,173" bar:1920 from:start till:2996 text:"2,996" bar:1930 from:start till:3103 text:"3,103" bar:1941 from:start till:3285 text:"3,285" bar:1950 from:start till:3640 text:"3,640" bar:1960 from:start till:3749 text:"3,749" bar:1970 from:start till:3759 text:"3,759" bar:1980 from:start till:4072 text:"4,072" bar:1990 from:start till:4346 text:"4,346" bar:2000 from:start till:4723 text:"4,723" ==Sights==

The Hotel Sauvage, the Swiss Reformed church with outbuildings, and the Reichenbachfall-Bahn are listed on the Swiss inventory of cultural property of national and regional significance. The urbanized village of Meiringen and the hamlet of Brünigen are both on the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites. The ruined castle of Restiturm lies just to the east of the centre of Meiringen, and once commanded the various trade routes that passed through the village. ==Politics==

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 41.85% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SPS (25.15%), the FDP (12.54%) and the Green Party (11.29%). In the federal election, a total of 1,432 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 44.4%. ==Economy==

, Meiringen had an unemployment rate of 1.9%. , there were 186 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 72 businesses involved in this sector. 528 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 55 businesses in this sector. 1,762 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 202 businesses in this sector. , there were 1,029 workers who commuted into the municipality and 560 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 1.8 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving. Of the working population, 10.6% used public transportation to get to work, and 36.8% used a private car. ==Religion==

From the , 815 or 17.3% were Roman Catholic, while 3,134 or 66.4% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 49 members of an Orthodox church (or about 1.04% of the population), and there were 153 individuals (or about 3.24% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There was 1 individual who was Jewish, and 153 (or about 3.24% of the population) who were Islamic. There were 7 individuals who were Buddhist, 16 individuals who were Hindu and 2 individuals who belonged to another church. 270 (or about 5.72% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and another 194 individuals (or about 4.11% of the population) did not answer the question. ==Transport==

Meiringen is served by Meiringen station on the Brünig line, a narrow-gauge railway from Interlaken to Lucerne. The same line's Brünig-Hasliberg station, on the Brünig Pass, is also within the municipal boundaries. Both stations are served by an hourly InterRegio service between Interlaken and Lucerne, whilst Meiringen is also the terminus of an hourly Regio service from Interlaken. Meiringen station is also the terminus of the local Meiringen–Innertkirchen railway, which links the village with the nearby village of Innertkirchen. The first two intermediate stations on this line, at Alpbach and Aareschlucht West, are also within the municipal boundaries. The lower terminus of the Reichenbachfall Funicular, which links the village to the Reichenbach Falls, is located at Willigen, some 20 minutes walk, or a 6-minute bus ride, from Meiringen station. On the opposite side of the valley, a cable car runs to Reuti, from where a system of Gondola lifts runs to Planplatten, at over , via Mägisalp. The village is located on one of the two south-western road approaches to the Brünig Pass, which provides a connection from the Brünig Pass to the Grimsel Pass, and hence a route between Central Switzerland and the Rhone Valley. The other south-western approach to the Brünig Pass, from Interlaken, passes west of the village but through part of the municipality. A third road joins the previous two along the valley of the Aare, providing a route from Interlaken to the Grimsel Pass and Susten Pass. The Meiringen air base is one of three main air bases of the Swiss Air Force. It is the only Swiss Air Force Base to still use its aircraft cavern regularly. It is located in Unterbach. Among other aircraft, it operates mainly F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets. ==Education==

In Meiringen about 1,846 or (39.1%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 451 or (9.5%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). Of the 451 who completed tertiary schooling, 63.4% were Swiss men, 22.4% were Swiss women, 6.7% were non-Swiss men and 7.5% were non-Swiss women. During the 2009–10 school year, there were a total of 635 students attending classes in Meiringen. There were 5 kindergarten classes with a total of 91 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 6.6% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 8.8% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The municipality had 15 primary classes and 289 students. Of the primary students, 12.8% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 12.4% have a different mother language than the classroom language. During the same year, there were 12 lower secondary classes with a total of 228 students. There were 6.6% who were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 5.7% have a different mother language than the classroom language. , there were 105 students in Meiringen who came from another municipality, while 59 residents attended schools outside the municipality. ==Notable people==

• Christian Menn (1927–2018), a bridge designer from Switzerland • Pierre Haubensak (born 1935) a painter ==Climate==

This area has a long winter season with 5 months average temperature more than 10 °C, with little precipitation mostly in the form of snow, and low humidity. The Köppen Climate System classifies the climate in Meiringen as temperate oceanic climate, and abbreviates this as Cfb. ==References==