Bern

“ This frontier valley rivals as a specimen of Swiss pastoral scenery the more famous spots in Canton Bern. Its villages, surrounded by fat, wide-spreading meadows of the brightest green, and overshadowed by noble walnuts, wear on the outside an air of long peace and prosperity. The interiors do not contradict the first impression. ”

“ I put myself in the diligence that plies between Neufchatel and Bern at nine p.m., on the 12 July, and the following morning put up at the Crown Inn in the city of Bern, in the Pays Allemand, whereas the French cantons are termed the Pays Romand. Bern is a remarkably elegant city as much so as any in Italy, and much cleaner withal. The streets are broad, and in most of them are trottoirs under arcades. There are a great number of book-sellers here, and the best editions of the German authors are to be procured very cheap. ”

“ Vast personal property and additional domains acquired by conquest formed the chief source of the power of Bern, and brought in a great income to the patricians. Rule, domination, statecraft, became the chief concern of the Bernese aristocracy, whilst in Lucerne, Solothurn, and Freiburg, the government was, if possible, still more aristocratic than that of Bern, and in all these cases was presided over by a Schultheiss, or Mayor. In the Zurich republic a more democratic spirit was found, and the inhabitants were given to industrial and intellectual pursuits rather than to rule and conquest. ”

“ As the hour of sunset approaches, the numerous little parks which furnish a view begin to fill up with the old and young; with the first announcing ray of the Alpenglühen the children cease to be boisterous, the fingers that ply the knitting-needle are still, the laborer at work pursues his vocation sedately, and all gaze in silent admiration. Bern abounds in these humanizing, tranquillizing, and health-giving parks or promenades, ornamented with beds of bright flowers and provided with comfortable seats. ”

“ It is doubtful if a dozen families in Bern each occupy an entire house, and a very small number more than a flat of one floor. All the houses, including the most ancient, are admirably constructed for this multiform occupancy, and Swiss domestic life, as practised in Bern, is a fine art of many centuries’ growth. ”

“ The lesser nobles of the neighbourhood, as well as the humbler people, poured into Bern for shelter, and, receiving a most liberal charter, these burgesses rapidly rose to wealth and power. Being built on imperial land, Bern took from the first a higher standing than the sister town, Freiburg. [Pg 98]
These city foundations form a chief corner-stone in the fabric of Swiss liberties. Attaining political independence, the towns held their own against aggressors. ”

“ In the second battle Bern received help from the three forest cantons with which it had become allied in 1323, while in 1353 it entered the Swiss confederation as its eighth member. It soon took the lead in the confederation, though always aiming at enlarging its own borders, even at great risks (see the article on the canton) . In 1528 Bern accepted the religious reformation, and henceforth became one of its chief champions in Switzerland. ”

“ Though Bern is the national and cantonal capital, it has an essentially small-town, provincial system of life. There is no capital in Europe more remote from the stir and impulse of the world’s activities. ”

“ From the end of the thirteenth century Bern was the great, influential, and growing town of Switzerland; rich, enterprising, and self-asserting. For the sake of securing their friendship, it made citizens of many of the nobility who lived far from the city walls, and established guilds with many valuable privileges. Some of these guilds still exist, and a membership is quite an expensive privilege, costing from 8000 to 10,000 francs; besides the applicant must possess property to the value of 15,000 francs. In early times [Pg 412] Bern held a firm grasp on the lands from Aargau to Lake Leman. ”

“ It is certain that the republic of Bern thinks itself obliged to a vigilance next to hostile, and to imprison or expel all the French whom it finds in its territories. But, indeed, those aristocracies, which comprehend whatever is considerable, wealthy, and valuable in Switzerland, do now so wholly depend upon opinion, and the humor of their multitude, that the lightest puff of wind is sufficient to blow them down.Old French maxims the security of its independence. ”

“ The canton of Bern has no other sovereign than the single city of Bern: The sovereignty resides in the grand council, which has the legislative power and the power of making peace, war, and alliances, and is composed of two hundred counsellors and ninety-nine assessors, the election of whom is made, by the seizeniers and the senate, from the citizens, from whom they are supposed virtually to derive their power; but a general assembly of the citizens is never called together, on any occasion, or for any purpose, not even to lay taxes, nor to make alliances or war. ”

“ The Bernese aristocrats were politicians from birth, so to speak, and the young men had a curious society amongst themselves, "Äusserer Stand," a society formed for the purpose of cultivating the diplomatic art and practising parliamentary oratory and tactics, especially their more formal outward side. Thus trained in bearing and ceremonial they acquired their much-admired political aplomb. Bern was French in fashion, in manners, and in language, and the German tongue was as little appreciated amongst the Bernese patricians as at the Court of Frederick the Great. ”

“ BERN (Fr. Berne) , the capital of the Swiss canton of the same name, and, by a Federal law of 1848, the political capital of the Swiss confederation. It is most picturesquely situated on a high bluff or peninsula, round the base of which flows the river Aar, thus completely cutting off the old town, save to the west. Five lofty bridges have been thrown over the Aar, the two most modern being the Kirchfeld and Kornhaus bridges which have greatly contributed to create new residential quarters near the old town. ”

“ It was always a most usual thing in the fourteenth [Pg 159] century for states to enter into leagues, with the view of better safeguarding themselves against neighbouring and powerful foes. And thus Bern gathered all the kindred elements of West Switzerland into a Burgundian Confederation—the free imperial valley Hasle, the rich monastery of Interlaken, the house of Savoy, the new house of Kyburg-Burgdorf, the bishops of Sion, the cities of Bienne, Solothurn, Freiburg,—all these were at one time or another in union with Bern. ”

“ After staying at Vevey a couple of days, I hired a carriage and plodded on over this hilly land to Switzerland’s Capital, Bern. Bern is a very dull looking place, and most especially so for a Capitol. The second story of the houses hang over the pavement, so you can walk the town without getting wet. The language generally is German, so you see the close alliance of languages in Switzerland. ”

“ Bern is a regular well-built town, with some air of magnificence. The houses are of a fine white free-stone, and pretty uniform, particularly in the principal street, where they are all exactly of the same height. ”

“ Bern, in a spirit widely different from that of its degenerate posterity, presented him with a chalice, which elicited from him a letter full of patriotism and tender Christian feeling: “Be careful,” he writes in answer, “to maintain peace and concord amongst you; for you know how acceptable this is to Him from whom all good proceeds. He who leads a godly life always preserves peace; nay, more, God is that sovereign peace in whom all can repose. Protect the widows and orphans, as you have hitherto done. ”

“ The corporation of the city is so rich that it furnishes the citizens with fuel gratis, and has a surplus. The scenery is of the most picturesque character, and the city is much frequented by strangers. The wall ditches are renowned for bears, the bear being the heraldic animal of Bern, which derives its name from it. The armory, the richest in Switzerland, is full of ancient weapons and curiosities. ”

“ The Bernese Oberland was the first district on which she set her eyes. Here the counts of Greyerz, [32] the dynasts of Turn (Valisian nobles) , and the barons of Weipenburg, held the chief territorial lordships, and formed a strong Alpine coalition with Austrian sympathies, as against the rising city of Bern. With the last mentioned Bern strove for the supremacy, and stormed their stronghold, Wimmis, in the Simmenthal, both town and castle, and demolished the Letzinen, [33] or fortifications in the valley. ”

“ The nobility of Bern are accused of an extraordinary degree of pride and stateliness. They affect to keep the citizens at a great distance; and it is with difficulty that their wives and daughters will condescend to mix with the mercantile families at balls, assemblies, and such public occasions, where numbers seem essential to the nature of the entertainment; by which means a nobility ball loses in cheerfulness what it retains in dignity, and is often, as I am told, as devoid of amusement as it is solemn. ”

“ From 1815 to 1848 it shared with Zürich and Lucerne the supreme rule (which shifted from one to the other every two years) in the Swiss confederation, while in 1848 a federal law made Bern the sole political capital, where the federal government is permanently fixed and where the ministers of foreign powers reside.
Authorities.—Die Alp- und Weidewirthschaft im Kant. Bern (Bern, 1903) ; Archiv d. hist. Vereins d. Kant. Bern, from 1848, and Blätter für bernische Geschichte, from 1905; Bernische Biographien (Bern, 1898–1906) ; E. Friedli, Bärndütsch als Spiegel bernischen Volkstums. vol. i. ”

“ Many of the surrounding nobles had outlived their time of prosperity and greatness, and yet clung to the prerogatives of their class without possessing any longer the means to maintain them. Bern took advantage of all this to secure her own aggrandisement, and gain for herself more territory, for originally she had possessed no lands beyond her walls. ”

“ Bern possesses a university (founded in 1834) and two admirably organized hospitals. The old fortifications (Schanzen) have been converted into promenades, which command wonderful views of the snowy Alps of the Bernese Oberland. Just across the Nydeck bridge is the famous bear pit in which live bears are kept, as they are supposed to have given the name to the town; certainly a bear is shown on the earliest known town seal (1224) , while live bears have been maintained at the charges of the town since 1513. ”

“ Fathers brought up their children to work and to be contented with their state in life—simple peasants; they wore fine linen and fine cloth, but wore peasants’ clothes; they had fine horses, but plowed with them; and they preferred that their daughters marry persons in their own condition rather than those who might bring them titles.
LAUSANNE AND THE SAVOY MOUNTAINS.
On reaching Bern he gives no description of the city but elaborately explains the curious system of government which obtained there. ”

“ The magnificent slopes to this rapid river are in some places covered with turf, and supported in others by lofty terraces planted with trees.110 It is not an easy matter to account for the first impression you receive on entering Bern; you certainly feel that you have got to an ancient and remarkable place. Passing under any of its old gate-ways for the first time, one feels as if he had strayed upon a stage conscientiously prepared for the playing of a mediæval comedy or tragedy. No town in Switzerland has been so preserved from the hands of the spoiler and the restorer ”

“ Thus Bern lost the lands south of the lake, in which St Francis of Sales, the exiled prince-bishop of Geneva (1602–1622) , at once proceeded to carry out the restoration of the old faith. In 1555 Bern and Fribourg, as creditors of the debt-laden count, divided the county of Gruyére, thus getting French-speaking subjects. In 1558 Geneva renewed her alliance with Bern, and in 1584 she made one with Zürich. The duke of Savoy made several vain attempts to get hold of Geneva, the last (in 1602) being known as the “escalade.” ”

“ The houses are very lofty and solidly built. The promenades in the environs of Bern are the finest I have seen anywhere, and the grounds allotted to this purpose are very tastefully laid out. These promenades are paved with gravel and cut thro' the forests, that lie on the coteaux and ravines on the other side of the Aar. There are several neat villas in the neighbourhood of these promenades, and there are cafés and restaurants for those who chuse to refresh themselves. Such is the beauty of these walks, that one feels inclined to pass the whole day among them. ”

“ Soon after sunrise we were on our feet again and inquired of some peasants, who seemed to be going to their work, the road to Bern—for I had heard in Strasburg that Anneke and the other friends whom I wished to join were in that city. The road led us first through fertile valleys. The fields teemed with men and women busy gathering their crops. ”

“ He retraced his steps to Strassburg and Basel; and, at the end of 1526, obtained a preacher’s post at Aigle, then a dependency of Bern. Deeming it wise to suppress his name, he adopted the pseudonym Ursinus, with reference to his protection by Bern. Despite strenuous opposition by the monastic orders, he obtained in 1528 a licence from the authorities to preach anywhere within the canton of Bern. He extended his labours to the cantons of Neuchâtel and Vaud. His vehement missionary addresses were met by mob violence, but he persevered with undaunted zeal. ”