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Concept
Guttannen
Summary
Guttannen is a municipality in the Interlaken-Oberhasli administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.
Guttannen is the name of a meadow, which became the name of the municipality. It comes from the phrase ze den guoten tannen (by the good firs).
Guttannen is first mentioned in 1377 as Guotentannon.
During the Middle Ages it was part of the Vogtei of Hasli and the parish of Meiringen. In 1334 the entire Vogtei was acquired by Bern. A chapel was built in the village in 1467 though it did not have a baptismal font. When the entire Canton accepted the new faith of the Protestant Reformation, the chapel was converted and remained under Meiringen. In 1713 it joined the parish of Innertkirchen where it remained until it became an independent parish in 1816. The old chapel was damaged in a fire in 1723 and replaced with a new chapel which became a parish church when Guttannen became a parish. Following the 1798 French invasion, Guttannen became part of the Helvetic Republic Canton of Oberland. With the 1803 Act of Mediation it returned to the Canton of Bern and the Oberhasli district.
For most of its history the villagers lived from farming on the valley floor, seasonal alpine herding and trade over the Grimsel Pass. Due to the short growing season and poor soil many residents mined lead or zinc or carved wood or soapstone. Many residents emigrated to escape the poverty. In the 17th and 18th centuries they went to Germany or the Swiss Plateau, while in the late 18th and 19th centuries they went to the United States and settled in the Carolinas, Pennsylvania and Kentucky.
In the early 19th century mountain climbers began to come to Guttannen to explore the high peaks above the valley. In 1811-12 the Finstaarhorn was climbed and by the 1830s Louis Agassiz had popularized mountain climbing and trained guides in Guttanen. The Grimsel Pass road (built 1894-95) further opened up the village to trade and tourism. The construction of five hydroelectric dams and six reservoirs in the Grimsel Pass, between 1925 and 1975, brought prosperity to the village.
Official source
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