Gsteigwiler

Gsteigwiler is a municipality in the Interlaken-Oberhasli administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. Gsteigwiler belongs to the Small Agglomeration Interlaken with 23,300 inhabitants (2014). Gsteigwiler is first mentioned in 1333 as Wiler. The village first appears during the Middle Ages when it was owned by local nobles. In 1310 they donated the village to Interlaken Abbey. It remained in the hands of the Abbey until Bern accepted the Protestant Reformation and secularized the Abbey in 1528. Under Bernese rule it became part of the new bailiwick of Interlaken and remained part of the district of Interlaken until it was dissolved in 2009. The village remained isolated until the Wilderswil station of the Bernese Oberland Railway was built nearby in 1890. Two years later the Schynige Platte Railway, a rack railway, was built from Wilderswil, through the village but without a station, to Breitlauenen on the Schynige Platte mountains. Today most of the population commutes to Interlaken for work, though there is some tourism in the village. Gsteigwiler has an area of . Of this area, or 22.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 65.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 4.4% is settled (buildings or roads), or 1.4% is either rivers or lakes and or 6.7% is unproductive land. Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 2.3% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.0%. Out of the forested land, 59.0% of the total land area is heavily forested and 5.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 10.3% is pastures and 11.7% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 2.4% is unproductive vegetation and 4.3% is too rocky for vegetation. The original name of the town was "Wiler," which goes back to the Old High German wilari (small town). The prefix Gsteig- was added to distinguish it from the many other Wilers, and means "abrupt mountain slope that one cannot drive a wagon on.