page_title: Oberhasli
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Oberhasli / History
caption_attribution_description: Die Schweiz im MIttelalter in Diebold Schillings Spiezer Chronik, Studienausgabe, Faksimile der Handschrift Mss. hist. helv. I. 16 der Burgerbibilothek Bern, hrsg. von Hans Haeberli und Christoph von Steiger, Luzern: Faksimile Verlag, 1991.
context_page_description: The Oberhasli is a historical Landvogtei or Talschaft in the Bernese Highlands, Switzerland, bordering on the cantons of Obwalden, Nidwalden, Uri and Wallis.
  From 1833 to 2009, Oberhasli was incorporated as the Oberhasli district, the easternmost of the 26 districts of the canton of Bern, bordering the district of Interlaken to the west. Since 2010, Oberhasli and Interlaken have been administratively united as the administrative district Interlaken-Oberhasli.
  The local dialect is of the Highest Alemannic variety.
  With its area of 551 km², it is larger than the canton of Basel-Landschaft. It consists of the six municipalities of Gadmen, Guttannen, Hasliberg, Innertkirchen, Meiringen and Schattenhalb, with a total population of just below 8,000, corresponding to a population density of less than 15/km², due to a significant portion of the area of Oberhasli being uninhabitable High Alps.
  Haslital is used to refer to the entire region, but as a geographical term the Haslital proper is the main upper Aare valley, not including the many side valleys, such as Gadmertal, Ürbachtal, Gental and Reichenbachtal.
  The name Haslital is first attested in 1234.
context_section_description: Hasli has a particularly strong tradition of independence, even within Switzerland. It was de facto self-governing from its first settlement in the early medieval period (according to legend by "Swedes and Frisians") until its incorporation into the Helvetic Republic in 1798.
  It was nominally part of the Holy Roman Empire as an imperial bailiwick until 1334, and from 1334 to 1798 a nominal subject of Berne, but remained effectively self-governed with the exception of the forced imposition of the Reformation during 1528–1557.
  In  1234 the bailiwick of Meiringen, which included all of Haslital, is recorded as  reichsfrei. Hasli remained an imperial bailiwick until its acquisition by Berne in 1334. Meiringen church is elevated built on top of a number of predecessor buildings, the oldest is estimated to date to the 9th or 10th century.
  The rights to the parish were given to Seedorf Abbey by  Henry (VII) of Germany in 1234. They were acquired by Interlaken Abbey in 1272.
  In 1275, Hasli formed an alliance with the city of Bern. In 1311, Oberhasli was given to the house of Weissenburg by Henry VII. After an unsuccessful revolt in 1334, Oberhasli passed to the city of Bern as a subject territory in name but regained most of its earlier privileges. Bern was careful to appoint men native to Hasli to administrative posts and as judges.
  Oberhasli proved an important ally to Bern militarily. In 1339, Oberhasli provided a force of 300 men participating in the Battle of Laupen. The arrangement of Oberhasli as a nominal subject territory with de facto self-governance endured until 1528, when Bern enforced the Protestant confession in Oberhasli. 
  About half of the population of Oberhasli participated in an armed revolt against Bern. After this, Bern tried to enforce Bernese administration in Oberhasli, but met such resistance that in a 1557 treaty the old privileges were re-instated.
  In the 17th to 18th century, an upper class of influential families native to Oberhasli emerged, the so-called Ehrbarkeit. Before the introduction of a separate parish in Innertkirchein in 1709, there was a single parish in Meiringen for all of Oberhasli. In the 19th century, parishes in Gadmen (1808) and Guttannen (1816) followed.
  In 1558, there were 253 hearths (households) registered in Oberhasli, in 1653 the number had grown to 360.
  In 1669, population had declined to ca. 500 individuals following an outbreak of plague.
  Parts of Haslital were affected by the Evangelical Awakening of the 1730s.
  In 1764, there were 3,253 inhabitants, and population more than doubled over the following century, to 7,054 in 1850. 
  During the existence of the Helvetic Republic, Oberhasli was part of the Kanton Oberland. 
  Oberhasli was traditionally organized in fifteen collectives of independent farming estates, the so-called Bäuerten, between them forming the Talschaft of Oberhasli. This structure was replaced by the six municipalities of the  Oberhasli district in 1834. 
  From 1834 until 2009, Oberhasli formed a district of the canton of Bern.
  The sovereign law of Oberhasli (Landrecht) became inactive in 1843, during the Swiss Restauration.
  Rapid population growth in the 19th century resulted in poverty, and forced emigration, primarily to America.
  From about 1880, economic recovery set in as Meiringen became a center of tourism. 
  Population still declined from  7,574 in 1880 to 6,507 in 1920 (loss of employment in tourism during World War I)
  and began to rise again during the mid-to-late 20th century, to 7,878 in 1950 and 8,189 in 2000.
  It has slightly declined since, to 7,843 in 2007 and 7,824 in 2016.
  While total population has remained more or less stable since the mid-20th century, 
  population distribution has shifted from the traditional dispersed settlement structure to the core settlement in Meiringen. Meiringen accounted for 30% of the population of Hasli in 1764 (33% in 1850), but for  60% as of 2016.
  Oberhasli district was merged with Interlaken district in 2010 to form the new Interlaken-Oberhasli district. The population of Gadmen declined from 739 in 1850 to 2
caption: The people of Hasle swear allegiance to Bern in 1334 (depiction in the Spiezer Schilling, 1480s).
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