The Brünig-Napf-Reuss line forms a geographical boundary in traditional Swiss culture ('' Kulturgrenze''). Running from the

Brünig Pass The Brünig Pass, at an altitude of , connects the Bernese Oberland and central Switzerland, linking Meiringen in the canton of Bern and Lungern in the canton of Obwalden. It is on the watershed between the upper reaches of the Aare, which flow ...

along the

Napf The Napf is a mountain on the border between the Swiss cantons of Canton of Bern, Bern and Canton of Lucerne, Lucerne. With an altitude of , it is the summit of the Napfgebiet (Napf region), the hilly region lying between Bern and Lucerne. It is ...

region to the

Reuss Reuss may refer to: *Reuss (surname) * Reuss (river) in Switzerland * Imperial County of Reuss or Reuß, several former states or countries in present-day Germany, and the People's State of Reuss * Principality of Reuss-Greiz and Principality of R ...

(which joins the

Aare The Aare () or Aar () is the main tributary of the High Rhine (its discharge even exceeds that of the latter at their confluence) and the longest river that both rises and ends entirely within Switzerland. Its total length from its source to i ...

Brugg Brugg (sometimes written as Brugg AG in order to distinguish it from other ''Brugg''s) is a Switzerland, Swiss Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality and a List of towns in Switzerland, town in the canton of Aargau and is the seat of the Bru ...

), it partly separates western (

Bernese German Bernese German (Standard German: ''Berndeutsch'', ) is the dialect of High Alemannic German spoken in the Swiss plateau (Mittelland) part of the canton of Bern and in some neighbouring regions. A form of Bernese German is spoken by the Swiss A ...

) and eastern (

Zurich German Zurich German (natively ; ) is the High Alemannic dialect spoken in the Canton of Zurich, Switzerland. Its area covers most of the canton, with the exception of the parts north of the Thur (Switzerland), Thur and the Rhine, which belong to the ...

) varieties of

High Alemannic High Alemannic is a branch of Alemannic German spoken in the westernmost Austrian state of Vorarlberg and in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Intelligibility of these dialects to non-Alemannic speakers tends to be limited. Language area The High ...

, although some places east of the line belong to the western dialect group (

Schwyz Schwyz (; ; ) is a town and the capital of the canton of Schwyz in Switzerland. The Federal Charter of 1291 or ''Bundesbrief'', the charter that eventually led to the foundation of Switzerland, can be seen at the ''Bundesbriefmuseum''. The of ...

Zug Zug (Standard German: , Alemannic German: ; ; ; ; )Named in the 16th century. is the largest List of cities in Switzerland, town and capital of the Swiss canton of Zug. Zug is renowned as a hub for some of the wealthiest individuals in the wor ...

). The line runs across the cantons of

Lucerne Lucerne ( ) or Luzern ()Other languages: ; ; ; . is a city in central Switzerland, in the Languages of Switzerland, German-speaking portion of the country. Lucerne is the capital of the canton of Lucerne and part of the Lucerne (district), di ...

and

Aargau Aargau ( ; ), more formally the Canton of Aargau (; ; ; ), is one of the Canton of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of eleven districts and its capital is Aarau. Aargau is one of the most nort ...

. The concept was first proposed by Richard Weiss in 1947, and it reflects the cultural situation in Switzerland as established by ethnographic field work during the early 20th century. Some historians and ethnographers argued that this cultural boundary is of greater importance historically than the French-German language boundary (the

Röstigraben (; , also transcribed to reflect the Swiss German pronunciation ) is a term used to refer to the cultural boundary between German-speaking Switzerland and Romandy, the French-speaking parts. There is also the term , referring to the boundary b ...

), even though it is widely admitted that the "line" doesn't form a sharp division but especially in its northern part is "fanning out" into a gradient. The line coincides, for example, with the traditional distribution of

Simmental Cattle The Simmental or Swiss Fleckvieh is a Swiss breed of dual-purpose cattle. It is named after the Simmental – the valley of the Simme river – in the Bernese Oberland, in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. The breed is typically reddish ...

(west) vs. Braunvieh (east), and with the traditional distribution of French vs. German playing cards.Günter Wiegelmann, ''Theoretische Konzepte der europäischen Ethnologie: Diskussionen um Regeln und Modelle'' (1991),
p. 165
The line also corresponds to the frontline during the Swiss peasant war of 1653. The High Alemannic regions west of the line correspond to medieval Argovia, the

marches In medieval Europe, a march or mark was, in broad terms, any kind of borderland, as opposed to a state's "heartland". More specifically, a march was a border between realms or a neutral buffer zone under joint control of two states in which diffe ...

between

Burgundy Burgundy ( ; ; Burgundian: ''Bregogne'') is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. ...

and Alemannia. *East of the Brünig-Napf-Reuss line:

, St. Gallen,

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

*West of the Brünig-Napf-Reuss line:

Aarau Aarau (, ) is a List of towns in Switzerland, town, a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality, and the capital of the northern Swiss Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Aargau. The List of towns in Switzerland, town is also the capital of the d ...

Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...

, Liestal, Solothurn

References

Sources

*Helge Gerndt, "Alltagskultur im Alpenraum: regionale Differenzierungen" in ''Kulturwissenschaft im Zeitalter der Globalisierung'' (2002), pp. 51–56. *Richard Weiss, "Die Brünig-Napf-Reuss-Linie als Kulturgrenze zwischen Ost- und West-Schweiz auf Volkskundlichen Karten", ''Geographica Helvetica'' 2 (1947), 153-175. *A Hager, "Die 'Brünig-Napf-Reuss-Linie' von Richard Weis und die Verteilung der Rinderrassen in der Schweiz", ''Schweizer Volkskunde'' 72 (1982), 36-41. {{DEFAULTSORT:Brunig-Napf-Reuss Line Culture of Switzerland Cultural boundaries

See also

References

Sources