Grindelwald is a village and

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

in the Interlaken-Oberhasli administrative district in the canton of Berne. In addition to the village of Grindelwald, the municipality also includes the settlements of Alpiglen, Burglauenen, Grund, Itramen, Mühlebach, Schwendi, Tschingelberg and Wargistal. Grindelwald village is

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...

. Mentioned for the first time in 1146, it has become an important tourist destination of both

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

and the

Alps The Alps () are some of the highest and most extensive mountain ranges in Europe, stretching approximately across eight Alpine countries (from west to east): Monaco, France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. ...

since the golden age of alpinism in the 19th century. It is overlooked by a section of the

Bernese Alps The Bernese Alps are a mountain range of the Alps located in western Switzerland. Although the name suggests that they are located in the Berner Oberland region of the canton of Bern, portions of the Bernese Alps are in the adjacent cantons of Va ...

from the

Wetterhorn The Wetterhorn (3,690 m) is a peak in the Swiss Alps towering above the village of Grindelwald. Formerly known as Hasle Jungfrau, it is one of three summits on a mountain named the "Wetterhörner", the highest of which is the Mittelhorn (3,70 ...

to the

Eiger The Eiger () is a mountain of the Bernese Alps, overlooking Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen in the Bernese Oberland of Switzerland, just north of the main watershed and border with Valais. It is the easternmost peak of a ridge crest that extends ...

, which creates a natural barrier. Together with the adjacent valley of Lauterbrunnen, the valley of Grindelwald forms part of the Jungfrau Region of the

Bernese Oberland The Bernese Oberland (; ; ), sometimes also known as the Bernese Highlands, is the highest and southernmost part of the canton of Bern. It is one of the canton's five administrative regions (in which context it is referred to as ''Oberland'' witho ...

, between Interlaken and the main crest of the Bernese Alps. Similarly to Lauterbrunnen, Grindelwald is connected to Interlaken by the Bernese Oberland Railway and is the start of the Wengernalp Railway, leading to

Kleine Scheidegg The Kleine Scheidegg () is a mountain pass at an elevation of , situated below and between the Eiger and Lauberhorn peaks in the Bernese Oberland region of Switzerland. The name means "minor watershed", as it only divides the two arms of the L ...

. The latter resort is the start of the

Jungfrau Railway The Jungfrau Railway (, , JB) is a mountain rack railway in the Bernese Alps, Switzerland, connecting Kleine Scheidegg in the Bernese Oberland to the Jungfraujoch, across the Valais border. It is the highest railway in Switzerland and Europe, ru ...

, the highest railway in Europe and a gateway to the Jungfrau-Aletsch protected area.

History

Grindelwald was first mentioned in 1146 as ''Grindelwalt''. This designation is probably derived from the

Old High German Old High German (OHG; ) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally identified as the period from around 500/750 to 1050. Rather than representing a single supra-regional form of German, Old High German encompasses the numerous ...

words "grintil" (bar, barrier) and "walt" (forest), thus describing the nature of the valley. According to a legend, the name Grindelwald comes from two monks of the Interlaken Monastery. After exploring the Lütschinen valleys, they are said to have reported about "Grinden" and "Wald", i.e. "stones" and "forests". This was initially the explanation for the origin of the name. Old Grindelwald

The oldest traces of a settlement in the area are scattered

neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

tools which have been discovered around Grindelwald village. Several

Roman era In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

coins have also been found in the municipality. A castle was built on the Burgbühl hill above the village during the

High Middle Ages The High Middle Ages, or High Medieval Period, was the periodization, period of European history between and ; it was preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, which ended according to historiographical convention ...

. In 1146,

King King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

Conrad III granted estates in Grindelwald to Interlaken Monastery. In the late 12th century, the barons of the alpine valleys in what became the Berner Oberland went to war against the expansionist Duke Berthold V of Zähringen. The Duke defeated a coalition of nobles in the Grindlewald valley in 1191. His victory allowed him to expand Zähringen power into Oberland, expand the city of

Thun Thun () is a List of towns in Switzerland, town and a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the administrative district of Thun (administrative district), Thun in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Canton of Bern, Bern in Switzerland. ...

, and found the city of

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 ...

. Beginning in the 13th century, Interlaken Monastery began to purchase rights and land in Grindelwald and eventually forced the local nobles out of the valley. The Monastery continued to exert influence in the village and in 1315 and again in 1332 ordered the villagers to raid

Unterwalden Unterwalden, translated from the Latin ''inter silvas'' ("between the forests"), is the old name of a forest-canton of the Old Swiss Confederacy in central Switzerland, south of Lake Lucerne, consisting of two valleys or '' Talschaften'', now tw ...

to further the political ambitions of the Abbot's patrons. In response to the raids, in 1342, Unterwalden attacked Grindelwald. A few years later, in 1348–49, the villagers joined in an unsuccessful rebellion against ecclesiastical power. In 1528, the city of Bern adopted the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the papacy and ...

and proceeded to spread the new faith in Grindelwald against the populations' wishes. Berne was able to impose its will, converted the village and secularized Interlaken Abbey and the Abbey's lands. Grindelwald became part of the

bailiwick A bailiwick () is usually the area of jurisdiction of a bailiff, and once also applied to territories in which a privately appointed bailiff exercised the sheriff's functions under a royal or imperial writ. In English, the original French combi ...

of Interlaken, under a Bernese

bailiff A bailiff is a manager, overseer or custodian – a legal officer to whom some degree of authority or jurisdiction is given. There are different kinds, and their offices and scope of duties vary. Another official sometimes referred to as a '' ...

. The first village church was a wooden building from the mid-12th century. The wooden building was replaced with the stone St. Mary's Church in 1180. This church was replaced in the 16th century, and the present church was built in 1793. On August 18, 1892, a large part of the village was destroyed by a fire. That day, which followed a drought period, a violent foehn storm was raging. Within two hours, 116 buildings in the Grindelwald valley were destroyed and 412 residents became homeless. Wetterhornaufzug Ans 13192-56-FL

The tourism industry began in Grindelwald in the late 18th century as foreigners discovered the scenic town. Pictures of the vistas were widely reprinted, quickly making the village internationally famous. In the 19th century many Englishmen came to the village to climb the alpine peaks around the valley. The

Finsteraarhorn The Finsteraarhorn () is a mountain lying on the border between the cantons of Canton of Bern, Bern and Valais. It is the highest mountain of the Bernese Alps and the List of prominent mountains of Switzerland, most prominent peak of Switzerland. ...

(), the

Schreckhorn The Schreckhorn (4,078 m) is a mountain in the Bernese Alps, Bernese Swiss Alps, Alps. It is the highest peak located entirely in the canton of Bern. The Schreckhorn is the northernmost List of Alpine four-thousanders, Alpine four-thousander and ...

() and the Gross Fiescherhorn () were all climbed during the 19th century, an ascent of the Wetterhorn marking the beginning of the golden age of alpinism. The ascent of the north face of the Eiger, in 1938, was also a milestone in mountaineering history. The Grindelwald road was built in 1860–72, and the Bernese Oberland railway reached the village in 1890, both of which transformed an arduous journey into a simple trip and allowed tourists to flood into the village. In 1888, Grindelwald was the first resort in the Bernese Oberland to also become a winter destination, attractions being sleigh rides, curling, skating and, from 1891, skiing. The first resort opened in 1888, there were 10 hotels in 1889, and by 1914 there were 33 in Grindelwald. A rack railway was built to

in 1893, and it was expanded to the

Jungfraujoch The Jungfraujoch (German language, German: lit. "maiden saddle") is a Saddle (landform), saddle connecting two major Four-thousander, 4000ers of the Bernese Alps: the Jungfrau and the Mönch. It lies at an elevation of above sea level and is dir ...

in 1912. Numerous ski lifts, cable cars, hiking trails and alpine huts were built in the late 19th and 20th centuries to allow tourists to explore the mountains, notably the Wetterhorn Elevator, one of the first modern aerial tramways. Today, almost the entire economy of Grindelwald is based on tourism. The

V-cableway The V-cableway is a gondola lift, gondola cableway with a shared base station at Grindelwald; it has one route to Männlichen and another to Eigergletscher railway station. It was built by Jungfraubahn AG. Project The project had two aims. First ...

, inaugurated in 2020, is the last major development in the valley. The Grindelwald region has been the subject of scientific investigations, including in the "Alpine Studies" by the English alpinist W. A. B. Coolidge (1912) and in the Unesco research program Man and Biosphere of the Geographical Institute of the

University of Bern The University of Bern (, , ) is a public university, public research university in the Switzerland, Swiss capital of Bern. It was founded in 1834. It is regulated and financed by the canton of Bern. It is a comprehensive university offering a br ...

on the effects of tourism (1979–1984).

Flag and coat of arms

Grindelwald's current flag and coat of arms was introduced in 1994. The one the municipality had used before, dating from the 14th century, was the same as

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

's: three horizontal stripes of red-white-red. The

blazon In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct an accurate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The visual d ...

of the new coat of arms is: ''Gules, on a bar argent a semi chamois rampant issuant sable between seven (4-3) mullets of the second.''

Geography

The municipality is quite large and is divided into seven mountain communities. However the municipality is dominated by the large tourist center of Grindelwald, slightly above the Black Lütschine, the main river of the valley, the latter converging with the White Lütschine. The village is surrounded by the mountains of the Faulhorn, Schwarzhorn, Wellhorn,

, Mettenberg,

, Lauteraarhorn, Agassizhorn, Fiescherhorn,

Mönch The Mönch (, German: "monk") at is a mountain in the Bernese Alps, in Switzerland. Together with the Eiger and the Jungfrau, it forms a highly recognisable group of mountains, visible from far away. The Mönch lies on the border between the ...

(the highest),

, Lauberhorn and Männlichen, all of which are either within or on the border of the municipality. The

and the Grosse Scheidegg, respectively "minor watershed" and "major watershed" are the two main passes of the valley. Grindelwald has an area of . Of this area, or 28.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 16.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 1.8% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.8% is either rivers or lakes, and or 52.1% is unproductive land.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010 Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 1.0% and transportation infrastructure made up 0.6%. Out of the forested land, 12.9% of the total land area is heavily forested, and 2.3% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 5.1% is pastures and 23.8% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 6.6% is unproductive vegetation, 24.0% is too rocky for vegetation, and 21.6% of the land is covered by glaciers. The highest peaks of the valley, from the Wellhorn and

to the

and

, are part of the Jungfrau-Aletsch protected area, a world heritage site. On 31 December 2009, Amtsbezirk Interlaken, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Interlaken-Oberhasli.Nomenklaturen – Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz
accessed 4 April 2011 View from First

Demographics

5438 - Grindelwald - New residence with garages

Grindelwald has a population () of . , 18.0% of the population are resident foreign nationals.
accessed 4 January 2012 In the period from 2000 to 2010, the population changed at a rate of −1.3%. Migration accounted for 0.2%, while births and deaths accounted for −1.7%.
accessed 18 March 2013 Most of the population () spoke German (3,531 or 86.8%) as their first language, Portuguese is the second most common (183 or 4.5%) and French was the third (69 or 1.7%). There were 60 people who speak

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

and four people who spoke Romansh. , the population was 50.1% male and 49.9% female. The population was made up of 1,556 Swiss men (40.9% of the population) and 354 (9.3%) non-Swiss men. There were 1,568 Swiss women (41.2%) and 331 (8.7%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 1,846 or about 45.4% were born in Grindelwald and lived there in 2000. There were 847 or 20.8% who were born in the same canton, while 510 or 12.5% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 679 or 16.7% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) made up 17.5% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) made up 62.5% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 20%. , there were 1,750 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 1,971 married individuals, 221 widows or widowers and 127 individuals who were divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 679 households that consisted of only one person and 82 households with five or more people. , a total of 1,581 apartments (44.9% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 1,750 apartments (49.6%) were seasonally occupied and 194 apartments (5.5%) were empty.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen
accessed 28 January 2011 , the construction rate of new housing units was 13.1 new units per 1000 residents. The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width:1020 height:210 PlotArea = top:10 left:100 bottom:50 right:100 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:4100 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:800 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:160 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1764 from:start till:1816 text:"1,816" bar:1850 from:start till:2924 text:"2,924" bar:1860 from:start till:2871 text:"2,871" bar:1870 from:start till:3142 text:"3,142" bar:1880 from:start till:3081 text:"3,081" bar:1888 from:start till:3089 text:"3,089" bar:1900 from:start till:3346 text:"3,346" bar:1910 from:start till:3662 text:"3,662" bar:1920 from:start till:2998 text:"2,998" bar:1930 from:start till:3021 text:"3,021" bar:1941 from:start till:2916 text:"2,916" bar:1950 from:start till:3053 text:"3,053" bar:1960 from:start till:3244 text:"3,244" bar:1970 from:start till:3511 text:"3,511" bar:1980 from:start till:3555 text:"3,555" bar:1990 from:start till:3733 text:"3,733" bar:2000 from:start till:4069 text:"4,069"

Heritage sites of national significance

Jungfraubahn train at the Kleine Scheidegg railway station

The Jungfraubahn, a mountain railway up the Jungfrau mountain, is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance. The land around the

is part of the

Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites The Federal Inventory of Heritage Sites (ISOS) is part of a 1981 Ordinance of the Swiss Federal Council implementing the Federal Law on the Protection of Nature and Cultural Heritage. Sites of national importance Types The types are based on t ...

. Both Jungfraubahn and Kleine Scheidegg are shared between the municipalities of Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen.

Politics

In the 2011 federal election, the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 54.2% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (14.8%), the FDP.The Liberals (8.8%) and the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice. Green party platforms typically embrace Social democracy, social democratic economic policies and fo ...

(6.9%). In the federal election, a total of 1,194 votes were cast, and the

voter turnout In political science, voter turnout is the participation rate (often defined as those who cast a ballot) of a given election. This is typically either the percentage of Voter registration, registered voters, Suffrage, eligible voters, or all Voti ...

was 44.4%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election
accessed 8 May 2012

Economy

The principal commercial artery of Grindelwald is the Dorfstrasse, which is the prolongation of the Grindelwaldstrasse, the main access road of the village. , Grindelwald had an unemployment rate of 1.48%. , there were a total of 2,714 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 334 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 130 businesses involved in this sector. 393 people were employed in the secondary sector, and there were 51 businesses in this sector. 1,987 people were employed in the

tertiary sector The tertiary sector of the economy, generally known as the service sector, is the third of the three economic sectors in the three-sector model (also known as the economic cycle). The others are the primary sector (raw materials) and the ...

, with 229 businesses in this sector. There were 2,403 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 45.4% of the workforce. there were a total of 2,265

full-time equivalent Full-time equivalent (FTE), or whole time equivalent (WTE), is a unit of measurement that indicates the workload of an employed person (or student) in a way that makes workloads or class loads comparable across various contexts. FTE is often use ...

jobs. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 165, of which 159 were in agriculture and seven were in forestry or lumber production. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 365 of which 42 or (11.5%) were in manufacturing, six or (1.6%) were in mining and 292 (80.0%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 1,735. In the tertiary sector; 241 or 13.9% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 193 or 11.1% were in the movement and storage of goods, 1,022 or 58.9% were in a hotel or restaurant, 27 or 1.6% were the insurance or financial industry, 45 or 2.6% were technical professionals or scientists, 46 or 2.7% were in education and 58 or 3.3% were in health care. , there were 432 workers who commuted into the municipality and 265 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 1.6 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 9.2% used public transportation to get to work, and 36.2% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 690 or 17.0% were

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

, while 2,874 or 70.6% belonged to the

Swiss Reformed Church The Protestant Church in Switzerland (PCS), formerly named Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches until 31 December 2019, is a federation of 25 member churches – 24 cantonal churches and the Evangelical-Methodist Church of Switzerland. The P ...

. Of the rest of the population, there were 31 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.76% of the population), there were two individuals (or about 0.05% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 105 individuals (or about 2.58% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There was one individual who was

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

, and 32 (or about 0.79% of the population) who were

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

. There were 14 individuals who were

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

and one individual who belonged to another church. One hundred forty-four (or about 3.54% of the population) belonged to no church, were agnostic or

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

, and 227 individuals (or about 5.58% of the population) did not answer the question.

Climate

Between 1981 and 2010, Grindelwald had an average of 145.4 days of rain or snow per year and on average received of

precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls from clouds due to gravitational pull. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, rain and snow mixed ("sleet" in Commonwe ...

. The wettest month was August during which time Grindelwald received an average of of rain or snow. During this month there was precipitation for an average of 14.4 days. The month with the most days of precipitation was June, with an average of 14.8, but with only of rain or snow. The driest month of the year was February with an average of of precipitation over 9.7 days., the Grindelwald weather station elevation is 1,158 meters above sea level. As the municipality territory stretches from Lütschental (approx. 730 metres above sea level) to the summit of the

(4,110 metres), huge differences in average temperature are naturally found. The Montane zone and the

Subalpine zone Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures lapse rate, fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is ...

extend from the bottom of the valley to the

tree line The tree line is the edge of a habitat at which trees are capable of growing and beyond which they are not. It is found at high elevations and high latitudes. Beyond the tree line, trees cannot tolerate the environmental conditions (usually low ...

, at approx. 2,000 metres. There, coniferous trees and snowfall progressively replace deciduous tree and rainfall. Above that is the

Alpine zone Alpine tundra is a type of natural region or biome that does not contain trees because it is at high elevation, with an associated alpine climate, harsh climate. As the latitude of a location approaches the poles, the threshold elevation for alp ...

, consisting of Alpine tundra. The last region, above 3,000 metres, is the

Ice cap climate An ice cap climate is a polar climate where no mean monthly temperature exceeds . The climate generally covers areas at high altitudes and Polar regions of Earth, polar regions (60–90° north and south latitude), such as Antarctica and some of ...

zone.

Transport

Grindelwald railway station Grindelwald railway station () is a railway station in the village and municipality of Grindelwald in the Swiss canton of Bern. The station is the terminus of both the Berner Oberland Bahn (BOB), whose trains operate services to Interlaken Ost, ...

, in the centre of Grindelwald village, is served by trains of the Berner Oberland Bahn (BOB), which run to Interlaken, and by trains of the Wengernalpbahn (WAB), which run to

and on to Wengen and Lauterbrunnen. At Kleine Scheidegg, a connection can be made with the Jungfraubahn, which ascends inside the Eiger to the

. Besides Grindelwald station, there are eight other railway stations within the municipality of Grindelwald. These are Burglauenen, , and Schwendi on the BOB; Grindelwald Grund, Brandegg and Alpiglen on the WAB; and and on the Jungfraubahn. The Gondelbahn Grindelwald-Männlichen connects Grindelwald with the Männlichen and with onward travel on the Luftseilbahn Wengen-Männlichen offers an alternative route to Wengen. The recently built Eiger Express, connects directly Grindelwald to Eigergletscher, on the Jungfraubahn. Both Männlichen and Eiger Express cable transport start at the Grindelwald Terminal. Both mountain locations of First and Pfingstegg are also accessible by cable transport. In addition, during the summer season, buses run from Grindelwald to Meiringen via the Grosse Scheidegg, at nearly 2,000 metres above sea level.

Winter sports

Long famed as a winter

tourist Tourism is travel for pleasure, and the commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel. UN Tourism defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as being limited to holiday activity on ...

destination with slopes for beginners, intermediates and the challenges of the Eiger glacier for the experienced, there are activities for the non-skiers, from

toboggan A toboggan is a simple sled used in snowy winter recreation. It is also a traditional form of cargo transport used by the Innu, Cree and Ojibwe of North America, sometimes part of a dog train. It is used on snow to carry one or more people (o ...

ing to groomed winter hiking tracks. It is the usual starting point for ascents of the

and the

. Nowadays Grindelwald is also a popular summer activity resort with many miles of hiking trails across the Alps. The first person to ski there was Englishman, Gerald Fox (who lived at Tone Dale House) who put his skis on in his hotel bedroom in 1881 and walked out through the hotel bar to the slopes wearing them.

Education

In Grindelwald, about 1,647 or (40.5%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 302 or (7.4%) have completed additional higher education (either

university A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

or a ''

Fachhochschule A (; plural ), abbreviated FH, is a university of applied sciences (UAS), in other words a Hochschule, German tertiary education institution that provides professional education in many applied sciences and applied arts, such as engineering, te ...

''). Of the 302 who completed tertiary schooling, 57.9% were Swiss men, 24.5% were Swiss women, 9.3% were non-Swiss men and 8.3% were non-Swiss women. The Canton of Bern school system provides one year of non-obligatory

Kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cen ...

, followed by six years of primary school. This is followed by three years of obligatory lower secondary school where the students are separated according to ability and aptitude. Following the lower secondary, students may attend additional schooling, or they may enter an

apprenticeship Apprenticeship is a system for training a potential new practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study. Apprenticeships may also enable practitioners to gain a license to practice in a regulat ...

. During the 2010–11 school year, there were a total of 341 students attending classes in Grindelwald. There were three kindergarten classes with a total of 55 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 27.3% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 20.0% had a mother language different from the classroom language. The municipality had 12 primary classes and 187 students. Of the primary students, 15.0% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 12.8% had a mother tongue different from the classroom language. During the same year, there were six lower secondary classes with a total of 99 students. There were 8.1% who were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 5.1% who had a mother tongue different from the classroom language.Schuljahr 2010/11 pdf document
accessed 4 January 2012 , there were 20 students in Grindelwald who came from another municipality, while 39 residents attended schools outside the municipality. Grindelwald is home to the ''Bibliothek Grindelwald'' library. The library has () 6,144 books or other media, and loaned out 10,777 items in the same year. It was open a total of 136 days with average of 6.5 hours per week during that year.

Famous residents

* Christian Almer (1826–1898), mountain guide, first ascentionist of Eiger and many other mountains * Ulrich Almer (1849–1940) a Swiss mountain guide who made many premieres in the Alps * W. A. B. Coolidge (1850–1926) an American historian, theologian and mountaineer lived here from 1885. * Fritz Steuri (1879–1950) a Swiss mountain climber and Nordic and alpine skier. * Peter Kaufmann-Bohren (1886–1971) a Swiss ski instructor and mountain guide in the Swiss Alps and the Canadian Rockies. * Oleg Protopopov (1932–2023) &

Ludmila Belousova Ludmila Yevgenyevna Belousova (; 22 November 1935 – 26 September 2017) was a Soviet and Russian pair skater who represented the Soviet Union. With her partner and husband Oleg Protopopov, she was a two-time Olympic champion (1964, 1968) a ...

(1935–2017), the 1964 and 1968 Olympic figure skating champions * Martina Schild (born 1981), alpine skier, silver medalist in the

2006 Winter Olympics The 2006 Winter Olympics (), officially the XX Olympic Winter Games () and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February in Turin, Italy. This marked the second time Italy had hosted the Winter O ...

women's downhill race * Hedy Schlunegger (1923–2003), Olympic gold medalist 1948 in downhill skiing. It was the first gold medal ever awarded to a woman in downhill skiing. * Gottfried Strasser (1854–1912) a Swiss Protestant pastor, poet and writer. *

Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most o ...

(1813–1883) German composer

In media and movies

*The 1969

James Bond The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...

movie ''On Her Majesty's Secret Service'' includes a chase through a skating rink and a

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...

festival in Grindelwald. * The 1972 movie and television series ''George'' were filmed in the village. The show features a large St. Bernard that grew up in New York and that comes for a permanent stay with his new owner in the

Swiss Alps The Alps, Alpine region of Switzerland, conventionally referred to as the Swiss Alps, represents a major natural feature of the country and is, along with the Swiss Plateau and the Swiss portion of the Jura Mountains, one of its three main Physica ...

Zsa Zsa Gabor Zsa Zsa Gabor ( , ; born Sári Gábor ; February 6, 1917 – December 18, 2016) was a Hungarian Americans, Hungarian-American socialite and actress. Her sisters were socialites and actresses Eva Gabor and Magda Gabor. Gabor competed in the ...

appeared in an episode. *The 1975 movie ''The Eiger Sanction'' (starring Clint Eastwood) featured the Hotel Bellevue des Alpes at

as the film location where the group of climbers stayed during their attempt on the summit of the Eiger. In the summer of 1974,

Clint Eastwood Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western (genre), Western TV series ''Rawhide (TV series), Rawhide'', Eastwood rose to international fame with his role as the "Ma ...

and his cast and crew stayed at the Hotel Bellevue des Alpes during filming. *Grindelwald's mountains were used as the basis for the view of Alderaan in '' Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith'' (2005). *Many scenes of the IMAX

documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

film ''The Alps'' (2007) were shot in the region of Grindelwald, particularly on the north face of the Eiger. *Some of the action scenes in ''The Golden Compass'' (2007) were shot in Grindelwald. *'' The Beckoning Silence'', a British 2007 television movie, retraced the 1936 Eiger north face climbing disaster. It was filmed on location. * ''North Face'' (2008, international), another movie retracing the 1936 disaster, was partially filmed on location. *The character Gellert Grindelwald features in the

Harry Potter ''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven Fantasy literature, fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young Magician (fantasy), wizard, Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter, and his friends ...

universe. *Grindelwald is where one of the Gran Turismo 2 circuits is set.

References

External links

Grindelwald
official website
Webcams
* * {{Authority control Cultural property of national significance in the canton of Bern Municipalities of the canton of Bern Ski areas and resorts in Switzerland