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My address:
Roland A. Leimgruber
Bertelweg 38
CH-4204 Himmelried
Switzerland
Tel: ++41-61-741 18 18
Fax: ++41-61-741 24 81
Email: leimgruber@tiscalinet.ch
URL: http://home.tiscalinet.ch/leimgruber
About 'Im Wisigacker' and the 'Bertelweg'...
In principle the Bertelweg is not the Bertelweg, since neither Bertel lives here nor has the Weg any relevance for these rich and charming surroundings up in the unique Jura mountains close to Basel. Actually the real name of this place is
Im Wisigacker or just Im Wisig,
describing much closer the overwhelming breath and fascination of the pure and original Jura nature, which no visitor is able to elude.
Old legends are telling, that Bertel, once a prosperous and young fellow, by building up his Weg and thus destroying nature was beaten by hundert years of sightlessness for this iniquity to nature. So since Bertel was not able to see the beauty around him, nature finally created the chance to him to discover his inner beauty. From these former days all what remained of
Bertel is his Weg and even his Weg is almost eaten away by nature, so that only experienced local scouts may find the Bertelweg nowadays. Therefore, if you once
should want to find the Weg to my place in Himmelried, remember my words and don't commit the same faults as Bertel: Don't look for the Bertelweg! It's useless. Just think about the name Im Wisigacker, try to see the beauty of nature around you and you'll easily find your way to
my place called 'Im Wisigacker 38'.
For all not Suiss German natives, here is a small dictionary of the words appearing in the text above:
- Himmel: It possesses a double meaning. It can
stand for sky as well as behalf the spiritual sence
of heaven or paradise. It can also
be an expression for strong feelings in the sence of
walking on air 'sich im siebten Himmel fühlen'.
In the case of Himmelried, it means either the special
place, where Himmelried is situated on a sunny terrace almost
at the top of the 'Homberg' montain, between earth and heaven.
But it also could describe the impression of the beauty of nature
and peace, the wanderer may overcome, when passing by
Himmelried. It's like finding a piece of the lost paradise.
- Ried: This old word can best
be translated with heath or wold. Often the spezial
and stinted fauna of Rieds, as around Himmelried, serves as
last retreat for a lot of rare or almost died
out herbals as ochidees and 'Disteln', birds as the 'Auerhahn' or
the 'Mäusebussard', reptiles and various bats. This is the
reason, why the surroundings of Himmelried obtain a
special treatment by the Suiss foundation for wild-life preserve
and the WWF(World Wild Life) foundation.
- Weg: Alley, little street.
Sometimes path.
- Bertel: Maybe a name, maybe not. Who knows!
Only profound research could bring at least little light into the still
remote matter:
Bertel or Bärtel is the name for the heath land,
which is situated between the 'Wisigfelsen', the 'Bertel' and the
'Risenberg'. These names can be best translated as
rock of the Wisig, Bertel (see below) and
montain of the giant or the giant montain. The
terrain there falls steeply off in three directions to the socalled
'Bertelloch', which could be translated as Bertel's hole.
In the 17. century Bertel was written as 'Bergtal', which
is a construct of the two words montain and valley
and might origine in the impression one get of the heavily cleft
surroundings as just described. This interpretation seems to be
self-evident.
But there are also other sources of information about the name
Bertel. 1652 'bey dem berchtell gattert', 'berchtelgater'
and 'bertchtel matten'. Then 1664 'über Bergthalmath' and 1831
'Berthold-Matten'. Philologists don't exculde the possiblity, that
this terrain could be named after a vassal called Berchtold,
who came from 'Thierstein'. Apart of the vassal Berchtold
other 'Lehensträger' or settlers of these early times might
have been the origine of the name Bertel as well.
- Thierstein: It is the name of this
mountainous Jura region and means stones of the animals.
- Berg: Mountain. By the way,
Hom in the word Homberg has nothing to do with
the english word 'home'.
- Wisig: 1665 'den Wisigberg hinauff'.
Wisig is the name of the land lying in the south of the
Bertelweg on the 'Wisigberg', which means
Wisig mountain an upper part of the mountain Homberg.
The meaning of Wisig is not clear. Probably this words stands
in connection with the word 'Wiese' meaning meadow
or heath. However 'Wiese' in the sence of grassland,
meadow or heath was never used in this region. We
use the word 'Matte' for it.
After having long chats with natives of the village Himmelried
I also heard an other theory, which says, that Wisig is
the name of a very seldom plant. This mysterious plant called
Wisig is obviously so seldom that even natives have never
seen it. Thus this theory comes along as the wisper of longly
past generations, which names are also already forgotten.
- Acker: Acre, field.
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Last modified: Tue Mai 03 21:52:41 2001