Es wird vermutet, dass die beiden Wehranlagen auf dem Mannenberg einst zu einer grossen Festung gehörten und miteinander vebunden waren. An die Burg Mannenberg waren zur besten Zeit grafgäuliche Rechte wie die hohe Gerichtsbarkeit, der Heeresbann und die Steuererhebung für das Reich gebunden. Die Herren der Burg Mannenberg hatten klingende Namen wie Graf Peter von Greyerz, Heinrich von Strättligen und Peter von Raron.

Die beiden Burgen Mannenberg und Laubegg, welche 1349 von den Bernern zerstört wurden, sind lange, lange Jahre nach deren Untergang Schauplatz abergläubischer Schatzgräberei gewesen. Von den vielen Versuchen, in deren Ruinen mit beschworenen Geistern Schätze zu heben, entnehmen wir der Chronik folgende Sage:

Auf kleinem bewaldetem Hügel. Urspr. im Besitz der Freiherren v. Weissenburg.

Seit 1386 bernischer Amtssitz. Die mittelalterl. Burg brannte 1767 vollständig ab; Neubau in Form einer Campagne 1768–70 durch Niklaus Hebler. Gesamtrest. und Umbau 1984–85. L-förmiger Baukörper aus zweigeschossigem Corps de Logis und eingeschossigem Seitenflügel, je unter Walmdach. Zum Schlosshof gedeckte doppelläufige Aussentreppe. Hauptfront gegen den terrassierten Garten.

www.de-siebenthal.com

Examples of very old Swiss familieshe original form of the DUBICH family name in Alsace is DUBACH. The first DUBICHs in Alsace went by the name DUBACH for a number of years after their arrival from Switzerland in 1670. In September 1686, the parish priest of Merxheim, Jean-Michel STIPPICH, even spelled it DUBACK for confirmations at one point, but a few months later, he made an error which has persisted in Merxheim from that day to this. On March 23, 1687, DUBACH became DUBICH, even though the founder of this lineage would continue to sign his name with the original “A” up to 1695.

The dou Bacs of Saanen-Gstaad in the Middle Ages

The first documentary evidence of DUBICH ancestors is found in the region of the Sarine (Saane) River, in the 13th century. We can estimate that the first documented members of the family were born around 1190, because “Cuno and Matti dou Bac de Sanona” (Saanen = Gessenay) were cited as witnesses in 1215. In 1312, property belonging to the Dou BAC family can also be documented, in the location now called Ebnit, between Saanen and Gstaad. The two villages are about 2 km apart, and Gstaad is part of the Saanen commune.
In the 13th century, this entire region belonged to the Count De GRUYÈRE, including the neighboring Pays-d’Enhaut 4 km to the west. Today, Gessenay (Saanen) is part of the Canton Berne, and Pays-d’Enhaut (including Rougemont, Château-d’Oex, and Rossinière) has been part of the Canton Vaud ever since the French Revolution.
These earliest Dou BAC families were headed by around ten men born between 1255 and 1280, with given names such as Rodulphus, Heyny, Thomi, Yanny, Borcardus and Petelly, all of them brothers or cousins or distant cousins. The family had existed for a long time, perhaps since the 12th century, and its name came from the family property still called “ou Bach” in a 1341 document, which means “am Bach” (at the brook) in German. The property was situated between two streams: the Erbserenbach to the northwest, and the Oberer Bach (Superior Brook) also called the Grubenbach nowadays, to the southeast.
In 1324, there were members of the family named Petellinus and Heyny, sons of Rodolphus and his wife Agnes; there were also Welty dou Bac and his wife Migna, and also Petrus and Heny . . . Their parental lines and the property they owned can be documented.
The family name Dou BAC, which became Dou BACH during the 14th century, means “the one who lives near the ‘Bach'”, or “du Ruisseau”, in modern translation (by the Stream in English). Some other Saanen families have the ancient particle “dou” meaning “du” in modern French (“of the” in English). These include Dou SAUCEWATER or Von SALZWASSER, Dou SAIS which later became ZUMSTEIN, Dou WILER, Dou PONTE (= DUPONT), Dou CHASTELLET (von GSTEIG, small village near Gstaad). . .
The Dou BACHs of Saanen-Gstaad in the 14th century were related to the old family De GISSINEY or Von SAANEN, and certainly to the Von REICHENBACHs (De RIEQUIBAC in 1312), their immediate neighbors, who probably came from the fortress of Reichenbach, a nearby village, at the end of the 13th century.
Even before 1312, Thomi Dou BAC had sold ten parcels of his land to Wylly De GISSINEY (Von SAANEN). By 1324, according to the documents of the time, Jacobus Dou BACH, nephew of Wouterius De GISSINEY, tax-collector (“gräflicher Pfänder”) for Count De GRUYÈRE, already had a remarkable inheritance of land.
In time the Dou BACH family gave rise to the Du BACH or DUBACH branch (on the decline in Saanen-Gstaad) and the BACH branch. The DUBACH branch grew more and more sparse, even at times extinct. Some of the DUBACHs left for other German-speaking lands. But this branch of the family grew more dramatically in the neighboring French-speaking village called Rougemont.
Today the DUBACHs are extinct at Saanen, but the BACH branch is still very well represented in the Saanenland. In particular, a BACH family still lives at Ebnit, at the border of Gstaad, at almost the exact spot where the property of the 13th century Dou BACs was located.
Over the past few centuries, the DUBACHs and the BACHs – two branches sprouted from the same trunk – have been united with practically all the families of Saanenland: HALDI, Von SIEBENTHAL, LEHMAN, JAGGI, HAUSWIRTH, SCHOPFER, ZWAHLEN, MEZENEN, (Von) REICHENBACH, BRAND, Von GRÜNIGEN (cf. the famous skier Michael von GRÜNIGEN), PERRETEN, WÜRSTEN, STEFFEN, RUFY, GANDER, etc. Most of these families have existed for an extremely long time at Saanen. More than one family goes back to the beginning of the 14th century. Some families can be traced even further back, like the PERRETENs, known near Château-d’Oex in 1276 and at Saanen in 1361. The Von GRÜNIGENs, knights of ÉVERDES (near Gruyères) have been documented as far back as 1136. One of them, Aymon D’ÉVERDES, built a chapel in the church of Rougemont in 1450. The Von SIEBENTHALs, barons known since 1175 among the associates of the Duke of ZÄHRINGEN, appeared at Saanen at the beginning of the 16th century.

1276: The dou Torrents of Rougemont

About four kilometers from Saanen and Gstaad, across either the narrow Vanel gorge or the Allamans gorge, at the linguistic frontier marked by the Fenils Stream (torrent des Fenils) or Grischbach, at the exact spot where the Burgundians and the Alamans of old met, one enters French-speaking territory near Rougemont. (“Allamans” is doubtless derived from the old French “alod” of which the German equivalent is “Allmend” = land free of taxes or tariffs.)
In Rougemont, the Dou BACHs are documented in 1340, but some documents as early as 1276 mention the family under a romanised form, “Dou TORRENT”, a literal translation of Dou BACH. Family names were at that time still very fluid and “translinguistic”, in particular between the written and spoken versions. The Von GRÜNIGEN family, for example, also saw its name fluctuate markedly, between D’ÉVERDES, De WERDES, De WERDI and the German version of this name (grün [German] = vert [French] = green [English]). Family names easily crossed from one language to another in this era, especially in this bilingual region (Château-d’Oex/Oesch, Gruyère/Greyerz, Rougemont/Rötschmund/Retschmund/Rotenberg/Rotberg, Gissiney/Gessenay/Sanon/Saanen, Dou BAC/Dou TORRENT).
Rougemont and its Cluniac priory spoke French. However, some families living on lands east of the village were partly German-speaking. The Dou BACHs (in Rougemont as in Saanen-Gstaad, they became Du BACHs or DUBACHs) were undoubtedly among these bilingual Rougemont families. Marriages with young women of Saanen, the return of a few Du BACHs to this German-speaking village, and the bilingual inscriptions on certain chalets (see below) all show that they kept alive the German language of their ancestors from the 13th and 14th centuries. The Du BACHs lived essentially at Allamans and at Vanel, to the east of Rougemont near the language border.
The castle of Vanel, today in ruins, was then the frontline fortress of the Counts De GRUYÈRE in Gessenay. Indeed, the county census reports from Vanel provide a good idea of the composition of the region’s population over the course of the early centuries, before the bankruptcy of the Count De GRUYÈRE’s family in 1555. Furthermore, it was the Cluniac priory, founded around 1080 by the Counts, that collected taxes in Rougemont.

The ruins of the castle of Vanel mark the border between the French and German languages, and between Rougemont and Saanen-Gstaad. Bilingual, the Du BACHs or DUBACHs, ancestors of the Alsacian DUBICHs, for the most part lived here (The Vanel and the valley of Rougemont, a detail from the work of François MULLER, 1795).

In Rougemont, the DUBACHs would have been related to practically all of the old families of that village, and to some of the families in Château-d’Oex, a neighboring village. Numerous marriages united them with families such as the COTTIERs, known there since 1276, the ROSSIERs (1388), and the YERSINs (1493) (cf. Dr. Alexandre YERSIN, who discovered the vaccine against Bubonic plague in the 19th century.) The DUBACHs were also related to the BOVAYs (1379), the BUENSOZs (1340), the HENCHOZs (1376, a family from Château-d’Oex), the LOUPs (1461) (cf. the cartographer of the 18th century, Samuel LOUP), the JAQUILLARDs (1461), the MANGEs (about 1520), the DESCOULLAYESs (1372, a family from Château-d’Oex), the ALLAMAN(D)s (1456), etc.

The external citizenship treaties of 1401 and 1403

In 1401, Saanen (Gessenay) signed a treaty of external citizenship [in German, “Ausbürger”] with Berne. In spite of Count De GRUYÈRE’s reticence, the Pays-d”Enhaut (Rougemont, Château-d’Oex, etc.) did the same in 1403. These treaties obliged the inhabitants to support Berne in its military efforts, and in return, Berne pledged to come to the aid of these inhabitants when needed. Berne also opened the gates of the cities to the mountain dwellers, to permit them to sell their produce at the market, for example. This treaty also allowed some members of the family to move to Berne, to the Simmental and to the Emmental, where the DUBACHs are still numerous today.
In 1436, in Château-d’Oex, records mention a family called Dou BATH (DUBATH = DUBACH), a name which also appeared in Rougemont in 1461. This record doesn’t necessarily mean that the DUBATHs lived in Château-d’Oex at that time. The family’s home was Rougemont, but the men of the two villages fought their battles together, and it is possible that the family owned land in Château-d’Oex. A new variant of the name appeared then, with an ending more adapted to this French-speaking region. Numerous other forms have come and gone, according to the times: all have oscillated among the pronunciations “Duba”, “Dubatt”, “Dubach” and “Duback”, whether Du BAST, DUBAT, DUBAS, Du BAS, Du BAT, Du BAZ, DUBATH, Du BACH, DUBACH, DUBAC? It has, however, always been a matter of the same family.

1476: Heynot du Bach in the battle at Morat

While the Duke of Bourgogne, Charles the Bold, made war against the Swiss allies of King Louis XI of France, at Morat in 1476, Heynot du BACH of the Pays-d’Enhaut fought alongside Count De GRUYÈRE. The Swiss army returned victorious. The Duke of Bourgogne fled and had to abandon treasures he had carried everywhere with him. This booty of war can still be seen at the château (castel) de Gruyères, which has become a museum.

15th and 16th centuries: numerous migrations

During these times, the DUBACHs did not all stay in Rougemont and Saanen-Gstaad. Some of them left to establish themselves in various other places more or less distant. In 1502, a Heyni DUBACH was known in Reichenstein near Zweisimmen, a dozen kilometers from Saanen. Claus TUBACH was cited in 1528 in the Amt (meaning “district”) Oberhasli, whose principal town was Meiringen (about 80 kilometers to the northeast). In 1530, a Peter THUBACH was mentioned at Amsoldingen (about 35 kilometers along the road leading to Berne, near Thoune); in 1531, in the same place, he was called Petter TUBACH. In 1548, it was at Grodey (St. Stephan, near Zweisimmen, about 12 kilometers away) that there was a mention of Annj THUBACH, the widow of Peter THUBACH. February 7, 1558, Barbara DUBACH married Jakob HALDI at Lützelflüh, a village situated between Berne and Willisau, in Emmental (the valley of the river Emme)! The two family names are typical of Saanen and had already been cited in 1558 in this region located about 80 kilometers to the northeast of their place of origin. However, it was only half a century later that male DUBACHs founded a family at Lützelflüh (c. 1608). We are now only a few kilometers from the canton of Lucerne where there were not yet any DUBACHs at that time (in the 16th century all the DUBACHs of our family were still only in the county de Gruyère and the Canton Berne).

In Saanen, Gstaad and Rougemont in the 15th and 16th centuries

In Saanen about 1550 Anthoni DUBACH, who was born around 1505, arranged for the marriage of his daughter Margreth to Ulrich WÜRSTEN. Several DUBACH families lived there, on the German-speaking side. Certain DUBACHs of Saanen were recorded as natives of Rougemont (like Hans, in 1571) in the parish registers beginning in 1557; others were said to be from Gstaad (the other Hans, in 1559, 1562, 1563, etc.). In 1585 we also meet an Andres DUBACH, a native of Galmiz (near Morat), apparently having returned to the lands of his ancestors in Saanenland. This André (Andrew) DUBACH must be in the family of Joannes DUBA, who married Anna WELCKER at Gundolsheim, in Haute-Alsace on February 6, 1606 (see below).
If the DUBACH family is less numerous in Saanen and Gstaad than other local families, we can nevertheless count about six households, on the “German” side, at that time. The spouses were Maria RUFI (marriage about 1556; Jakob RUFI was the “Kastlan” or “châtelain” (English: “governor”) of Saanen between 1557 and 1564), Anna STEFFEN (about 1570), Christen HAUSWIRTH (in 1591; Simon was governor in 1585 and Bendicht between 1591 and 1626), Dorothea REICHENBACH (in 1591), Anni PERRETEN (in 1597; Heinrich was “Landesvenner” (English: “district administrator”) in 1445, and another Heinrich would be governor in 1654), Barbli SCHWENTER (1600), Anthoni BLATTI (1604), Margreth MARTING (about 1607), Apollonia HALDI (1608), Steffan WÜRSTEN (about 1617), Apollonia GANDER (about 1622; Wilhelm was governor between 1474 and 1500, Peter between 1514 and 1522) . . . The De WERDIs or Von GRÜNIGEN were also regularly cited as godfathers or godmothers. Sometimes, at the time of baptisms, the maiden names of the mothers weren’t indicated, as in the case of Frantz DUBACH and his wife Gloda, in 1583 (probably a new couple having come from Rougemont: François and Claudaz).
At Rougemont, there were many more branches than at Saanen and Gstaad. Born about 1430, Aymond du BACH of La Condémine (part of Rougemont) was the ancestor of most of the family members, including Jean, born about 1450, then Pierre, born about 1470, for example.
About 1495 births included Nycod, Mermet and François du BACH, among others. In fact, their name was written Du BACT rather than du BACH around 1520; the form Du BACH or DUBACH came a little later. Nycod was the father of Loys, and Mermet the father of Claude du BACH, future husband of Perrisson. About 1550, Loys du BACH married Claudaz, daughter of Jehan YERSIN (family of notaries established near Vanel since 1493).
There was, by another route, Pierre du BACH, also born around 1495, father of another Nycod, and grandfather of Françoys, Pierre, Nycod and Loys. This Loys became the father of another Guillaume, notably (see the Lucerne section below). Pierre had several children himself, also (around 1550), including for example Anthoyne, who married Christine, daughter of Jacques JACQUILLARD; there were also Jacquette, Claudaz, Loyze and Claude du BACH, who married Jehannette du BACH, daughter of Mermet.
In the Du BACH family of another branch, still at Rougemont, were offspring named Jehan, Jacquette, Jennette . . . This Jehan du BACH, born around 1490, had a son also named Jehan, who had, with his wife Marye, children who were adults around 1570 with the first names of Loys, Jehan and Claude (See the illustration below.). Thus the family was very important in Rougemont in the middle of the 16th century. Between 1582 and 1592, for example, one counts more than thirty births in the different Du BACH families of the village.
Winter 1555 : the partitioning of the county – The Reformation in Pays-d’Enhaut
By the end of 1555, Michel, the last count De GRUYÈRE, was crippled with debts. His principal creditors, Berne and Fribourg, proceeded to divide up his lands. Fribourg received the northern parts (Gruyères, Enney, etc.), which remained Catholic, and Berne appropriated Saanenland and Pays-d’Enhaut, including Saanen, Gstaad, Rougemont, Château-d’Oex and Rossinière, which became Protestant.
It was difficult for the Reformation to establish itself in this new district known as Gessenay (the Saanen Barony). The population was hostile to Protestantism and to its new masters in Berne, and the friction led to a good deal of hardship and persecution. Certain families fled to Catholic lands, to Fribourg and also to Lucerne. Such was notably the case for one branch of the very ancient family COTTIER, which settled in Bellegarde (Jaunpass). Certain Du BACHs or Du BASTs reached Enney in the same manner, in Catholic and Fribourgese territory, where members of the family had already lived since about 1510. Pierre du BAST baptized his son François in 1560 in Gruyères. Thirty-three years later, Théodole du BAST would serve as an assistant to the governor, followed by several others. Their descendants still live in Canton Fribourg today, under the name DUBAS. Dr. Jean DUBAS, who was president of the Historical Society of Canton Fribourg and author of numerous historical and genealogical works, and who died recently (March 30, 2003), was a descendant of this line.

Rougemont, 1574: A dozen Du BACH families lived in the village. On this example of village records, one reads: “Jehan, Loys et Claude, enfans de feu Jehan, fils de feu Jehan du Bach, faicte par ledict Jehan du Bach”. (Jehan, Loys and Claude, children of the late Jehan, who was the son of the late Jehan du Bach, made by the aforementioned Jehan du Bach III.) This last Jehan was born about 1490.

Dubach Diaspora: The birth of a branch in Canton Lucerne

The members of the family who remained in Pays-d’Enhaut and in Saanen-Gstaad thus became Protestants, toward the end of the year 1555. In 1572, 1579, and 1595, three men of the family left to establish themselves in the Catholic county of Willisau (Canton Lucerne). These were Jacques, Guilliaume and Jehan DUBACH (the last, for example, was the son of Louys DUBACH and Berthe DES COULAYES of Rougemont), who founded the Lucerne branch of the family. In Willisau and above all in Luthern, they and their descendants married women of various families including DANNER (before 1585), GSEGNET (v.1595), RÄBER (1600), BERGER (1603), ROTH (avant 1606), WECHSLER (1606), GERING (1606), RUPP (1612), MÜLLER (1625), BIRCHER (1616, 1620, 1626), EGGERMANN (1627), MÜLLER (ca.1630), HAGMEISTER (1631), WOLFISBERG (ca.1632), RINDERKNECHT (ca.1640), HILTBRUNNER (1647), RIEDWEG (1649), STEFFEN (ca.1688), etc. From the earliest years, the DUBACHs appear in the records as godfathers, godmothers, and witnesses to marriages, and they established themselves in other villages of the district of Willisau like Zell, Hergiswil, Ufhusen, and Grossdietwil-Altbüron, from the 17th century onward. The variants of the name, DUBACK, TUBACH, TUBACK . . . would also flourish in this canton. The spelling of the name did not stabilize until the 19th century as DUBACH or DUBACK.

Dubach Diaspora: The Dubachs of the Emmental and the Simmental

Not far from there, the DUBACH family was represented at Signau in the Emmental (Canton Berne) in the 16th century, in the person of Elias DUBACH. At Lützelflüh, where the family had been present since about 1608, the Land writer [scribe] Niklaus DUBACH in 1653 facilitated the arrest of Niklaus LEUENBERGER, a peasant leader born about 1615. Tortured at the castle of Trachselwald, LEUENBERGER, who is today considered a hero, was condemned to death and executed like many other rebels. As for Niklaus DUBACH, he was awarded a Goblet of Silver . . .
In the Emmental and the Simmental, the DUBACHs married into numerous families: Von ALMEN, LEUENBERGER, WYSSMÜLLER, Von NIEDERHÄUSERN, Von GUNTEN, ROHRBACH, BALMER, FANKHAUSER, LÜTHI, SIEGENTHALER, NYFFENEGER, Von KÄNEL, STAUFFER, HESS, GUGGISBERG, NEUENSCHWANDER, SALZMANN, SCHAFROTH, RÜFENACHT, RENTSCH, HALDIMANN, MISCHLER, BADERTSCHER, ÄSCHBACHER, RAMSAYER, STEINER, BRECHBÜHL, LUGINBÜHL, BOSSHARD, DREYER, SCHEIDEGGER, BURKHALTER, BICHSEL, THEILKÄS, DELLENBACH, WYMANN, BERGER, BURGER, ZBINDEN, ZAUGG, BACHMANN, WIDMER, FLÜCKIGER, RÜEGSEGGER, WEHREN and dozens of others . . .
At present, the DUBACHs are quite numerous in Canton Berne. Over six centuries, the family has flourished and multiplied in the valleys of the Emme and the Simme, and in the Bernese Highlands . . .

Dubach Diaspora: The Dubachers of Canton Uri and the Dübachs of Thurgovie

Starting with a single family about 1646, the DUBACHERs of Canton Uri, south of Lucerne, in the heart of Switzerland, are well represented in the Parish Register of Erstfeld, near Wassen, Gurtnellen, Isenthal, Silenen, Altdorf, Göschenen, etc. This family also came from Rougemont (“von Retschmund”) – so it represents a new variant of the DUBACH name! Once they had been settled here for some time, Sebastian and Johannes DUBACHER became burghers of Canton Uri in 1651, and Peter in 1657. The family continued to provide Canton Uri with councilors and civil servants, and had a coat of arms very similar to those of a group of DUBACHs in Lucerne (see the description below).
The DUBACHERs were also represented in Alsace by at least two individuals from Lucerne. A Caspar DUBACHER, originally from Fischbach (in the parish of Grossdietwil, County Willisau, Canton Lucerne), died in Rouffach (Haut-Rhin) in 1659. In Cernay, also in Alsace, it was an Elisabeth DUBACHERin (actually DUBACHerin) who inherited property in 1729 from Simon KAST, whom she had married in 1710. This one may well have been a case of a DUBACH woman with a feminine suffix of the DUBACH name (both “in” and “erin” were used as feminizing suffixes in Alsace), but the two cases together suggest that the DUBACHER variant existed also for the DUBACHs of Canton Lucerne, whether by a natural change in the name over time, or perhaps because of the adoption of a partially feminized version of the name.
In Canton Thurgovie, right next to Lake Constance, one finds from the end of the 16th century a small family of DÜBACHs (note the umlaut over the U = Ü). This family lived in Arbon, Kesswil and Dozwil, but it died out before our time. Since one might have found in times past some isolated DÜBACHs in Canton Berne (probably with a French pronunciation and an origin in Rougemont), one can well imagine that one of these DÜBACHs founded the Thurgovie branch. But this is just a hypothesis. It should be noted in this context that there was a community named Tubach (Canton of St.-Gall) on Lake Constance, close to Arbon. The name of this village in 1291 was Tiuffenbach. Some DUBACHs live today in this part of Switzerland, as they do in the majority of cantons in the Confederation. The origin of this stock, like that of the DÜBACH stock itself, has not yet been fully determined.

Dubach Diaspora: A Duba in Alsace circa 1606

The very first member of the family known to have lived in Haute-Alsace was a Johannes DUBA “from Mord, in Switzerland” (“Mord” is probably a phonetic spelling of “Moret”, which would be Morat (Murten, about 60 miles south of Merxheim and Gundolsheim, in Canton Fribourg)). DUBA is one of the variants of DUBACH (“apocope”, or word-shortening, is also encountered in Rougemont. One example is the inscription on a chalet built in 1731 at Vanel for Esther DUBA and her husband Jehan BOVAY). It was Mr. Alain ECKES who discovered the name of Johannes DUBA, in the parish registers of Gundolsheim, using the Compilation of Parish Registers (a program in Haut-Rhin to foster the systematic examination and keyboarding of parish registers). On February 6, 1606, Johannes DUBA married Anna WELCKER in this village. Johann RICHT, Johannes MOGLIN (MOEGLEN) and Urban ZIPFEL were witnesses for this couple, who would not appear again in the registers of the village. But the DUBICHs, whose ancestors were still in Switzerland around 1670, did not descend from this Johannes DUBA . . .

Family Coats of Arms

Coat of arms of the Rougemont branch of the DUBACHs.

There are several coats of arms for the DUBACHs, varying among the branches of this family. Several of them are described here. [Translators’ note: The French originals are written in the highly stylized terms of French heraldry. Instead of attempting to substitute the equally stylized terms of English heraldry, we have made every effort to render them into ordinary English.] The branch that remains in Rougemont involves “A silver ibex on a backdrop of blue sky rearing up from a tricuspid green mountaintop” (from an Armorial – a book containing coat of arms and their description – from Canton Vaud). Furthermore, on a stained-glass window dating from 1656, the ibex has horns, hooves and sexual organs of gold, and a green beard (R. LOUP describes it that way in his armorial, and it is in that form that it is displayed in the Museum of the Pays-d’Enhaut in Château-d’Oex). This coat of arms belongs to the DUBATH and the DUBAS families.
The DUBACHs of Canton Berne, depending on the branch of the family, have several vivid variations on a single theme, generally representing a pigeon and a stream (Dub + Bach), and often also a star. According to members of the branch in Eggiwil (Canton Berne), their coat of arms bears “A black eagle against a golden backdrop, and a pattern of red and silver wedges below”.
The Lucerne branch of the family has two distinct coats of arms. The DUBACHs of Hellbühl, Hergiswil, Hüswil, Langnau, Zell, Luthern, Neuenkirch, Ohmstal, Pfaffnau, Romoos, Rothenburg, Ufhusen and Willisau-Land have “A green field with a silver ploughshare positioned with the sharp end pointing upward, with three 6-pointed red stars, two along the top and one near the point of the shield”. The DUBACH families of Lucerne, Oberkirch, Grosswangen have “A blue background, with a silver border between top and bottom inlaid with a strip of the same blue, a red fleur-de-lis above and a 6-pointed golden star below”.
These coats of arms are very close to those of the DUBACHERs of Canton Uri, originally of Rougemont in the 17th century, for which the description reads “A single red fleur-de-lis against a silver background above, a single star of gold on a blue background below, and a silver bar bound along the line between the silver and blue” (Historical Dictionary of Switzerland).
The DUBICH coat of arms bears “A golden background with a black wave undulating near the bottom, with a red 6-pointed star above on the right side. At the summit, a star, overlying the flight of a black crane. Twisted turban and valances of gold and black.” These arms bring to mind heraldic elements of Swiss family crests (the undulating band = stream = Bach; the star of the Bernese branches and of the branch of Willisau-Land). The flight of the crane at the summit recalls the well-known old Count Gruyere, whose symbol was this bird and whose holdings first established the family in the 13th century.

From Dubach to Dubich (Alsace only)

In Canton Lucerne, Hans Heinrich DUBACH is one of the DUBACH descendants who came from the Highlands (Pays-d’Enhaut, near Rougemont) between 1572 and 1595. In 1661, Heinrich DHUBACH is listed as a musketeer in a tally of the armed forces in the parish of Grossdietwil, a small village in County Willisau (Canton Lucerne), which includes also Fischbach and Altbüron, Heinrich’s village. Life was very difficult in Switzerland at this time, after the end of the Thirty Years War. In 1670, Heinrich TUBACH therefore sold his goods to emigrate to Alsace with his wife Anna Maria MEYER. Their son Jost or Jodocus (Joss), born while they still lived in Switzerland, would have an eventful life in Alsace . . .
In 1681, the son of Hans Heinrich, Jost TUBACH, married in Ungersheim (near Merxheim) a woman named Eva WEINZAEPFLEN. In 1683, the couple lived in Meyenheim, near Ungersheim: Jodocus DUBACKH is listed at that time as a godfather. The following year, in 1684, the DUBACKH-WIZAEPFLER couple baptized a small child Joannes, still in Meyenheim. Hans Heinrich DUBACH was clearly in nearby Issenheim at that time, in his first years at the seigneurial mill.
In 1686, Jost DUBACK is listed for the first time in Merxheim itself, on the occasion of the confirmation of Nicolaus SCHMIDT, his godson. This is the very first appearance of the DUBACH/DUBICH family in Merxheim, the village which would become definitively the Alsatian homestead of the family.

Register of confirmations in Merxheim in 1686: The parish priest listed Jost DUBACK.

On March 23, 1687, for some strange reason, Jean-Michel STIPPICH, the same parish priest who recorded the 1686 listing, inscribed the baptism of Nicolaus, son of Jost DUBICH and Eva WEINZAEPFLEN in the parish register of Merxheim. On that very day, DUBACH became DUBICH. Then, a new parish priest arrived in Merxheim, Jean Ulrich HIGELIN. This one would continue to write “DUBICH”, precisely the name he could see before his eyes, but also the name he must have believed he heard from the lips of members of the family (probably something like “Dub’ckh”). This form of the name would persist all the way to our own times.
In 1689, Eva WEINZAEPFLEN died, in Merxheim. Jost soon married a woman native to Merxheim, Anne Marie KIEFFER. Jost’s father signed the register on this occasion “Hans Heinrich DUBBAT” (cf. DUBAT and DUBATH in Rougemont). In 1691, when Hans Heinrich’s daughter Madeleine died at the age of 20, her father and her brother signed side by side: “Heinrich DUBBACHT” and “Jost DUBICH” in the Merxheim register of burials! In 1693, Heinrich signed, on one single occasion, DUBBICHT, and in 1695 he wrote yet another version, DUBACHT. Although the father thus continued writing his name more or less as he did in Switzerland, DUBACH or DUBATH, or indeed both in the coalesced version DUBACHT (see below) – the subsequent generation for their part passed definitively as DUBICHs.
In 1689, Heinrich DUBACK of Merxheim figured among the members of a Fraternity of St. Sebastian, founded in 1661 in Niederentzen by Jean Melchior TRUCHSESS DE RHEINFELDEN.

Parish records from 1695 in Merxheim. The common ancestor of all the DUBICHs still signs his name “Heinrich DUBACHT” long after his arrival in Alsace in 1670 and the transformation of the name into DUBICH in 1687.

We need to understand that other DUBACHs were also in Alsace after the Thirty Years War: In Ribeauvillé (a large family DUBACH-SCHÜRMANN from 1663 on), in Hirtzfelden (an Elisabeth TUBACH of Grossdietwil was married in 1684), in Uffholtz (Caspar DUBAC was recognized as a landed resident en 1685), in Berrwiller (Johann Caspar, 1693), in Sainte-Croix-en-Plaine (Caspar), and in Rustenhart (Caspar, 1714). In Mittelwihr, the name became DUWA about 1720. Here, the family came from Amt (“district”) Rothenburg (Canton Lucerne). Oftentimes, the Latin expression “Helveta ex ditione Lucernensis” appears in the registers, except for a Johannes DUBACH who is said to have come from Berne to Ribeauvillé. Whether the name is DUBACH, DUBACK, DUBAC, TUBACH, TUBAC, TABACK, THABACK, TUBACKH, DUPACH, DUBA or DUWA, it did not become DUBICH anywhere but in Merxheim, from which it has been exported over the years since 1690 in that form to other localities. It is this that allows us to distinguish the descendants of the couple Hans Heinrich DUBACH and Anna Maria MEYER, all called DUBICH, from other DUBACHs who turned up in Alsace, where the name still exists, notably in the forms TUBACH and DUWA.

An ancient dynasty of millers and builders

Even in the early days in Rougemont, there were DUBACH millers, but that’s not all. In addition to owning numerous plots of land, the family was also in the business of timber, sawmills, and the construction of houses. About 1580, Peter DUBACH was a builder of chalets. One of those attributed to him is still standing, the chalet Von GRÜNIGEN/BLUM (or ZAHLER/BLUM), built in 1583 in Saanen, and bearing an inscription of biblical verse from St. Paul: ” Christvs ist min Laeben und Staerben min Gwün. Philip. I. MDLXXXIII ” (Christ is my life and death will bring my gain), following the initials of the master builder: PD.
But above all, it was Claude (Glodo) DUBACH, originally of Rougemont and later established in Lauenen near Gstaad after his marriage to Apollonia HALDI in 1608, who built numerous chalets in the Sarine valley. The oldest, still standing, dates back to 1604 and is located south of Gstaad. Claude’s son (or nephew?), who came like Claude himself from Rougemont and who was also named Claude or Glodo, was married to another Apollonia, Apollonia GANDER. In 1622 they baptized their daughter Christina in Saanen, then other children in Lauenen where he established himself like the elder Claude. Claude the Younger pursued the same career as his father and left behind elegant chalets, the style of which struck a transitional balance between the earlier sober Gothic style and the baroque excess that flourished soon afterward in Saanenland.
The Valize-Haus of Rübeldorf (a part of Saanen), dated 1620, can still be seen and is also signed ” GLODO DV BACH WÄRCK MEISTER ” (master builder), engraved on the beam, followed by an inscription declaring that the brief sojourn on Earth is but naught, and only Heaven is our home: ” Im himel ist unser statt/ Dorum dis irdis(che) ein end hatt”. Moreover, the inscriptions are bilingual like the DUBACH family itself. For example, on the chalet built for the poet Gabriel KÜBLI en 1618 (Landschaftshaus) : « Was ich hie gmacht mit miner Kvnst hab ich von Gotes Gnad vnd Gvnst – Glodo Dvbach Wärck Meister – Av nom de Diev seoit dovt feit […] la paix du ciel cest le grand bien / cil lui ne la na du tovt rien », or in other words: ” What I have achieved here with my art is done by the grace and the favor of God unto my hands — Claude DUBACH master builder — In the name of God be all this done […] the peace of Heaven, that is the greatest gift / one who has it not has nothing at all” (the complete inscription is more than a hundred words). In Rougemont, ” CLAVDE DVBAC MAISTRE CHAPVIS ” (chapuis = carpenter) signed over a chalet in 1623 to the brothers Pierre et Jehan ROSSIER. The last of these DUBACH chalets dates from 1677 and was built between Saanen and Gstaad for Hans WEHREN. This chalet no longer exists now.
Detail of one of the chalets built by the DUBACHs between 1583 and 1677. This is the Valize-Haus, built in 1620 in Rübeldorf (Saanen). One can read: “GLODO DV BACH WÄRCK MEISTER”.

Detail from one of the chalets built by the DUBACHs between 1583 and 1677. This is the Valize-Haus built in 1620 at Rübeldorf (Saanen). It reads “GLODO DV BACH WÄRCK MEISTER” (Claude DUBACH, Master Builder).

There remain a dozen chalets between Rougemont, Saanen, Gstaad and Lauenen, signed Glodo DUBACH the Father or “der Jüngere” (the Younger) and built between 1604 and 1647. One was built in 1608 in Gstaad (in the Wispile locality) by another great master, Franz MURI, but the names of his companions are written as abbreviations in this case; among these appear the letters “GL DV” referring to Glodo DUBACH the Elder.

Alsace

Let’s return to Alsace. In Merxheim, following in the footsteps of earlier DUBACHs in Rougemont, Hans Heinrich DUBACH (alias Joannes Henricus DUBICH), acquired the village mill. Heinrich bequeathed this mill to his second son, Jean-Jacques, and his wife Madeleine GROSS, who were married in 1698. In March 1698, Heinrich died in Merxheim; his wife Anna Maria (maiden name MEYER) died in 1702. Jean-Jacques DUBICH and Madeleine GROSS (daughter of Marshal Jacques GROSS) are the progenitors of all the current DUBICHs.
After the 1689 death of Eve WEINZAEPFLEN, Jost, the eldest son of Heinrich, left for Issenheim in June 1690, with his second wife, a woman from Merxheim named Maria-Anna KIEFFER. There he signed his first lease on the village mill, leasing it from the Antonine monks. With his third wife Elisabeth VETTER (from a Merxheim family that came from Escholzmatt, in Canton Lucerne), he established himself in Cernay about 1705, where he had the opportunity to acquire the mill of the manor or “Herrenmühle”. In Issenheim, at the monastery of the Antonines, it was Michel DUBICH who would succeed Jost, then Jean DUBICH (the Joannes DUBACKH born in 1684 in Meyenheim), then Thibaut DUBICH (the first), son of Jean, in 1728 . . . Already four generations of millers in Alsace! Between the mills of Merxheim, Issenheim, Pfaffenheim, and Cernay, the men of the family moved often. Jost (the first) also had descendants in Cernay. His son Jost II would inherit the mill of the manor, which he passed on in turn to his son Stephan. But this branch of the family in Cernay ended with Stephan II. In a similar vein, a DUBICH of Merxheim started a new branch in Issenheim in the 19th century, only to have it end in 1983.
If the name is generally fixed as “DUBICH”, one finds here and there an occasional unusual version, especially in Issenheim around 1700-1710, such as TUPICH, DUPIC, TUBY, DUPICH and even DOBBICH. (In 1632 and 1636 in the parish register of Lauenen, near Gstaad, one finds “Glodo DOBACH”. And, on a chalet built in 1630, there appears the inscription “GLODV DOBACH IST WÄRCKMEISTER GEWÄSEN”.) In Cernay, one of the sons of Jost died under the name Theobaldus TUWICK, in 1719 (at the age of 11). In the 18th century, the Abbot of Merxheim, ROOST, often wrote the name as “DUBIG” in the records, but DUBICH prevailed. In the 19th century, Thomas DUBICH was mayor of Merxheim and the sponsor of one of the clocks of the parish church under the name of (remarkably enough) Thomas DUBIQUE! (The donation was dated 1817.) The orthographic flights of fancy never end!
It was definitely in Merxheim, the Alsatian stronghold of the family, that the DUBICHs would flourish. Jean-Jacques DUBICH (second son of Heinrich) and Madeleine GROSS, married in 1698, would have seven children, of which one, Jean, the husband of Apollonia KRAFFT of Raedersheim, would be crushed to death by a mill in 1744. His name, though, was passed on to the third generation by another son of Jean-Jacques and Madeleine GROSS. This was Jean Michel DUBICH (brother of the deceased Jean) and his wife Madeleine HOLDER (daughter of Marshal Georges HOLDER and sister of Abbot Pierre-Paul HOLDER).
The DUBICHs were joined by marriage with families of various names, including WEINZAEPFLEN, KIEFFER, GROSS, HOLDER, KIMPFLIN, SCHMIDT, LIDOLFF, SCHERMESSER, SCHILLING, VETTER, WILD, NIEMERICH, RIEDWEG, MARTINKEN, TORRES, HESS, HORN, RUBRECHT, MULLER, ORY, BOEHRER, DESGRANGES, HANNAUER, ALTHAUS, BRAUN, DIENGER, GALLIATH, SCHNEIDER, SCHEBACHER and a good many other families as well.
There followed in Merxheim several generations of millers, respected in town and rather well-off, as well as landowners and high-ranking officials. In Issenheim, François-Xavier DUBICH, son of Merxheim native étienne DUBICH and Marie-Thérèse MARTIN of Issenheim, and husband of Marie-Anne Ève SCHERMESSER, owned a hotel on Imperial Route 83, around 1850.
The various assessments and inheritances after death throw light on the ownership of numerous lands, vineyards, and other goods, from the first Alsatian generations. Certain DUBICHs were also military men in the royal regiment before the French Revolution, then also under the Empire. Two DUBICHs of Merxheim were decorated with the Medal of Saint Helen by Napoléon III for having fought by the side of Napoléon I in Germany. A third soldier, Jean-Georges DUBICH, gave his life before he could reach such distinction.

Several Dubich chapels in Merxheim

Merxheim has several DUBICH chapels, among them one beside the Way of Rouffach (17th century). Mass used to be celebrated there, and the chapel holds an Altar of the Virgin, of Saint Anthony of Padua, and of Saint Francis of Assisi. But the doors have been closed, by order of the Sub-Bishop of Bâle (Basel) SCHNORPFF, because beggars and cattle were taking refuge in the chapel.
The DUBICH chapel on Guebwiller Road, an integral part of the DUBICH house built in 1681 by the Prince-Abbots of Murbach, a house that remained in the family for more than two centuries, is still a part of the landscape. This chapel is consecrated to the Grieving Virgin and enshrines a Baroque Pieta in a colorful wooden frame, from the 18th century. The little card above it bears the inscription G. DUBICH (Georges DUBICH, married to Marie-Anne GROSS in 1837 and Mayor of Merxheim), owner of the house, as well as the date 1853, which is undoubtedly the date of restoration of the painting.

In our own days

In 2003, there are no more DUBACHs in Rougemont. The name went extinct long ago in about 1692, replaced by other spellings. The family is still represented at the present time in Château-d’Oex and in the nearby Manche valley, above Rougemont, but in the form of DUBATH. The DUBAS families of Switzerland are also originally from Rougemont, and today in Rougemont there are three BACH families originally from the neighboring village of Gessenay (Saanen). About fifteen BACH families live in Saanen and Gstaad, several of them in exactly the same Ebnit locality as in the 13th and 14th centuries!

In Europe and in the world

The DUBACHs are common in Switzerland (but perhaps some are unrelated to the stock we are discussing), and in other European countries, and in the United States (about 180 families, with several varieties of the name like TUBACH or DUBACK, families who migrated from Switzerland, Germany, Lorraine. . . ). There are families in Germany (the marquis of DUBACH or THUBACH, for example, came to Delémont with Protestant troops in 1637), in Great Britain, in Bohemia, one family in South Africa, and one in Mongolia, recently arrived from Switzerland.
Some DUBACH and TUBACH families live in the Bas-Rhin, and in Lorraine several DUBACH families have been around since the end of the 17th century. One of these families operate a large mill. Some DUBACH families also live elsewhere in France — in Marne (near Paris), Aisne (in northern France), and other places as well. Some DUBATHs originally from Canton Neuchâtel have lived in France in the 20th century, along with some DUBAS families who came from Canton Fribourg at the end of the 17th century.
The Dutch branch of the DUBACHs, also commonly known as TOEBACKs or TOEBACHs, originated essentially from Trub (east of Berne near Langnau) and from Niederstocken (Canton Berne, just west of Lake Thun). DUBACH military contingents departed for the Netherlands, and gave rise to descendants beginning in 1725. Their daughters had children in the town of Grave (Netherlands) with the Swiss officers Von RODT (1771) and Franz Von WATTENWYL (1769).
The DUBICHs for their part have long flourished in Alsace, especially in Merxheim, where they have been established for around 330 years. One branch originated in Gundolsheim in the 19th century, others in Guebwiller and Mulhouse, and also in the Bas-Rhin, in Scherwiller and Weyersheim, as well as in Doubs, at Sainte-Suzanne, in the 20th century. Few DUBICHs live outside Alsace.
In the United States one can find about 35 “DUBICH” families, most of which, however, are of Slavic origin. In Eastern Europe, the “DUBICH” name has a homonym (pronounced “Doubitch” or “Doubick”) without any family connection to the DUBICHs of Merxheim (say “Dubish”). There, the name does not mean “by the brook” or “by the stream” but “by the oak tree”! This family name also exists in Alsace, especially in the form “DUBYK”; the family was originally Polish.
On March 16, 1986, the Dubich family celebrated its first “cousinade”, which reunited almost 200 people. The patrilineal descendents of Hans Heinrich DUBACH (alias Jean Henri DUBICH) and Anne Marie MEYER, as well as their spouses, met in Alsace, and furthermore, Josef DUBACH of Willisau (Canton Lucerne) also made the trip, representing the original name of the DUBICHs. This family reunion was an opportunity for many cousins to get acquainted with each other, all descended from a single couple who came from Switzerland eleven generations ago. Now the twelfth Alsatian generation prospers in the shade of the old millstone displayed near the Town Hall of Merxheim, the last remaining talisman of the mill that was handed down for more than a century from father to son in the Dubich family.
This article is drawn from a more thorough history of the Dubich family I am writing, a sample of which is available from CDHF.

Deuxième guerre mondiale…l’historien nous révèle le rôle capital joué
par le Pays-d’Enhaut suisse dans le maintien des
échanges économiques avec l’héberge-
ment, dans l’ancien château baillival de
Rougemont, de la banque des règlements
internationaux qui avait quitté son siège de
Bâle trop exposé. Cachés dans ce mor-
ceau de réduit alpin, «les délégués de la
Banque d’Angleterre et de la Reichsbank
menaient leurs transactions quotidiennes
sous la houlette américaine»

Le Château de Vanel, I O A nel

A environ 1 km et demi à l’est de Rougemont, le château du Vanel .
en 1838 d’après Wagner
Détruit en 1407, il avait laissé des ruines intéressantes, mais l’effondrement graduel était devenu un danger pour la route passant à ses pieds, les derniers vestiges furent abattus en 1907. Détruit à cause de Louis de Joinville
Joinville, Louis de
1409 . Seigneur de Divonne, plusieurs fois bailli de Vaud entre 1395 et 1409. Nommé (avec Jean de Blonay) tuteur d’Antoine de Gruyère, successeur encore mineur de Rodolphe IV (1403), par Amédée VIII de Savoie, suzerain des comtes de Gruyère, J. réprima violemment les gens de Château-d’OEx et de Saanen pour avoir conclu une combourgeoisie avec la ville de Berne. Celle-ci ordonna alors aux troupes de Thoune, de Frutigen et du Simmental de marcher sur le comté de Gruyère (1407); les places fortes de Château-d’OEx, du Vanel et de Bellegarde furent prises. L’arbitrage de Morat (1408), qui mit fin au conflit, confirma la combourgeoisie de Château d’OEx et Saanen avec Berne.
Bibliographie
-SDS BE, II/3, 30-37

Auteur: Ansgar Wildermann / PM
Bibliographie

Das Gebiet des Pays-d’Enhaut wurde im 10. Jahrhundert von den Grafen von Greyerz erobert. Diese schenkten einen Teil ihres Gebietes der Abtei Cluny, welche in der Zeit zwischen 1073 und 1085 bei Rougemont ein Priorat gründete. Rougemont wurde damit zum geistlichen Zentrum des Pays-d’Enhaut. Es stand unter der Oberhoheit der Grafen von Greyerz, die durch einen Burgvogt vertreten wurden. Die Burg befand sich seit dem 12. Jahrhundert bei der Engstelle Vanel, wurde jedoch 1407 zerstört.
Als der letzte Graf von Greyerz 1554 Konkurs machte, teilten seine Gläubiger, die Stände Bern und Freiburg, die Hinterlassenschaft unter sich auf. Dadurch kam es zur Teilung des oberen Saanetals: das Pays-d’Enhaut und das Saanenland gelangten an Bern, während Freiburg die Herrschaft über das Greyerzerland übernahm.
Befreiungsurkunde von 1312
Unter vielen anderen Pflichten waren die Saaner der Tallia unterworfen. Diese verpflichtete sie einerseits zu einer Abgabe von Geld, Getreide und Milchprodukten, andererseits – und das war für die Saaner schlimmer – band sie die Tallia an ihre Scholleass zum Beispiel ein Bauernsohn aus dem Saanenland nicht das Recht besass, wieder auszuwandern.
Peter von Vanel befreite die Saaner 1312 von der Tallia. Dafür führte er einen festen Bodenzins, “certus census” genannt, ein. Dies kam dem Herrschaftsherren ganz gelegen: am Anfang war er auf die Tallia angewiesen, durch dieses Gesetz wurde zwangsläufig viel Land urbar gemacht, wollten die Bauernsöhne ein Auskommen haben. Nun aber war die Bevölkerung gross genug, die Tallia erfüllte für den Grafen keinen wirtschaftlichen Zweck mehr. Für die Freigabe wurde er von den Saanern bezahlt. Für diese unsere Vorfahren war es zwar ein kleiner, aber doch erster wesentlicher Schritt in ihrer persönlichen Freiheit und Unabhängigkeit.
Die Standeseinheit
Neben den achzig im Oktober 1312 befreiten Saanern gab es schon damals etwa achtzig, die bereits losgekaufte Freie, “homines liberi” waren. Auch 1324 wird noch unterschieden zwischen homines liberi (vor 1312 frei) und homines affranchesati (1312 befreit). Alle sind aber noch der Mainmorte unterworfen (s. weiter unten).Vom Jahre 1312 an bildeten die Saaner, bestehend aus den Orten Saanen, Gstaad, Gsteig, Lauenen und Abländschen eine politische Gemeinde. Das Zusammenhalten war ihre Stärke. Sie wurden dadurch zu grossen Geldleistungen fähig. Bald würde sich erweisen, von welcher Bedeutung das sein würde.
Die Geldnot im Hause Greyerz
Greyerz beteiligte sich am Laupenkrieg und erlitt dabei grossen finanziellen Schaden.
Peter III von Vanel musste sich an die Saaner wenden.Diese bezahlten für ihn während acht Jahren den Freiburger Gläubigern 250 Pfund zurück. Bedingung war allerdings, dass Graf Peter den Freiburgern die Zinsen und Rechte seiner Herrschaft nicht verkaufte. Die Saaner hatten also ein Interesse daran, Peter als Zinsherrn zu behalten.Während dieser Zeit kauften sie der Herrschaft das Pfund- und Zollrecht ab.
Graf Peter IV sah sich durch die grosse Geldnot dennoch gezwungen, die Rechte und Zinsen von 42 Saanern an Freiburg auszulehnen.
Im Jahre 1413 musste Graf Anton von Greyerz noch einmal sämtliche Rechte und Einnahmen von den Saanern an Freiburger Bürger abtreten um eine Schuld zurückzuzahlen.
Mit Schenkungen und Belehnungen erwarben sich die Saaner einerseits die Gunst ihrer Herrschaftsherren, andererseits konnten sie immer mehr Pflichten loswerden und sich so allmaählich von der Grundherrschaft befreien.
Diese Abgaben und Pflichten waren folgende:
Vogteiabgaben oder “usages” Sie umfassten:
Spanndienste: Es bestand die Pflicht, mit den eigenen Tieren das Feld ihres Herrn zu pflügen. Wenn dies nicht möglich war (man denke an einen Bauern aus dem Lauenental) konnte als Ersatz auch ein Geldbetrag entrichtet werden.
Handdienste: Üblich war das sogenannte “Mädertauwen”, ein Tagwerk mit der Sense musste auf herrschaftlichem Gut ausgeübt werden. Auch hier war eine Geldentschädigung möglich.
Wachtdienst: Jeder Inhaber einer Feurstelle, also jeder Hausbesitzer, hatte während einer bestimmten Zeit auf der Burg Vanel Wachtdienst zu leistn oder musste er auch hier bezahlen.
Feuerstatthühner: Von jeder Feuerstelle wurde jährlich ein Huhn eingezogen.
Weitere Verpflichtungen der “usages” waren Getreideabgaben und gelegentlich die “chevauchée”, d.h. Kriegsdienst oder Entschädigung dafür.

Die Mainmorte
Die Mainmorte galt zu der Zeit als deutliches Merkmal der Unfreiheit. Sie schränkte die Testierfreiheit ein, die Saaner konnten also nicht über ihr Vermögen verfügen bevor sie starben. Wo bestimmte Erben nicht vorhanden waren, fiel der Besitz des Verstorbenen der Herrschaft zu.
Die Mainmorte war vor allem in der Welschschweiz und in Frankreich üblich. Sie unterschied sich von der Leibeigenschaft dadurch, dass sie die allgemeine persönliche Freiheit wie auch die Heiratsfreiheit nicht einschränkte.
Graf Rudolf IV fand die Mainmorte unwürdig und schaffte sie 1398 in den Kastlaneien Greyerz und Saanen auf ewig ab, natürlich nicht ohne dafür bezahlt zu werden….
Die “erbetten”, (frz. “onciège)
Dies war eine Abgabe der Landwirtschaft und bestand aus dem verarbeiteten Milchertrag (Butter, Käse etc.) von 2-3 Tagen.
Das Lod (lob, laudenium)
Abgabe, die bei Kauf oder Verkauf als Anerkennung des Obereigentümerrechtes an die Herrschaft bezahlt werden musste.
Als die Mainmorte aufgehoben war, wurde das Lod als Siegelgeld eingezogen. Schriftliche Kaufverträge mussten mit dem herrschaftlichen Siegel versehen sein, damit sie ihre Rechtsgültigkeit hatten.
Gewerbliche Bodenzinsen
Auf Getreidemühlen, Sägewerken und Stampfmühlen sowie auf Backöfen lasteten zusätzliche besondere Zinsabgaben.

Loskauf von allen herrschaftlichen Bodenzinsen, Steuern, Rechten und Abgaben 1448
Die grosse Geldnot im Jahre 1448 zwang Graf Franz I, seine gesammten grundherrlichen Bezüge an die Saaner zu verkaufen. Diese wurden in die Kirche zusammengerufen, wo sie darüber abzustimmen hatten, ob sie dazu bereit seien, die hohe Summe, die dafür verlangt wurde, zu bezahlen.
Obschon den beherzten Saanern zuerst vor dem hohen Betrag graute, brachten sie den Kauf zustande. Niclas Baumer der jüngere, der damals Kastellan war, wurde als Unterhändler eingesetzt. Es wurde eine Kommission gebildet, die das Auftreiben des vielen Geldes ermöglichen sollte. Diese Kommission wurde vom ehemaligen Kastellan, Niclas Baumer dem älteren angeführt. Unter anderem darum, weil dieser eine sehr angesehene Persönlichkeit war, konnte das Geld zum Kauf aufgebracht werden.
Mit dem Loskauf von ihren Abgaben und Pflichten erhielten die Saaner ein eigenes Siegel, die bisher grösste Errungenschaft auf dem Weg zur Freiheit. Sie waren nun nicht mehr auf das herr-schaftliche Siegel, das sie ständig an ihre Unreiheit erinnert hatte, angewiesen.

Die Verwaltung
Der Kastellan
Der Kastellan vertrat die Herrschaft in der Verwaltung der Landschaft. Er war erster:
– Gerichtsbeamter
– Polizeibeamter
– Finanzbeamter
– Wirtschaftsbeamter

Der Kastellan wurde von der Herrschaft eingesetzt. Zuerst war es kein Einheimischer. Doch bereits 1439 hatten die Saaner einen eigenen Kastellan durchgesetzt, 1500 wurde ein Saaner als Kastellan im Gesetz verankert. Der erste Saaner Kastellan war Niclas Boumer d. ältere.
Die Amtsdauer betrug 3 Jahre. Der Kastellan konnte von der Herrschaft abgesetzt werden, falls diese mit ihm nicht zufrieden war.
Der Landesvenner
Er war von Anfang an ein Einheimscher und war für die Angelegenheiten im innern der Landschaft Saanen verantwortlich. Der Venner war es, der in Kriegszügen als Heerführer das Banner zu tragen hatte. Er vertrat die Interessen der Landleute gegenüber der Herrschaft und war somit eigentlich eine Ergänzung zum Kastellan.
Neben diesen beiden wichtigsten Beamten in der Verwaltung gab es weitere weniger wichtige wie den Landschreiber, den Landseckelmeister und verschiedene Vögte.
Die Landsgemeinde
Sie war die gesetzgebende Behörde in der Selbstverwaltung Saanens. Beamtenwahlen (ausser Kas-tellan), Gerichtssachen, kriegerische Abmachungen und vieles mehr unterlag der Landsgemeinde. Zugelassen wurden alle Männer ab dem 14. (!) Altersjahr.
Die Gesetzgebung
Das Landrecht (von der Landsgemeinde bestimmt) bildete die gültigen Rechtsordnungen. Dabei gab es ein geschriebenes und ein ungeschriebenes Recht. Bei Entscheiden wurden oft die Räte der Ältes-ten beigezogen, die sich auf überlieferten ungeschriebenen Abmachungen beriefen. Das Landrecht war selbsterworbenes Gewohnheitsrecht. Daneben besass aber auch die Herrschaft das Recht, Ordnungen und Bestimmungen zu erlassen. Mit der zunehmenden Befreiung jedoch wurde die herrschaftliche Gewalt nur noch dazu verwendet, die von den Saanern selbst bestimmten Gesetze zu bestätigen.
Graf Rudolf (1397) war ziemlich mild zu den Saanern, er mischte sich wenig in ihre Angelegenheiten und liess ihnen freie Hand. Mit Graf Anton (1429) jedoch gab es verschiedentlich Reibereien. Oft musste ein Schiedsgericht beigezogen werden, das aus Räten von Bern und Freiburg bestand.
Als dann ab 1439 der Kastellan ein Einheimischer war, gelangten die Saaner zur wirklichen Selbständigkeit: die Geschäfte Saanens wurden an der Landsgemeinde erörtert. Der Kastellan, der die Herrschaft vertrat war zwar anwesend und leitete die Landsgemeinde. Doch da er aus eigenen Reihen stammte, war die “Vertretung der Herrschaft” eine reine Formsache.
Das Gerichtswesen
Die ganze Landschaft Saanen bildete einen einzigen Gerichtsbezirk. Es gab drei verschiedene Gerichte, denen allen der Kastellan im Namen der Herrschaft vorstand.
1. Das Untergericht
Es behandelte kleinere Zivilsachen und versammelte sich in Gstaad. Es wurde durch den Kastellan alle drei Jahre neu zusammengesetzt.
2. Das “gricht”
Es bestand immer aus denselben, besonders vereidigten Männern, die von der Landsgemeinde dafür bestimmt wurden. Ihm unterstanden grössere Zivilsachen und kleinere Strafsachen. Daneben hatte es noch allerlei andere Geschäfte der Landsgemeinde zu besorgen; vor allem führte es dringende Angelegenheiten, mit denen man nicht bis zur Landsgemeinde warten konnte, aus.
3. Das “gmein landgricht”
Dieses Gericht war das oberste Gericht der Landschaft Saanen. Es behandelte schwere Kriminalsachen, entschied über Leben und Tod , erteilte Freiheitsstrafen und peinliche Strafen, Strafen also, die ans Blut gingen. Man könnte es also auch als Blutsgericht bezeichnen.
Bei Mord und Totschlag herrschte das Gesetz der Blutrache: der Täter wurde vom “gmein landgricht”, der Landsgemeinde, dreimal hintereinander öffentlich aufgerufen. Damit wurde er den Verwandten überlassen, die mit ihm tun konnten, was sie wollten. Sein Hab und Gut verfiel der Herrschaft.

WEATHER & LIVE CAMS ACCOMMODATION CABLE CARS EVENTS WWW.GSTAAD.CH INDEX NEWS FROM GSTAAD August 2009 Glamour and a bit of Alpine authenticity Running up to the glacier A journey back in time to the Middle Ages The various different activities surrounding Swiss National Day mark the atmospheric launch of the August highlights on offer in the holiday destination of Gstaad. They are characterised by Alpine authenticity and sporting challenges. From 22 August, it will also be possible to travel back in time to the Middle Ages. Enjoy your holidays! Your Kerstin Sonnekalb, Manager Public Relations Glamour and a bit of Alpine authenticity The month of August presents the holiday region of Gstaad with a fantastic weekend: the Hublot Polo Gold Cup Gstaad, which sees the best polo players competing for world ranking points, takes place at the same time as strong men fighting it out in sawdust on the Rellerli for the championship title in wrestling, Switzerland’s national sport. This provides visitors with a special opportunity to combine elegance and glamour with an authentic Alpine experience. Cultural highlights are provided by the concerts performed at the Menuhin Festival. » more to top Running up to the glacier Following the inaugural event last year, the second Glacier 3000 Run starts at 10 a.m. on Saturday, 8 August 2009 in Gstaad. A top-notch mountain running race: on the 26 kilometre route, the competitors have to overcome a difference in altitude of 1,900 metres. It is the only mountain running race that leads over a glacier. The Organising Committee expects around 700 runners to compete this year. » more to top A journey back in time to the Middle Ages A new themed walk and adventure trail in Zweisimmen will enable anyone interested in history to take a journey back in time to the Middle Ages from 22 August 2009. The castle trail will be opened ceremoniously at 2 p.m. on the same day. On a length of 7 km to 10 km, it demonstrates the importance of the municipality in that era. A knight in shining armour will welcome visitors at Zweisimmen railway station. » more to top © 2009 BY GSTAAD SAANENLAND TOURISM