Stages and epochs

In the Middle Ages, a church and a castle stood on the Schlossberg, and there was a settlement with a river crossing on the Aare. Towards the middle of the 12th Century, the region belonged to the Zähringer Rectorate of Burgundy. The Dukes of Zähringen built today’s castle before 1200, and extended the city around the Hauptgasse as far as the Rathausplatz. When the Zähringen line becam extinct in 1218, the Counts of Kyburg, from the eastern part of Switzerland, inherited the city. In the year 1264, Countess Elisabeth von Kyburg gave the people of Thun a charter (handbinding) in which the ancient rights of the people of Thun were recorded in more than 100 legal records. Struggles for dominance within the house of Kyburg led to an act of fratricide in Thun Castle 1322. Count Eberhard, the fratricide, has to seek help from Bern, and sold Thun to Bern 1323. He received the city back as a fief, but had to definitvely give it up to Bern, together with Burgdorf, in 1384. As an acknowledgement of their feats at the Battle of Murten in 1476, Thun received a golden star in its coat of arms, in the place of the previous black star.

Craftsmanship and commerce flourished in Thun in the 15^th and 16^th century, and the city became a regional market centre. A new town hall with a large store on the ground floor was built in the middle of the city, and a large market place, the Rindermarkt, was created in front of it. The city continued to develop in the 17^th and 18^th century, and the first attempts to introduce industry were made. Thun continued to remain simply a regional economic centre, however, with long-distance commerce playing a minor role. Following the invasion by the French, Thun became the capital of the Oberland canton, which existed from 1798 to 1802.

The beginning of the 19^th century saw the advent of tourism, and, with the opening of the Federal Military College in 1819, the start of a new era. Through the building of hotels and guest houses, and the start of steam ship navigation on Lake Thun in 1835, Thun became an important holiday destination. Over time, the Military College developed into the largest arsenal in Switzerland, and also brought the Federal Military Enterprises to Thun in 1861/63.

There was a large increase in the population in the 20^th century, which also resulted in a major structural expansion of the city. Thun now has more than 42,000 inhabitants. The Federal Military Enterprises reduced their workforce by almost 2,000 persons in 1990, and several hundred additional jobs were lost through the closing of various private companies (such as the Spar- und Leihkasse Thun, Metallwerke Selve). Innovative new entrepreneurs founded numerous SMEs in the following years, thereby compensating for the jobs that had been lost.