Morning Commute on a Cloud Carpet

RV life during work week also means to pick the best route for the morning commute. I picked one with zero traffic jams, in fact: with no traffic at all. Instead: a cloud carpet.

Oberegg view towards Austria on my morning commute

Sunrise above cloud carpet in the Appenzell mountains.

Some details about the region

Oberegg, with a population of just over 1800, can be described as a political and geographical unicum. During the turmoil of the religious war, the people of Oberegg joined the Catholic Innerrhoden and were separated from the rest of the canton as an enclave. This alone would not do justice to the term "unique", as the district is once again divided into three separate parts. Oberegg attracts visitors with its lively village center and unique views - both of Lake Constance and of the Alpstein - from the surrounding hills. It is rightly regarded as an ideal starting point and destination for extensive mountain hikes, and various refreshment stops in and around the village provide for physical well-being.

History

A Late Roman coin found near the hamlet of Heilbrunn is the earliest evidence of human presence in what later became the district of Oberegg. The actual settlement as the last region of the Appenzellerland took place mainly in the 12th and 13th century. Only the hamlet of Büriswilen bears an early medieval name from the Carolingian period. The settlers came mainly from the Rhine Valley, from the farms of Bernang, Marbach and Altstätten, and to a lesser extent from the Goldach Valley. They settled in groups of families on individual farms, which they had previously cleared of forest. The new settlers were subjects of the Abbot of St. Gallen, to whom they had to pay taxes. Next to them were the secular lords of Rosenberg-Berneck and the bailiffs of Altstätten. The latter built the castle of Hoch-Altstätten at the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries on the territory of today's Oberegg.

As a result of the Appenzell wars at the beginning of the 15th century, the area of the later district of Oberegg became part of the Rhode Trogen and thus of Appenzell. However, taxes continued to be paid to the Rhine Valley - the last redemption of these tithes did not take place until the end of the 16th century - and church attendance continued to go there. In 1428, the Count of Toggenburg attempted to conquer Appenzell by force in the area of Altstätten. In this context, nationalist historiography speaks of a "Battle of Honegg" on the territory of what was later Oberegg. Appenzell's borders with the Rhine Valley were finally documented by the Abbot of St. Gallen in 1465. The emergence of a political self-confidence in the later Oberegg area within the Rhode Trogen - namely the areas of Oberegg and Hirschberg - can be traced back to the second half of the 15th century. In 1470, a letter of right of way was sealed by a "Nachpurschaft am Hersperg" [Hirschberg]. The name Oberegg appears for the first time in 1535 as a hamlet name in a household census.

In 1525, because of the Reformation in Appenzell, the "Kirchhöreprinzip" - the principle that every Rhode had to choose a confession - was introduced, and the Rhode of Trogen professed the Reformed faith. In Oberegg-Hirschberg, however, many families remained in the old faith because they were members of the parishes in the Rhine Valley. When the land of Appenzell was divided in 1597 into the two half-states of Inner and Ausserrhoden, the Catholic properties in the areas of Oberegg and Hirschberg, now called half-states, were assigned to Appenzell Innerrhoden, while the Reformed properties were assigned to Appenzell Ausserrhoden. The result was a disjointed territorial patchwork. This unsatisfactory situation continued into the 19th century and led to a number of border disputes between the half-estates.

In 1654, the construction of a parish church for the Catholic inhabitants of Oberegg-Hirschberg began in the hamlet of Oberrickenbach. The hamlet was located on the territory of the half-rule of Hirschberg, and as a compromise, the new village was given the name of Oberegg. In 1658, with the consecration of the parish church, the parish was also established. A chaplaincy was established shortly thereafter. The parish was originally located in the Eschenmoos chapel, but soon moved to the village. The chapel of St. Anton, built at the beginning of the 18th century, also belongs to the parish. Until the 19th century, the parish priest and the chaplain were in charge of the school.

During the Helvetic era (1798-1803), Oberegg and Hirschberg were added to the district of Wald, while the hamlets of Kapf and Boden became part of the district of Oberrheintal. Both districts were located in the newly created canton of Säntis. The majority of the people of Oberegg were against the reorganization, which led to a refusal to swear an oath to the new constitution. As a result, Herisau executioners disarmed the people of Oberegg. The oath was then taken. After the end of the Helvetic period, Oberegg and Hirschberg again became part of the canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden as Halbrhoden. During the period of mediation (1803-1815), the dispute over the border between Inner and Ausserrhoden resurfaced in the area of Oberegg and Hirschberg. In spite of an arbitration tribunal set up by the Tagsatzung, it was not until after the founding of the Swiss Confederation, and after years of renewed negotiations under the supervision of two federal mediators, that the definitive borders were finally established by an arbitration ruling of the Federal Council in 1870. The district of Oberegg in its present form was created in 1872 by the merger of the half-cantons of Hirschberg and Oberegg under a new cantonal constitution.

Oberegg experienced a period of prosperity in the second half of the 19th century. The period between the end of the 19th century and the First World War was a founding period, during which most institutions and infrastructures were built or fundamentally modernized. This included the construction of roads, the postal system and electricity, as well as associations, the public sector, education and the establishment of two county-level banking institutions. Together with political autonomy, this led to a pronounced autonomy that was also perceived as such in the collective consciousness. While the first half of the twentieth century, a period of crisis, did not bring about any far-reaching changes in this respect, the second half of the twentieth century saw an increase in cooperation with regional neighbors and the transfer to the canton of competencies that had previously been perceived as independent. Due to its status as an exclave of Appenzell Innerrhoden, Oberegg is still perceived as a "special case".