Bear - Ringgenberg

The Hotel Bear in Ringgenberg is allready a old building. However, it used to be on the old street, in a house where Heini and Hans Zumbrunn carpentry workshop was later housed. When the main village road was built in 1850, it was importent to move the bear closer to the main road because otherwise the building would have been cut of the transfering horse and cart traffic. The new hotel and restaurant was built where the Rufer bakery was used to be. The house of Glaus Ruedi on the opposite side of the street was then the barn with horsestable for the Hotel Bear. Sometimes between 1915 and 1920, the Bear was closed. Today we do not know why this happend. A first building on hteh site of today's Bear Hotel was built by Steiner Christi in 1902. It served as a boarding house and had the name Edelweiss. Next to the garden tavern there was a pretty little house called Joliette. It was used for music concerts and other performances in the village.

In 1908/09 a hall was added to the Edelweiss. The cottage Joliette was integrated into the extension. From now on it served as a theater stage. Of course, the hall extension was very convenient for the village association. Meetings and theatrical performances now took place regularly in it. After this first enlargement, the guesthouse was renamed Hotel Adler by Edelweiss. Steiner Christi the owner of the eagle had great financial difficulties, both as an innkeeper and as a builder. That's why in 1912 he grabbed his belongings and disappeared at night, they say: to America. The Eagle was without an owner, the Volksbanc of Interlaken had to take over the propperty with debts on 30 June 1913. On 12 February 1920, the Volksbanc sold the property to the demolition contractor Kappeler Karl. Himself already on July 16 of the same year sold the Eagle again to the master painter Zimmermann Peter.

Zimmermann Peter tried to obtain the restaurant patent of the newly closed bear. The carved bear also succeeded in acquiring the proud economic sign. With this landmark, the name of the company changed a second time. The former Pension Edelweis and the Hotel Adler have now been renamed to Bear. Despite all the structural changes, the hotel has retained this name to this day. The same bear still adorns the façade on the mainstreet. The bear is made by Christian Frutschi-Schilt, born in 1850. The bear has already celebrated its 100th birthday.

In 1924, a family named Hofer acquired the bear from Peter Zimmermann. Father Hofer himself hosted for 10 years. Unfortunately, his wife died early, and so he felt compelled to lease the bear to his son Hermann in 1934. The general economic crisis made itself felt; times were bad, "and they had no money to hammer nails". After a few years, Hofer Hermann quit his career as a host on 1 January 1937. Later he found a job in the Goverment Building in capital city of Berne. It should be said that not every host of the Bear brings it to the Goverment in Berne. The new tenant was Kaiser Werdner, who later became the host of the hotel Alpina. At that time he moved from Grindelwald to Ringgenberg. Kaiser overestimated the situation a little, the war was just around the corner. Kaiser left the bear in 1940.

In 1940, Babette Feuz and her husband tried their hand at tenants. They previously ran the Hotel Bellevue in Niederried. People were generally satisfied with Babette, but unfortunately her husband was not up to the alcoholic demands. He died in 1942. For Babette alone, all the work was too much. In the spring of 1943 she moved to the Hotel Schönegg in Goldswil. The next tenant in the person of Schmocker Gottlieb also gave only a short guest performance. He was the last tenant of the Hofer family. They had agreed to sell the Gasthof Bären at the end of 1944 after 21 years of family ownership. The buyer, Egger Christian from Grindelwald called "Schreckhoretrappi", was soon known in Ringgenberg. His deviese was called "Bread you can have, the cheese i eat all my self".  However, Egger was an owner again who had some renovations carried out by the regional craftsmen.

On 1st May 1948, Gottfried Künzli and his wife Mina Künzli-Stress bought the bear Ringgenberg from Egger Christian. As a born "Emmentaler" it was no problem for Gottfried Künzli to get the inn back on track with good home cooking. The guest rooms were equipped with hot and cold water, which was already a great step forward at that time. In the spring of 1957 the time had come and Gottfried Künzli died after a long illness at the age of only 46. On May 1, 1962, the bear was taken over by the son Eduart and his wife Hildegard from the mother Mina Künzli-Stress. The timing was favorable, as an increasing conjuncture was emerging, which promised a good business performance. In 1946, various renovations could already be made to the building. New windows, the façade, and the dining room has been renovated. All work was done by 1968. The goal was to accommodate entire buses with 50 people. With 30 hotel beds at the time, there was no chance in this tourism business.

After various extensions and renovations, Kuno and Annemarie Zundel took over the Bear Ringgenberg. They handed over the management to theyr son Sascha Zundel and his life partner Jasmina Perinotti on 1 June 2021. The bear reopened its doors on December 1, 2021 amid the difficult corona situation.