The Language Frontier Between Rodersdorf and Biederthal

5 February 2022

The Celts and Romans left their traces throughout the later village of Rodersdorf (Canton Solothurn). The walls and foundations of Roman buildings, fragments of wall paintings, the remains of a floor heating system, a smithy, and a water mill are among the archaeological finds.

Almost nothing else is known until the twelfth century, when the brothers Hugo and Conrad von Ratolsdorf are mentioned in a document from 1197. The Lords of Ratolsdorf served the Counts of Pfirt and the Habsburgs after their extinction in 1324. They became landgraves in Alsace.

The Von Biederthan (today, the neighbouring French village Biederthal in Alsace) also played a role. Their standard coat of arms shows the kinship of the two families.

However, the circumstances changed over time. The rise of the wealthy bourgeoisie in the cities of the Swiss Confederation made life increasingly difficult for the nobility.

Imperial Austrian-Habsburg troops plundered Rodersdorf in the Swabian War (Swabenkrieg) in 1499. After the defeat of the Habsburgs, Solothurn acquired the village of Rodersdorf and the surrounding estates.

Biederthal became French after the Thirty Years’ War and has remained so ever since, although the “Wir wöllent Schwyzer werden!” slogan had long prevailed in this part of Alsace (and the Black Forest in today’s Baden-Württemberg).

During the turmoil of the Reformation (around 1530), Solothurn exhibited an astonishingly democratic approach for its time, as did the cantons of Glarus, Appenzell, and Zurich.

Rodersdorf

The canton initially appointed a priest or a minister, depending on the citizens’ majority vote. Later, however, Catholic belief prevailed throughout the canton of Solothurn.

Die 15 Kreuze zur Ehre Maria von Mariastein nach Rodersdorf

The frontier between France and Switzerland has been in place since 1648. Oberrheinalemannisch was the spoken language in both Rodersdorf and Biederthal until Napoleon made French the national language and compulsory in education.

After the Second World War, a language border separated the two villages, but the customs posts were (formally) abolished.

(Source and further information: www.rodersdorf.ch).