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Berne's Swiss Festival Celebrates Heritage And Modern Culture

Lisa Ryan
The 160-foot-tall clock tower was built in 2010.

Just about an hour south of Fort Wayne in Berne, Indiana, residents celebrate their heritage with Swiss Days. The festival starts Thursday, July 28 at 6 p.m. It gives the town a chance to showcase its unique blend of Swiss heritage, Amish culture and Hoosier traditions.

In this week’s NorthEATS Indiana, WBOI’s Lisa Ryan traveled to Berne to learn more about the Swiss Days festival and the city.

Credit Lisa Ryan
The McDonald's signs are written in German. Other languages spoken in Switzerland are French and Italian.

Driving into Berne for the first time, one of the first buildings I see is the McDonald’s, but it’s not a regular McDonald’s. The sign in front says “danke,” German for thank you. German is one of the languages spoken in Switzerland, which is where the founders of Berne immigrated from in the 1800s.

Credit Lisa Ryan

Elements of Swiss style are incorporated into Berne’s businesses. Next to the McDonald’s is a bank styled like a traditional Swiss building. It’s called the Bank of Geneva, and I step inside to try to find out more about how it got its name. I’m directed to the bank’s media contact, and I’m told she’s based in Geneva. At first I think she means Switzerland, until she tells me that Geneva is a town about 5 miles away.

It's not exactly as Swiss as I thought it was, but that’s kind of how Berne is. It’s historically Swiss, but culturally American.

Credit Lisa Ryan

The names of businesses use German words, like Et Cetera Ecka, a thrift shop in downtown Berne. Ecka means corner, and the store sits on the corner of Main and Fulton streets. But inside, the thrift store sells secondhand clothes from Americans.

Credit Lisa Ryan
The Palmer House is on Main Street in downtown Berne.

The facades of buildings look Swiss, like the ornate exterior of The Palmer House. But inside, it looks like a typical American diner. I ask the owner Saundra Minger if she has Swiss heritage, and she does. She says her family left Switzerland in the 1840s, along with the first settlers.

The menu at The Palmer House includes American diner staples, like breaded tenderloin and onion rings, but Minger says some of the food is made with original recipes from when the restaurant first opened.

“The Palmer House was started in 1942 and has Swiss recipes, we have a lot of German recipes passed down from mother to daughter and incorporated here at The Palmer House,” she said.

Some of those menu items include hot potato salad and German fries. Minger says traditional Swiss food is not very spicy and uses a lot of meat and potatoes.

“Just plain, ordinary food. The Swiss weren’t real spicy,” Minger said.

As I’m leaving The Palmer House, I’m stopped by a waitress, who hands me a pamphlet. It reads: “If you died today, are you 100 percent sure you would get into Heaven?” and it includes information about Faith Baptist Church.

According to the Swiss Heritage Village, a historical society in Berne, religion is what brought Berne’s Swiss ancestors to the United States. They were persecuted for their Anabaptist beliefs. They founded the town of Berne in 1852, where they were free to practice their faith.

Religion is still a big part of Berne, according to Melissa Skinner, the executive director of the Chamber of Commerce.

“Well we like to say we’re faith based, family oriented,” Skinner said. “We really hold true to our values.”

Credit Lisa Ryan
The glockenspiel plays daily at noon, 3 p.m., 6 p.m., and 9 p.m.

I meet Skinner next to the clock tower, another part of Berne’s distinctly Swiss style. At certain times, the glockenspiel--a German phrase to describe bell towers--plays music. Two doors open on the side of the tower and figurines symbolizing Berne’s history circle around.

"We're very proud of our heritage."

Skinner is a part of the Swiss Days committee, which happens every year on the last full weekend of July. The festival includes polka music, a cheese carving contest, and a recliner race, which is only in its second year.

She says Berne is the furniture capital of Indiana. Some of that furniture is Amish, which is another big part of the culture in Berne. Parking lots have posts for people to tie their horses and carriages. Most Amish are Swiss Anabaptists, the original settlers of Berne. 

“We’re very proud of our heritage,” Skinner said."And even if you're not Swiss and you live here, it's just a very welcoming community." 

Other events at Swiss Days will include a parade and a grape stomp. There will be Swiss food, and the Swiss Heritage Village will serve apple dumplings.

Skinner has lived in Berne her whole life, and says as a kid, the festival was almost as exciting as Christmas.

“It was always a big family reunion weekend, it’s also a big class reunion weekend, several people come back to Berne for those events, and then it’s just a gathering of families and friends,” Skinner said.

The Swiss Days festival is a celebration of the mix of cultures and heritage in Berne. The city’s Swiss heritage is honored, but modern traditions are added each year. And just like Berne, the festival is a blending of history, modernity and cultures.

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