Urban Commons in Alpine Areas: The Case of the Bürgergemeinde Chur (Canton Grisons)

In ‘Urban commons in Alpine areas: the case of the Bürgergemeinde Chur (Canton Grisons)’, Martin Stuber shows how the community of Chur developed in the late middle ages when it was emancipated from the Bishop and constituted itself as a guilds city. In the Ackerbürgerstadt (agrarian city) the extensive forest was not only used for the supply of wood, but also for cattle and pasture farming. A cross-border system of transhumance developed from the sixteenth century onwards, with Chur acquiring extensive alps at Arosa. Only citizens were entitled to make full use of the common property, and the increasing number of Hintersassen (socmen) only had limited access. In 1840 the Guilds Constitution was dissolved, and in 1875 municipal dualism was created to include a Bürgergemeinde (Corporation of Citizens) and a Politische Gemeinde (municipality of residents). The property of the collective forests and pastures was given to the Bürgergemeinde, while the use of the collective forests and pastures was attributed to the Politische Gemeinde. The focus was no longer on securing a sustainable supply of natural products but on creating the maximum sustainable yield (financial return) for the municipality’s finances. With the change in relative prices from the 1950s onwards and state contributions, economic conditions changed fundamentally once again.