Template:Wp-La Chaux-de-Fonds-History

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The region was first inhabited around 10,000 years ago (Mesolithic). A skull and other traces have been found in caves nearby.^[1]

In the middle of the 14th century, the region was colonized from the southern Val-de-Ruz. La Chaux-de-Fonds is first mentioned in 1350 as la Chaz de Fonz. In 1378 it was mentioned as Chault de Font.

The region was under the authority of the lords of Valangin. In the 15th and 16th centuries, the second wave of colonization came from the so-called Clos de la Franchise (the valleys of Le Locle and La Sagne). Agriculture was the main activity but the village remained small. In 1531 there were only about 35 people living there. The first church was built in 1528. By 1530, La Chaux-de-Fonds, like the rest of the Valangin lands, converted to the new Reformed faith. The Lord of Valanginian, René de Challant, fixed the boundaries of the parish in 1550. The church and parish provided a political structure and a small community of Valanginian citizens, free farmers and peasants grew up around the church. By 1615 there were 355 people living in the village. In 1616, the low and middle jurisdiction over La Chaux-de-Fonds moved to Le Locle and La Sagne, while the high court remained in Valanginian. Agriculture, supplemented by mills on the banks of the Doubs, continued to dominate. However, at the end of the 16th century, the city became an important crossroad between Neuchâtel, Franche-Comté and the Bishopric of Basel.^[1]

The community grew during the Thirty Years' War, mainly because of its strategic position for trade. Economic activity accelerated in the 18th century with the development of the city's lace and watchmaking industries. Pierre Jacquet-Droz, best known for his automata, was a particularly prominent watchmaker of this era.

In 1794, the city was devastated by fire. Charles-Henri Junod created the new city's plan in 1835, and the city is now known for its "modern," grid-like plan, in comparison with most European cities' meandering streets. The central avenue is named the Avenue Léopold Robert.

History of the watch-making industry in La-Chaux-de-Fonds

In the second half of the 18th century, the Swiss watch industry was on the rise. Parallel to this and despite residency bans, Jewish traders began to settle in the region, and became involved in the industry. From 1848 onwards, restrictions on residence and settlement of Jews were gradually alleviated in the Canton of Neuchâtel.

In the 1870s, as American companies began to produce watches and watch parts on an industrial scale, the Swiss watch industry experienced a crisis. The traditional model of the individual craftsmen was not compatible with the faster-industrialised production rates, but from the 1880s, modernisation slowly but surely took hold in the Swiss watch industry.

One of the first modern factories was founded by the Ditesheim brothers Achilles, Leopold and Isidore, who had moved to La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1876. Having joined the trade towards the end of the 19th century, many Jewish manufacturers were less bound to the traditional ideas. Thus, they were particularly involved and invested in modernisation processes. The Ditesheim company gained international renown and was renamed “Movado” in 1905.^[2]

Encouraged by economic success, more newcomers arrived, among them many Jews. Of the 180 or so medium-sized family businesses in the town, about 30 per cent were owned by Jewish families in 1912. The Jewish community had grown from 541 to 900 members in the span of about 20 years.

During the First World War, the watch companies largely received armament commissions (for instance for the production of precision fuses for artillery shells). These commissions died down with the end of the war. From 1933, with the arrival of the Second World War, Jewish producers began to struggle, as their Jewish contacts in occupied countries increasingly faced persecution. Some Jewish companies in La Chaux-de-Fonds were under surveillance from German spies, suspected of illegally exporting war materials for the Allied Forces.^[3]