Obwalden Canton, Switzerland Genealogy

Guide to Obwalden canton ancestry, family history and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, parish registers, and military records.

History
From 1803 until 1999 it was the half-canton of Obwalden. In 1999, the new Federal Constitution eliminated the half-canton designation and made Obwalden a full canton, though they still shared representation in the Council of States and only had half a vote. Due to the complex history of Obwalden there is be some overlaping between the histories of Obwalden, Nidwalden and Unterwalden. The Landsgemeinde of Obwalden stood firmly against the Protestant Reformation and Obwalden adopted an aggressively pro-Catholic stance. During the 1798 French invasion, Obwalden still had a strongly pro-French government and on 1 April 1798, Obwalden became the first of the original Swiss cantons to accept the Helvetic Republic. However, it was then forced by its neighbors to reject the new Republic and resist the French. When the French armies crushed the rebellion, the old Forest Cantons were merged into the single Canton of Waldstätten. Obwalden became the district of Sarnen in this new Canton. In 1840, a coalition of liberals and radicals gained the majority in the Federal Diet. They purprosed a new constitution that included many reforms that were radical. In response to this radical government, the Catholic and conservative cantons, including Obwalden, formed the Sonderbund or separate alliance in 1843. When the radicals attempted to dissolve this separate alliance in 1847, they started the Sonderbund War. Though Obwalden participated in the War, the Sonderbund council surrendered before the Federal army reached the Canton. The last complete revision of the cantonal constitution was in 1968. This revision addressed a number of small issues and clarified a number of laws, but there were no major changes. In 1972, women were first allowed to vote in cantonal elections and in 1983 the voting age dropped to eighteen. The Landsgemeinde was finally abolished in 1998. Obwalden is a German speaking canton.