Kander Correction

The Kanderkorrektion (also called Kander punctures) was a water correction, in which at the beginning of the 18th century, the Kander, which flowed previously below the Lake Thun in the Aare, was introduced into Lake Thun.

The Kander originally flowed through the Thun Allmendfeld and culminated between Thun and Uttigen into the Aare. In this relatively level area they caused repeatedly flooding and stored large quantities of entrained from the bed load. As they flowed past a few hundred meters on Lake Thun, we took an early detour into the eye. The lake should receive the attachment. At the beginning of the 18th century, the engineer Samuel Bodmer dealt with the matter and created plans, after which an incision in the Strättlighügel which Kander and sea parted, should have been created.

1711 approved the authorities, the project and construction began. However, they were delayed by the Second Villmerger war 1712. Then we changed the plan and began in spring 1713, under the direction of Bern's city architect Samuel Jenner with the construction of a tunnel instead of the unfinished incision. End of this year was the breakthrough. During the year 1714, the river dug deeper and deeper into the loose moraine. This meant that the tunnel collapsed and the Kander canyon was formed. The sediment accumulated at the Lake Thun Kander Delta, which has been operating since 1913 by gravel mining.

The Kanderkorrektion was the first major Gewässerkorrektion in Switzerland and missing experience then led to larger problems. By Kander correction, the inflow increased by 60 % in Lake Thun, the Aare what was not enough as Seeabfluss until the earlier influence of Kander. Thun and its surroundings were flooded in the following years regularly up to the 1st floor of the houses. The channeling of the river Aare in Thun in 1716 led by the stronger flow to shore erosion and scour and collapse of a bridge and several houses, the floods but not prevented. A new project in 1720 included an expansion of Aarebetts and construction of Regulierwerken which were renewed in 1788 and 1818. Only with the Aarekorrektion between Thun and Bern, 1871 to 1878, the problems were largely resolved with the floods. However, there are at flood in Thun to date problems, so that in 2004 a proposal was submitted to a relief tunnel. This tunnel was completed in 2008.