Simmental road was built from Saanen into the Simmen valley in 1816-45. The new road brought additional trade and eventually tourists to the municipality. A hotel was built in 1881. The completion of the Spiez-Zweisimmen-Montreux railroad in 1905 opened the villages up to many additional tourists. The hotel became a spa and resort in 1912 and included winter sports in 1920. The municipal tourism industry was devastated by the Great Depression and World War II. However, it began to recover in the 1950s with many new cable cars and ski lifts. Zweisimmen cooperated with the neighboring tourist municipalities of Gstaad, Lenk im Simmental and Adelboden to build extensive ski resorts along with an airfield. A regional hospital opened in 1908 and today provides a number of jobs. A federal armory operated in the village until 2002. One of the major employers in the municipality is the Center Air Defence facility of RUAG Aviation which maintains and develops air defense systems for the Swiss military. Geography Zweisimmen has an area of . As of 2012, a total of or 55.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 33.7% is forested. The rest of the municipality is or 3.4% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.8% is either rivers or lakes and or 7.3% is unproductive land. During the same year, housing and buildings made up 1.5% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.4%. A total of 27.8% of the total land area is heavily forested and 5.3% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 12.8% is pasturage and 42.2% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 4.5% is unproductive vegetation and 2.8% is too rocky for vegetation. It is formed from the smaller communities of Blankenburg, Mannried and Oeschseite. Blankenburg with its castle (Blankenburg Castle) is the principal community of Zweisimmen. It is located at the confluence of the Gross and Klein Simme rivers. On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Obersimmental, of which it was the capital, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Obersimmental-Saanen. Coat of arms The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Or a Semi Bear rampant couped Sable langued Gules. Demographics Zweisimmen has a population () of . , 9.6% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last year (2010-2011)