Description & Facts: This is the river Aare that runs through Bern, the capital of Switzerland. The official language of Berne is German. The local Swiss German dialect is Bernese German, spoken by most of the inhabitants. Due to the presence of a large part of the federal administration, several embassies and a fair number of immigrants, the other national languages and many others may be heard in the streets. Berne also functions as the capital of the Canton of Berne, the second most populous of Switzerland's cantons. The German-born physicist Albert Einstein worked out his theory of relativity while employed as a clerk at the Berne patent office.