Eriz is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

in the administrative district of

Thun , neighboring_municipalities= Amsoldingen, Heiligenschwendi, Heimberg, Hilterfingen, Homberg, Schwendibach, Spiez, Steffisburg, Thierachern, Uetendorf, Zwieselberg , twintown = , website = www.thun.ch Thun (french: Thoune) ...

in the canton of

Bern german: Berner(in)french: Bernois(e) it, bernese , neighboring_municipalities = Bremgarten bei Bern, Frauenkappelen, Ittigen, Kirchlindach, Köniz, Mühleberg, Muri bei Bern, Neuenegg, Ostermundigen, Wohlen bei Bern, Zollikofen , website ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

History

Eriz is first mentioned in 1320 as ''Erarze''. The small alpine village was part of the ''

Herrschaft The German term ''Herrschaft'' (plural: ''Herrschaften'') covers a broad semantic field and only the context will tell whether it means, "rule", "power", "dominion", "authority", "territory" or "lordship". In its most abstract sense, it refers ...

'' of Heimberg during the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

. In the 14th century the extensive forests around Eriz were divided between the

Counts of Kyburg The Kyburg family (; ; also Kiburg) was a noble family of ''grafen'' (counts) in the Duchy of Swabia, a cadet line of the counts of Dillingen, who in the late 12th and early 13th centuries ruled the County of Kyburg, corresponding to much of wha ...

and the city of

. By 1344 the Kyburg-owned high forests in the Zulgtal had been illegally cleared. The first alpine meadows used for herding were mentioned in records in 1335. In 1384, Bern acquired the village and the Kyburg lands. They incorporated the village into the

Steffisburg Steffisburg is a municipality in the administrative district of Thun in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. On 1 January 2020 the former municipality of Schwendibach merged into the municipality of Steffisburg. History Steffisburg is first me ...

court of the

Thun District Thun District was one of the 25 administrative districts in the canton of Bern, Switzerland. Its capital was the municipality of Thun. The district had an area of 285 km2 and consists of 27 municipalities A municipality is usually a singl ...

. In 1834 a part of the municipality, on the left bank of the Eriz river, left Eriz and joined the

Horrenbach-Buchen Horrenbach-Buchen is a municipality in the administrative district of Thun in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. History Originally the small farming villages that make up Horrenbach-Buchen were part of the '' Herrschaft'' of Heimberg under ...

municipality. Originally the village was part of the Steffisburg

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

. In 1693 a

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

was built in Schwarzenegg and Eriz joined the new parish. Traditionally the residents of the scattered farming villages raised cattle in seasonal alpine camps during the summer and brought them down to the valley floor for winter. In the 17th and 18th centuries, most of the high meadows and cattle herds were acquired by Bernese

patricians The patricians (from la, patricius, Greek: πατρίκιος) were originally a group of ruling class families in ancient Rome. The distinction was highly significant in the Roman Kingdom, and the early Republic, but its relevance waned after ...

. By 1800 the local farmers had mostly regained rights to their herds and pastures. In 1848 a large road was built which linked Eriz to Schwarzenegg. In 1864 the government reforested much of the hillside and meadows on Honegg mountain. Today, while dairy farming and cheese production remain a part of the local economy, they have been supplemented by logging, small businesses and tourism. There are two primary schools in Bieten and Bühl. (The school in Bühl has been closed for many years) Eriz is part of a secondary school district with Unterlangenegg and any secondary students attend classes in the nearby community.

Geography

Eriz has an area of . As of 2012, a total of or 45.3% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 44.9% is forested. The rest of the municipality is or 2.8% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.6% is either rivers or lakes and or 6.5% is unproductive land.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010 During the same year, housing and buildings made up 1.5% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.2%. A total of 39.3% of the total land area is heavily forested and 4.6% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 14.8% is pasturage and 30.3% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 4.4% is unproductive vegetation and 2.1% is too rocky for vegetation. The municipality is scattered around the foothills and valleys of the Alps. It is located north of the Zulg river, on the south flank of the Honegg and west flank of the

Hohgant The Hohgant is a mountain of the Emmental Alps, located south of the Emmental in the canton of Berne. The main summit has an elevation of 2,197 metres above sea level and is distinguished by the name ''Furggengütsch''. Several caves (F1 and K2 ...

. It is divided into Ausser- and Inner-Eriz. Ausser-Eriz (Outer Eriz) includes Äppenschwendi, Bühl, Kapfern and Losenegg. Inner-Eriz includes Halten, Niedermatt, Linden (also known as Dörfli), Bieten and Scheidzaun. It is part of the

of Schwarzenegg. On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Thun, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Thun.Nomenklaturen – Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz
accessed 4 April 2011

Coat of arms

The

blazon In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct the appropriate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The vis ...

of the municipal

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...

is ''Gules a Bend wavy Argent and overall a Fir Tree Vert trunked and eradicated or.''

Demographics

Eriz has a population () of . , 2.9% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Between the last 2 years (2010-2012) the population changed at a rate of -2.0%. Migration accounted for -1.2%, while births and deaths accounted for -0.8%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 15 August 2014 Most of the population () speaks

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

(492 or 98.0%) as their first language,

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

is the second most common (5 or 1.0%) and

Albanian Albanian may refer to: *Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular: **Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans **Albanian language **Albanian culture **Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...

is the third (2 or 0.4%). There is 1 person who speaks

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

. , the population was 50.4% male and 49.6% female. The population was made up of 242 Swiss men (48.4% of the population) and 10 (2.0%) non-Swiss men. There were 243 Swiss women (48.6%) and 5 (1.0%) non-Swiss women.Statistical office of the Canton of Bern
accessed 4 January 2012 Of the population in the municipality, 305 or about 60.8% were born in Eriz and lived there in 2000. There were 146 or 29.1% who were born in the same canton, while 21 or 4.2% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 15 or 3.0% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 21.6% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 54.9% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 23.5%. , there were 207 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 247 married individuals, 39 widows or widowers and 9 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 61 households that consist of only one person and 18 households with five or more people. , a total of 176 apartments (68.0% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 65 apartments (25.1%) were seasonally occupied and 18 apartments (6.9%) were empty.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen
accessed 28 January 2011 , the construction rate of new housing units was 4.1 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 1.0%. In 2012, single family homes made up 36.2% of the total housing in the municipality. The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width: auto height:200 barincrement:45 PlotArea = top:20 left:40 bottom:20 right:35 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:670 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:100 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:20 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width: 35 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1764 from:start till:313 text:"313" bar:1850 from:start till:642 text:"642" bar:1860 from:start till:619 text:"619" bar:1870 from:start till:619 text:"619" bar:1880 from:start till:614 text:"614" bar:1888 from:start till:639 text:"639" bar:1900 from:start till:609 text:"609" bar:1910 from:start till:628 text:"628" bar:1920 from:start till:604 text:"604" bar:1930 from:start till:594 text:"594" bar:1941 from:start till:628 text:"628" bar:1950 from:start till:663 text:"663" bar:1960 from:start till:583 text:"583" bar:1970 from:start till:567 text:"567" bar:1980 from:start till:504 text:"504" bar:1990 from:start till:497 text:"497" bar:2000 from:start till:502 text:"502" bar:2010 from:start till:499 text:"499"

Economy

, Eriz had an unemployment rate of 0.23%. , there were a total of 184 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 110 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 39 businesses involved in this sector. 12 people were employed in the

secondary sector In macroeconomics, the secondary sector of the economy is an economic sector in the three-sector theory that describes the role of manufacturing. It encompasses industries that produce a finished, usable product or are involved in construction. ...

and there were 6 businesses in this sector. 62 people were employed in the

tertiary sector The tertiary sector of the economy, generally known as the service sector, is the third of the three economic sectors in the three-sector model (also known as the economic cycle). The others are the primary sector (raw materials) and the second ...

, with 21 businesses in this sector. There were 253 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 38.3% of the workforce. there were a total of 122

full-time equivalent Full-time equivalent (FTE), or whole time equivalent (WTE), is a unit that indicates the workload of an employee, employed person (or student) in a way that makes workloads or class loads comparable across various contexts. FTE is often used to me ...

jobs. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 73, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 8 of which 4 or (50.0%) were in manufacturing and 4 (50.0%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 41. In the tertiary sector; 2 or 4.9% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 17 or 41.5% were in the movement and storage of goods, 11 or 26.8% were in a hotel or restaurant, 3 or 7.3% were in the information industry, 4 or 9.8% were in education. , there were 14 workers who commuted into the municipality and 126 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 9.0 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. A total of 127 workers (90.1% of the 141 total workers in the municipality) both lived and worked in Eriz.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 5.5% used public transportation to get to work, and 55.3% used a private car. The local and cantonal tax rate in Eriz is one of the lowest in the canton. In 2012 the average local and cantonal tax rate on a married resident, with two children, of Eriz making 150,000 CHF was 12.5%, while an unmarried resident's rate was 18.8%. For comparison, the average rate for the entire canton in 2011, was 14.2% and 22.0%, while the nationwide average was 12.3% and 21.1% respectively. In 2010 there were a total of 177 tax payers in the municipality. Of that total, 28 made over 75,000 CHF per year. There was one person who made between 15,000 and 20,000 per year. The greatest number of workers, 49, made between 50,000 and 75,000 CHF per year. The average income of the over 75,000 CHF group in Eriz was 98,343 CHF, while the average across all of Switzerland was 131,244 CHF. In 2011 a total of 1.1% of the population received direct financial assistance from the government.

Politics

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 77.0% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (11.6%), the Social Democratic Party (SP) (3.8%) and the Federal Democratic Union of Switzerland (EDU) (1.7%). In the federal election, a total of 233 votes were cast, and the

voter turnout In political science, voter turnout is the participation rate (often defined as those who cast a ballot) of a given election. This can be the percentage of registered voters, eligible voters, or all voting-age people. According to Stanford Unive ...

was 56.1%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election
accessed 8 May 2012

Religion

From the , 438 or 87.3% belonged to the

Swiss Reformed Church The Protestant Church in Switzerland (PCS), (EKS); french: Église évangélique réformée de Suisse (EERS); it, Chiesa evangelica riformata in Svizzera (CERiS); rm, Baselgia evangelica refurmada da la Svizra (BRRS) formerly named Federation o ...

, while 7 or 1.4% were

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

. Of the rest of the population, there were 8 individuals (or about 1.59% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 6 (or about 1.20% of the population) who were

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

. There were 4 individuals who were

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

and 1 individual who belonged to another church. 15 (or about 2.99% of the population) belonged to no church, are

agnostic Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, of the divine or the supernatural is unknown or unknowable. (page 56 in 1967 edition) Another definition provided is the view that "human reason is incapable of providing sufficient ...

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

, and 23 individuals (or about 4.58% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Eriz about 49.8% of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 6% have completed additional higher education (either

university A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

or a ''

Fachhochschule A ''Fachhochschule'' (; plural ''Fachhochschulen''), abbreviated FH, is a university of applied sciences (UAS), in other words a German tertiary education institution that provides professional education in many applied sciences and applied arts ...

''). Of the 18 who had completed some form of tertiary schooling listed in the census, 77.8% were Swiss men, 16.7% were Swiss women. The Canton of Bern school system provides one year of non-obligatory

Kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cent ...

, followed by six years of Primary school. This is followed by three years of obligatory lower Secondary school where the students are separated according to ability and aptitude. Following the lower Secondary students may attend additional schooling or they may enter an

apprenticeship Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a Tradesman, trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners ...

. During the 2012-13 school year, there were a total of 48 students attending classes in Eriz. There were a total of 11 students in the German language kindergarten classes and 37 students in primary school classes.Datei der Gemeinde- und Schultabellen
accessed 23 July 2014 , there were a total of 70 students attending any school in the municipality. Of those, 66 both lived and attended school in the municipality, while 4 students came from another municipality. During the same year, 10 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Municipalities of the canton of Bern