Fahrni 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

Fahrni is first mentioned in 1299 as ''Varne''. The scattered villages that make up Fahrni were originally part of the Kyburg ''

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. In 1384 they were forced to sell most of their lands, including Fahrni, to the city of

. Under Bernese rule it became part of the court of

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 ...

in 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 single ...

. Fahrni has always been part of the

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 ...

of Steffisburg, though a

filial church A filial church, in the Roman Catholic Church, is a church to which is annexed the cure of souls, but which remains dependent on another church. The term comes from the Latin ''filialis'', from ''filia'', “daughter”. Description The term ''fili ...

was built in 1951 in Rachholtern. The local economy has always been dependent on dairy farming and raising cattle. In 1975 the Schwarzenegg-Thun road opened and connected Fahrni to nearby cities. Today about half of the workforce commutes to jobs in those cities. The Obere Mürggen neighborhood was built to house the slowly growing population, but much of the community is unchanged.

Geography

Fahrni has an area of . As of 2012, a total of or 66.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 26.7% is forested. The rest of the municipality is or 5.1% is settled (buildings or roads), or 1.2% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.1% 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 3.4% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.3%. All of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 23.4% is used for growing crops and 40.8% is pasturage, while 2.7% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. The municipality is located in the hills between the Zulg river and Rotachental. It includes the village known as Dörfli and the

hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. Its size relative to a parish can depend on the administration and region. A hamlet may be considered to be a smaller settlement or subdivision or satellite entity to a lar ...

of Rachholtern, Lueg, Äschlisbühl, Bach and Embergboden as well as scattered individual farm houses. 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 on a Bend Argent a Fern Leaf Vert.'' The coat of arms of Fahrni is partly an example of

canting arms Canting arms are heraldic bearings that represent the bearer's name (or, less often, some attribute or function) in a visual pun or rebus. French heralds used the term (), as they would sound out the name of the armiger. Many armorial allus ...

with the fern leaf (german: Farnblatt).

Demographics

Fahrni has a population () of . , 2.1% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Between the last 2 years (2010-2012) the population changed at a rate of 7.4%. Migration accounted for 7.6%, while births and deaths accounted for 0.5%.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 ...

(698 or 97.6%) as their first language,

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 second most common (10 or 1.4%) and

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 ...

is the third (3 or 0.4%). There are 2 people who speak

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

. , the population was 50.1% male and 49.9% female. The population was made up of 368 Swiss men (49.7% of the population) and 3 (0.4%) non-Swiss men. There were 362 Swiss women (48.9%) and 8 (1.1%) non-Swiss women.Statistical office of the Canton of Bern
accessed 4 January 2012 Of the population in the municipality, 319 or about 44.6% were born in Fahrni and lived there in 2000. There were 300 or 42.0% who were born in the same canton, while 60 or 8.4% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 18 or 2.5% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 23.2% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 58.5% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 18.2%. , there were 312 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 335 married individuals, 49 widows or widowers and 19 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 71 households that consist of only one person and 20 households with five or more people. , a total of 255 apartments (93.4% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 11 apartments (4.0%) were seasonally occupied and 7 apartments (2.6%) 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 17.6 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.8%. In 2012, single family homes made up 31.2% 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:780 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:200 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:40 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width: 35 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1764 from:start till:324 text:"324" bar:1850 from:start till:766 text:"766" bar:1860 from:start till:692 text:"692" bar:1870 from:start till:730 text:"730" bar:1880 from:start till:756 text:"756" bar:1888 from:start till:697 text:"697" bar:1900 from:start till:686 text:"686" bar:1910 from:start till:722 text:"722" bar:1920 from:start till:777 text:"777" bar:1930 from:start till:638 text:"638" bar:1941 from:start till:687 text:"687" bar:1950 from:start till:722 text:"722" bar:1960 from:start till:696 text:"696" bar:1970 from:start till:671 text:"671" bar:1980 from:start till:671 text:"671" bar:1990 from:start till:682 text:"682" bar:2000 from:start till:715 text:"715" bar:2010 from:start till:731 text:"731"

Economy

, Fahrni had an unemployment rate of 1.04%. , there were a total of 201 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 116 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 42 businesses involved in this sector. 25 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 10 businesses in this sector. 60 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 27 businesses in this sector. There were 368 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 42.9% of the workforce. there were a total of 117

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 72, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 16 of which 8 or (50.0%) were in manufacturing and 9 (56.3%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 29. In the tertiary sector; 5 or 17.2% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 2 or 6.9% were in the movement and storage of goods, 6 or 20.7% were the insurance or financial industry, 7 or 24.1% were in education. , there were 25 workers who commuted into the municipality and 246 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 9.8 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. A total of 122 workers (83.0% of the 147 total workers in the municipality) both lived and worked in Fahrni.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 7.3% used public transportation to get to work, and 61.4% used a private car. The local and cantonal tax rate in Fahrni 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 Fahrni making 150,000 CHF was 12.3%, while an unmarried resident's rate was 18.5%. 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 309 tax payers in the municipality. Of that total, 86 made over 75,000 CHF per year. There were 2 people who made between 15,000 and 20,000 per year. The greatest number of workers, 100, made between 50,000 and 75,000 CHF per year. The average income of the over 75,000 CHF group in Fahrni was 107,586 CHF, while the average across all of Switzerland was 131,244 CHF. In 2011 a total of 1.8% 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 52.1% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (14.1%), the Social Democratic Party (SP) (11.0%) and the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...

(4.5%). In the federal election, a total of 343 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 58.2%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election
accessed 8 May 2012

Religion

From the , 586 or 82.0% 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 30 or 4.2% 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 was 1 member of an Orthodox church, and there were 31 individuals (or about 4.34% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 13 (or about 1.82% 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 was 1 person who was

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. 35 (or about 4.90% 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 17 individuals (or about 2.38% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Fahrni about 60.2% of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 12.7% 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 54 who had completed some form of tertiary schooling listed in the census, 70.4% were Swiss men, 18.5% were Swiss women and 9.3% were non-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 65 students attending classes in Fahrni. There were 19 students in the German language kindergarten class and 46 primary students.Datei der Gemeinde- und Schultabellen
accessed 23 July 2014 , there were a total of 78 students attending any school in the municipality. Of those, 71 both lived and attended school in the municipality, while 7 students came from another municipality. During the same year, 30 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Municipalities of the canton of Bern