Finsterhennen 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
Seeland administrative district in the
canton of
Bern in
Switzerland.
History
![Aare Seeland mobil - 541 - 01](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Aare_Seeland_mobil_-_541_-_01.jpg)
Finsterhennen is first mentioned around 1220 as ''Freineshun'' and in 1453 as ''Veisten Hennen''. In French it was known as ''Grasse Poule''.
[
The earliest trace of humans in Finsterhennen are some neolithic ceramics which were found at Steinacker-Büne. Other prehistoric traces include prehistoric items at Moos, flints at Usserfeld, ]tumuli
A tumulus (plural tumuli) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or ''kurgans'', and may be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, which is a mound of stones built ...
at (Ischlag-Outer Canal), wooden poles for stilt houses at Längäcker, graves in the gravel pit at Pfaffenholz and graves with just bodies by the railroad tracks. From the Roman era
In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC ...
, a cache of tools and items were found at Reben and fragments of what appears to be a Roman road at Moos. During the Middle Ages, the 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 Erlach. In 1474 Erlach and the surrounding land was acquired by Bern and became the Bernese bailiwick of Erlach.[
The village church was 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 o ...
of Siselen
Siselen is a municipality in the Seeland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.
History
Siselen is first mentioned about 1160 as ''Sisilli''.
The oldest trace of a settlement in the area are scattered, individual items fr ...
.[
The village lay on the ]Aarberg
Aarberg is a historic town and a municipality in the Seeland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.
Aarberg lies 20 kilometers from Bern above the river Aare. With an area of , Aarberg borders Bargen, Kappelen, Lyss, Rad ...
- Müntschemier road, which ran along a dry moraine through the Grosses Moos marsh. The Jura water correction project of 1874, drained the marsh and allowed development of the Grosses Moos. In 1916 the Biel-Täuffelen-Ins railroad built a rail station between Siselen and Finsterhennen and a small rail stop in Finsterhennen. This allowed small industry to move into the village. Today the local economy is based on grain, vegetable and dairy farming along with small businesses.[
]
Geography
Finsterhennen has an area of . Of this area, or 71.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 16.0% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 11.2% is settled (buildings or roads), or 1.1% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.3% is unproductive land.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics]
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010
Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 1.1% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 4.8% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.5%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 2.8% of the area Out of the forested land, 14.9% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.1% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 66.9% is used for growing crops and 4.5% is pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.[
It is located in the '' Grosses Moos'', a particularly productive area with nearly black soil in the Bernese Seeland.
On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Erlach, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Seeland.][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 vi ...
of the municipal coat of arms
A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its ...
is ''Argent a Hen Sable crested, beaked, unguled and membered Gules and in chief sinister a Mullet of the last.'' The dark (german: Finster) hen (german: Henne) on the coat of arms makes this 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 all ...
.
Demographics
Finsterhennen has a population () of . , 21.7% of the population are resident foreign nationals.[Statistical office of the Canton of Bern]
accessed 4 January 2012 Over the last 10 years (2000-2010) the population has changed at a rate of 17.2%. Migration accounted for 16.9%, while births and deaths accounted for 3.6%.
accessed 30 October 2012
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
**Ge ...
(376 or 91.5%) as their first language, Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
is the second most common (12 or 2.9%) and French is the third (8 or 1.9%). There are 4 people who speak 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 53.8% male and 46.2% female. The population was made up of 203 Swiss men (41.1% of the population) and 63 (12.8%) non-Swiss men. There were 184 Swiss women (37.2%) and 4 (0.8%) non-Swiss women.] Of the population in the municipality, 180 or about 43.8% were born in Finsterhennen and lived there in 2000. There were 143 or 34.8% who were born in the same canton, while 39 or 9.5% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 45 or 10.9% were born outside of Switzerland.[
, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 24.3% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 60.7% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 15%.][
, there were 159 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 222 married individuals, 19 widows or widowers and 11 individuals who are divorced.][STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000]
accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 41 households that consist of only one person and 9 households with five or more people. , a total of 160 apartments (91.4% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 7 apartments (4.0%) were seasonally occupied and 8 apartments (4.6%) were empty.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen]
accessed 28 January 2011
The historical population is given in the following chart:
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id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8)
ImageSize = width:1020 height:210
PlotArea = top:10 left:100 bottom:50 right:100
AlignBars = justify
DateFormat = x.y
Period = from:0 till:440
TimeAxis = orientation:vertical
AlignBars = justify
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:90 start:0
ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:18 start:0
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color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center
bar:1764 from:start till:258 text:"258"
bar:1850 from:start till:373 text:"373"
bar:1860 from:start till:320 text:"320"
bar:1870 from:start till:354 text:"354"
bar:1880 from:start till:366 text:"366"
bar:1888 from:start till:344 text:"344"
bar:1900 from:start till:347 text:"347"
bar:1910 from:start till:350 text:"350"
bar:1920 from:start till:347 text:"347"
bar:1930 from:start till:335 text:"335"
bar:1941 from:start till:312 text:"312"
bar:1950 from:start till:345 text:"345"
bar:1960 from:start till:438 text:"438"
bar:1970 from:start till:393 text:"393"
bar:1980 from:start till:374 text:"374"
bar:1990 from:start till:420 text:"420"
bar:2000 from:start till:411 text:"411"
Politics
In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 38.6% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (24.2%), the Social Democratic Party (SP) (14.4%) and the Federal Democratic Union of Switzerland (EDU) (4.3%). In the federal election, a total of 156 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 Univ ...
was 50.8%.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election]
accessed 8 May 2012
Economy
, Finsterhennen had an unemployment rate of 1.24%. , there were a total of 138 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 57 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 17 businesses involved in this sector. 39 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 constructi ...
and there were 5 businesses in this sector. 42 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 13 businesses in this sector.[ There were 238 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 40.8% of the workforce.
there were a total of 118 ]full-time equivalent
Full-time equivalent (FTE), or whole time equivalent (WTE), is a unit that indicates the workload of an employed person (or student) in a way that makes workloads or class loads comparable across various contexts. FTE is often used to measure a ...
jobs. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 48, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 38 of which 31 or (81.6%) were in manufacturing and 7 (18.4%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 32. In the tertiary sector; 13 or 40.6% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 4 or 12.5% were in a hotel or restaurant, 7 or 21.9% were in the information industry, 2 or 6.3% were technical professionals or scientists, 4 or 12.5% were in education.
, there were 24 workers who commuted into the municipality and 157 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 6.5 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb]
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 12.6% used public transportation to get to work, and 52.1% used a private car.[
]
Religion
From the , 46 or 11.2% 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 let ...
, while 328 or 79.8% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there was 1 individual who belongs to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 6 individuals (or about 1.46% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 15 (or about 3.65% of the population) who were Islamic. 13 (or about 3.16% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 5 individuals (or about 1.22% of the population) did not answer the question.[
]
Education
In Finsterhennen about 154 or (37.5%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 40 or (9.7%) 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 ...
or a '' Fachhochschule''). Of the 40 who completed tertiary schooling, 62.5% were Swiss men, 22.5% 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 ce ...
, 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 trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...
.
During the 2010-11 school year, there were a total of 56 students attending classes in Finsterhennen. There was one kindergarten class with a total of 12 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 25.0% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 33.3% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The municipality had 2 primary classes and 44 students. Of the primary students, 13.6% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 18.2% have a different mother language than the classroom language.[Schuljahr 2010/11 pdf document]
accessed 4 January 2012
, there were 7 students in Finsterhennen who came from another municipality, while 28 residents attended schools outside the municipality.[
]
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Municipalities of the canton of Bern