Niedermuhlern 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 Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the

canton Canton may refer to: Administrative division terminology * Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries, notably Switzerland * Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French Arts and ent ...

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

Niedermuhlern is first mentioned in 1241 as ''Muolerrun''. The oldest trace of a settlement in the area is a prehistoric

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...

ax which was discovered in Niederblacken. The remains of what appears to be a

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 ...

wall were discovered at Sidenberg, and an

early medieval The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th or early 6th century to the 10th century. They marked the start of the Mi ...

grave was found on the Sandackerhubel. By the 13th century, the portions of the village and surrounding farm land were owned by various citizens of

as well as the

Münchenbuchsee Commandery The Münchenbuchsee Commandery was a medieval commandery of the Knights Hospitaller in the Swiss municipality of Münchenbuchsee in the Canton of Bern. History During the 12th century, the area around Münchenbuchsee was part of the lands of the ...

and Frienisberg and Köniz Abbeys. The rights to hold the low court over the village passed through several owners until 1600 when Bern acquired them. Under Bernese rule the village was administered by a Schultheiss or mayor. Until 1699, it 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 or m ...

Belp Belp is a municipality in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It is close to Bern's Belp Airport. The municipality of Belpberg merged on 1 January 2012 into the municipality of Belp.

. In that year, it was assigned to the

Zimmerwald Zimmerwald was an independent municipality in the Canton of Bern, Switzerland until 31 December 2003. It is located on a hill in the proximity of the city of Bern in the Bernese Mittelland. On 1 January 2004 Zimmerwald united with the municipality ...

parish. Throughout its history, the village was a rural, agricultural settlement. Today the Bern-Riggisberg

PostAuto PostAuto Switzerland, PostBus Ltd. (known as in Swiss Standard German (), in Swiss French (), in Swiss Italian (), and in Romansh () is a subsidiary company of the Swiss Post, which provides regional and rural bus services throughout Swit ...

line connects it to nearby cities. In 1951, the engineer and businessman Willy Schaerer built the Sternwarte Uecht (Uecht Observatory) in Niedermuhlern. For twenty years, between 1968 until 1988, the

University of Bern The University of Bern (german: Universität Bern, french: Université de Berne, la, Universitas Bernensis) is a university in the Switzerland, Swiss capital of Bern and was founded in 1834. It is regulated and financed by the Canton of Bern. It ...

ran a solar observation lab in the village.

Geography

Niedermuhlern has an area of . As of 2012, a total of or 75.3% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 17.9% is forested. The rest of the municipality is or 6.1% is settled (buildings or roads).Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010 During the same year, housing and buildings made up 2.6% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.8%. A total of 14.8% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.2% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 40.6% is used for growing crops and 33.8% is pasturage. The municipality is located on a plateau of Längenberg mountain. It includes the village of Niedermuhlern, 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 Ober- and Niederblacken, Bachmühle, Fallenbach and individual houses. On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Seftigen, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Bern-Mittelland.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 ''Azure on a Bend Argent three Mullets bendwise of the field.''

Demographics

Niedermuhlern has a population () of . , 4.6% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 2 years (2010-2012) the population has changed at a rate of -0.6%. Migration accounted for -1.3%, while births and deaths accounted for -0.2%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 21 April 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 ...

(521 or 99.6%) as their first language. One person speaks

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 ...

and another speaks

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

as their first languages. , the population was 53.0% male and 47.0% female. The population was made up of 238 Swiss men (51.3% of the population) and 8 (1.7%) non-Swiss men. There were 216 Swiss women (46.6%) and 2 (0.4%) non-Swiss women.Statistical office of the Canton of Bern
accessed 4 January 2012 Of the population in the municipality, 220 or about 42.1% were born in Niedermuhlern and lived there in 2000. There were 237 or 45.3% who were born in the same canton, while 42 or 8.0% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 6 or 1.1% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 19.7% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 63.8% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 16.5%. , there were 239 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 251 married individuals, 24 widows or widowers and 9 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 51 households that consist of only one person and 13 households with five or more people. , a total of 176 apartments (86.3% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 20 apartments (9.8%) were seasonally occupied and 8 apartments (3.9%) were empty.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen
accessed 28 January 2011 The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 2.1459227468%. In 2011, single family homes made up 24.7% 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:840 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:347 text:"347" bar:1850 from:start till:831 text:"831" bar:1860 from:start till:782 text:"782" bar:1870 from:start till:758 text:"758" bar:1880 from:start till:753 text:"753" bar:1888 from:start till:717 text:"717" bar:1900 from:start till:631 text:"631" bar:1910 from:start till:584 text:"584" bar:1920 from:start till:626 text:"626" bar:1930 from:start till:597 text:"597" bar:1941 from:start till:546 text:"546" bar:1950 from:start till:580 text:"580" bar:1960 from:start till:543 text:"543" bar:1970 from:start till:539 text:"539" bar:1980 from:start till:508 text:"508" bar:1990 from:start till:509 text:"509" bar:2000 from:start till:523 text:"523" bar:2010 from:start till:456 text:"456"

Economy

, Niedermuhlern had an unemployment rate of 0.76%. , there were a total of 136 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 91 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 32 businesses involved in this sector. 7 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 4 businesses in this sector. 38 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 269 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 45.0% of the workforce. there were a total of 92

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 61, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 7, all of which were in manufacturing. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 24. In the tertiary sector; 7 or 29.2% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 2 or 8.3% were in a hotel or restaurant, 8 or 33.3% were in education and 2 or 8.3% were in health care. , there were 40 workers who commuted into the municipality and 159 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 4.0 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. A total of 110 workers (73.3% of the 150 total workers in the municipality) both lived and worked in Niedermuhlern.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 15.2% used public transportation to get to work, and 48.3% used a private car. In 2011, the average local and cantonal tax rate on a married resident, with two children, of Niedermuhlern making 150,000 CHF was 13%, while an unmarried resident's rate was 19.1%. For comparison, the average rate for the entire canton in the same year, was 14.2% and 22.0%, while the nationwide average was 12.3% and 21.1% respectively. In 2009, there were a total of 199 tax payers in the municipality. Of that total, 44 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, 60, made between 50,000 and 75,000 CHF per year. The average income of the over 75,000 CHF group in Niedermuhlern was 108,434 CHF, while the average across all of Switzerland was 130,478 CHF. In 2011, a total of 0.9% of the population received direct financial assistance from the government.

Religion

From the , 430 or 82.2% 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 21 or 4.0% 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 40 individuals (or about 7.65% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. 26 (or about 4.97% 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 6 individuals (or about 1.15% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Niedermuhlern about 58.2% of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 14.4% 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 45 who had completed some form of tertiary schooling listed in the census, 77.8% were Swiss men, 22.2% 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 2011-12 school year, there were a total of 56 students attending classes in Niedermuhlern. There was one kindergarten class with a total of 8 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 12.5% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens). The municipality had one primary class and 25 students. During the same year, there were 2 lower secondary classes with a total of 23 students. There were 4.3% who were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 4.3% have a different mother language than the classroom language.Schuljahr 2011/12 pdf document
accessed 9 May 2013 , there were a total of 152 students attending any school in the municipality. Of those, 62 both lived and attended school in the municipality, while 90 students came from another municipality. During the same year, 23 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Municipalities of the canton of Bern