Noflen is a former
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 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 ...
in
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 ...
. On 1 January 2018 the former municipalities of
Gelterfingen
Gelterfingen is a former municipality in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. On 1 January 2018 the former municipalities of Gelterfingen, Mühledorf and Noflen merged into the municipality of Kirchd ...
,
Mühledorf and Noflen merged into the municipality of
Kirchdorf.
History
Noflen is first mentioned in 1250 as ''Novelon''.
[
Very little is known about the early history of the village. By the 13th and 14th centuries a number of monasteries and ]patrician
Patrician may refer to:
* Patrician (ancient Rome), the original aristocratic families of ancient Rome, and a synonym for "aristocratic" in modern English usage
* Patrician (post-Roman Europe), the governing elites of cities in parts of medieval ...
families owned rights or land in Noflen. The monasteries probably expanded their power in the village over the following centuries. However, in 1528 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 ...
adopted the new faith of the Protestant Reformation
The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...
and forcibly secularized monastery lands. Most likely this is when Noflen was acquired by Bern. The village 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 Kirchdorf. Today the residents of the village mostly raise dairy cattle and farm.[
]
Geography
Noflen has an area of . As of 2012, a total of or 81.3% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 13.6% is forested. The rest of the municipality is or 5.9% 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 3.7% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.2%. All of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 47.8% is used for growing crops and 26.8% is pasturage, while 6.6% is used for orchards or vine crops.[
The municipality is a scattered settlement with an upper and lower village on the Terrasse above the ]Gürbetal
Gürbetal (Gürbe Valley) in Switzerland lies between the towns of Bern and Thun, west of the Aare. It contains the municipality of Seftigen and those that surround it. The valley is named after the river Gürbe, which flows through it. The largest ...
(Gürbe valley), while part of the municipality is on the valley floor. Since 1948 the hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...
of Stoffelsrüti (in 1941 it had a population of 41) stopped being an exclave
An enclave is a territory (or a small territory apart of a larger one) that is entirely surrounded by the territory of one other state or entity. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is sometimes used improperly to deno ...
of Jaberg
Jaberg is a municipality in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.
History
Jaberg is first mentioned in 1259 as ''Jagberc''.
The oldest trace of a settlement in the area is a Hallstatt burial mound. Du ...
and joined Noflen.
The municipalities of Gelterfingen
Gelterfingen is a former municipality in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. On 1 January 2018 the former municipalities of Gelterfingen, Mühledorf and Noflen merged into the municipality of Kirchd ...
, Gerzensee, Kirchdorf, Mühledorf and Noflen are considering a merger on 1 January 2017 into the new municipality with an, , undetermined name.[Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz]
published by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 12 December 2013
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.
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 ''Argent a Rose Gules barbed and seeded proper between two Oxen orns of the second and a Mount Vert issuant from the base.''
Demographics
Noflen has a population () of . , 7.0% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 2 years (2010-2012) the population has changed at a rate of 11.7%. Migration accounted for 7.8%, while births and deaths accounted for 4.3%.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office]
accessed 22 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
**Ge ...
(246 or 99.2%) as their first language with the rest speaking 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 ...
.[
, the population was 51.2% male and 48.8% female. The population was made up of 124 Swiss men (48.4% of the population) and 7 (2.7%) non-Swiss men. There were 116 Swiss women (45.3%) and 9 (3.5%) non-Swiss women.][Statistical office of the Canton of Bern]
accessed 4 January 2012 Of the population in the municipality, 109 or about 44.0% were born in Noflen and lived there in 2000. There were 95 or 38.3% who were born in the same canton, while 32 or 12.9% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 5 or 2.0% were born outside of Switzerland.[
, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 25.2% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 60.5% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 14.3%.][
, there were 124 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 107 married individuals, 13 widows or widowers and 4 individuals who are divorced.][STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000]
accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 22 households that consist of only one person and 10 households with five or more people. , a total of 89 apartments (89.9% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 6 apartments (6.1%) were seasonally occupied and 4 apartments (4.0%) 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 35.0 new units per 1000 residents.[ The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 2.4%. In 2011, single family homes made up 23.5% of the total housing in the municipality.
The historical population is given in the following chart:]
Economy
, Noflen had an unemployment rate of 0.77%. , there were a total of 124 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 88 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 24 businesses involved in this sector. 6 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 3 businesses in this sector. 30 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 10 businesses in this sector.[ There were 139 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 41.7% of the workforce.
there were a total of 83 ]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 59, of which 58 were in agriculture and 1 was in forestry or lumber production. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 14 of which 5 or (35.7%) were in manufacturing and 9 (64.3%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 10. In the tertiary sector; 4 or 40.0% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 4 or 40.0% were technical professionals or scientists, 2 or 20.0% were in education.
, there were 9 workers who commuted into the municipality and 84 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 9.3 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. A total of 55 workers (85.9% of the 64 total workers in the municipality) both lived and worked in Noflen.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb]
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 7.9% used public transportation to get to work, and 49.6% used a private car.[
In 2011 the average local and cantonal tax rate on a married resident, with two children, of Noflen making 150,000 CHF was 12.4%, while an unmarried resident's rate was 18.2%. 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 104 tax payers in the municipality. Of that total, 27 made over 75,000 CHF per year. There was one person who made between 15,000 and 20,000 per year. The average income of the over 75,000 CHF group in Noflen was 97,026 CHF, while the average across all of Switzerland was 130,478 CHF.
In 2011 a total of 2.0% of the population received direct financial assistance from the government.
]
Religion
From the , 219 or 88.3% 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 5 or 2.0% 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 5 individuals (or about 2.02% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 5 (or about 2.02% 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 ...
. 6 (or about 2.42% 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 ...
or 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 8 individuals (or about 3.23% of the population) did not answer the question.[
]
Education
In Noflen about 57.7% of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 19.2% 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 26 who had completed some form of tertiary schooling listed in the census, 73.1% were Swiss men, 26.9% 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 ...
.[Schuljahr 2011/12 pdf document]
accessed 9 May 2013
, there were a total of 26 students attending any school in the municipality. Of those, 26 both lived and attended school in the municipality, while 8 students from Noflen attended schools outside the municipality.[ During the same year, 8 residents attended schools outside the municipality.][
]
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Former municipalities of the canton of Bern