Obersteckholz 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 Oberaargau 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 ...

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 2021 the former municipality of Obersteckholz merged into

Langenthal Langenthal is a town and a municipality in the district of Oberaargau in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. On 1 January 2010 the municipality of Untersteckholz merged into the Langenthal. On 1 January 2021 the former municipality of Obersteckhol ...

History

Obersteckholz is first mentioned in 1255 as ''Stechcholz''. Obersteckholz was the property of the Baron of Langenstein. In 1194, he founded St. Urban's Abbey and granted the village to the Abbey as part of its endowment. It was part of the Abbey's court of Langenthal until 1406 when it became part of the

ese

bailiwick A bailiwick () is usually the area of jurisdiction of a bailiff, and once also applied to territories in which a privately appointed bailiff exercised the sheriff's functions under a royal or imperial writ. The bailiwick is probably modelled on th ...

of Wangen. Following the 1798 French invasion it became part of the district of Langenthal under the

Helvetic Republic The Helvetic Republic (, , ) was a sister republic of France that existed between 1798 and 1803, during the French Revolutionary Wars. It was created following the French invasion and the consequent dissolution of the Old Swiss Confederacy, ma ...

. In 1803, after the collapse of the Republic, it became part of the

Aarwangen District Aarwangen District was a district in the northeast corner of the canton of Bern The canton of Bern or Berne (german: Kanton Bern; rm, Chantun Berna; french: canton de Berne; it, Canton Berna) is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confe ...

. The village became an independent municipality in 1831. Until 1790 and again after 1975 Obersteckholz and

Untersteckholz Untersteckholz was a municipality in the district of Aarwangen in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. On 1 January 2010, Untersteckholz merged into Langenthal. Geography Before the merge, Untersteckholz had an area, , of . Of this area, or ...

shared a single school district. During the 18th and 19th century, small

cottage industries The putting-out system is a means of subcontracting work. Historically, it was also known as the workshop system and the domestic system. In putting-out, work is contracted by a central agent to subcontractors who complete the project via remote ...

such as linen weaving and straw plaiting began to supplement agriculture in the local economy. Today there are several small businesses in the village but about 71% of the working adults commute to jobs outside the municipality.

Geography

2012-03-17-Supra Argovio (Foto Dietrich Michael Weidmann) 229

Obersteckholz had an area of . Of this area, or 66.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 27.9% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 5.6% is settled (buildings or roads).Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010 Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 4.1% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.3%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 44.4% is used for growing crops and 17.9% is pastures, while 4.4% is used for orchards or vine crops. The former municipality consists of the village of Obersteckholz 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 Habkerig, Kleben, Wald, Herrengasse and Hübeli as well as scattered farm houses. On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Aarwangen, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Oberaargau.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 ''Argent a Fir Tree Vert fructed and trunked Gules growing from a Mount of the last.''

Demographics

2012-03-17-Supra Argovio (Foto Dietrich Michael Weidmann) 236

Obersteckholz has a population (as of 2019) of 422. , 0.7% 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 0.7%. Migration accounted for -1.5%, while births and deaths accounted for -1.2%.
accessed 5 June 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 ...

(392 or 98.5%) as their first language. , the population was 49.9% male and 50.1% female. The population was made up of 201 Swiss men (49.4% of the population) and 2 (0.5%) non-Swiss men. There were 203 Swiss women (49.9%) and 1 (0.2%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 160 or about 40.2% were born in Obersteckholz and lived there in 2000. There were 148 or 37.2% who were born in the same canton, while 69 or 17.3% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 11 or 2.8% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 21.1% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 57.5% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 21.4%. , there were 152 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 202 married individuals, 33 widows or widowers and 11 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 – 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 47 households that consist of only one person and 19 households with five or more people. , a total of 161 apartments (92.0% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 6 apartments (3.4%) 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 construction rate of new housing units was 4.9 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.53%. The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) 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:640 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:100 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:20 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1764 from:start till:381 text:"381" bar:1850 from:start till:640 text:"640" bar:1860 from:start till:620 text:"620" bar:1870 from:start till:619 text:"619" bar:1880 from:start till:569 text:"569" bar:1888 from:start till:566 text:"566" bar:1900 from:start till:523 text:"523" bar:1910 from:start till:462 text:"462" bar:1920 from:start till:493 text:"493" bar:1930 from:start till:452 text:"452" bar:1941 from:start till:436 text:"436" bar:1950 from:start till:479 text:"479" bar:1960 from:start till:481 text:"481" bar:1970 from:start till:411 text:"411" bar:1980 from:start till:418 text:"418" bar:1990 from:start till:411 text:"411" bar:2000 from:start till:398 text:"398"

Politics

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 53.3% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the BDP Party (19.3%), the

SPS SPS may refer to: Law and government * Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures of the WTO * NATO Science for Peace and Security * Single Payment Scheme, an EU agricultural subsidy * The Standard Procurement System, fo ...

(5.7%) and the EVP Party (5.3%). In the federal election, a total of 198 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 58.1%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election
accessed 8 May 2012

Economy

, Obersteckholz had an unemployment rate of 1.15%. , there were a total of 96 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 63 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 21 businesses involved in this sector. 16 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 6 businesses in this sector. 17 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 5 businesses in this sector. there were a total of 62

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 36, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 14 of which 9 or (64.3%) were in manufacturing and 5 (35.7%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 12. In the tertiary sector; 1 was in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 6 were in the movement and storage of goods, 1 was a technical professional or scientist, 3 were in education. , there were 16 workers who commuted into the municipality and 153 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 9.6 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.Swiss Federal Statistical Office – Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 8.3% used public transportation to get to work, and 57.9% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 34 or 8.5% 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 ...

, while 324 or 81.4% 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 ...

. Of the rest of the population, there were 27 individuals (or about 6.78% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There was 1 individual who was

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

ic and 1 who was

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

. 20 (or about 5.03% 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 3 individuals (or about 0.75% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Obersteckholz about 170 or (42.7%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 43 or (10.8%) 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 43 who completed tertiary schooling, 69.8% were Swiss men, 27.9% 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 ...

. During the 2009–10 school year, there were a total of 48 students attending classes in Obersteckholz. There was one kindergarten class with a total of 14 students in the municipality. The municipality had 2 primary classes and 34 students. , there were 16 students in Obersteckholz who came from another municipality, while 13 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

References

{{Authority control Former municipalities of the canton of Bern