Rüegsau 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

Emmental The Emmental ( en, Emme Valley) is a valley in west-central Switzerland, forming part of the canton of Bern. It is a hilly landscape comprising the basins of the rivers Emme (river), Emme and Ilfis (river), Ilfis. The region is mostly devoted to ...

in the Swiss canton of Bern.

History

Rüegsau is first mentioned in 1139 as ''Ruxow''. In 1229 it was mentioned as ''Ruchisowe''. The name comes from ''ruggere aue'', in modern

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 ...

''ruhe Aue'', meaning ''calm

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...

''. From the late 13th century until 1528 it was the location of Rüegsau Priory, a

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

nunnery. The oldest trace of a settlement is a

neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...

artifact discovered in Rüegsau village. The first trace of a modern settlement is in the first half of the 12th century when Rüegsau Abbey was probably founded. While very little is known about the early history of the abbey, it was probably founded by Thüring von Lützelflüh around the same time that he founded

Trub Abbey Trub Abbey is a former Benedictine monastery in the municipality of Trub in Bern Switzerland History In 1125 Thüring von Lützelflüh donated land around modern Trub to St. Blaise Abbey in the Black Forest to establish a monk's cell. A few ...

. It is unknown whether the village grew up around the abbey or was already here when the abbey was founded. The first known provost appears in the abbey in 1256–99. There was a ''Meisterin'' over the nuns in 1320 and an

abbess An abbess (Latin: ''abbatissa''), also known as a mother superior, is the female superior of a community of Catholic nuns in an abbey. Description In the Catholic Church (both the Latin Church and Eastern Catholic), Eastern Orthodox, Copt ...

is first mentioned in 1526–28. The abbey ruled over a section of the lower

including Rüegsau and Affoltern im Emmental. In 1454 it had its own

seal Seal may refer to any of the following: Common uses * Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly: ** Earless seal, or "true seal" ** Fur seal * Seal (emblem), a device to imp ...

. In 1528 the city of Bern 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 ...

and in the same year secularized all monasteries including Rüegsau Abbey. Its goods were used to provide income for the priests of Rüegsau and

Lützelflüh Lützelflüh is a municipality in the administrative district of Emmental in the Swiss canton of Bern. History Lützelflüh is first mentioned in 1225 as ''Lucelfluo''. The area around Lützelflüh was probably inhabited during the Roman era. ...

, and part of the buildings was used to provide a priest's house. The remaining buildings were gradually dismantled: the last traces of the walls were removed between 1825 and 1831. The priory church became the village church. It was renovated in 1789–1790 and extended in 1874. Further renovations took place in 1947, 1990 and 1999. In 1763 a wooden, covered bridge was built over the

Emme Emme may refer to: People: * Ivan Fyodorovich Emme (1763–1839), Russian lieutenant general in the Napoleonic Wars * Otto J. Emme, American politician and World War I veteran * Emme Gerhard (1872–1946), American photographer * Emme Rylan, Am ...

river connecting

Hasle bei Burgdorf Hasle bei Burgdorf is a municipality in the administrative district of Emmental in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. History The settlements Uetigen (Utingun), Gomerkinden (Comirichingun), Bigel (Pigiluna) and further hamlets were first mentione ...

and Rüegsau. In 1881 the Burgdorf-Langnau railroad built a station in Hasle-Rüegsau. The railroad combined with the expansion of the Emmental road in 1899, brought factories to the formerly rural village. Today the services sector has surpassed industry, but agriculture and manufacturing are still an important part of the local economy.

Geography

Rüegsau is located in the lower

. It borders the Emme and then stretches north-east-ward. It contains the villages of Rüegsauschachen, Rüegsau, Rüegsbach and Rinderbach and several

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 ...

s. The municipality has the approximate shape of a rectangle with a width of and a length of . Rüegsau has an area of . As of the 2005/06 survey, a total of or 67.3% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 23.1% is forested. Of rest of the municipality or 8.6% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.9% is either rivers or lakes.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 27 August 2014 From the same survey, housing and buildings made up 5.2% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.3%. A total of 20.6% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.5% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 19.9% is used for growing crops and 45.6% is pasturage, while 1.8% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Trachselwald, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Emmental.
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 ''Per pale Gules a Latin Cross pattee couped Argent and of the last a Bend wavy Azure.''

Demographics

Rüegsau has a population () of . , 3.9% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Between the last 2 years (2010-2012) the population changed at a rate of 1.3%. Migration accounted for 2.5%, while births and deaths accounted for 0.0%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 8 December 2014 Most of the population () speaks

(2,861 or 97.5%) as their first language,

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 second most common (13 or 0.4%) and French is the third (12 or 0.4%). , the population was 49.3% male and 50.7% female. The population was made up of 1,480 Swiss men (47.3% of the population) and 62 (2.0%) non-Swiss men. There were 1,523 Swiss women (48.7%) and 61 (2.0%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 1,096 or about 37.3% were born in Rüegsau and lived there in 2000. There were 1,277 or 43.5% who were born in the same canton, while 290 or 9.9% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 158 or 5.4% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 20.7% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 59.8% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 19.6%. , there were 1,225 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 1,393 married individuals, 217 widows or widowers and 100 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 380 households that consist of only one person and 98 households with five or more people. , a total of 1,139 apartments (90.7% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 83 apartments (6.6%) were seasonally occupied and 34 apartments (2.7%) 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 4.5 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.3%. In 2012, single family homes made up 41.2% 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:3000 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:600 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:120 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width: 35 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1764 from:start till:959 text:"959" bar:1850 from:start till:2294 text:"2,294" bar:1860 from:start till:2256 text:"2,256" bar:1870 from:start till:2361 text:"2,361" bar:1880 from:start till:2511 text:"2,511" bar:1888 from:start till:2440 text:"2,440" bar:1900 from:start till:2567 text:"2,567" bar:1910 from:start till:2582 text:"2,582" bar:1920 from:start till:2639 text:"2,639" bar:1930 from:start till:2679 text:"2,679" bar:1941 from:start till:2820 text:"2,820" bar:1950 from:start till:2902 text:"2,902" bar:1960 from:start till:2816 text:"2,816" bar:1970 from:start till:2627 text:"2,627" bar:1980 from:start till:2611 text:"2,611" bar:1990 from:start till:2746 text:"2,746" bar:2000 from:start till:2935 text:"2,935" bar:2010 from:start till:2998 text:"2,998"

Economy

The headquarters of the company Blaser Swisslube AG, one of the leading manufacturers cooling agents and lubricants for industrial purposes, are located in the municipality of Rüegsau. , Rüegsau had an unemployment rate of 1.28%. , there were a total of 1,231 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 215 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 69 businesses involved in this sector. 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 ...

employs 408 people and there were 37 businesses in this sector. 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 ...

employs 608 people, with 123 businesses in this sector. There were 1,532 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 42.2% of the workforce. there were a total of 962

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 153, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 355 of which 321 or (90.4%) were in manufacturing and 31 (8.7%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 454. In the tertiary sector; 229 or 50.4% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 22 or 4.8% were in the movement and storage of goods, 33 or 7.3% were in a hotel or restaurant, 10 or 2.2% were the insurance or financial industry, 22 or 4.8% were technical professionals or scientists, 39 or 8.6% were in education and 68 or 15.0% were in health care. , there were 460 workers who commuted into the municipality and 961 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 2.1 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. A total of 571 workers (55.4% of the 1,031 total workers in the municipality) both lived and worked in Rüegsau.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 13.9% used public transportation to get to work, and 48.2% used a private car. In 2013 the average church, local and cantonal tax rate on a married resident, with two children, of Rüegsau making 150,000 CHF was 11.4%, while an unmarried resident's rate was 17.5%. For comparison, the median rate for all municipalities in the entire canton was 11.7% and 18.1%, while the nationwide median was 10.6% and 17.4% respectively. In 2011 there were a total of 1,235 tax payers in the municipality. Of that total, 358 made over 75,000 CHF per year. There were 5 people who made between 15,000 and 20,000 per year. The average income of the over 75,000 CHF group in Rüegsau was 113,315 CHF, while the average across all of Switzerland was 136,785 CHF. In 2011 a total of 4.2% of the population received direct financial assistance from the government.

Heritage sites of national significance

The Holzbrücke (wooden bridge) is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance.

Tourism

Tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism mor ...

plays a small, but not insignificant role for this municipality. Several

inn Inns are generally establishments or buildings where travelers can seek lodging, and usually, food and drink. Inns are typically located in the country or along a highway; before the advent of motorized transportation they also provided accommo ...

s, which are typical for the Emmental, provide accommodation; further, holidays on the farms are possible. A small

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

lies right on the Emme. The main attraction is the wooden bridge over the Emme between the municipalities of

and Rüegsau. With length, it is probably the largest wooden

arch bridge An arch bridge is a bridge with abutments at each end shaped as a curved arch. Arch bridges work by transferring the weight of the bridge and its loads partially into a horizontal thrust restrained by the abutments at either side. A viaduct ...

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

Transportation

Rüegsau shares a

train station A train station, railway station, railroad station or depot is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track and a station building providing s ...

with its neighboring village Hasle bei Burgdorf called Hasle-Rüegsau.

Politics

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 34.7% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (22.1%), the Social Democratic Party (SP) (11.1%) and the Federal Democratic Union of Switzerland (EDU) (8.4%). In the federal election, a total of 1,266 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 51.5%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election
accessed 8 May 2012

Religion

From the , 2,397 or 81.7% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church, while 152 or 5.2% 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 ...

. Of the rest of the population, there were 21 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.72% of the population), there were 2 individuals (or about 0.07% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 130 individuals (or about 4.43% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 18 (or about 0.61% of the population) who were Muslim. There were 2 individuals who were

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 ...

, 12 individuals who were

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 3 individuals who belonged to another church. 86 (or about 2.93% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 112 individuals (or about 3.82% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Rüegsau about 60.5% 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 ...

or a '' Fachhochschule''). Of the 258 who had completed some form of tertiary schooling listed in the census, 76.0% were Swiss men, 20.2% were Swiss women and 2.3% 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 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 2012–13 school year, there were a total of 459 students attending classes in Rüegsau. There were a total of 54 students in the German language kindergarten classes in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 3.7% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 5.6% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The municipality's primary school had 211 students in German language classes. Of the primary students, 3.8% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 8.5% have a different mother language than the classroom language. During the same year, the lower secondary school had a total of 194 students. There were 4.1% who were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 4.6% have a different mother language than the classroom language.Datei der Gemeinde- und Schultabellen
accessed 23 July 2014 , there were a total of 362 students attending any school in the municipality. Of those, 271 both lived and attended school in the municipality, while 91 students came from another municipality. During the same year, 149 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

References

External links

Official website of Rüegsau and Hasle bei Burgdorf
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ruegsau Municipalities of the canton of Bern Cultural property of national significance in the canton of Bern