Wachseldorn 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

Thun , neighboring_municipalities= Amsoldingen, Heiligenschwendi, Heimberg, Hilterfingen, Homberg, Schwendibach, Spiez, Steffisburg, Thierachern, Uetendorf, Zwieselberg , twintown = , website = www.thun.ch Thun (french: Thoune) ...

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 ...

History

Wachseldorn is first mentioned in 1293 as ''Wachseldorn''. The farms and land that now make up Wachseldorn were originally 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 Diessbach. In 1356 it was donated to

Interlaken Abbey , order = Augustinians , established = by 1133 , disestablished = 1528 , mother = , dedication = , diocese = Lausanne , churches = , founder = Ba ...

. Around 1399, the area was administered by the

ese Röthenbach court. In 1528 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 in ...

and suppressed Interlaken Abbey. Whatever claims the Abbey still had to Wachseldorn were transferred to Bern after the Abbey was closed. In the following year, Wachseldorn became part of the

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 ...

Signau Signau is a municipality in the administrative district of Emmental in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. History Signau is first mentioned between 1130 and 1146 as ''Sigenowo''. Scattered mesolithic, Bronze Age and medieval artifacts indicat ...

in the district of

Konolfingen Konolfingen is a municipality in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. History Konolfingen village is first mentioned in 1148 as ''Chonolfingen''. It is a relatively new municipality, having been ...

. In 1864 it was moved to the

Thun District Thun District was one of the 25 administrative districts in the canton of Bern, Switzerland. Its capital was the municipality of Thun. The district had an area of 285 km2 and consists of 27 municipalities A municipality is usually a single ...

. In 1805 the municipalities of Buchholterberg and Wachseldorn-Gützenschwendi merged to form a single municipality. However, the relationship was short lived and following disagreements, they separated into Wachseldorn and Buchholterberg in 1823. Originally it was part of the large

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 ...

Oberdiessbach Oberdiessbach is a municipality in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. On 1 January 2010 the former municipality of Aeschlen and on 1 January 2014, Bleiken bei Oberdiessbach merged into the municipal ...

. It became part of the parish of Buchholterberg in 1860. Today about three-quarters of jobs in the municipality are in agriculture, though many residents commute to jobs in or around Thun. The first school in the municipality was probably built in 1660, though very little is known about that building. The current school sits on the same site as an earlier school from 1832. The current building dates back to 1957. A kindergarten was added in 1980. On 21 March 2011 the town council made the decision to close the school as attendance numbers had dropped. The kindergarten remains open, but primary and secondary students travel to Buchholterberg or Oberlangenegg.

Geography

Wachseldorn has an area of . As of the 2006 survey, a total of or 70.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 24.7% is forested. Of rest of the municipality or 5.1% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.3% 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 3.7% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.4%. A total of 23.6% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.1% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 17.9% is used for growing crops and 51.4% is pasturage, while 1.1% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. The farms and small settlements that make up the municipality are scattered around the Buchholterberg mountain. It consists of the villages of Wachseldorn-Dorf and Süderen. On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Thun, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Thun.
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 ''Or a Shrub Branch with Thorns Sable and leaved Vert.''

Demographics

Wachseldorn has a population () of . , 0.9% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Between the last 2 years (2010-2012) the population was unchanged. Migration accounted for -2.6%, while births and deaths accounted for -1.8%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 15 October 2014 All 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 ...

as their first language. , the population was 51.9% male and 48.1% female. The population was made up of 123 Swiss men (51.9% of the population) and (0.0%) non-Swiss men. There were 112 Swiss women (47.3%) and 2 (0.8%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 161 or about 57.3% were born in Wachseldorn and lived there in 2000. There were 95 or 33.8% who were born in the same canton, while 13 or 4.6% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 1 or 0.4% 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 57.0% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 21.9%. , there were 123 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 139 married individuals, 13 widows or widowers and 6 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 25 households that consist of only one person and 10 households with five or more people. , a total of 81 apartments (89.0% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 6 apartments (6.6%) were seasonally occupied and 4 apartments (4.4%) 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 4.4 new units per 1000 residents. In 2012, single family homes made up 22.2% 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:360 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:70 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:14 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width: 35 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1764 from:start till:155 text:"155" bar:1850 from:start till:347 text:"347" bar:1860 from:start till:322 text:"322" bar:1870 from:start till:358 text:"358" bar:1880 from:start till:351 text:"351" bar:1888 from:start till:354 text:"354" bar:1900 from:start till:334 text:"334" bar:1910 from:start till:294 text:"294" bar:1920 from:start till:298 text:"298" bar:1930 from:start till:318 text:"318" bar:1941 from:start till:310 text:"310" bar:1950 from:start till:342 text:"342" bar:1960 from:start till:331 text:"331" bar:1970 from:start till:301 text:"301" bar:1980 from:start till:305 text:"305" bar:1990 from:start till:285 text:"285" bar:2000 from:start till:281 text:"281" bar:2010 from:start till:228 text:"228"

Economy

, Wachseldorn had an unemployment rate of 2.58%. , there were a total of 78 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 53 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 23 businesses involved in this sector. No one was 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. ...

. 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 25 people, with 12 businesses in this sector. There were 150 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 41.3% of the workforce. there were a total of 56

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 39, all of which were in agriculture. There was one manufacturing job in the municipality. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 16. In the tertiary sector; 10 or 62.5% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 2 or 12.5% were in the movement and storage of goods, 3 or 18.8% were in a hotel or restaurant. , there were 16 workers who commuted into the municipality and 91 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 5.7 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. A total of 59 workers (78.7% of the 75 total workers in the municipality) both lived and worked in Wachseldorn.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 9.3% used public transportation to get to work, and 54% used a private car. The local and cantonal tax rate in Wachseldorn is one of the lowest in the canton. In 2012 the average local and cantonal tax rate on a married resident, with two children, of Wachseldorn making 150,000 CHF was 12.5%, while an unmarried resident's rate was 18.7%. For comparison, the average rate for the entire canton in 2011, was 14.2% and 22.0%, while the nationwide average was 12.3% and 21.1% respectively. In 2010 there were a total of 84 tax payers in the municipality. Of that total, 14 made over 75,000 CHF per year. There was one person who made between 15,000 and 20,000 per year. The greatest number of workers, 26, made between 40,000 and 50,000 CHF per year. The average income of the over 75,000 CHF group in Wachseldorn was 87,943 CHF, while the average across all of Switzerland was 131,244 CHF. In 2011 a total of 2.3% of the population received direct financial assistance from the government.

Politics

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 68.2% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (10.4%), the Evangelical People's Party (EVP) (4.7%) and the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...

(4.6%). In the federal election, a total of 114 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 61.6%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election
accessed 8 May 2012

Religion

From the , 248 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 9 or 3.2% 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 lette ...

. Of the rest of the population, there were 6 individuals (or about 2.14% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. 8 (or about 2.85% 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 10 individuals (or about 3.56% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Wachseldorn about 47.3% of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 6.9% 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 10 who had completed some form of tertiary schooling listed in the census, 80.0% were Swiss men, 20.0% 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 2012-13 school year, there were a total of 17 students attending kindergarten classes in Wachseldorn. Of the kindergarten students, 11.8% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and had a different mother language than the classroom language.Datei der Gemeinde- und Schultabellen
accessed 23 July 2014 , there were a total of 18 students attending any school in the municipality. Of those, 8 both lived and attended school in the municipality, while 10 students came from another municipality. During the same year, 31 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

References

{{Authority control Municipalities of the canton of Bern