Wiggiswil 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 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

Wiggiswil is first mentioned in 1219 as ''Wigersvile''. The oldest trace of a settlement in the area comes from scattered prehistoric flint tools which were found around the

Moossee Moossee (or ''Grosser Moossee'') is a lake in the Canton of Berne, Switzerland. Its surface area is . The lake gives the name to Moosseedorf (literally "village of Moossee") on its southern shore. The golf course Moossee is located east of the lake ...

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 ...

artifacts have been discovered in Wiggiswil village and at Seerain. Throughout its history Wiggiswil has always been dependent on the neighboring village of

Deisswil bei Münchenbuchsee Deisswil bei Münchenbuchsee is a municipality in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. History Deisswil bei Münchenbuchsee is first mentioned in 1263 as ''Teiswile''. Some Roman era bricks and w ...

. Even in the 21st century, the two small municipalities share a single town council. It is 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 ...

Münchenbuchsee Münchenbuchsee is a municipality in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It is famous as the birthplace of the painter Paul Klee. On 1 January 2023 the former municipality of Diemerswil merged to f ...

. In 1973 the A6 motorway was built through the municipality. The motorway connects Wiggiswil to the cities of

and

Biel/Bienne Biel/Bienne (official bilingual wording; , ) is a List of towns in Switzerland, town and a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Biel/Bienne (administrative district), Biel/Bienne administrative district in the canton of Bern in Swi ...

, however, the village has remained mostly agricultural. The village is home to the famous Moospinte hotel and restaurant which is over 150 years old. During World War II, Swiss commanding general

Henri Guisan Henri Guisan (; 21 October 1874 – 7 April 1960) was a Swiss army officer who held the office of the General of the Swiss Armed Forces during the Second World War. He was the fourth and the most recent man to be appointed to the rarely use ...

sometimes used the Moospinte for secret meetings with government officials. The current restaurant is still very well regarded and the

Gault Millau Gault et Millau is a French restaurant guide. It was founded by two restaurant critics, Henri Gault and Christian Millau in 1965. Points system Gault Millau rates on a scale of 1 to 20, with 20 being the highest. Restaurants given below 10 points ...

guide gives it a 16 out of 20 rating.

Geography

Wiggiswil has an area of . Of this area, or 68.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 12.6% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 16.8% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.7% is either rivers or lakes and or 1.4% is unproductive land.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010 Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 3.5% and transportation infrastructure made up 8.4%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 4.2%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 55.9% is used for growing crops and 11.2% is pastures, while 1.4% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is in lakes. The municipality is located on the north-west edge of the

valley. On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Fraubrunnen, 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 a Griffin Argent beaked, langued, winged, membered and armed Or.''

Demographics

Wiggiswil has a population () of . , 4.0% 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 14.8%. Migration accounted for 9.1%, while births and deaths accounted for 6.8%.
accessed 20 February 2013 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 ...

(89 or 91.8%) as their first language,

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

is the second most common (3 or 3.1%) and

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

is the third (2 or 2.1%). , the population was 47.5% male and 52.5% female. The population was made up of 45 Swiss men (44.6% of the population) and 3 non-Swiss men. There were 52 Swiss women (51.5%) and 1 non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 29 or about 29.9% were born in Wiggiswil and lived there in 2000. There were 41 or 42.3% who were born in the same canton, while 10 or 10.3% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 15 or 15.5% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 20.8% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 60.4% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 18.8%. , there were 50 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 39 married individuals, 3 widows or widowers and 5 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 10 households that consist of only one person and 2 households with five or more people. , a total of 34 apartments (89.5% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 2 apartments (5.3%) were seasonally occupied and 2 apartments (5.3%) were empty.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen
accessed 28 January 2011 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:150 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:30 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:6 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1764 from:start till:58 text:"58" bar:1850 from:start till:117 text:"117" bar:1860 from:start till:142 text:"142" bar:1870 from:start till:121 text:"121" bar:1880 from:start till:110 text:"110" bar:1888 from:start till:135 text:"135" bar:1900 from:start till:139 text:"139" bar:1910 from:start till:100 text:"100" bar:1920 from:start till:124 text:"124" bar:1930 from:start till:119 text:"119" bar:1941 from:start till:117 text:"117" bar:1950 from:start till:127 text:"127" bar:1960 from:start till:112 text:"112" bar:1970 from:start till:109 text:"109" bar:1980 from:start till:104 text:"104" bar:1990 from:start till:92 text:"92" bar:2000 from:start till:97 text:"97"

Sights

The entire

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 Wiggiswil is designated as part of the

Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites The Federal Inventory of Heritage Sites (ISOS) is part of a 1981 Ordinance of the Swiss Federal Council implementing the Federal Law on the Protection of Nature and Cultural Heritage. Sites of national importance Types The types are based on t ...

Politics

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 42.5% of the vote. The next two most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (17.9%), and the Social Democratic Party (SP) (12.3%). In the federal election, a total of 104 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 65.4%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election
accessed 8 May 2012

Economy

, Wiggiswil had an unemployment rate of 0.86%. , there were a total of 51 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 24 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 6 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 construction. ...

and there was 1 business in this sector. 21 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 1 business in this sector. There were 68 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 36.8% of the workforce. there were a total of 41

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 17, all in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 5, all in manufacturing. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 19, all in a hotel or restaurant. , there were 13 workers who commuted into the municipality and 34 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 2.6 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 8.8% used public transportation to get to work, and 44.1% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 14 or 14.4% 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 62 or 63.9% 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 5 members of an Orthodox church (or about 5.15% of the population). 14 (or about 14.43% 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 2 individuals (or about 2.06% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Wiggiswil about 44 or (45.4%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 24 or (24.7%) 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 24 who completed tertiary schooling, 50.0% were Swiss men, 41.7% 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 2010-11 school year, there were a total of 13 students attending classes in Wiggiswil. There were no kindergarten classes in the municipality. There were 12 primary students from the municipality who attended school in a neighboring municipality. During the same year, there was one lower secondary class with one student.Schuljahr 2010/11 pdf document
accessed 4 January 2012 , there were 8 students in Wiggiswil who came from another municipality, while 3 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

References

{{Authority control Municipalities of the canton of Bern