Zwieselberg 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 Canton may refer to: Administrative division terminology * Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries, notably Switzerland * Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French Arts and ent ...

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

Zwieselberg is first mentioned in 1345 as ''der Zwiselberg''. The oldest trace of a settlement in the area are a

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

ruin at Bürgli and a grave at Bühl. A small

Roman 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 letter ...

settlement was built on the ruin at Bürgli. The Romans also built a

lime kiln A lime kiln is a kiln used for the calcination of limestone (calcium carbonate) to produce the form of lime (material), lime called quicklime (calcium oxide). The chemical equation for this chemical reaction, reaction is :Calcium carbonate, Ca ...

at Chalchmädere. During the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

the region was 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 Strättligen. In 1466 the

ese Lords of Bubenberg acquired the Strättligen lands, including Zwieselberg. Toward the end of the 15th century, the Bubenbergs sold or gave Zwieselberg and the surrounding lands to the city of Bern. Under Bernese rule it was 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 ...

of Wimmis, the military

levy Levy, Lévy or Levies may refer to: People * Levy (surname), people with the surname Levy or Lévy * Levy Adcock (born 1988), American football player * Levy Barent Cohen (1747–1808), Dutch-born British financier and community worker * Levy Fi ...

of Seftigen and the religious

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 Amsoldingen. Following the 1798 French invasion and 1803

Act of Mediation The Act of Mediation () was issued by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the French Republic on 19 February 1803 establishing the Swiss Confederation. The act also abolished the previous Helvetic Republic, which had existed since the invasion ...

it joined the newly created

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 1815 the Simmentalstrasse connected the old horse stations of Hani and Glütsch in Zwieselberg to the rest of the canton. The municipality has remained rural and generally agrarian. Today about half of the local jobs are in agriculture, though nearly three-quarters of the working population commutes to jobs in or around Bern and Thun. In 2008 Zwieselberg, Reutigen, Oberstocken and Niederstocken formed the Stockental School District.

Geography

Zwieselberg has an area of . As of the 2004 survey, a total of or 62.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 26.1% is forested. Of rest of the municipality or 9.8% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.4% is either rivers or lakes. Between the 1981 and 2004 surveys the settled area increased from to , an increase of 41.18%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 27 August 2014 From the same survey, industrial buildings made up 2.4% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 4.5% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.9%. All of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 22.4% is used for growing crops and 36.7% is pasturage, while 3.7% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. The municipality is located in the Zwieselburg hills between the Reutigmoos and the Glütschbach Valley. It consists of a number of small, scattered farm houses in the hills. 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 ''Gules a Castle Argent on a Mount of 3 Coupeaux Vert and in Chief a Mullet Or between two Roses of the second barbed and seeded proper.''

Demographics

Zwieselberg has a population () of . , 1.4% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Between the last 2 years (2010-2012) the population changed at a rate of 4.4%. Migration accounted for 4.1%, while births and deaths accounted for 0.7%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 16 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 49.8% male and 50.2% female. The population was made up of 143 Swiss men (49.5% of the population) and 1 (0.3%) non-Swiss men. There were 142 Swiss women (49.1%) and 3 (1.0%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 85 or about 36.0% were born in Zwieselberg and lived there in 2000. There were 118 or 50.0% who were born in the same canton, while 26 or 11.0% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 2 or 0.8% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 28.0% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 56.0% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 16.0%. , there were 105 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 110 married individuals, 15 widows or widowers and 6 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 21 households that consist of only one person and 11 households with five or more people. , a total of 91 apartments (89.2% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 6 apartments (5.9%) were seasonally occupied and 5 apartments (4.9%) 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 10.6 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 5.0%. In 2012, single family homes made up 42.9% 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:270 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:50 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:10 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width: 35 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1764 from:start till:130 text:"130" bar:1850 from:start till:257 text:"257" bar:1860 from:start till:226 text:"226" bar:1870 from:start till:219 text:"219" bar:1880 from:start till:216 text:"216" bar:1888 from:start till:204 text:"204" bar:1900 from:start till:227 text:"227" bar:1910 from:start till:243 text:"243" bar:1920 from:start till:246 text:"246" bar:1930 from:start till:246 text:"246" bar:1941 from:start till:264 text:"264" bar:1950 from:start till:253 text:"253" bar:1960 from:start till:240 text:"240" bar:1970 from:start till:230 text:"230" bar:1980 from:start till:248 text:"248" bar:1990 from:start till:241 text:"241" bar:2000 from:start till:236 text:"236" bar:2010 from:start till:269 text:"269"

Economy

, Zwieselberg had an unemployment rate of 0.88%. , there were a total of 67 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 28 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 9 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 construction. ...

employs 6 people and there were 2 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 33 people, with 16 businesses in this sector. There were 132 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 43.9% of the workforce. there were a total of 34

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 8 of which 2 were in manufacturing and 6 were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 9; 2 in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 1 was a technical professional or scientist and 2 were in education. , there were 6 workers who commuted into the municipality and 94 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 15.7 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. A total of 38 workers (86.4% of the 44 total workers in the municipality) both lived and worked in Zwieselberg.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 9.8% used public transportation to get to work, and 59.8% used a private car. The local and cantonal tax rate in Zwieselberg 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 Zwieselberg making 150,000 CHF was 12.6%, while an unmarried resident's rate was 18.9%. 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 98 tax payers in the municipality. Of that total, 30 made over 75,000 CHF per year. The average income of the over 75,000 CHF group in Zwieselberg was 113,460 CHF, while the average across all of Switzerland was 131,244 CHF. In 2011 a total of 1.8% 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 40.8% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (18.0%), the Social Democratic Party (SP) (12.2%) 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 ...

(10.9%). In the federal election, a total of 111 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 53.6%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election
accessed 8 May 2012

Religion

From the , 203 or 86.0% 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 11 or 4.7% 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 2.54% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. 13 (or about 5.51% 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 1.27% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Zwieselberg about 58.5% of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 23.1% 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 31 who had completed some form of tertiary schooling listed in the census, 61.3% were Swiss men, 38.7% 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 2012–13 school year, there were a total of 17 students attending classes in the primary school in Zwieselberg.Datei der Gemeinde- und Schultabellen
accessed 23 July 2014 , there were a total of 11 students attending any school in the municipality. Of those, 11 both lived and attended school in the municipality, while 14 students from Zwieselberg attended schools outside the municipality.

References

{{Authority control Municipalities of the canton of Bern