Biglen 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 in Switzerland.

History

Biglen is first mentioned in 894 as ''Pigiluna''. In 1236 it was mentioned as ''Biglun''. The earliest traces of a settlement in the area are scattered Roman era artifacts which have been found throughout the municipality. Very little is known about the village in the Middle Ages. In the 14th century Heinrich von Biglen, a citizen of Bern, acquired much of the village. He donated the village to the Niederspital of Bern in 1359. The village was part of several districts before being assigned to the Amtsbezirk Konolfingen in 1803. The first village church was probably built in the 11th century and was mentioned in 1236 as the Church of St. Peter. The current church building is from 1521. It was the

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

for a parish that included several near by farms and villages. Traditionally the village economy relied on subsistence agriculture. However, in the 18th century local farmers began to raise grass which they could harvest as hay for cattle. By the 19th century, dairy farming had replaced traditional agriculture. The first dairy and cheese maker opened in the area in 1828. A village school opened in 1878. In 1899 the Burgdorf-

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

Railway connected the village to the growing rail network. Easy transportation links allowed industry to flourish in Biglen. By 1990 over half of the jobs in Biglen were in industry and many other workers commuted to Bern or other towns for jobs.

Geography

Ruettihubelbad kaj marcho de Walkringen - vintra pejsagho 094

Biglen has an area of . Of this area, or 72.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 6.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 21.2% is settled (buildings or roads).Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010 Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 1.9% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 12.3% and transportation infrastructure made up 6.1%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 47.6% is used for growing crops and 23.1% is pastures, while 1.7% is used for orchards or vine crops. The municipality includes the village of Biglen, the

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 ...

Enetbach and individual farm houses. On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Konolfingen, 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 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 fess Gules and Azure a double Cross in bend couped counterchanged.''

Demographics

Biglen has a population () of . , 6.7% 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 -5.5%. Migration accounted for -2.2%, while births and deaths accounted for 0.1%.
accessed 15 April 2013 Most of the population () speaks German (1,698 or 94.9%) 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 (26 or 1.5%) and Albanian is the third (23 or 1.3%). There are 9 people who speak French and 5 people who speak Romansh. , the population was 49.4% male and 50.6% female. The population was made up of 791 Swiss men (45.9% of the population) and 61 (3.5%) non-Swiss men. There were 817 Swiss women (47.4%) and 55 (3.2%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 525 or about 29.3% were born in Biglen and lived there in 2000. There were 887 or 49.6% who were born in the same canton, while 188 or 10.5% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 138 or 7.7% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 21.8% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 60.4% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 17.7%. , there were 757 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 893 married individuals, 93 widows or widowers and 47 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 203 households that consist of only one person and 58 households with five or more people. , a total of 712 apartments (93.3% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 33 apartments (4.3%) were seasonally occupied and 18 apartments (2.4%) 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 0.6 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 2.65%. 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:35 bottom:20 right:35 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:1800 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:400 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:80 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width: 35 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1764 from:start till:495 text:"495" bar:1850 from:start till:930 text:"930" bar:1860 from:start till:928 text:"928" bar:1870 from:start till:937 text:"937" bar:1880 from:start till:942 text:"942" bar:1888 from:start till:915 text:"915" bar:1900 from:start till:966 text:"966" bar:1910 from:start till:960 text:"960" bar:1920 from:start till:1097 text:"1,097" bar:1930 from:start till:1117 text:"1,117" bar:1941 from:start till:1251 text:"1,251" bar:1950 from:start till:1299 text:"1,299" bar:1960 from:start till:1359 text:"1,359" bar:1970 from:start till:1542 text:"1,542" bar:1980 from:start till:1437 text:"1,437" bar:1990 from:start till:1638 text:"1,638" bar:2000 from:start till:1790 text:"1,790"

Politics

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 32.6% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (24%), the Social Democratic Party (SP) (12.2%) and the FDP.The Liberals (7.5%). In the federal election, a total of 670 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 50.0%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election
accessed 8 May 2012

Economy

, Biglen had an unemployment rate of 1.35%. , there were a total of 658 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 54 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 22 businesses involved in this sector. 316 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 22 businesses in this sector. 288 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 48 businesses in this sector. There were 973 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 43.5% of the workforce. there were a total of 521

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 30, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 278 of which 206 or (74.1%) were in manufacturing and 72 (25.9%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 213. In the tertiary sector; 66 or 31.0% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 12 or 5.6% were in the movement and storage of goods, 8 or 3.8% were the insurance or financial industry, 29 or 13.6% were technical professionals or scientists, 28 or 13.1% were in education and 46 or 21.6% were in health care. , there were 394 workers who commuted into the municipality and 677 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.7 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 18.4% used public transportation to get to work, and 53.1% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 159 or 8.9% 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 ...

, while 1,401 or 78.3% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 3 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.17% of the population), and there were 135 individuals (or about 7.54% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 38 (or about 2.12% of the population) who were Islamic. 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 ...

, 8 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 1 individual who belonged to another church. 48 (or about 2.68% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 60 individuals (or about 3.35% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Biglen about 761 or (42.5%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 191 or (10.7%) 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 ...

or a '' Fachhochschule''). Of the 191 who completed tertiary schooling, 74.3% were Swiss men, 20.9% were Swiss women, 4.2% were non-Swiss men. 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 2010–11 school year, there were a total of 262 students attending classes in Biglen. There were 2 kindergarten classes with a total of 24 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 4.2% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The municipality had 6 primary classes and 110 students. Of the primary students, 11.8% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 8.2% have a different mother language than the classroom language. During the same year, there were 7 lower secondary classes with a total of 128 students. There were 5.5% who were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 5.5% have a different mother language than the classroom language.Schuljahr 2010/11 pdf document
accessed 4 January 2012 , there were 63 students in Biglen who came from another municipality, while 45 residents attended schools outside the municipality. Biglen is home to the ''Schul- und Gemeindebibliothek Biglen'' (municipal library of Biglen). The library has () 5,259 books or other media, and loaned out 10,699 items in the same year. It was open a total of 162 days with average of 4.5 hours per week during that year.
accessed 14 May 2010

Transportation

The municipality has a railway station, , on the Burgdorf–Thun line. It has regular service to , , and .

References

External links

* {{Authority control