Kirchenthurnen is a former

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 ...

in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district 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 ente ...

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 ...

. On 1 January 2020 the former municipalities of Kirchenthurnen, Lohnstorf and Mühlethurnen merged to form the municipality of Thurnen.

History

Kirchenthurnen is first mentioned in 1228 as ''Tornes''. Until 1860 it was known as ''Thurnen''. The name was changed to prevent confusion with the municipality of Mühlethurnen. The oldest trace of a settlement in the area are several Hallstatt era graves discovered at the Ried gravel pit. By the 14th century the village was owned by the von Blankenburg family from

The village church was first mentioned in 1228. In 1343 the village, church and surrounding lands were donated by the Blankenburgs to

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

. 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 i ...

and forcefully secularized Interlaken Abbey. This brought Kirchenthurnen under Bernese rule and it became the center 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 Thurnen, though in the 18th century it moved to Mühlethurnen. In the 19th century the population began to grow for a while, though it dropped after 1880. In the 1960s it grew again as Bern expanded and commuters moved into more distant communities. By 2000, about two-thirds of the working population commute to jobs outside the municipality.

Geography

2010-03-28 Kirchenthurnen (Foto Dietrich Michael Weidmann) 186

Kirchenthurnen has an area of . As of 2012, a total of or 77.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 10.4% is forested. The rest of the municipality is or 12.0% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.8% is either rivers or lakes.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010 During the same year, housing and buildings made up 8.0% and transportation infrastructure made up 3.2%. All of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 46.4% is used for growing crops and 30.4% is pasturage. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. It is located in the

Gürbetal Gürbetal (Gürbe Valley) in Switzerland lies between the towns of Bern and Thun, west of the Aare. It contains the municipality of Seftigen and those that surround it. The valley is named after the river Gürbe, which flows through it. The largest ...

(Gürbe valley) on the eastern slope of the Längenberg. 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 ...

of Kirchenthurnen includes

Burgistein Burgistein is a municipality in the administrative district of Thun in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. History Burgistein is first mentioned in 1266 as ''Burgstein'' and in 1271 as ''Burgenstein''. The oldest traces of a settlement in the ar ...

Kaufdorf Kaufdorf is a municipality in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. History Kaufdorf is first mentioned in 1148 as ''Cuffedorf''. The village of Kaufdorf first appears in a record in 1319 when it was ...

, Lohnstorf, Mühlethurnen and Rümligen. On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Seftigen, 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 ...

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 ''Gules a Tower embatteled Argent.''

Demographics

Kirchenthurnen has a population () of . , 2.9% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 2 years (2010-2012) the population has changed at a rate of -0.4%. Migration accounted for -0.7%, while births and deaths accounted for 1.1%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 1 April 2014 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 **Ge ...

(284 or 97.3%) as their first language,

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

is the second most common (3 or 1.0%). , the population was 45.1% male and 54.9% female. The population was made up of 118 Swiss men (43.2% of the population) and 5 (1.8%) non-Swiss men. There were 146 Swiss women (53.5%) and 4 (1.5%) non-Swiss women.Statistical office of the Canton of Bern
accessed 4 January 2012 Of the population in the municipality, 73 or about 25.0% were born in Kirchenthurnen and lived there in 2000. There were 164 or 56.2% who were born in the same canton, while 36 or 12.3% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 15 or 5.1% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 16.9% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 59.9% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 23.2%. , there were 110 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 142 married individuals, 22 widows or widowers and 18 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 39 households that consist of only one person and 3 households with five or more people. , a total of 126 apartments (91.3% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 3 apartments (2.2%) were seasonally occupied and 9 apartments (6.5%) were empty.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen
accessed 28 January 2011 The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.6896551724%. In 2011, single family homes made up 40.3% 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:380 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:80 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:16 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width: 35 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1764 from:start till:96 text:"96" bar:1850 from:start till:284 text:"284" bar:1860 from:start till:292 text:"292" bar:1870 from:start till:293 text:"293" bar:1880 from:start till:306 text:"306" bar:1888 from:start till:286 text:"286" bar:1900 from:start till:277 text:"277" bar:1910 from:start till:209 text:"209" bar:1920 from:start till:211 text:"211" bar:1930 from:start till:206 text:"206" bar:1941 from:start till:198 text:"198" bar:1950 from:start till:199 text:"199" bar:1960 from:start till:215 text:"215" bar:1970 from:start till:375 text:"375" bar:1980 from:start till:328 text:"328" bar:1990 from:start till:310 text:"310" bar:2000 from:start till:292 text:"292" bar:2010 from:start till:269 text:"269"

Politics

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 35.6% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (20%), the Federal Democratic Union of Switzerland (EDU) (10.7%) and the Social Democratic Party (SP) (8.3%). 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 Univ ...

was 49.8%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election
accessed 8 May 2012

Economy

, Kirchenthurnen had an unemployment rate of 2.15%. , there were a total of 56 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 23 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 8 businesses involved in this sector. 19 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 construc ...

and there was 1 business in this sector. 14 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 7 businesses in this sector. There were 165 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 43.6% of the workforce. there were a total of 43

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 13, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 23 of which 2 or (8.7%) were in manufacturing and 20 (87.0%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 7 of which 3 were in education. , there were 29 workers who commuted into the municipality and 126 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 4.3 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. A total of 39 workers (57.4% of the 68 total workers in the municipality) both lived and worked in Kirchenthurnen.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 15.8% used public transportation to get to work, and 55.2% used a private car. In 2011 the average local and cantonal tax rate on a married resident, with two children, of Kirchenthurnen making 150,000 CHF was 12.5%, while an unmarried resident's rate was 18.3%. For comparison, the average rate for the entire canton in the same year, was 14.2% and 22.0%, while the nationwide average was 12.3% and 21.1% respectively. In 2009 there were a total of 141 tax payers in the municipality. Of that total, 25 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, 47, made between 50,000 and 75,000 CHF per year. The average income of the over 75,000 CHF group in Kirchenthurnen was 104,764 CHF, while the average across all of Switzerland was 130,478 CHF. In 2011 a total of 2.9% of the population received direct financial assistance from the government.

Religion

From the , 259 or 88.7% 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 12 or 4.1% 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 4 members of an Orthodox church (or about 1.37% of the population), and there were 3 individuals (or about 1.03% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. 11 (or about 3.77% 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 sufficien ...

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 1.03% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Kirchenthurnen about 63.1% of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 12.7% 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 Stat ...

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 art ...

''). Of the 23 who had completed some form of tertiary schooling listed in the census, 69.6% were Swiss men, 21.7% 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 cen ...

, 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 2011-12 school year, there were a total of 39 students attending classes from Kirchenthurnen. There was one kindergarten class with a total of 15 students in the municipality. The municipality had no primary school classes, but 18 students attended school in a neighboring municipality. During the same year, there was one lower secondary class with a total of 6 students.Schuljahr 2011/12 pdf document
accessed 9 May 2013 , there were a total of 29 students attending any school in the municipality. Of those, 22 both lived and attended school in the municipality, while 7 students came from another municipality. During the same year, 10 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Former municipalities of the canton of Bern