Uebeschi 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 ...

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: Thou ...

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 ...

History

Uebeschi is first mentioned in 1233 as ''Ibisshe''. The oldest traces of settlements in the area come from scattered

neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several pa ...

and

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 ...

artifacts. Part of a wall, ceramic floor tiles, a stone path and coins have been found from the

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 ...

, indicating that there was a small settlement in the area. 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 ...

the village was part of the court and

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 Thierachern in the Strättligen '' Herrschaft''. While there is a

Ministerialis The ''ministeriales'' (singular: ''ministerialis'') were a class of people raised up from serfdom and placed in positions of power and responsibility in the High Middle Ages in the Holy Roman Empire. The word and its German translations, ''Minis ...

(unfree knights in the service of a

feudal Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structur ...

overlord) family von Uebeschi, there are no records that connect them to the village. In 1417 the village was donated to the

mendicant A mendicant (from la, mendicans, "begging") is one who practices mendicancy, relying chiefly or exclusively on alms to survive. In principle, mendicant religious orders own little property, either individually or collectively, and in many inst ...

Franciscan , image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans , abbreviation = OFM , predecessor = , ...

friars in

. 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 secularized all the property of the friars. Under Bernese rule, Uebeschi became part of the low court of

Amsoldingen Amsoldingen is a municipality in the Thun administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. History Amsoldingen is first mentioned in 1175 as ''Ansoltingen''. The oldest trace of a settlement in the area are the remains of a possib ...

in the district of

. Traditionally the village economy relied on farming and raising cattle. Today, agriculture remains important but about half of the working population commutes to jobs in Bern, Thun or other nearby towns.

Geography

Uebeschi has an area of . As of the 2004 survey, a total of or 89.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 2.5% is forested. Of rest of the municipality or 7.3% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.2% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.5% is unproductive land. Between the 1981 and 2004 surveys the settled area increased from to , an increase of 39.13%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 27 August 2014 From the same survey, housing and buildings made up 4.5% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.3%. A total of 1.1% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 43.0% is used for growing crops and 43.0% is pasturage, while 3.2% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is in lakes. It lies some to the southwest of the district capital

. It is located in the

drumlin A drumlin, from the Irish word ''droimnín'' ("littlest ridge"), first recorded in 1833, in the classical sense is an elongated hill in the shape of an inverted spoon or half-buried egg formed by glacial ice acting on underlying unconsolidated ...

landscape between the Stocken valley and

Aare The Aare () or Aar () is a tributary of the High Rhine and the longest river that both rises and ends entirely within Switzerland. Its total length from its source to its junction with the Rhine comprises about , during which distance it descen ...

valley. It consists of the village of Uebeschi, 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 ...

of Kärselen and scattered farmhouses.

Lake Uebeschi Uebeschisee is a small lake at Uebeschi, in the Upper Gürbetal, near Thun, Switzerland. It is located adjacent to the municipalities of Höfen, Amsoldingen and Uebeschi Uebeschi is a municipality in the administrative district of Thun in the ...

after which the village is named lies several hundred meters to the south, however a greater part of it belongs to the neighboring municipalities of

and Höfen. 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.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 ''Azure three Mullets Argent.''

Demographics

Uebeschi has a population () of . , 1.3% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Between the last 2 years (2010-2012) the population changed at a rate of -3.9%. Migration accounted for -3.7%, while births and deaths accounted for 0.0%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 10 October 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 ...

(660 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 (8 or 1.2%) and Albanian is the third (6 or 0.9%). , the population was 51.3% male and 48.7% female. The population was made up of 336 Swiss men (50.7% of the population) and 4 (0.6%) non-Swiss men. There were 319 Swiss women (48.1%) and 4 (0.6%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 208 or about 30.7% were born in Uebeschi and lived there in 2000. There were 351 or 51.8% who were born in the same canton, while 68 or 10.0% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 20 or 2.9% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 26.8% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 54.6% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 18.6%. , there were 295 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 329 married individuals, 32 widows or widowers and 22 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 70 households that consist of only one person and 35 households with five or more people. , a total of 221 apartments (89.1% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 20 apartments (8.1%) were seasonally occupied and 7 apartments (2.8%) 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 0.3%. In 2012, single family homes made up 43.3% 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:690 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:100 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:20 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width: 35 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1764 from:start till:274 text:"274" bar:1850 from:start till:652 text:"652" bar:1860 from:start till:588 text:"588" bar:1870 from:start till:542 text:"542" bar:1880 from:start till:530 text:"530" bar:1888 from:start till:468 text:"468" bar:1900 from:start till:506 text:"506" bar:1910 from:start till:452 text:"452" bar:1920 from:start till:445 text:"445" bar:1930 from:start till:443 text:"443" bar:1941 from:start till:437 text:"437" bar:1950 from:start till:480 text:"480" bar:1960 from:start till:486 text:"486" bar:1970 from:start till:493 text:"493" bar:1980 from:start till:546 text:"546" bar:1990 from:start till:584 text:"584" bar:2000 from:start till:678 text:"678" bar:2010 from:start till:681 text:"681"

Economy

, Uebeschi had an unemployment rate of 0.69%. , there were a total of 162 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 90 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 35 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 construc ...

employs 28 people and there were 13 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 44 people, with 20 businesses in this sector. There were 344 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 41.6% of the workforce. there were a total of 93

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 56, all in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 17 of which 9 or (52.9%) were in manufacturing and 8 (47.1%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 20. In the tertiary sector; 1 was in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 2 or 10.0% were in a hotel or restaurant, 5 or 25.0% were in the information industry, 1 was a technical professional or scientist, 7 or 35.0% were in education and 1 was in health care. , there were 28 workers who commuted into the municipality and 244 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 8.7 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. A total of 100 workers (78.1% of the 128 total workers in the municipality) both lived and worked in Uebeschi.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 13.4% used public transportation to get to work, and 57% used a private car. The local and cantonal tax rate in Uebeschi 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 Uebeschi making 150,000 CHF was 12.5%, while an unmarried resident's rate was 18.8%. 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 267 tax payers in the municipality. Of that total, 71 made over 75,000 CHF per year. There were 3 people who made between 15,000 and 20,000 per year. The greatest number of workers, 83, made between 50,000 and 75,000 CHF per year. The average income of the over 75,000 CHF group in Uebeschi was 104,541 CHF, while the average across all of Switzerland was 131,244 CHF. In 2011 a total of 5.5% 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 43.6% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Federal Democratic Union of Switzerland (EDU) (14.3%), the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (13.2%) and the Social Democratic Party (SP) (8.1%). In the federal election, a total of 290 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 56.8%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election
accessed 8 May 2012

Religion

From the , 490 or 72.3% 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 33 or 4.9% 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 ...

. Of the rest of the population, there was 1 member of an Orthodox church, and there were 85 individuals (or about 12.54% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 7 (or about 1.03% of the population) who were

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

. 34 (or about 5.01% 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 28 individuals (or about 4.13% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Uebeschi about 59.2% of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 13.3% 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 56 who had completed some form of tertiary schooling listed in the census, 78.6% were Swiss men, 19.6% 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 2012-13 school year, there were a total of 79 students attending classes in Uebeschi. There were a total of 11 students in the German language kindergarten classes and 68 students in German language primary classes.Datei der Gemeinde- und Schultabellen
accessed 23 July 2014 The secondary students go to Thierachern for their schooling. , there were a total of 57 students attending any school in the municipality. Of those, 49 both lived and attended school in the municipality, while 8 students came from another municipality. During the same year, 50 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Municipalities of the canton of Bern