Dotzigen 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 Seeland 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

Dotzigen is first mentioned in 1182 as ''Tocingen''. The earliest trace of settlements in Dotzigen are six

Hallstatt Hallstatt ( , , ) is a small town in the district of Gmunden, in the Austrian state of Upper Austria. Situated between the southwestern shore of Hallstätter See and the steep slopes of the Dachstein massif, the town lies in the Salzkammergut ...

grave mounds A tumulus (plural tumuli) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or ''kurgans'', and may be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, which is a mound of stones built ...

on the Dotzigenberg. This was followed by a

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 ...

settlement near the current village center. 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 ...

it 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 Strassberg, which was acquired in 1393 by

. It was part of the low court of Diesbach in 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 Büren. The village church of St. Mauritius was first mentioned in 1242. After 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 in ...

, in 1531, it came under Bernese control and 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 ...

was immediately dissolved. At first the village was part of the parish of Büren and then later of Diessbach. The village was along the Büren-

Aarberg Aarberg is a historic town and a municipality in the Seeland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. Aarberg lies 20 kilometers from Bern above the river Aare. With an area of , Aarberg borders Bargen, Kappelen, Lyss, Rade ...

road and the inhabitants traded produce to those towns and operated a rest station. The Jura water correction projects of the 19th century helped prevent flooding and destruction in the village. In 1876 the

Solothurn Solothurn ( , ; french: Soleure ; it, Soletta ; rm, ) is a List of towns in Switzerland, town, a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality, and the Capital (political), capital of the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland. It is located in the n ...

Lyss Lyss () is a municipality in the Seeland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. On 1 January 2011, the former municipality of Busswil bei Büren was merged with Lyss.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010 Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 1.7% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 7.8% and transportation infrastructure made up 3.8%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 1.4%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 46.2% is used for growing crops and 7.3% is pastures, while 2.1% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Dotzigen lies in Seeland at the western edge of the Dotzigen/Stedtli Mountains. In the west the Old Aare flows (the part of the

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 descend ...

River that flows after the Jura water correction); it is now a protected

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...

. The Jura water correction made possible the expansion of the town in the flat area of the municipality. On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Büren, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Seeland.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 ''Gules in a Chief Argent a Mullet of the first.''

Demographics

Dotzigen has a population () of . , 6.2% 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 -2.1%. Migration accounted for -1.3%, while births and deaths accounted for -0.2%.
accessed 20-August-2012 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 ...

(1,304 or 93.7%) as their first language, French is the second most common (21 or 1.5%) and

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 third (13 or 0.9%). There are 3 people who speak Romansh. , the population was 49.9% male and 50.1% female. The population was made up of 619 Swiss men (46.5% of the population) and 46 (3.5%) non-Swiss men. There were 630 Swiss women (47.3%) and 3 (0.2%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 401 or about 28.8% were born in Dotzigen and lived there in 2000. There were 595 or 42.8% who were born in the same canton, while 203 or 14.6% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 125 or 9.0% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 21.2% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 65% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 13.8%. , there were 562 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 682 married individuals, 80 widows or widowers and 67 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 118 households that consist of only one person and 36 households with five or more people. , a total of 491 apartments (92.1% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 18 apartments (3.4%) were seasonally occupied and 24 apartments (4.5%) 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 0.8 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 2.56%. 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:1400 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:300 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:60 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1764 from:start till:115 text:"115" bar:1850 from:start till:250 text:"250" bar:1860 from:start till:233 text:"233" bar:1870 from:start till:246 text:"246" bar:1880 from:start till:238 text:"238" bar:1888 from:start till:307 text:"307" bar:1900 from:start till:446 text:"446" bar:1910 from:start till:568 text:"568" bar:1920 from:start till:762 text:"762" bar:1930 from:start till:759 text:"759" bar:1941 from:start till:686 text:"686" bar:1950 from:start till:793 text:"793" bar:1960 from:start till:869 text:"869" bar:1970 from:start till:951 text:"951" bar:1980 from:start till:1015 text:"1,015" bar:1990 from:start till:1336 text:"1,336" bar:2000 from:start till:1391 text:"1,391"

Sights

Jeremias Gotthelf Albert Bitzius (4 October 179722 October 1854) was a Swiss novelist; best known by his pen name of Jeremias Gotthelf. Biography Bitzius was born at Murten, where his father was pastor. The Bitzius family had once belonged to the Bernese patrici ...

mentioned the sour Dotziger wine in one of his books, which grew and continues to grow at the foot of the mountains. At the foot of the Dotzigen Mountains is a small castle, known for its gilded copper roof. At the exit of the town in the direction of Diessbach is an old flour mill powered by a

water wheel A water wheel is a machine for converting the energy of flowing or falling water into useful forms of power, often in a watermill. A water wheel consists of a wheel (usually constructed from wood or metal), with a number of blades or buckets ...

. This has been restored and is available to visitors by reservation. The old mill is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance.

Politics

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 31.7% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the BDP Party (21.1%), the

SPS SPS may refer to: Law and government * Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures of the WTO * NATO Science for Peace and Security * Single Payment Scheme, an EU agricultural subsidy * The Standard Procurement System, fo ...

(19.6%) 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 ...

(6.8%). In the federal election, a total of 507 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 49.1%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election
accessed 8 May 2012

Economy

, Dotzigen had an unemployment rate of 1.87%. , there were a total of 525 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 28 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 11 businesses involved in this sector. 48 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 were 10 businesses in this sector. 449 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 36 businesses in this sector. there were a total of 429

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 23, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 39 of which 22 or (56.4%) were in manufacturing and 17 (43.6%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 367. In the tertiary sector; 259 or 70.6% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 17 or 4.6% were in education and 76 or 20.7% were in health care. , there were 295 workers who commuted into the municipality and 572 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.9 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 13.4% used public transportation to get to work, and 59.9% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 165 or 11.9% 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 lette ...

, while 1,032 or 74.2% 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 0.36% of the population), there was 1 individual who belongs to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 57 individuals (or about 4.10% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 31 (or about 2.23% of the population) who were

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

ic. There were 6 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 ...

and 2 individuals who belonged to another church. 82 (or about 5.90% 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 38 individuals (or about 2.73% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Dotzigen about 572 or (41.1%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 126 or (9.1%) 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 126 who completed tertiary schooling, 77.8% were Swiss men, 16.7% were Swiss women, 4.8% 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 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 2009-10 school year, there were a total of 222 students attending classes in Dotzigen. There was one kindergarten class with a total of 24 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 16.7% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 12.5% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The municipality had 4 primary classes and 65 students. Of the primary students, 3.1% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 3.1% have a different mother language than the classroom language. During the same year, there were 7 lower secondary classes with a total of 133 students. There were 2.3% who were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 4.5% have a different mother language than the classroom language.Schuljahr 2010/11 pdf document
accessed 4 January 2012 , there were 84 students in Dotzigen who came from another municipality, while 52 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

Transportation

Dotzigen was connected to the Swiss railway network by the construction of the

Lyss Lyss () is a municipality in the Seeland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. On 1 January 2011, the former municipality of Busswil bei Büren was merged with Lyss.Büren an der Aare Büren an der Aare (usually abbreviated with Büren a.A., means ''Büren on the Aare'') is a historic town and a municipality in the Seeland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. History Büren an der Aare is first ment ...

, or

Kerzers Kerzers is a municipality in the district of See in the canton of Fribourg in Switzerland. Its French name is Chiètres (; frp, Chiétres ). History Kerzers is first mentioned in 926 as ''Cartris''. In 1153 it was mentioned as ''Kercers''. ...

on the other side. Dotzigen can be reached in a car via A5 (Solothurn-Biel).

References

External links

*
Vereinigung für Heimatpflege Büren
Distributor of numerous publications about Dotzigen and the Büren district {{Authority control Municipalities of the canton of Bern Cultural property of national significance in the canton of Bern