Forst-Längenbühl is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

in the administrative district of

Thun Thun () is a List of towns in Switzerland, town and a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the administrative district of Thun (administrative district), Thun in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Canton of Bern, Bern in Switzerland. ...

in the canton of

Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. It was formed on January 1, 2007, through the uniting of Längenbühl and Forst.

History

Forst

The oldest trace of a settlement in the area is the ruins of a

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 Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

villa A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house that provided an escape from urban life. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the f ...

with a

bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

located in Seieried. The village of Forst is first mentioned in 1344 as 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 Gurzelen. It later became part of the lands of the

college A college (Latin: ''collegium'') may be a tertiary educational institution (sometimes awarding degrees), part of a collegiate university, an institution offering vocational education, a further education institution, or a secondary sc ...

of canons 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 possi ...

. When the college of canons became impoverished, it was dissolved and their lands were acquired by the canons of St. Vincent's cathedral in

. It was then sold and passed through a number of owners. In 1541 the land and Zwing und Bann rights over Forst were half owned by the farmers of the village. By the 18th century about two-thirds of the sparsely settled community were in the court of Gurzelen which was part of the ''Herrschaft'' of Burgistein. The other third was in the court of Amsoldingen which was part of the

Thun District Thun District is one of the 26 administrative districts in the canton of Bern, Switzerland. Its capital is the municipality of Thun. On 1 January 2010, the district's administrative functions were transferred to the newly established and enlarge ...

. Following the 1798 French invasion, Forst became part of the

Helvetic Republic The Helvetic Republic (; ; ) was a sister republic of France that existed between 1798 and 1803, during the French Revolutionary Wars. It was created following the French invasion and the consequent dissolution of the Old Swiss Confederacy, ma ...

district of Oberseftigen. After the collapse of the Republic and the 1803

Act of Mediation The Act of Mediation () was issued by Napoleon Bonaparte, French Consulate, First Consul of the French Republic on 19 February 1803 to abolish the Helvetic Republic, which had existed since the invasion of Old Swiss Confederacy, Switzerland by F ...

both parts of the community were combined and joined the newly created Thun District. In the 20th century it formed a school district with Längenbühl and developed close relationships with the nearby municipality. In 2007 the two municipalities merged into a single entity. Until 1922 it was part of the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

of Amsoldingen. In 1922 the residents forced Amsoldingen to allow them to join the parish of Wattenwil.

Längenbühl

Längenbühl is first mentioned in 1493 as ''Lengenbuel''. The oldest trace of settlements in the area are several

neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

canoe A canoe is a lightweight, narrow watercraft, water vessel, typically pointed at both ends and open on top, propelled by one or more seated or kneeling paddlers facing the direction of travel and using paddles. In British English, the term ' ...

s which were discovered in both lakes in the municipality. Other

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

and La Tène artifacts indicate that the area remained inhabited in antiquity. During the Middle Ages the village belonged to the

Freiherr (; male, abbreviated as ), (; his wife, abbreviated as , ) and (, his unmarried daughters and maiden aunts) are designations used as titles of nobility in the German-speaking areas of the Holy Roman Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and in ...

von

Uetendorf Uetendorf is a municipality in the administrative district of Thun in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. Uetendorf is close to the city of Thun, and connected to traffic through the A6 motorway and the BLS AG's Thun-Belp-Bern railway line. Due ...

. In 1380 the citizen of

, Johann von Zeinigen, inherited the Uetendorf lands, including Längenbühl. It later passed to the Hospital in Thun and the village was administered by a

Vogt An , sometimes simply advocate, (German, ), or (French, ), was a type of medieval office holder, particularly important in the Holy Roman Empire, who was delegated some of the powers and functions of a major feudal lord, or for an institutio ...

who was appointed by the hospital. Following the 1798 French invasion, Längenbühl became part of the Helvetic Republic district of Oberseftigen. After the collapse of the Republic and the 1803 Act of Mediation it joined the newly created Thun District. It formed a school district with Forst, based around the school house in Längenbühl.

Geography

Forst-Längenbühl has an area of . As of 2012, a total of or 68.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 20.9% is forested. The rest of the municipality is or 8.5% is settled (buildings or roads), or 2.2% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.9% is unproductive land.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010 During the same year, housing and buildings made up 6.0% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.8%. A total of 19.6% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.3% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 31.4% is used for growing crops and 33.0% is pasturage, while 3.8% is used for orchards or vine crops. Of the water in the municipality, 1.8% is in lakes and 0.4% is in rivers and streams. There are three smaller lakes in Längenbühl: Dittligsee, Geistsee and a smaller pond. Forst is a settlement with scattered building in the moraine landscape of the Upper Gürbetal. The most important boroughs are Dörfli, Allmid (Allmend), Chromen, Längmoos, and Riedhubel. On 1 January 2007 the former municipalities of Forst and Längenbühl merged into the municipality of Forst-Längenbühl.Nomenklaturen – Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz
accessed 13 December 2014 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.

Demographics

Forst-Längenbühl has a population () of . , 4.3% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Between the last 2 years (2010-2012) the population changed at a rate of 2.9%. Migration accounted for 2.1%, while births and deaths accounted for 1.1%.
accessed 15 August 2014 Most of the population () speaks

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

(98%) as their first language, French is the second most common (0.9%) and

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

is the third (0.2%). , the population was 48.6% male and 51.4% female. The population was made up of 343 Swiss men (47.0% of the population) and 12 (1.6%) non-Swiss men. There were 363 Swiss women (49.7%) and 12 (1.6%) non-Swiss women.Statistical office of the Canton of Bern
accessed 4 January 2012 , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 22.5% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 61.1% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 16.4%. , there were 83 households that consist of only one person and 28 households with five or more people. , the construction rate of new housing units was 1.3 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.6%. In 2012, single family homes made up 39.2% of the total housing in the municipality.

Historic population

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:500 barincrement:45 PlotArea = top:20 left:40 bottom:90 right:35 Legend = columns:3 left:20 top:70 columnwidth:160 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:660 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:100 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:20 start:0 Colors= id:FO value:yellowgreen legend:Forst id:LA value:green legend:Längenbühl PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:30 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1850 from: 0 till:302 text:"302" color:FO bar:1860 from: 0 till:269 text:"269" color:FO bar:1870 from: 0 till:267 text:"267" color:FO bar:1880 from: 0 till:263 text:"263" color:FO bar:1890 from: 0 till:298 text:"298" color:FO bar:1900 from: 0 till:297 text:"297" color:FO bar:1910 from: 0 till:261 text:"261" color:FO bar:1920 from: 0 till:288 text:"288" color:FO bar:1930 from: 0 till:252 text:"252" color:FO bar:1940 from: 0 till:278 text:"278" color:FO bar:1950 from: 0 till:266 text:"266" color:FO bar:1960 from: 0 till:257 text:"257" color:FO bar:1970 from: 0 till:242 text:"242" color:FO bar:1980 from: 0 till:234 text:"234" color:FO bar:1990 from: 0 till:254 text:"254" color:FO bar:2000 from: 0 till:309 text:"309" color:FO bar:1850 from: 302 till:566 text:"264" color:LA bar:1860 from: 269 till:515 text:"246" color:LA bar:1870 from: 267 till:520 text:"253" color:LA bar:1880 from: 263 till:529 text:"266" color:LA bar:1890 from: 298 till:539 text:"241" color:LA bar:1900 from: 297 till:540 text:"243" color:LA bar:1910 from: 261 till:485 text:"224" color:LA bar:1920 from: 288 till:564 text:"276" color:LA bar:1930 from: 252 till:514 text:"262" color:LA bar:1940 from: 278 till:540 text:"262" color:LA bar:1950 from: 266 till:538 text:"272" color:LA bar:1960 from: 257 till:524 text:"267" color:LA bar:1970 from: 242 till:542 text:"300" color:LA bar:1980 from: 234 till:515 text:"281" color:LA bar:1990 from: 254 till:577 text:"323" color:LA bar:2000 from: 309 till:655 text:"346" color:LA

Economy

, Forst-Längenbühl had an unemployment rate of 0.89%. , there were a total of 184 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 77 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 28 businesses involved in this sector. 40 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 14 businesses in this sector. 67 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 ...

, with 22 businesses in this sector. there were a total of 115

full-time equivalent Full-time equivalent (FTE), or whole time equivalent (WTE), is a unit of measurement 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 use ...

jobs. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 49, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 22 of which 5 or (22.7%) were in manufacturing and 17 (77.3%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 44. In the tertiary sector; 9 or 20.5% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 13 or 29.5% were in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was a technical professional or scientist, 6 or 13.6% were in education. Of the working population, 6.6% used public transportation to get to work, and 54.4% used a private car. The local and cantonal tax rate in Forst-Längenbühl 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 Forst-Längenbühl making 150,000 CHF was 12%, while an unmarried resident's rate was 18%. 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 316 tax payers in the municipality. Of that total, 88 made over 75,000 CHF per year. There were 4 people who made between 15,000 and 20,000 per year. The greatest number of workers, 92, made between 50,000 and 75,000 CHF per year. The average income of the over 75,000 CHF group in Forst-Längenbühl was 101,128 CHF, while the average across all of Switzerland was 131,244 CHF. In 2011 a total of 3.3% 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 46.0% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (13.1%), the Federal Democratic Union of Switzerland (EDU) (7.4%) and the Social Democratic Party (SP) (7.2%). In the federal election, a total of 345 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 is typically either the percentage of Voter registration, registered voters, Suffrage, eligible voters, or all Voti ...

was 59.9%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election
accessed 8 May 2012

Religion

In 2000 about 84.4% of the population belonged to a Protestant church, 3.1% were

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

and 5% had no religious affiliation.

Education

In Forst-Längenbühl about 62.2% of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 15.6% have completed additional higher education (either

university A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

or a ''

Fachhochschule A (; plural ), abbreviated FH, is a university of applied sciences (UAS), in other words a Hochschule, German tertiary education institution that provides professional education in many applied sciences and applied arts, such as engineering, te ...

''). 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 potential new practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study. Apprenticeships may also enable practitioners to gain a license to practice in a regulat ...

. During the 2012–13 school year, there were a total of 65 students attending classes in Forst-Längenbühl. There were a total of 10 students in the German language kindergarten classes in the municipality. The municipality's primary school had 38 students in German language classes. Of the primary students, 2.6% have a different mother language than the classroom language. During the same year, the lower secondary schools in neighboring municipalities had a total of 17 students from Forst-Längenbühl. There were 11.8% who were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 11.8% have a different mother language than the classroom language.Datei der Gemeinde- und Schultabellen
accessed 23 July 2014

References

External links

* * {{Authority control