Grafenried is a former

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 Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the

canton Canton may refer to: Administrative divisions * Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries * Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French Arts and entertainment * Canton (band), an It ...

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 ...

. On 1 January 2014 the former municipalities of Grafenried, Büren zum Hof, Etzelkofen, Limpach, Mülchi,

Schalunen Schalunen is a former municipality in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. On 1 January 2014 the former municipalities of Schalunen, Büren zum Hof, Etzelkofen, Grafenried, Limpach, Mülchi and ...

and Zauggenried merged into the municipality of

Fraubrunnen Fraubrunnen is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Bern-Mittelland (administrative district), Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Bern (canton), Bern in Switzerland. On 1 January 2014 t ...

.Nomenklaturen – Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz
accessed 13 December 2014

History

Grafenried is first mentioned in 1258 as ''Gravenriet''. In 1262 it was mentioned as ''Riede''. The oldest trace of a settlement is a

Hallstatt era The Hallstatt culture was the predominant Western Europe, Western and Central European archaeological culture of the Late Bronze Age Europe, Bronze Age (Hallstatt A, Hallstatt B) from the 12th to 8th centuries BC and Early Iron Age Europe (Hallst ...

grave mound A tumulus (: tumuli) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, mounds, howes, or in Siberia and Central Asia as ''kurgans'', and may be found throughout much of the world. ...

at Eichberg. The remains of what may have been a

Roman era In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

farm as well as a

late medieval The late Middle Ages or late medieval period was the period of European history lasting from 1300 to 1500 AD. The late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Europe, the Renai ...

abandoned village were discovered at Wille/Wittenberg. During the Middle Ages the village, court and church were owned by the Counts of Thierstein. In the 13th century

Fraubrunnen Abbey Fraubrunnen Abbey (; ; in English, "spring, or well, or fountain of urLady" and "of the Blessed irginMary" respectively) is a former Cistercian nunnery in the municipality of Fraubrunnen in the canton of Bern, Switzerland. History In 1246, Co ...

acquired the entire village. It remained under the abbey's control until

adopted the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the papacy and ...

, secularized the abbey and took all the abbey's lands in 1528. Under Bernese control, Grafenried became part 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. In English, the original French combi ...

of Fraubrunnen, which was part of the court of

Zollikofen Zollikofen is a municipality in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the Swiss canton of Bern. It is a suburb of the city of Bern. It is home to the Swiss College of Agriculture (SHL). Geography Zollikofen has an area of . Of th ...

. The first church in the village was built in the 7th or 8th century. The

aisleless church An aisleless church () is a single-nave church building that consists of a single hall-like room. While similar to the hall church, the aisleless church lacks aisles or passageways on either side of the nave and separated from the nave by col ...

was built above a post-Roman tomb outside the village on the road to Fraubrunnen. The village bought the patronage rights to the church from the abbey in 1258. In 1535 it became the

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), 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 com ...

for the municipality. The current church was built in 1748. During the 19th century many of the local farmers switched from growing grain to raising dairy cattle. The village dairy opened in 1848. In 1916 a station on the Bern-Solothurn-Zollikofen Railway (now Regional Bern-Solothurn) was built in the village. However, it remained mostly agricultural and rural with only a few small businesses. A few industrial businesses (auto recycling, steel engineering and a wood products factory) moved into the village in the 1970s. The new neighborhoods Bachtelen and Sinfonia were built in 1976 to provide housing for the growing population.

Geography

Before the merger, Grafenried had a total area of . Of this area, or 55.3% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 35.0% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 10.2% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.2% is either rivers or lakes.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010 Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 5.5% and transportation infrastructure made up 3.4%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 1.1%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 43.9% is used for growing crops and 9.3% is pastures, while 2.1% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. It is located on the eastern

Rapperswil Rapperswil (Swiss German: or ;Andres Kristol, ''Rapperswil SG (See)'' in: ''Dictionnaire toponymique des communes suisses – Lexikon der schweizerischen Gemeindenamen – Dizionario toponomastico dei comuni svizzeri (DTS, LSG)'', Centre de dial ...

plateau. It includes the village of Grafenried as well as the two

hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. This is often simply an informal description of a smaller settlement or possibly a subdivision or satellite entity to a larger settlement. Sometimes a hamlet is defined f ...

that were founded in the 16th century, Buchhof and Binel. On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Fraubrunnen, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Bern-Mittelland.

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 an accurate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The visual d ...

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 last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

is ''Argent on a Base Vert a Hind statant Gules.''

Demographics

Grafenried had a population (as of 2011) of 980.Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 16 January 2014 , 3.8% of the population are resident foreign nationals.
accessed 4 January 2012 Over the last 10 years (2000-2010) the population has changed at a rate of 6.8%. Migration accounted for 5.3%, while births and deaths accounted for 2.4%. 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 ...

(862 or 95.9%) as their first language,

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

is the second most common (15 or 1.7%) 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 (3 or 0.3%). , the population was 48.2% male and 51.8% female. The population was made up of 448 Swiss men (45.8% of the population) and 23 (2.4%) non-Swiss men. There were 493 Swiss women (50.4%) and 14 (1.4%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 278 or about 30.9% were born in Grafenried and lived there in 2000. There were 395 or 43.9% who were born in the same canton, while 155 or 17.2% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 54 or 6.0% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 23.3% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 62% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 14.7%. , there were 378 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 454 married individuals, 36 widows or widowers and 31 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 91 households that consist of only one person and 33 households with five or more people. , a total of 332 apartments (91.2% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 20 apartments (5.5%) were seasonally occupied and 12 apartments (3.3%) 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 4.1 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 1.16%. 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:900 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:200 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:40 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1764 from:start till:262 text:"262" bar:1850 from:start till:640 text:"640" bar:1860 from:start till:639 text:"639" bar:1870 from:start till:642 text:"642" bar:1880 from:start till:634 text:"634" bar:1888 from:start till:617 text:"617" bar:1900 from:start till:556 text:"556" bar:1910 from:start till:526 text:"526" bar:1920 from:start till:602 text:"602" bar:1930 from:start till:652 text:"652" bar:1941 from:start till:643 text:"643" bar:1950 from:start till:692 text:"692" bar:1960 from:start till:690 text:"690" bar:1970 from:start till:717 text:"717" bar:1980 from:start till:648 text:"648" bar:1990 from:start till:741 text:"741" bar:2000 from:start till:899 text:"899"

Politics

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) which received 25% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Swiss People's Party (SVP) (20.2%), the Social Democratic Party (SP) (15.4%) and the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice. Green party platforms typically embrace Social democracy, social democratic economic policies and fo ...

(8.4%). In the federal election, a total of 460 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 58.3%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election
accessed 8 May 2012

Economy

, Grafenried had an unemployment rate of 0.97%. , there were a total of 164 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 42 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 16 businesses involved in this sector. 24 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 8 businesses in this sector. 98 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 23 businesses in this sector. There were 491 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 43.4% of the workforce. there were a total of 120

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 23, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 23 of which 13 or (56.5%) were in manufacturing and 10 (43.5%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 74. In the tertiary sector; 29 or 39.2% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 11 or 14.9% were in the movement and storage of goods, 14 or 18.9% were in a hotel or restaurant, 3 or 4.1% were in the information industry, 3 or 4.1% were technical professionals or scientists, 6 or 8.1% were in education. , there were 60 workers who commuted into the municipality and 402 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 6.7 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 32.8% used public transportation to get to work, and 46.6% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 86 or 9.6% 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 ...

, while 703 or 78.2% belonged to the

Swiss Reformed Church The Protestant Church in Switzerland (PCS), formerly named Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches until 31 December 2019, is a federation of 25 member churches – 24 cantonal churches and the Evangelical-Methodist Church of Switzerland. The P ...

. Of the rest of the population, there were 4 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.44% of the population), there were 2 individuals (or about 0.22% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 54 individuals (or about 6.01% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 5 (or about 0.56% of the population) who were

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

ic. There were 2 individuals who were

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

and 6 individuals who were

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

. 42 (or about 4.67% of the population) belonged to no church, are

agnostic Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, the divine, or the supernatural is either unknowable in principle or unknown in fact. (page 56 in 1967 edition) It can also mean an apathy towards such religious belief and refer to ...

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 22 individuals (or about 2.45% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Grafenried about 370 or (41.2%) of the population have completed non-mandatory

upper secondary education Secondary education is the education level following primary education and preceding tertiary education. Level 2 or ''lower secondary education'' (less commonly ''junior secondary education'') is considered the second and final phase of basic e ...

, and 145 or (16.1%) 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 ...

''). Of the 145 who completed tertiary schooling, 77.2% were Swiss men, 20.7% 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 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 2010–11 school year, there were a total of 82 students attending classes in Grafenried. There was one kindergarten class with a total of 19 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, and 10.5% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The municipality had 3 primary classes and 63 students. Of the primary students 6.3% have a different mother language than the classroom language.Schuljahr 2010/11 pdf document
accessed 4 January 2012 , there were 3 students in Grafenried who came from another municipality, while 64 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

References

External links

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