Gündlischwand is a village and

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 Interlaken-Oberhasli administrative district 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 ...

. Besides the village of Gündlischwand, the municipality also includes the hamlet of Zweilütschinen.

History

Gündlischwand is first mentioned in 1331 as ''Gundlisswant''. During the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

parts of the Lütschine valley were owned by a variety of local nobles. By 1331, Interlaken Monastery acquired the land and rights to the village of Gündlischwand. It remained under the monastery's control until 1528 when

adopted the new faith of 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 ...

and secularized the monastery and all its land. The modern municipality also includes the village of Zweilütschinen at the

confluence In geography, a confluence (also ''conflux'') occurs where two or more watercourses join to form a single channel (geography), channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main ...

of the White and Black Lütschine rivers. In 1580 a bridge was built over the rivers at Zweilütschinen, allowing more local trade to flow through the village. In the late 16th century rich ore deposits were discovered in the Lauterbrunnen valley. After the ore was mined, it was moved to the

blast furnace A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. ''Blast'' refers to the combustion air being supplied above atmospheric pressure. In a ...

at Schmelziwald near Gündlischwand for

smelting Smelting is a process of applying heat and a chemical reducing agent to an ore to extract a desired base metal product. It is a form of extractive metallurgy that is used to obtain many metals such as iron-making, iron, copper extraction, copper ...

. The mine closed in 1715 and the furnace,

hammer mill A hammer mill, hammer forge or hammer works was a workshop in the pre-industrial era that was typically used to manufacture semi-finished, wrought iron products or, sometimes, finished agricultural or mining tools, or military weapons. The featur ...

, foundry and village fell into ruin, though parts are still visible. In 1890 the Bernese Oberland railway built a station and depot at Zweilütschinen, providing an easy, year round transportation connection.

Geography

Gündlischwand lies in the

Bernese Oberland The Bernese Oberland (; ; ), sometimes also known as the Bernese Highlands, is the highest and southernmost part of the canton of Bern. It is one of the canton's five administrative regions (in which context it is referred to as ''Oberland'' witho ...

in the

Alps The Alps () are some of the highest and most extensive mountain ranges in Europe, stretching approximately across eight Alpine countries (from west to east): Monaco, France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. ...

on the Black Lütschine river. The municipality includes the hamlet of Zweilütschinen, so named because it is the point of confluence of the White and Black Lütschine rivers. To the north of the Black Lütschine, the municipality extends up the Sägis Valley and its small lake, and includes the slopes up to the summits of the

Schynige Platte The Schynige Platte (''Scheinige Platte'' on the old Siegfried Map) is a small mountain ridge and a viewpoint in the Bernese Highlands and belongs to the Schwarzhorn group. The mountain range consists of three peaks: Gumihorn (), Tuba (), and t ...

, Loucherhorn, Roteflue,

Faulhorn The Faulhorn is a mountain of the Bernese Alps, located between Lake Brienz and Grindelwald in the Bernese Oberland. The summit is high and can be reached by several trails. The mountain is split between the municipalities of Iseltwald and Grin ...

and Sägissa () mountains. Both the Schynige Platte Alpine Garden and the adjoining summit station of the Schynige Platte railway are within the municipality. To the south of the Black Lütschine, the municipality includes the north-western slopes of the Männlichen. Gündlischwand has an area of . Of this area, or 32.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 39.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 1.7% is settled (buildings or roads), or 1.2% is either rivers or lakes and or 24.9% is unproductive land.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010 Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 0.5% and transportation infrastructure made up 0.7%. Out of the forested land, 35.3% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.7% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 3.1% is pastures and 29.2% is used for alpine pastures. Of the water in the municipality, 0.4% is in lakes and 0.8% is in rivers and streams. Of the unproductive areas, 8.9% is unproductive vegetation and 15.9% is too rocky for vegetation. On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Interlaken, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Interlaken-Oberhasli.
accessed 4 April 2011 Along with eight other municipalities, Gündlischwand belongs to the church parish of Gsteig bei Interlaken in the municipality of Gsteigwiler.

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 ''Per pale Sable and Argent overall a Chevron wavy reaching the Chief counterchanged.''

Demographics

Gündlischwand has a population () of . , 3.6% 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 -2.4%. Migration accounted for 0.7%, while births and deaths accounted for -1%.
accessed 21 March 2013 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 ...

(253 or 96.2%) as their first language,

Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian ( / ), also known as Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS), is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. It is a pluricentric language with four mutually i ...

is the second most common (4 or 1.5%) and English is the third (3 or 1.1%). There are 2 people who speak French. , the population was 49.6% male and 50.4% female. The population was made up of 133 Swiss men (47.5% of the population) and 6 (2.1%) non-Swiss men. There were 137 Swiss women (48.9%) and 4 (1.4%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 93 or about 35.4% were born in Gündlischwand and lived there in 2000. There were 117 or 44.5% who were born in the same canton, while 32 or 12.2% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 16 or 6.1% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 22.9% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 58.9% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 18.2%. , there were 108 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 125 married individuals, 20 widows or widowers and 10 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 44 households that consist of only one person and 6 households with five or more people. , a total of 101 apartments (64.3% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 47 apartments (29.9%) were seasonally occupied and 9 apartments (5.7%) 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 1.12%. 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:370 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:70 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:14 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1764 from:start till:123 text:"123" bar:1850 from:start till:335 text:"335" bar:1860 from:start till:301 text:"301" bar:1870 from:start till:310 text:"310" bar:1880 from:start till:305 text:"305" bar:1888 from:start till:279 text:"279" bar:1900 from:start till:321 text:"321" bar:1910 from:start till:367 text:"367" bar:1920 from:start till:336 text:"336" bar:1930 from:start till:316 text:"316" bar:1941 from:start till:278 text:"278" bar:1950 from:start till:308 text:"308" bar:1960 from:start till:289 text:"289" bar:1970 from:start till:285 text:"285" bar:1980 from:start till:287 text:"287" bar:1990 from:start till:262 text:"262" bar:2000 from:start till:263 text:"263"

Politics

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 39.1% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (25.8%), 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 ...

(9.3%) and the

FDP.The Liberals FDP.The Liberals (, , , ) is a liberal political party in Switzerland. The party was formed on 1 January 2009, after two parties, the Free Democratic Party (FDP/PRD) and the smaller Liberal Party (LPS/PLS), united. In Vaud and Valais, the parti ...

(9%). In the federal election, a total of 100 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 44.8%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election
accessed 8 May 2012

Economy

, Gündlischwand had an unemployment rate of 1%. , there were a total of 116 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 3 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 3 businesses involved in this sector. 9 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 4 businesses in this sector. 104 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 11 businesses in this sector. There were 139 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 42.4% of the workforce. there were a total of 101

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. There was one job in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 7 of which 2 or (28.6%) were in manufacturing and 5 (71.4%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 93. In the tertiary sector; 2 or 2.2% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 67 or 72.0% were in the movement and storage of goods, 18 or 19.4% were in a hotel or restaurant, 4 or 4.3% were in education. , there were 80 workers who commuted into the municipality and 88 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.1 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 25.2% used public transportation to get to work, and 38.8% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 25 or 9.5% 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 214 or 81.4% 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 1.52% of the population), there was 1 individual who belongs to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 12 individuals (or about 4.56% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. 5 (or about 1.90% 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 8 individuals (or about 3.04% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Gündlischwand about 127 or (48.3%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 11 or (4.2%) 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 11 who completed tertiary schooling, 72.7% were Swiss men, 18.2% 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 31 students attending classes in Gündlischwand. There was one kindergarten class with a total of 9 students in the municipality. The municipality had one primary class and 16 students. During the same year, there was one lower secondary class with a total of 6 students.Schuljahr 2010/11 pdf document
accessed 4 January 2012 , there were 5 students in Gündlischwand who came from another municipality, while 4 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

Transport

The Zweilütschinen railway station is on the Berner Oberland Bahn, whose trains operate services to

Interlaken Ost Interlaken Ost or Interlaken East is a railway station in the resort town of Interlaken in the Switzerland, Swiss canton of Bern. The station was previously known as Interlaken Zollhaus. The town has one other station, Interlaken West. Interlak ...

Grindelwald Grindelwald is a village and Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Interlaken-Oberhasli (administrative district), Interlaken-Oberhasli administrative district in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Bern (canton), Berne. In additio ...

and

Lauterbrunnen Lauterbrunnen () is a village and Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Interlaken-Oberhasli (administrative district), Interlaken-Oberhasli administrative district in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Canton of Bern, Bern in Swi ...

on an hourly or half-hourly frequency. Zweilütschinen is the operating centre of the Berner Oberland Bahn, with its depot and workshop adjacent to the station.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gundlischwand Municipalities of the canton of Bern