Heimberg, Switzerland
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Heimberg 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 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 ...
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 ...
in
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 ...
.


History

Heimberg is first mentioned in 1146 as ''Heimberc''. The oldest trace of a settlement in the area are the
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 ...
settlement ruins near Bühlacker. By 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 ...
the village existed and was ruled by 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 Heimberg. Very little is known about the family. They appear in historical records from 1146 until 1175 and then vanish. By 1191 the Zähringens owned the village. It was later divided and inherited by the
Counts of Kyburg The Kyburg family (; ; also Kiburg) was a noble family of ''grafen'' (counts) in the Duchy of Swabia, a cadet line of the counts of Dillingen, who in the late 12th and early 13th centuries ruled the County of Kyburg, corresponding to much of what ...
and the Counts of
Buchegg Buchegg is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Bucheggberg (district), district of Bucheggberg, in the canton of Solothurn, Switzerland. On 1 January 2014 the former municipalities of Tscheppach, Brügglen, Aetingen, Aetigkofen, B ...
. In 1259 Buchegg donated their portion to
Interlaken Monastery Interlaken Monastery ( or ) was a convent of the Augustinian Canons Regular () from about 1133 until 1528 at Interlaken in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It is a Swiss heritage site of national significance. History The provost of the Mon ...
but the Kyburgs retained their half ownership and, apparently, full control over the village. After a failed raid on
Solothurn Solothurn ( ; ; ; ; ) is a town, a municipality, and the capital of the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland. It is located in the north-west of Switzerland on the banks of the Aare and on the foot of the Weissenstein Jura mountains. The town is ...
on 11 November 1382 and the resulting
Burgdorferkrieg The Burgdorferkrieg () or Kyburgerkrieg () was a war in 1383-84 between the counts of Neu-Kyburg and the city of Bern for supremacy in the County of Burgundy in what is now Switzerland. History The counts of Kyburg were a medieval noble family in ...
, the Kyburgs lost most of their lands to
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 ...
in 1384. The city of Bern then passed the half portion of the village to the Bernese Schultheiss Ludwig von Seftigen to rule as a private dominion within the
Steffisburg Steffisburg is a municipality in the administrative district of Thun in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. On 1 January 2020 the former municipality of Schwendibach merged into the municipality of Steffisburg. History Steffisburg is first m ...
court under 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 ...
. Presumably after the 1528 conversion of Bern to 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 suppression of Interlaken Monastery, the two halves of the village were combined. The village passed through a number of Bernese patrician families over the following centuries. The village 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
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. ...
until 1536, when it became part of the Steffisburg parish. For most of its history Heimberg consisted of scattered farm houses in the floodplains of the
Aare The Aare () or Aar () is the main tributary of the High Rhine (its discharge even exceeds that of the latter at their confluence) and the longest river that both rises and ends entirely within Switzerland. Its total length from its source to i ...
, Zulg and Rotache rivers. The swampy valley floors provided rich soil but very limited space. The Aare River Correction projects of 1871-76 constrained the river and drained the marshy lands on the valley floor, which opened up new housing and farm land. At around the same time the construction of the Bern-Thun road and the Burgdorf-Thun railroad connected the village with several nearby cities. The road and navigable Aare river brought about 80 import/export and transport companies to Heimberg in the mid-19th century. When it began to decline in the 1870s, the growing municipality began supporting industry in Thun. After World War II the population of Heimberg expanded rapidly and new developments sprang up around the old village, including Hubel-Bäumberg and Kaliforni as well as the Winterhalde industrial park. A school was built in Au in 1953-56 and replaced in 1975–86, and followed by a secondary school in 1981. The village church was built in 1939, followed by a second church in Kaliforni in 1979. Heimberg split away from the Steffisburg parish to form its own parish in 1988.


Geography

Heimberg has an area of . As of 2013, a total of or 25.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 34.6% is forested. The rest of the municipality is or 37.1% is settled (buildings or roads), or 1.8% is either rivers or lakes.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Land Use Statistics
Retrieved 26 July 2020
During the same year, industrial buildings made up 5.9% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 16.7% and transportation infrastructure made up 10.1%, while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 1.8%. All of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 14.3% is used for growing crops and 10.8% is pasturage. Of the water in the municipality, 0.1% is in lakes and 1.7% is in rivers and streams. The municipality is located on the right bank of the
Aare river The Aare () or Aar () is the main tributary of the High Rhine (its discharge even exceeds that of the latter at their confluence) and the longest river that both rises and ends entirely within Switzerland. Its total length from its source to i ...
, between the Rotache river in the north and the Zulg river in the south. It includes the village of Thungschneit which became part of the municipality in 1869. 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 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 ''Azure a Lamb passant Argent holding a flag of the same cross Gules with Tassels Or on a Mount of 3 Coupeaux Vert.''


Demographics

Heimberg has a population () of . , 8.8% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Between the last 2 years (2010-2012) the population changed at a rate of 2.7%. Migration accounted for 2.4%, while births and deaths accounted for 0.2%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 26 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 ...
(5,153 or 93.2%) as their first language,
Albanian Albanian may refer to: *Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular: **Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans **Albanian language **Albanian culture **Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...
is the second most common (64 or 1.2%) 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 (55 or 1.0%). There are 29 people who speak
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), ...
and 7 people who speak Romansh. , the population was 49.9% male and 50.1% female. The population was made up of 2,850 Swiss men (45.3% of the population) and 290 (4.6%) non-Swiss men. There were 2,924 Swiss women (46.4%) and 233 (3.7%) non-Swiss women.Statistical office of the Canton of Bern
accessed 4 January 2012
Of the population in the municipality, 1,177 or about 21.3% were born in Heimberg and lived there in 2000. There were 2,920 or 52.8% who were born in the same canton, while 663 or 12.0% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 579 or 10.5% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 19.9% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 64.0% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 16.1%. , there were 2,280 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 2,630 married individuals, 323 widows or widowers and 296 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 809 households that consist of only one person and 150 households with five or more people. , a total of 2,182 apartments (94.3% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 77 apartments (3.3%) were seasonally occupied and 55 apartments (2.4%) 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 6.5 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.4%. In 2012, single family homes made up 60.8% 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:6300 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:1300 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:260 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width: 35 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1764 from:start till:234 text:"234" bar:1850 from:start till:1079 text:"1,079" bar:1860 from:start till:1077 text:"1,077" bar:1870 from:start till:1066 text:"1,066" bar:1880 from:start till:1149 text:"1,149" bar:1888 from:start till:1113 text:"1,113" bar:1900 from:start till:1217 text:"1,217" bar:1910 from:start till:1306 text:"1,306" bar:1920 from:start till:1468 text:"1,468" bar:1930 from:start till:1555 text:"1,555" bar:1941 from:start till:1504 text:"1,504" bar:1950 from:start till:1684 text:"1,684" bar:1960 from:start till:2125 text:"2,125" bar:1970 from:start till:3046 text:"3,046" bar:1980 from:start till:4107 text:"4,107" bar:1990 from:start till:5044 text:"5,044" bar:2000 from:start till:5529 text:"5,529" bar:2010 from:start till:6207 text:"6,207"


Economy

, Heimberg had an unemployment rate of 1.95%. , there were a total of 2,384 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 46 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 14 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 constructi ...
employs 596 people and there were 75 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 ...
employs 1,743 people, with 289 businesses in this sector. There were 3,050 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 43.1% of the workforce. there were a total of 1,737
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 22, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 616 of which 343 or (55.7%) were in manufacturing, 29 or (4.7%) were in mining and 245 (39.8%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 1,099. In the tertiary sector; 620 or 56.4% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 20 or 1.8% were in the movement and storage of goods, 65 or 5.9% were in a hotel or restaurant, 64 or 5.8% were technical professionals or scientists, 52 or 4.7% were in education and 114 or 10.4% were in health care. , there were 1,541 workers who commuted into the municipality and 2,225 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.4 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. A total of 824 workers (34.8% of the 2,365 total workers in the municipality) both lived and worked in Heimberg.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010
Of the working population, 14.4% used public transportation to get to work, and 54.8% used a private car. The local and cantonal tax rate in Heimberg 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 Heimberg making 150,000 CHF was 11.6%, while an unmarried resident's rate was 17.3%. 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 2,973 tax payers in the municipality. Of that total, 944 made over 75,000 CHF per year. There were 21 people who made between 15,000 and 20,000 per year. The average income of the over 75,000 CHF group in Heimberg was 108,921 CHF, while the average across all of Switzerland was 131,244 CHF. In 2011 a total of 2.6% 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 33.9% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (17.1%), the Social Democratic Party (SP) (15.3%) and the Federal Democratic Union of Switzerland (EDU) (6.9%). In the federal election, a total of 2,097 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 43.4%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election
accessed 8 May 2012


Religion

From the , 3,737 or 67.6% 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 ...
, while 647 or 11.7% 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 ...
. Of the rest of the population, there were 28 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.51% of the population), there were 3 individuals (or about 0.05% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 388 individuals (or about 7.02% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 173 (or about 3.13% of the population) who were
Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
. There were 14 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 ...
, 32 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 ...
and 3 individuals who belonged to another church. 285 (or about 5.15% 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 ...
or
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 219 individuals (or about 3.96% of the population) did not answer the question.


Education

In Heimberg about 61.2% 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 15% 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 513 who had completed some form of tertiary schooling listed in the census, 75.6% were Swiss men, 17.2% were Swiss women, 4.3% were non-Swiss men and 2.9% were non-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 2012–13 school year, there were a total of 611 students attending classes in Heimberg. There were a total of 99 students in the German language kindergarten classes in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 14.1% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 18.2% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The municipality's primary school had 327 students in German language classes. Of the primary students, 13.8% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 22.3% have a different mother language than the classroom language. During the same year, the lower secondary school had a total of 185 students. There were 9.2% who were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 18.4% have a different mother language than the classroom language.Datei der Gemeinde- und Schultabellen
accessed 23 July 2014
, there were a total of 699 students attending any school in the municipality. Of those, 693 both lived and attended school in the municipality, while 6 students came from another municipality. During the same year, 114 residents attended schools outside the municipality.


Transportation

The municipality has two railway stations, and , on the Burgdorf–Thun line. Between them there is regular service to , , and .


References


External links

* * {{Authority control Municipalities of the canton of Bern