Köniz (, ) is a
statistical town (though residents still regard it as a village) and 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
Bern-Mittelland administrative district right on the southern border 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 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 ...
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 ...
. The municipality of Köniz as a single settlement would belong to the 15 most populous towns in Switzerland. It is also part of the larger agglomeration of Bern of about 400,000 inhabitants.
The official language of Köniz is (the Swiss variety of Standard)
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 ...
, but the main spoken language is the local variant of the
Alemannic Swiss German
Swiss German (Standard German: , ,Because of the many different dialects, and because there is no #Conventions, defined orthography for any of them, many different spellings can be found. and others; ) is any of the Alemannic German, Alemannic ...
dialect.
History
The current municipality has long been inhabited; there have been a number of
Bronze
Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloid ...
- and
Iron Age
The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...
finds, as well as
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 ...
s (''villae rusticae'') and
Early Middle Ages
The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages (historiography), Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th to the 10th century. They marked the start o ...
graveyards. The oldest parts of the current
reformed
Reform is beneficial change.
Reform, reformed or reforming may also refer to:
Media
* ''Reform'' (album), a 2011 album by Jane Zhang
* Reform (band), a Swedish jazz fusion group
* ''Reform'' (magazine), a Christian magazine
Places
* Reform, Al ...
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 ...
(formerly
SS. Peter and Paul) date back to around 1100. There may have been other previous buildings on this site, but
archaeological
Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...
digs have uncovered no evidence of them thus far. Köniz is first mentioned in 1011 as ''Chunicis''.
[
According to ]legend
A legend is a genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human values, and possess certain qualities that give the ...
the church was founded by Burgundian King Rudolph II
Rudolf II (18 July 1552 – 20 January 1612) was Holy Roman Emperor (1576–1612), King of Hungary and Kingdom of Croatia (Habsburg), Croatia (as Rudolf I, 1572–1608), King of Bohemia (1575–1608/1611) and Archduke of Austria (1576–16 ...
and his wife Bertha. 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 ...
did not only comprise the current municipality, but also the area around present day 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 ...
, around 5 km away. In 1191 it became the parish church of the newly founded town, until it was given the status of its own parish in 1276.
There was an Augustinian monastery at the church, which was given to the Teutonic Knights
The Teutonic Order is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem was formed to aid Christians on their pilgrimages to t ...
by King Heinrich VII, the son and heir to the Holy Roman Emperor Friedrich II, in 1226. The order established a commendam
In canon law, commenda (or ''in commendam'') was a form of transferring an ecclesiastical benefice ''in trust'' to the ''custody'' of a patron. The phrase ''in commendam'' was originally applied to the provisional occupation of an ecclesiastica ...
at the church, which belonged to the Ballei of Schwaben-Elsass-Burgund, as well as a settlement in Bern. One of the friars was installed as parish priest. With the growth of the parish of Bern, the settlement there was raised to commendam status, whose principle was the parish priest in Bern.
The Köniz commendam was secularised in 1528 during the Bernese Reformation
The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...
, but was given back to the Order in 1552 after pressure from the Catholic Cantons. In 1729 the Order sold the commendam to Bern. A 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 ...
was established, which existed until the collapse of the old Bern in 1798. The 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' ...
of Köniz in its present form, came into being in 1846.
Geography
Köniz has an area of . Of this area, or 50.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 30.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 18.4% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.3% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.0% is unproductive land.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics]
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010
Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 1.2% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 10.7% and transportation infrastructure made up 4.8%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 1.1%. Out of the forested land, 29.5% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 31.2% is used for growing crops and 18.0% is pastures, while 1.4% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.[
The municipality is located in the ]agglomeration
Agglomeration may refer to:
* Urban agglomeration, in standard English
* Megalopolis, in Chinese English, as defined in China's ''Standard for basic terminology of urban planning'' (GB/T 50280—98). Also known as "city cluster".
* Economies of agg ...
of Bern. It stretches from the river 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 ...
in the north-east to the rivers Schwarzwasser and Sense
A sense is a biological system used by an organism for sensation, the process of gathering information about the surroundings through the detection of Stimulus (physiology), stimuli. Although, in some cultures, five human senses were traditio ...
in the southeast. It consists of the village of Köniz and Wabern in the center, the garden towns of Liebefeld am Könizberg and Spiegel am Gurten as well as a number of other settlements including; Niederwangen, Oberwangen and Thörishaus in the Wangen valley as well as Schliern, Schwanden, Niederscherli and Oberscherli, Mittelhäusern und Gasel in the ''Upper Municipality''.
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 a Cross Sable.''
Demographics
Köniz has a population () of . , 15.5% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000–2010) the population has changed at a rate of 2.6%. Migration accounted for 3.4%, while births and deaths accounted for 0.6%.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office]
accessed 10-February-2012
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 ...
(32,994 or 87.3%) as their first language, French is the second most common (1,023 or 2.7%) 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 (837 or 2.2%). There are 37 people who speak Romansh.[
, the population was 47.8% male and 52.2% female. The population was made up of 15,355 Swiss men (39.6% of the population) and 3,188 (8.2%) non-Swiss men. There were 17,440 Swiss women (44.9%) and 2,840 (7.3%) non-Swiss women.][Statistical office of the Canton of Bern]
accessed 4 January 2012 Of the population in the municipality, 8,939 or about 23.7% were born in Köniz and lived there in 2000. There were 14,483 or 38.3% who were born in the same canton, while 6,983 or 18.5% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 5,691 or 15.1% were born outside of Switzerland.[
, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 20.8% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 61.8% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 17.4%.][
, there were 15,582 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 17,687 married individuals, 2,306 widows or widowers and 2,207 individuals who are divorced.][STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000]
accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 17,240 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.1 persons per household.[ There were 6,657 households that consist of only one person and 700 households with five or more people. , a total of 16,917 apartments (92.4% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 1,096 apartments (6.0%) were seasonally occupied and 305 apartments (1.7%) 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 4.7 new units per 1000 residents.[ The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.75%.][
The historical population is given in the following chart:]
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id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8)
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PlotArea = top:10 left:100 bottom:50 right:100
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Period = from:0 till:38000
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color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center
bar:1764 from:start till:2115 text:"2,115"
bar:1850 from:start till:5984 text:"5,984"
bar:1860 from:start till:6092 text:"6,092"
bar:1870 from:start till:6374 text:"6,374"
bar:1880 from:start till:6532 text:"6,532"
bar:1888 from:start till:6416 text:"6,416"
bar:1900 from:start till:6886 text:"6,886"
bar:1910 from:start till:7716 text:"7,716"
bar:1920 from:start till:9010 text:"9,010"
bar:1930 from:start till:10987 text:"10,987"
bar:1941 from:start till:14399 text:"14,399"
bar:1950 from:start till:20742 text:"20,742"
bar:1960 from:start till:27243 text:"27,243"
bar:1970 from:start till:32505 text:"32,505"
bar:1980 from:start till:33441 text:"33,441"
bar:1990 from:start till:37309 text:"37,309"
bar:2000 from:start till:37782 text:"37,782"
Heritage sites of national significance
The farm house at Herzwilstrasse 175, the Roman Era farmhouse at Chly-Wabere, the former commandry
In the Middle Ages, a commandery (rarely commandry) was the smallest administrative division of the European landed properties of a military order. It was also the name of the house where the knights of the commandery lived.Anthony Luttrell and G ...
with castle
A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...
, church and outbuildings, the Herrenstock, Hof Burren at Mengestorfbergstrasse 191, 193, the noble's wooden house and Villa Morillon are listed as Swiss heritage sites of national significance. The 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 ...
of Gurtendörfli, Herzwil, Liebewil and Mengestorf are all part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites
The Federal Inventory of Heritage Sites (ISOS) is part of a 1981 Ordinance of the Swiss Federal Council implementing the Federal Law on the Protection of Nature and Cultural Heritage.
Sites of national importance
Types
The types are based on t ...
.
File:Bauernhaus, Herzwilstrasse 175, Ostansicht.jpg, Farm House at Herzwilstrasse 175
File:Chly-Wabere Römischer Gutshof DSC05541.jpg, Chly-Wabere (Roman Era Farmhouse)
File:Koeniz Schloss.jpg, Former Commandry
In the Middle Ages, a commandery (rarely commandry) was the smallest administrative division of the European landed properties of a military order. It was also the name of the house where the knights of the commandery lived.Anthony Luttrell and G ...
with Castle
A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...
, Church and Outbuildings
File:Herrenstock Niederscherli DSC05358.jpg, Herrenstock
File:Hof Burren, Mengestorf, Südansicht.jpg, Hof Burren at Mengestorfbergstrasse 191, 193
File:Grossgschneit Hölzernes Herrenhaus DSC05370.jpg, Noble's Wooden House
File:Bern Villa Morillon DSC05263.jpg, Villa Morillon
Politics
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 25.21% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SPS (24.07%), the FDP (16.56%) 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 ...
(14.76%). In the federal election, a total of 13,424 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 49.8%.
Economy
, Köniz had an unemployment rate of 3.1%. , there were 473 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 157 businesses involved in this sector. 3,985 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 250 businesses in this sector. 14,713 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 1,015 businesses in this sector.[
the total number of ]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 was 15,322. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 308, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 3,745 of which 2,413 or (64.4%) were in manufacturing, 16 or (0.4%) were in mining and 1,210 (32.3%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 11,269. In the tertiary sector; 2,021 or 17.9% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 282 or 2.5% were in the movement and storage of goods, 425 or 3.8% were in a hotel or restaurant, 2,223 or 19.7% were in the information industry, 573 or 5.1% were the insurance or financial industry, 1,368 or 12.1% were technical professionals or scientists, 807 or 7.2% were in education and 1,283 or 11.4% were in health care.
, there were 9,948 workers who commuted into the municipality and 14,010 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.4 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb]
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 43.4% used public transportation to get to work, and 34.3% used a private car.[
]
Religion
From the , 7,426 or 19.7% 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 ...
, while 21,948 or 58.1% 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 370 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.98% of the population), there were 42 individuals (or about 0.11% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 2,336 individuals (or about 6.18% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 45 individuals (or about 0.12% of the population) who were Jewish
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
, and 980 (or about 2.59% 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 154 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 ...
, 327 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 47 individuals who belonged to another church. 3,661 (or about 9.69% 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 1,574 individuals (or about 4.17% of the population) did not answer the question.[
]
Education
In Köniz about 15,795 or (41.8%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 6,423 or (17.0%) 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 6,423 who completed tertiary schooling, 63.7% were Swiss men, 26.0% were Swiss women, 5.9% were non-Swiss men and 4.4% 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 2009–10 school year, there were a total of 4,089 students attending classes in Köniz. There were 32 kindergarten classes with a total of 630 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 19.2% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 26.2% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The municipality had 108 primary classes and 2,036 students. Of the primary students, 19.8% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 29.3% have a different mother language than the classroom language. During the same year, there were 66 lower secondary classes with a total of 1,213 students. There were 15.3% who were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 22.9% have a different mother language than the classroom language.[Schuljahr 2009/10 pdf document]
accessed 4 January 2012
, there were 742 students in Köniz who came from another municipality, while 1,177 residents attended schools outside the municipality.[
Köniz is home to the ''Verein Könizer Mediotheken VKM'' library. The library has () 72,759 books or other media, and loaned out 285,688 items in the same year. It was open a total of 260 days with average of 34 hours per week during that year.
]
Transportation
There are eleven railway stations within the borders of the municipality: , , , and on the Lausanne–Bern line; , , , , , and on the Bern–Schwarzenburg line; and on the Gürbetal line between and . All are served by the Bern S-Bahn and have half-hourly or better service to various destinations.
Sport
FC Köniz is the village's football club.
Notable people
* Linda Geiser (born 1935 in Köniz) a Swiss film and television actress best known for her role in the Swiss TV series Lüthi und Blanc as Johanna Blanc IMDb Database
retrieved 06 December 2018
Villages
In December 2003 the population of the villages that made up the municipality of Köniz had the following populations. Current populations will be similar.
References
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Koniz
Cities in Switzerland
Municipalities of the canton of Bern
Cultural property of national significance in the canton of Bern