Lengnau () 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 Biel/Bienne 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 ...

History

Lengnau is first mentioned around 983-1002 as ''Lengenach''. In 1228 it was mentioned as ''Longieuva''. The municipality was formerly known by its French name ''Longeau'', however, that name is no longer used. The oldest traces of humans are Late-

Paleolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic ( years ago) ( ), also called the Old Stone Age (), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone tools, and which represents almost the entire period of human prehist ...

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 ...

flint tools and other objects which were discovered on 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 ...

river plain. During the

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 ...

, the La Tene era and the

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 ...

there were settlements in the municipal borders. 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 ...

it was 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 Strassberg, which was acquired by

in 1388-93. Lengnau was placed in 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 Büren. In 1318, during a conflict between

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 ...

and

Habsburg Austria The term Habsburg Austria may refer to the lands ruled by the Austrian branch of the Habsburgs, or the historical Austria. Depending on the context, it may be defined as: * The Duchy of Austria, after 1453 the Archduchy of Austria * The '' Erblande ...

the village and its church were burned. The church was rebuilt and christened St. Germanus Church in 1323. The church was rebuilt in 1630-40 and renovated in 1959-60. The

Jura water correction The correction of the waters of the Swiss Jura consisted of a wide series of hydrological undertakings carried out in Switzerland in the region of the three lakes: Lake Murten connected to Lake Neuchatel by the Broye Canal, the latter connec ...

projects of the 19th century, drained much of the previously unusable Aare flood plain and opened up extensive agricultural land in Lengnau. During the same time, Lengnau began to develop from a farming village into a watch making town with industries. During the period from 1889 until 1927 about a dozen watch producers and watch part manufacturers opened factories in the growing town. In addition to watchmakers, other industries, such as timber cutters and engineering firms opened in town. During the 19th century clay with a high

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The Atom, atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen Tetrahedral molecular geometry, tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tet ...

content was mined in the Lengnauwald. However, in the 1970s the watch industry experienced a crisis and many of the manufacturers closed down. Despite the establishment of new industries in 1983, including; precision machines, electronics companies and décolletage, many workers commute to jobs in other towns. By 2000 over two thirds of those employed worked in neighboring towns, especially

Biel/Bienne Biel/Bienne (official bilingual wording; German language, German: ''Biel'' ; French language, French: ''Bienne'' ; Bernese German, locally ; ; ; ) is a bilingual city in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. With over 55,000 residents, it is the ...

, Solothurn and Bern. The town has good transportation links. A train station on the Olten-Biel line opened in Lengnau in 1857 and a branch to Moutier was added in 1915. Between 1950 and 1990 many new buildings were finished in town. These include the Catholic

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 ...

over the Lengnau-Pieterlen-Meinisberg

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 ...

in 1975 and the nursing home in 1988. Lengnau has three schools and is also home to the secondary school which was founded in 1899.

Geography

Lengnau has an area of . Of this area, or 39.3% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 36.0% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 21.7% is settled (buildings or roads), or 1.6% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.5% 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 2.6% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 11.1% and transportation infrastructure made up 5.6%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 1.2% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 1.2%. Out of the forested land, 34.6% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.5% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 32.0% is used for growing crops and 5.7% 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 at the foot of the

Jura Mountains The Jura Mountains ( ) are a sub-alpine mountain range a short distance north of the Western Alps and mainly demarcate a long part of the French–Swiss border. While the Jura range proper (" folded Jura", ) is located in France and Switzerla ...

in the

river plains. The old Aare river course forms the municipal border. On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Büren, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Biel/Bienne.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 ''Argent a Fir tree Vert trunked Gules issuant from a Mount of 3 Coupeaux of the second.''

Demographics

Lengnau has a population () of . , 18.9% 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 2.3%. Migration accounted for 6%, while births and deaths accounted for -2.9%.
accessed 20-August-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 ...

(3,914 or 87.8%) 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 (116 or 2.6%) 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 (103 or 2.3%). There are 3 people who speak Romansh. , the population was 48.8% male and 51.2% female. The population was made up of 1,778 Swiss men (38.6% of the population) and 467 (10.1%) non-Swiss men. There were 1,953 Swiss women (42.4%) and 40 (0.9%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 1,383 or about 31.0% were born in Lengnau and lived there in 2000. There were 1,195 or 26.8% who were born in the same canton, while 1,009 or 22.6% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 713 or 16.0% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 18.9% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 59.7% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 21.4%. , there were 1,565 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 2,319 married individuals, 298 widows or widowers and 277 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 612 households that consist of only one person and 97 households with five or more people. , a total of 1,936 apartments (89.6% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 86 apartments (4.0%) were seasonally occupied and 138 apartments (6.4%) 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 1.1 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 1.96%. 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:4800 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:1000 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:200 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1764 from:start till:497 text:"497" bar:1850 from:start till:816 text:"816" bar:1860 from:start till:857 text:"857" bar:1870 from:start till:1016 text:"1,016" bar:1880 from:start till:1080 text:"1,080" bar:1888 from:start till:1237 text:"1,237" bar:1900 from:start till:1649 text:"1,649" bar:1910 from:start till:1806 text:"1,806" bar:1920 from:start till:2091 text:"2,091" bar:1930 from:start till:2401 text:"2,401" bar:1941 from:start till:2377 text:"2,377" bar:1950 from:start till:2782 text:"2,782" bar:1960 from:start till:3524 text:"3,524" bar:1970 from:start till:4736 text:"4,736" bar:1980 from:start till:4317 text:"4,317" bar:1990 from:start till:4579 text:"4,579" bar:2000 from:start till:4459 text:"4,459"

Politics

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 31.2% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SPS (24.4%), the BDP Party (14.9%) and the FDP (10.9%). In the federal election, a total of 1,341 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 42.0%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election
accessed 8 May 2012

Economy

, Lengnau had an unemployment rate of 2.74%. , there were a total of 1,459 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 31 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 10 businesses involved in this sector. 861 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 70 businesses in this sector. 567 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 104 businesses in this sector. there were a total of 1,219

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, of which 19 were in agriculture and 3 were in forestry or lumber production. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 773 of which 685 or (88.6%) were in manufacturing and 87 (11.3%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 423. In the tertiary sector; 134 or 31.7% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 25 or 5.9% were in a hotel or restaurant, 10 or 2.4% were in the information industry, 11 or 2.6% were the insurance or financial industry, 28 or 6.6% were technical professionals or scientists, 66 or 15.6% were in education and 72 or 17.0% were in health care. , there were 841 workers who commuted into the municipality and 1,592 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.9 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 15.6% used public transportation to get to work, and 57.5% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 732 or 16.4% 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 2,711 or 60.8% 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 61 members of an Orthodox church (or about 1.37% of the population), there were 4 individuals (or about 0.09% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 266 individuals (or about 5.97% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There was 1 individual who was

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 216 (or about 4.84% 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 31 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 ...

, 42 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 4 individuals who belonged to another church. 364 (or about 8.16% 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 159 individuals (or about 3.57% of the population) did not answer the question.

Transport

Lengnau sits at the junction of the Basel–Biel/Bienne and Jura Foot railway lines. It is served by regional trains at Lengnau.

Education

In Lengnau about 1,865 or (41.8%) 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 389 or (8.7%) 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 389 who completed tertiary schooling, 73.5% were Swiss men, 16.7% were Swiss women, 6.9% were non-Swiss men and 2.8% 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 434 students attending classes in Lengnau. There were 4 kindergarten classes with a total of 69 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 44.9% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 43.5% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The municipality had 13 primary classes and 245 students. Of the primary students, 25.3% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 35.5% have a different mother language than the classroom language. During the same year, there were 6 lower secondary classes with a total of 120 students. There were 21.7% who were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 27.5% have a different mother language than the classroom language.Schuljahr 2010/11 pdf document
accessed 4 January 2012 , there were 10 students in Lengnau who came from another municipality, while 136 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Municipalities of the canton of Bern