Mühledorf 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 2018 the former municipalities of

Gelterfingen Gelterfingen is a former municipality in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. On 1 January 2018 the former municipalities of Gelterfingen, Mühledorf and Noflen merged into the municipality of Kirc ...

, Mühledorf and Noflen merged into the municipality of Kirchdorf.

History

Mühledorf is first mentioned in 1364 as ''Mülidorf''. 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 ...

the village was part of the barony of Kramburg. In 1373 the village was donated to the

Münchenbuchsee Commandery The Münchenbuchsee Commandery was a medieval commandery of the Knights Hospitaller in the Swiss municipality of Münchenbuchsee in the Canton of Bern. History During the 12th century, the area around Münchenbuchsee was part of the lands of the ...

. In 1528,

accepted 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 suppressed the Commandery. Mühledorf came under Bernese rule and in 1533 was assigned to the court of Gelterfingen in the district of Seftigen created. The village has always been 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 Kirchdorf. The Gürbe and Müsche river projects of 1855-1911 drained the swampy valley floor and opened up farmland. It also made it possible to build roads to

Belp Belp is a municipality in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It is close to Bern's Belp Airport. The municipality of Belpberg merged on 1 January 2012 into the municipality of Belp.

and Rümligen. Today, agriculture is still the main industry. However, around two-thirds of the work force commute to jobs in nearby towns and cities.

Geography

Mühledorf has an area of . As of 2012, a total of or 87.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 5.3% is forested. The rest of the municipality is or 7.0% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.4% is either rivers or lakes.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010 During the same year, housing and buildings made up 5.3% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.8%. All of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 65.4% is used for growing crops and 20.2% is pasturage, while 2.2% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. The entire municipality and the village of Mühledorf are located on a terrace above the

Gürbetal Gürbetal (Gürbe Valley) in Switzerland lies between the towns of Bern and Thun, west of the Aare. It contains the municipality of Seftigen and those that surround it. The valley is named after the river Gürbe, which flows through it. The larges ...

(Gürbe valley) and stretching to

Gerzensee Gerzensee 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. The town is named a ...

lake. The municipalities of

, Kirchdorf, Mühledorf (BE) and Noflen are considering a merger on 1 January 2017 into the new municipality with an, , undetermined name.Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz
published by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 12 December 2013 On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Seftigen, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Bern-Mittelland.
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 ''Per chevron enbowed Gules and Argent and in the first a Mill Wheel of the second.''

Demographics

Mühledorf has a population () of . , 3.9% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 2 years (2010-2012) the population has changed at a rate of 11.2%. Migration accounted for 9.5%, while births and deaths accounted for 4.3%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 4 April 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 ...

(178 or 97.3%) 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 (2 or 1.1%) and Romansh is the third (2 or 1.1%). , the population was 52.2% male and 47.8% female. The population was made up of 118 Swiss men (50.9% of the population) and 3 (1.3%) non-Swiss men. There were 108 Swiss women (46.6%) and 3 (1.3%) non-Swiss women.Statistical office of the Canton of Bern
accessed 4 January 2012 Of the population in the municipality, 59 or about 32.2% were born in Mühledorf and lived there in 2000. There were 89 or 48.6% who were born in the same canton, while 26 or 14.2% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 4 or 2.2% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 25.2% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 60.1% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 14.7%. , there were 74 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 94 married individuals, 10 widows or widowers and 5 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 12 households that consist of only one person and 8 households with five or more people. , a total of 68 apartments (87.2% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 6 apartments (7.7%) were seasonally occupied and 4 apartments (5.1%) were empty.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen
accessed 28 January 2011 In 2011, single family homes made up 43.8% 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:300 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:60 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:12 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width: 35 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1764 from:start till:132 text:"132" bar:1850 from:start till:277 text:"277" bar:1860 from:start till:273 text:"273" bar:1870 from:start till:299 text:"299" bar:1880 from:start till:278 text:"278" bar:1888 from:start till:250 text:"250" bar:1900 from:start till:220 text:"220" bar:1910 from:start till:214 text:"214" bar:1920 from:start till:193 text:"193" bar:1930 from:start till:142 text:"142" bar:1941 from:start till:148 text:"148" bar:1950 from:start till:146 text:"146" bar:1960 from:start till:137 text:"137" bar:1970 from:start till:161 text:"161" bar:1980 from:start till:184 text:"184" bar:1990 from:start till:193 text:"193" bar:2000 from:start till:183 text:"183" bar:2010 from:start till:228 text:"228"

Heritage sites of national significance

The granary at Filgesse 31 is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance.

Politics

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 38.1% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (21.7%), the Green Liberal Party (GLP) (13.1%) and the Christian Social Party (CSP) (13.0%). In the federal election, a total of 117 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 66.9%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election
accessed 8 May 2012

Economy

, Mühledorf had an unemployment rate of 0.82%. , there were a total of 57 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 26 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 11 businesses involved in this sector. 5 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 2 businesses in this sector. 26 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 4 businesses in this sector. There were 110 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 39.1% of the workforce. there were a total of 42

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 17, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 8 of which 6 or (75.0%) were in manufacturing and 3 (37.5%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 17. In the tertiary sector; 7 or 41.2% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 9 or 52.9% were in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was in education. , there were 15 workers who commuted into the municipality and 75 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 5.0 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. A total of 35 workers (70.0% of the 50 total workers in the municipality) both lived and worked in Mühledorf.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 11.8% used public transportation to get to work, and 51.8% used a private car. In 2011 the average local and cantonal tax rate on a married resident, with two children, of Mühledorf making 150,000 CHF was 11.3%, while an unmarried resident's rate was 16.7%. For comparison, the average rate for the entire canton in the same year, was 14.2% and 22.0%, while the nationwide average was 12.3% and 21.1% respectively. In 2009 there were a total of 93 tax payers in the municipality. Of that total, 39 made over 75,000 CHF per year. The average income of the over 75,000 CHF group in Mühledorf was 141,549 CHF, while the average across all of Switzerland was 130,478 CHF.

Religion

From the , 155 or 84.7% 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 2 or 1.1% 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 9 individuals (or about 4.92% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 2 (or about 1.09% 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 ...

. 13 (or about 7.10% 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 2 individuals (or about 1.09% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Mühledorf about 67.6% 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 21.3% 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 28 who had completed some form of tertiary schooling listed in the census, 78.6% were Swiss men, 14.3% 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 2011-12 school year, there were a total of 14 students attending classes in Mühledorf. There were no kindergarten classes in the municipality. The municipality had one primary class and 14 students. Of the primary students, 7.1% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 7.1% have a different mother language than the classroom language.Schuljahr 2011/12 pdf document
accessed 9 May 2013 , there were a total of 14 students attending any school in the municipality. Of those, 13 both lived and attended school in the municipality, while one student came from another municipality. During the same year, 11 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Muhledorf, Bern Former municipalities of the canton of Bern Cultural property of national significance in the canton of Bern