Münsingen (; ) 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 Bern-Mittelland 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 ...

. On 1 January 2013 the former municipality of Trimstein merged into Münsingen, and on 1 January 2017 the former municipality of

Tägertschi Tägertschi is a former 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. On 1 January ...

also merged.Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz
accessed 4 January 2017 The village lies on 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 ...

between the cities of

and

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. ...

History

Münsingen developed from a

Celt The Celts ( , see Names of the Celts#Pronunciation, pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples ( ) were a collection of Indo-European languages, Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient Indo-European people, reached the apoge ...

ic village first settled in around 400 BC. The origin of the name is unclear, though attributed to the

Alamanni The Alemanni or Alamanni were a confederation of Germanic tribes * * * on the Upper Rhine River during the first millennium. First mentioned by Cassius Dio in the context of the campaign of Roman emperor Caracalla of 213 CE, the Alemanni c ...

. During the early and middle La Tene era the residents of the village built about 220 tombs along the Aare river. Some of the men were buried with their weapons and the women and children were buried with jewelry. A total of 1,200 items were discovered from the village. The rich collection of artifacts and the clear

stratigraphic Stratigraphy is a branch of geology concerned with the study of rock layers (strata) and layering (stratification). It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks. Stratigraphy has three related subfields: lithost ...

layers at Münsingen have helped archeologists to develop a model for dating isolated graves from Germany to Romania to Italy. The relatively small number of individuals combined with the rich grave goods indicate that the settlement at Münsingen was home to Celtic nobility. Two of the graves contain skulls that show evidence of

trepanation Trepanning, also known as trepanation, trephination, trephining or making a burr hole (the verb ''trepan'' derives from Old French from Medieval Latin from Ancient Greek, Greek , literally "borer, auger"), is a surgical intervention in which a ...

or holes bored into the skull. During 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 was a country estate or very small settlement near where the village church stands today. Scattered fragments of a wall and a bath house have been discovered. The bath house floor was decorated with

mosaic A mosaic () is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/Mortar (masonry), mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and ...

s depicting fishes and the god

Oceanus In Greek mythology, Oceanus ( ; , also , , or ) was a Titans, Titan son of Uranus (mythology), Uranus and Gaia, the husband of his sister the Titan Tethys (mythology), Tethys, and the father of the River gods (Greek mythology), river gods ...

. The bath house is probably from the 2nd century AD. Münsingen is first mentioned between 993 and 1010 as ''Munisingam'' when King

Rudolph III of Burgundy Rudolph III (, ; 970 – 6 September 1032), called the Idle or the Pious, was the king of Burgundy from 993 until his death. He was the last ruler of an independent Kingdom of Burgundy, and the last legitimate male member of the Burgundian line ...

granted it to Count Kuno. It passed through the hands of the Kyburgs and the Zähringens. Then, in the 13th and 14th centuries Münsingen came under the lordship of the Senn knights from whom the present arms of the municipality are derived. In 1377, the last member of the family sold the town to a wealthy family in

. It passed through several families before the city of Bern gradually acquired all the rights to the town. As an important gathering-place during the Peasants' War, and in the ensuing process of democratization, Münsingen played a major part in the history of the canton of Bern. Originally, the town was ruled from a castle located on the heights above the Müli valley. However, this building fell into ruin and little is known about it. By the 12th century another castle was built in Münsingen town. The Senn family ruled the town from this castle. However, it was demolished by Bern in 1311. A wooden outbuilding was built on the castle lands three years later, in 1314. In 1550 the Schultheiss Hans Franz Nägeli rebuilt the castle building into Münsingen Castle. It was renovated and repaired in 1749–53. In 1977 the municipality acquired the castle and converted it into a municipal museum. The wooden outbuilding was rebuilt in 1570 into a country estate house by the Schultheiss Johannes Steiger. It was purchased in 1877 by the Canton of Bern and converted into a cantonal psychiatric clinic. The clinic played an important role in the 1930s in introducing the somatic therapies in psychiatry.

Geography

Münsingen has an area of . Before the 2017 merger, the area of the municipality was . Of this area, or 46.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 17.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 35.1% is settled (buildings or roads), or 1.4% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.2% 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 2.4% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 20.8% and transportation infrastructure made up 8.3%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 3.3%. Out of the forested land, 15.8% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.3% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 38.1% is used for growing crops and 6.6% is pastures, while 2.1% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. The municipality is located in the

valley and includes the village of Münsingen, and the canton's psychiatric clinic. On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Konolfingen, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Bern-Mittelland.

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 ''Gules a Chief and a Pale Argent.''

Demographics

Münsingen has a population () of . , 9.2% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2001-2011) the population has changed at a rate of 0.1%. Migration accounted for -0.1%, while births and deaths accounted for 0.1%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 2 May 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 ...

(10,164 or 92.9%) as their first language,

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 second most common (160 or 1.5%) and French is the third (117 or 1.1%). There are 9 people who speak Romansh. , the population was 47.8% male and 52.2% female. The population was made up of 4,644 Swiss men (42.8% of the population) and 535 (4.9%) non-Swiss men. There were 5,203 Swiss women (48.0%) and 463 (4.3%) non-Swiss women.Statistical office of the Canton of Bern
accessed 4 January 2012 Of the population in the municipality, 2,660 or about 24.3% were born in Münsingen and lived there in 2000. There were 4,905 or 44.8% who were born in the same canton, while 1,714 or 15.7% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 1,167 or 10.7% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 20.4% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 58.4% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 21.2%. , there were 4,580 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 5,256 married individuals, 571 widows or widowers and 530 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 1,386 households that consist of only one person and 249 households with five or more people. , a total of 4,274 apartments (93.7% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 210 apartments (4.6%) were seasonally occupied and 78 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 3.4 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 1.08%. 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:35 bottom:20 right:35 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:11000 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:2000 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:400 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width: 35 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1764 from:start till:555 text:"555" bar:1850 from:start till:1202 text:"1,202" bar:1860 from:start till:1111 text:"1,111" bar:1870 from:start till:1209 text:"1,209" bar:1880 from:start till:1288 text:"1,288" bar:1888 from:start till:1311 text:"1,311" bar:1900 from:start till:2306 text:"2,306" bar:1910 from:start till:2994 text:"2,994" bar:1920 from:start till:3436 text:"3,436" bar:1930 from:start till:4012 text:"4,012" bar:1941 from:start till:4523 text:"4,523" bar:1950 from:start till:5250 text:"5,250" bar:1960 from:start till:6051 text:"6,051" bar:1970 from:start till:8350 text:"8,350" bar:1980 from:start till:9340 text:"9,340" bar:1990 from:start till:10101 text:"10,101" bar:2000 from:start till:10937 text:"10,937"

Heritage sites of national significance

The Münsingen Clinic Building, the village

rectory A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of a given religion, serving as both a home and a base for the occupant's ministry. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, p ...

and the USM factory and corporate offices are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance. The facility and grounds around Münsingen Clinic are 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:DSC05531 bearbeitet-1.jpg, Münsingen Clinic File:Pfarrhaus00714.jpg, Village rectory File:Muensingen USM Besucherpavillon.jpg, Visitor's center for the USM factory and corporate offices

Main sights

* Münsingen Castle * Landwirtschaftliche Schule Schwand (the former Schwand Agricultural School)

Administration

Münsingen is administered by a seven-member council and a 30-seat municipal assembly.

Politics

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 21.4% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Social Democratic Party (SP) (19.1%), the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (16.7%) 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 ...

(12.8%). In the federal election, a total of 4,488 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 55.3%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election
accessed 8 May 2012

Religion

From the , 7,464 or 68.2% 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 1,472 or 13.5% 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 ...

. Of the rest of the population, there were 57 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.52% of the population), there were 7 individuals (or about 0.06% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 1,181 individuals (or about 10.80% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 6 individuals (or about 0.05% 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 261 (or about 2.39% 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 21 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 ...

, 88 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. 687 (or about 6.28% 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 271 individuals (or about 2.48% of the population) did not answer the question.

Economy

Münsingen's most important enterprise is the firm of USM (''Ulrich Schaerer Münsingen''), internationally known producers of office furniture. , Münsingen had an unemployment rate of 1.8%. , there were a total of 5,778 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 48 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 16 businesses involved in this sector. 1,485 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 91 businesses in this sector. 4,245 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 398 businesses in this sector. There were 5,729 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 45.4% of the workforce. there were a total of 4,680

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 37, of which 36 were in agriculture and 1 was in forestry or lumber production. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 1,386 of which 1,042 or (75.2%) were in manufacturing and 327 (23.6%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 3,257. In the tertiary sector; 756 or 23.2% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 56 or 1.7% were in the movement and storage of goods, 153 or 4.7% were in a hotel or restaurant, 63 or 1.9% were in the information industry, 113 or 3.5% were the insurance or financial industry, 188 or 5.8% were technical professionals or scientists, 400 or 12.3% were in education and 1,175 or 36.1% were in health care. , there were 3,211 workers who commuted into the municipality and 3,464 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, 31.7% used public transportation to get to work, and 38.1% used a private car.

Education

Educational provision in Münsingen covers all levels from primary school, through middle and secondary schools (Realschule and Sekundarschule), up to senior-level education (Vorgymnasium). In Münsingen about 4,747 or (43.4%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 1,504 or (13.8%) 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 1,504 who completed tertiary schooling, 73.5% were Swiss men, 19.5% were Swiss women, 4.8% were non-Swiss men and 2.2% 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 ...

. D During the 2010–11 school year, there were a total of 1,341 students attending classes in Münsingen. There were 10 kindergarten classes with a total of 177 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 14.1% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 19.8% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The municipality had 34 primary classes and 682 students. Of the primary students, 11.6% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 16.7% have a different mother language than the classroom language. During the same year, there were 23 lower secondary classes with a total of 454 students. There were 8.4% who were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 9.9% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The remainder of the students attend a private or special school.Schuljahr 2010/11 pdf document
accessed 4 January 2012 , there were 204 students in Münsingen who came from another municipality, while 355 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

Sport

FC Münsingen is the town's football club.

Twin towns – sister cities

Münsingen is twinned with: *

Humpolec Humpolec (; ) is a town in Pelhřimov District in the Vysočina Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 12,000 inhabitants. Administrative division Humpolec consists of 12 municipal parts (in brackets population according to the 2021 census): ...

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

Notable people

* Christian Müller (1921 in Münsingen – 2013) a Swiss teacher, writer, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst *

Simone Niggli-Luder Simone Niggli-Luder (born 9 January 1978) is a Swiss orienteering athlete who has twice won (in 2003 and 2005) all four women's competitions at the world championships. She is widely seen as one of the greatest orienteers of all time. Personal ...

(born 1978) a Swiss orienteering athlete, lives in Münsingen *

Roman Bürki Roman Bürki (born 14 November 1990) is a Swiss professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Major League Soccer club St. Louis City SC. From 2014 to 2018, he played for the Switzerland national team. Club career Switzerland Bürki beg ...

(born 1990 in Münsingen) a Swiss professional footballer, approaching 300 club caps * Medon Berisha (born 2003) a professional footballer who plays for US Lecce and the Albanian national football team * Nora von Bergen (born 1990 in Münsingen) a Swiss ice dancer *

Patric Niederhauser Patric Niederhauser (born 8 October 1991) is a professional racing driver from Switzerland and a current Porsche factory driver. He was the champion of the Formula Abarth Italian Series in 2011 and competed in the GP3 Series before switching in ...

(born 1991 in Münsingen) a professional racing driver * Michael Frey (born 1994 in Münsingen) a Swiss footballer, approaching 300 club caps * Reto Keller (born 1994 in Münsingen) a Swiss curler

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Munsingen Municipalities of the canton of Bern Cities in Switzerland Populated places on the Aare Cultural property of national significance in the canton of Bern