Niederried bei Interlaken is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

in the Interlaken-Oberhasli administrative district in the canton of

Bern german: Berner(in)french: Bernois(e) it, bernese , neighboring_municipalities = Bremgarten bei Bern, Frauenkappelen, Ittigen, Kirchlindach, Köniz, Mühleberg, Muri bei Bern, Neuenegg, Ostermundigen, Wohlen bei Bern, Zollikofen , website ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

History

Niederried bei Interlaken is first mentioned in 1291 as ''Riede''. The oldest trace of a settlement in the area is a

neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...

grave in Ursisbalm and a La Tène grave at Städeli. The village only rarely appeared in historical records after its founding. Between 1411 and 1439 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 Ringgenberg, which included Niederried, was given to

Interlaken Abbey , order = Augustinians , established = by 1133 , disestablished = 1528 , mother = , dedication = , diocese = Lausanne , churches = , founder = B ...

. In 1528, the city of

adopted the new faith of the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

and began imposing it on the

Bernese Oberland The Bernese Oberland ( en, Bernese Highlands, german: Berner Oberland; gsw, Bärner Oberland; french: Oberland bernois), the highest and southernmost part of the canton of Bern, is one of the canton's five administrative regions (in which context ...

. The Abbey unsuccessfully rebelled against the new faith. After Bern imposed its will on the Oberland, they secularized the Abbey and annexed all the Abbey lands. Niederried became a part of the Bernese

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. The bailiwick is probably modelled on th ...

Interlaken , neighboring_municipalities= Bönigen, Därligen, Matten bei Interlaken, Ringgenberg, Unterseen , twintowns = Scottsdale (USA), Ōtsu (Japan), Třeboň (Czech Republic) Interlaken (; lit.: ''between lakes'') is a Swiss town and mun ...

. The village occupies a narrow strip of land between the lake and the mountains so there was very little land for farming. During the 19th century some tourists visited the village and in 1877 a pier was built for the tourist steam ships. In 1916 the last leg of the

Brünig railway line The Brünig railway line (german: Brünigbahn) is a Swiss narrow gauge railway line that links Lucerne, in central Switzerland, with Interlaken, in the Bernese Oberland. The line runs via Alpnachstad, Giswil, Meiringen and Brienz, and passes ov ...

was completed, which passed through the narrow village.

Origin of the name

The name means "lower ''Ried'' near

." There are two explanations for the origin of the name ''Ried'': from the

Old High German Old High German (OHG; german: Althochdeutsch (Ahd.)) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally covering the period from around 750 to 1050. There is no standardised or supra-regional form of German at this period, and Old High ...

, ("clearing") or the

Swiss German Swiss German (Standard German: , gsw, Schwiizerdütsch, Schwyzerdütsch, Schwiizertüütsch, Schwizertitsch Mundart,Because of the many different dialects, and because there is no defined orthography for any of them, many different spelling ...

''Ried'' (land growing reeds and swampgrass).

Geography

Niederried bei Interlaken has an area of . Of this area, or 21.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 55.0% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 7.2% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.5% is either rivers or lakes and or 15.9% is unproductive land.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010 Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 4.9% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.3%. Out of the forested land, 50.6% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.7% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 8.2% is pastures and 13.3% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 11.4% is unproductive vegetation and 4.4% is too rocky for vegetation. It lies in the

on the north shore of

Lake Brienz Lake Brienz (german: Brienzersee) is a lake just north of the Alps, in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It has a length of about , a width of and a maximum depth of . Its area is ; the surface is above the sea-level. It is fed, among others, by ...

. The highest point is the ''Suggiture'' () at the northern edge of the municipality. On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Interlaken, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Interlaken-Oberhasli.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 the appropriate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The vis ...

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 latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...

is ''Argent a Semi Ibex rampant Sable langued Gules and a Base Vert.'' The green field appears on the coats of arms of both Niederried and Oberried. It symbolizes the marsh (german: ried) from which the municipalities take their names. On the coat of arms of Niederried the green field appears below (german: nieder) the ibex, while on Oberried it is above (german: ober). This makes the coat of arms an example of

canting arms Canting arms are heraldic bearings that represent the bearer's name (or, less often, some attribute or function) in a visual pun or rebus. French heralds used the term (), as they would sound out the name of the armiger. Many armorial allus ...

Demographics

ZB Interregio mit HGe 101 bei Niederried

Niederried bei Interlaken has a population () of . , 12.7% 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 -4.9%. Migration accounted for -8%, while births and deaths accounted for -0.3%.
accessed 3 April 2013 Most of the population () speaks

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

(316 or 92.4%) as their first language,

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

is the second most common (10 or 2.9%) and

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 third (8 or 2.3%). , the population was 49.4% male and 50.6% female. The population was made up of 141 Swiss men (42.5% of the population) and 23 (6.9%) non-Swiss men. There were 149 Swiss women (44.9%) and 19 (5.7%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 106 or about 31.0% were born in Niederried bei Interlaken and lived there in 2000. There were 138 or 40.4% who were born in the same canton, while 41 or 12.0% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 46 or 13.5% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 17.8% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 60.2% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 22%. , there were 130 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 170 married individuals, 26 widows or widowers and 16 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 50 households that consist of only one person and 13 households with five or more people. , a total of 140 apartments (49.3% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 123 apartments (43.3%) were seasonally occupied and 21 apartments (7.4%) 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 3 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.9%. 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:360 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:70 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:14 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1764 from:start till:107 text:"107" bar:1850 from:start till:194 text:"194" bar:1860 from:start till:198 text:"198" bar:1870 from:start till:205 text:"205" bar:1880 from:start till:179 text:"179" bar:1888 from:start till:167 text:"167" bar:1900 from:start till:181 text:"181" bar:1910 from:start till:183 text:"183" bar:1920 from:start till:216 text:"216" bar:1930 from:start till:261 text:"261" bar:1941 from:start till:260 text:"260" bar:1950 from:start till:273 text:"273" bar:1960 from:start till:264 text:"264" bar:1970 from:start till:254 text:"254" bar:1980 from:start till:266 text:"266" bar:1990 from:start till:355 text:"355" bar:2000 from:start till:342 text:"342"

Politics

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 40.9% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (15.8%), the Social Democratic Party (SP) (11.4%) and the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...

(9.8%). In the federal election, a total of 119 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 can be the percentage of registered voters, eligible voters, or all voting-age people. According to Stanford Unive ...

was 47.2%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election
accessed 8 May 2012

Economy

, Niederried bei Interlaken had an unemployment rate of 1.25%. , there were a total of 44 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 10 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 4 businesses involved in this sector. 12 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 construction. ...

and there were 3 businesses in this sector. 22 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 second ...

, with 10 businesses in this sector. There were 167 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 38.3% of the workforce. there were a total of 35

full-time equivalent Full-time equivalent (FTE), or whole time equivalent (WTE), is a unit that indicates the workload of an employee, employed person (or student) in a way that makes workloads or class loads comparable across various contexts. FTE is often used to me ...

jobs. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 5, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 12 of which 10 or (83.3%) were in manufacturing and 2 (16.7%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 18. In the tertiary sector; 2 or 11.1% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 8 or 44.4% were in a hotel or restaurant, 3 or 16.7% were technical professionals or scientists, 2 or 11.1% were in education. , there were 24 workers who commuted into the municipality and 126 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 5.3 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 14.4% used public transportation to get to work, and 62.9% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 36 or 10.5% were

Roman Catholic 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 ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

, while 237 or 69.3% belonged to the

Swiss Reformed Church The Protestant Church in Switzerland (PCS), (EKS); french: Église évangélique réformée de Suisse (EERS); it, Chiesa evangelica riformata in Svizzera (CERiS); rm, Baselgia evangelica refurmada da la Svizra (BRRS) formerly named Federation o ...

. Of the rest of the population, there were 5 members of an Orthodox church (or about 1.46% of the population), and there were 16 individuals (or about 4.68% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 14 (or about 4.09% of the population) who were

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

ic. There was 1 person who was

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

, 1 person who was

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

and 1 individual who belonged to another church. 16 (or about 4.68% of the population) belonged to no church, are

agnostic Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, of the divine or the supernatural is unknown or unknowable. (page 56 in 1967 edition) Another definition provided is the view that "human reason is incapable of providing sufficient ...

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 23 individuals (or about 6.73% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Niederried bei Interlaken about 134 or (39.2%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 19 or (5.6%) have completed additional higher education (either

university A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

or a ''

Fachhochschule A ''Fachhochschule'' (; plural ''Fachhochschulen''), abbreviated FH, is a university of applied sciences (UAS), in other words a German tertiary education institution that provides professional education in many applied sciences and applied arts ...

''). Of the 19 who completed tertiary schooling, 73.7% were Swiss men, 15.8% 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 cent ...

, 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 new generation of practitioners of a Tradesman, trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners ...

. During the 2010-11 school year, there were a total of 9 students attending one primary class.Schuljahr 2010/11 pdf document
accessed 4 January 2012 , there were 73 students in Niederried bei Interlaken who came from another municipality, while 7 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

Transport

Niederried is served by Niederried station on the Brünig line. It is served by an hourly Regio train between Interlaken and Meiringen.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Municipalities of the canton of Bern Populated places on Lake Brienz