Oberthal 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 ...
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 ...
.
History
Oberthal is first mentioned in 1275 as ''mons Obertal''.
[
The oldest trace of a settlement in the area is the ruins of a castle on the Chnubel ]spur
A spur is a metal tool designed to be worn in pairs on the heels of riding boots for the purpose of directing a horse or other animal to move forward or laterally while riding. It is usually used to refine the riding aids (commands) and to ba ...
. However, no records of the castle have survived and nothing is known about it. The scattered villages and farms had a number of landlords including the Counts of Kyburg
The Kyburg family (; ; also Kiburg) was a noble family of ''grafen'' (counts) in the Duchy of Swabia, a cadet line of the counts of Dillingen, who in the late 12th and early 13th centuries ruled the County of Kyburg, corresponding to much of what ...
and 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 Signau
Signau is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the administrative district of Emmental (administrative district), Emmental in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Bern (canton), Bern in Switzerland.
History
Signau is first mentione ...
. In 1529, 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 ...
gained control over the entire valley and made it part of the new district of Signau. It was 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 Grosshöchstetten
Grosshöchstetten 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. On 1 January ...
.[
Beginning in the 19th century, many of the local farmers switched from raising grain and crops for local use to raising cattle for milk and cheese. To support the new dairy farmers a total of five dairies were built in the valley. However, a lack of jobs led to population decline as residents left for jobs in the growing cities and towns. Today about half of all jobs in the municipality are in agriculture. Additionally, over half of all residents commute to jobs in Bern or surrounding towns.][
]
Geography
Oberthal has an area of . As of 2012, a total of or 63.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 32.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 5.4% is settled (buildings or roads).[Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics]
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010
During the same year, housing and buildings made up 3.1% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.1%. Out of the forested land, 30.8% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.3% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 20.4% is used for growing crops and 41.5% is pastures, while 1.2% is used for orchards or vine crops.[
The municipality lacks a central village, instead it is made up of scattered settlements and farm houses on the Blasenfluh above the ''Kiesental'' (Kiesen Valley).
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.]
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 seven Mullets of Five, three and four, and a Mount of 3 Coupeaux Vert.''
Demographics
Oberthal has a population () of . , 1.3% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2001-2011) the population has changed at a rate of -1.5%. Migration accounted for 0.1%, while births and deaths accounted for -1.3%.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office]
accessed 8 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 ...
(795 or 99.4%) 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 0.3%) and English is the third (2 or 0.3%).[
, the population was 53.8% male and 46.2% female. The population was made up of 415 Swiss men (52.8% of the population) and 8 (1.0%) non-Swiss men. There were 361 Swiss women (45.9%) and 2 (0.3%) non-Swiss women.][Statistical office of the Canton of Bern]
accessed 4 January 2012 Of the population in the municipality, 407 or about 50.9% were born in Oberthal and lived there in 2000. There were 307 or 38.4% who were born in the same canton, while 47 or 5.9% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 20 or 2.5% were born outside of Switzerland.[
, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 21.8% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 60.9% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 17.3%.][
, there were 372 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 370 married individuals, 47 widows or widowers and 11 individuals who are divorced.][STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 – 2000]
accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 91 households that consist of only one person and 43 households with five or more people. , a total of 284 apartments (88.2% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 28 apartments (8.7%) were seasonally occupied and 10 apartments (3.1%) 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 3.8 new units per 1000 residents.[ The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.83%.
The historical population is given in the following chart:]
Politics
In the 2011 federal election, the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 43.6% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (27.6%), the Social Democratic Party (SP) (5.5%) 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 ...
(4.5%). In the federal election, a total of 324 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 51.6%.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election]
accessed 8 May 2012
Economy
, Oberthal had an unemployment rate of 0.89%. , there were a total of 357 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 181 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 63 businesses involved in this sector. 78 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 11 businesses in this sector. 98 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 7 businesses in this sector.[ There were 437 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 37.3% of the workforce.
, there were a total of 236 ]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 106, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 70 of which 12 or (17.1%) were in manufacturing and 58 (82.9%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 60. In the tertiary sector; 22 or 36.7% were in a hotel or restaurant, 8 or 13.3% were in education and 26 or 43.3% were in health care.
, there were 58 workers who commuted into the municipality and 245 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 4.2 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office – Statweb]
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 14% used public transportation to get to work, and 48.1% used a private car.[
]
Religion
From the , 692 or 86.5% 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 25 or 3.1% 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 53 individuals (or about 6.63% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There was 1 individual who was 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. 34 (or about 4.25% 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 21 individuals (or about 2.63% of the population) did not answer the question.[
]
Education
In Oberthal, about 280 or (35.0%) 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 79 or (9.9%) 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 79 who completed tertiary schooling, 77.2% were Swiss men, 20.3% 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 ...
.[Schuljahr 2010/11 pdf document]
accessed 4 January 2012
, there were 5 students in Oberthal who came from another municipality, while 37 residents attended schools outside the municipality.[
]
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Municipalities of the canton of Bern