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Rohrbach () 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 Oberaargau 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 ...
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

Rohrbach was first mentioned in 795 as ''Roorbah'' when a local noble, Heribold, gave his lands in
Madiswil Madiswil is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Oberaargau (administrative district), Oberaargau administrative district in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Bern (canton), Bern in Switzerland. Since January 1, 2007, Gutenburg ...
to the church in Rohrbach. In the 9th century some land around the village was given to the
Abbey of St. Gall The Abbey of Saint Gall () is a dissolved abbey (747–1805) in a Catholic religious complex in the city of St. Gallen in Switzerland. The Carolingian-era monastery existed from 719, founded by Saint Othmar on the spot where Saint Gall had er ...
. The Abbey established an administrator in Rohrbach to manage their lands in the
Oberaargau The Oberaargau is the region that encompasses the upper watershed of the Aar River in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. On the north, lie the Jura Mountains, and on the south the hills leading to the Emmental. Administratively, the Oberaargau f ...
region. Since the Abbey was an
Imperial Abbey Princely abbeys (, ''Fürststift'') and Imperial abbeys (, ''Reichskloster'', ''Reichsstift'', ''Reichsgotthaus'') were religious establishments within the Holy Roman Empire which enjoyed the status of imperial immediacy (''Reichsunmittelbarke ...
, the administrator and the landholders on the Abbey's land had immunity from the local count's court and could only be arrested or tried by the Abbey court. At the beginning of the 14th century 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 ...
and the low court of the local Barons of Ruti. Between 1314 and 1370 both offices were held by the Count of Signau and after 1371 by the Count of Grünenberg. The Grünenberg Counts incorporated the village into their personal territory. Hermann of Eptingen then acquired the rule over the village by marriage. He supported the
Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
n
Habsburgs The House of Habsburg (; ), also known as the House of Austria, was one of the most powerful dynasties in the history of Europe and Western civilization. They were best known for their inbreeding and for ruling vast realms throughout Europe d ...
in the
Old Zürich War The Old Zurich War (; 1440–1446) was a conflict between the canton of Zurich and the other seven cantons of the Old Swiss Confederacy over the succession to the Count of Toggenburg. In 1436, Count Friedrich VII of Toggenburg died, leaving nei ...
(1440–46) and lost the village to a
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 ...
ese army. After the war, the village was returned to his wife in 1449. In 1504 Bern bought the entire village from Hermann's decedents. In 1505 the village was incorporated into 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 Wangen. However, Rohrbach retained several special privileges. They were exempt from forced labor for the
bailiff A bailiff is a manager, overseer or custodian – a legal officer to whom some degree of authority or jurisdiction is given. There are different kinds, and their offices and scope of duties vary. Another official sometimes referred to as a '' ...
and in wars they marched under the banner of the city of Bern. After the 1798 French invasion it was part of the District of
Langenthal Langenthal is a town and a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Oberaargau (administrative district), Oberaargau in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. On 1 January 2010 the municipality of Untersteckholz merged into the ...
in the
Helvetic Republic The Helvetic Republic (; ; ) was a sister republic of France that existed between 1798 and 1803, during the French Revolutionary Wars. It was created following the French invasion and the consequent dissolution of the Old Swiss Confederacy, ma ...
and in 1803 it went to the District of
Aarwangen Aarwangen is a village and a municipality in the Oberaargau administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. History Aarwangen is first mentioned in 1255 as ''villa Arwangen''. Aarwangen grew from a fortified toll crossing over th ...
. The village church, St. Martin's Church, was first mentioned in 795. The current building was built in 1738. Originally the church belonged to the Abbey of St. Gall, but in 1345 it was sold to the
Knights Hospitaller The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), is a Catholic military order. It was founded in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century and had headquarters there ...
Thunstetten Commandery. When the Commandery was secularized in 1528 during the Protestant
Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...
, its properties, including St. Martin's, went to Bern. Starting in the 18th century
cottage industry The putting-out system is a means of subcontracting work, like a tailor. Historically, it was also known as the workshop system and the domestic system. In putting-out, work is contracted by a central agent to subcontractors who complete the p ...
weaving began to supplement agriculture as a source of income. In 1889 the Langenthal-Huttwil-Wolhusen railroad opened a station in Rohrbach, which promoted industrialization in the village. As of 2005, over half of all jobs in the village are in manufacturing while many residents commute to Langenthal for work. Around 1980 the new housing development of Riedmatt opened to provide housing for a growing population.


Geography

Rohrbach has an area of . Of this area, or 62.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 20.0% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 15.9% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.2% 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 3.4% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 9.8% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.7%. Out of the forested land, 18.1% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.0% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 37.2% is used for growing crops and 23.7% is pastures, while 2.0% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. The municipality is located in the Oberaargau region. It consists of the village of Rohrbach and a number of
hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. This is often simply an informal description of a smaller settlement or possibly a subdivision or satellite entity to a larger settlement. Sometimes a hamlet is defined f ...
including Boden, Brand, Kasern and Sossau as well as scattered farm houses. On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Aarwangen, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Oberaargau.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 ''Gules a Mullet Or on a Mount of Six Coupeaux Vert.''


Demographics

Rohrbach has a population () of . , 7.6% 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 1.2%. Migration accounted for 4%, while births and deaths accounted for -2.5%.
accessed 8 June 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 ...
(1,311 or 96.1%) as their first language,
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 second most common (11 or 0.8%) and
Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian ( / ), also known as Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS), is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. It is a pluricentric language with four mutually i ...
is the third (10 or 0.7%). There are 3 people who speak
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), ...
, 3 people who speak
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 ...
. , the population was 48.7% male and 51.3% female. The population was made up of 656 Swiss men (44.9% of the population) and 55 (3.8%) non-Swiss men. There were 694 Swiss women (47.5%) and 56 (3.8%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 529 or about 38.8% were born in Rohrbach and lived there in 2000. There were 553 or 40.5% who were born in the same canton, while 178 or 13.0% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 86 or 6.3% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 21.5% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 59.4% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 19.1%. , there were 536 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 662 married individuals, 113 widows or widowers and 53 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 – 2000
accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 183 households that consist of only one person and 35 households with five or more people. , a total of 575 apartments (91.6% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 26 apartments (4.1%) were seasonally occupied and 27 apartments (4.3%) were empty.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB – Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 – Gebäude und Wohnungen
accessed 28 January 2011
The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 1.41%. 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:1800 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:400 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:80 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1764 from:start till:714 text:"714" bar:1850 from:start till:1704 text:"1,704" bar:1860 from:start till:1621 text:"1,621" bar:1870 from:start till:1648 text:"1,648" bar:1880 from:start till:1582 text:"1,582" bar:1888 from:start till:1650 text:"1,650" bar:1900 from:start till:1507 text:"1,507" bar:1910 from:start till:1535 text:"1,535" bar:1920 from:start till:1578 text:"1,578" bar:1930 from:start till:1520 text:"1,520" bar:1941 from:start till:1496 text:"1,496" bar:1950 from:start till:1630 text:"1,630" bar:1960 from:start till:1524 text:"1,524" bar:1970 from:start till:1452 text:"1,452" bar:1980 from:start till:1328 text:"1,328" bar:1990 from:start till:1357 text:"1,357" bar:2000 from:start till:1364 text:"1,364"


Sights

The entire village of Rohrbach is designated as 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 ...
.


Politics

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 37.9% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the BDP Party (16.1%), the SPS (15.9%) and the EVP Party (8%). In the federal election, a total of 437 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 37.4%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election
accessed 8 May 2012


Economy

, Rohrbach had an unemployment rate of 1.63%. , there were a total of 527 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 41 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 20 businesses involved in this sector. 314 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 21 businesses in this sector. 172 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 44 businesses in this sector. there were a total of 446
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 29, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 290 of which 165 or (56.9%) were in manufacturing and 125 (43.1%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 127. In the tertiary sector; 40 or 31.5% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 32 or 25.2% were in the movement and storage of goods, 8 or 6.3% were in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was the insurance or financial industry, 7 or 5.5% were technical professionals or scientists, 13 or 10.2% were in education and 12 or 9.4% were in health care. , there were 287 workers who commuted into the municipality and 482 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.7 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.Swiss Federal Statistical Office – Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010
Of the working population, 11.6% used public transportation to get to work, and 60.5% used a private car.


Religion

From the , 84 or 6.2% 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 1,138 or 83.4% 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 individuals (or about 4.47% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 13 (or about 0.95% 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 26 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 ...
. 51 (or about 3.74% 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 1.54% of the population) did not answer the question.


Education

In Rohrbach about 572 or (41.9%) 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 115 or (8.4%) 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 115 who completed tertiary schooling, 75.7% were Swiss men, 20.0% 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 2009–10 school year, there were a total of 161 students attending classes in Rohrbach. There were 2 kindergarten classes with a total of 29 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 6.9% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 10.3% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The municipality had 6 primary classes and 106 students. Of the primary students, 9.4% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 9.4% have a different mother language than the classroom language. During the same year, there was one lower secondary class with a total of 26 students. There were 23.1% who were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 19.2% have a different mother language than the classroom language.Schuljahr 2010/11 pdf document
accessed 4 January 2012
, there were 13 students in Rohrbach who came from another municipality, while 100 residents attended schools outside the municipality.


References

{{Authority control Municipalities of the canton of Bern