Rüti bei Büren 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 Seeland 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 ...

. It is also a

reformed Reform is beneficial change. Reform, reformed or reforming may also refer to: Media * ''Reform'' (album), a 2011 album by Jane Zhang * Reform (band), a Swedish jazz fusion group * ''Reform'' (magazine), a Christian magazine Places * Reform, Al ...

church parish.

History

Rüti bei Büren is first mentioned in 1185 as ''in litore Ruthi''. In 1257 it was mentioned as ''Ruti prope Burron''. Scattered

neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

items indicate that there was a small settlement near Rüti bei Büren. Other evidence of prehistoric settlements include;

Hallstatt Hallstatt () is a small town in the district of Gmunden District, Gmunden, in the Austrian state of Upper Austria. Situated between the southwestern shore of Hallstätter See and the steep slopes of the Dachstein massif, the town lies in the Sa ...

grave mounds at Rütiwald, a

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 ...

manor at Buchsi and Roman masonry at the church. The

Roman road Roman roads ( ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Republic and the Roman Em ...

through the Swiss Plateau passed through the modern municipal borders. During the

Early Early may refer to: Places in the United States * Early, Iowa, a city * Early, Texas, a city * Early Branch, a stream in Missouri * Early County, Georgia * Fort Early, Georgia, an early 19th century fort Music * Early B, stage name of Jamaican d ...

and

High Middle Ages The High Middle Ages, or High Medieval Period, was the periodization, period of European history between and ; it was preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, which ended according to historiographical convention ...

the Teufelsburg (Devil's Castle) in the Rütiwald stood over the village. The impressive castle had a large

ring wall A curtain wall is a defensive wall between fortified towers or bastions of a castle, fortress, or town. Ancient fortifications Evidence for curtain walls or a series of walls surrounding a town or fortress can be found in the historical source ...

with four outer walls. The castle may have been the home of the Counts of Buchegg. Later, Rüti belonged to the Counts of Strassberg. In 1388,

acquired all their land, including Rüti. In 1393 it was assigned to the newly created Büren

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 ...

. The village church of St. Mauritius was first mentioned in 1251. The

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

is a Romanesque construction, while the

choir A choir ( ), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Latin ''chorus'', meaning 'a dance in a circle') is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words ...

is early-Gothic. The church was expanded in 1689. In 1911, the

mural A mural is any piece of Graphic arts, graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' ...

s from around 1450, were rediscovered and repaired. Even after the construction of a railroad station on the

Solothurn Solothurn ( ; ; ; ; ) is a town, a municipality, and the capital of the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland. It is located in the north-west of Switzerland on the banks of the Aare and on the foot of the Weissenstein Jura mountains. The town is ...

Lyss Lyss () is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Seeland (administrative district), Seeland administrative district in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Bern (canton), Bern in Switzerland. On 1 January 2011, the former municip ...

rail line in 1912, the village remained small and isolated. Until about 1960 it was a primarily agricultural village with only a few small businesses. The largest factory was a small wooden goods factory. Around 1960 a chemical plant and a watch factory moved into the village. The watch factory employed about 300 people. However, by 1980, the watch making industry was in decline and many workers lost their jobs. By the 2000 census, over 70% of the working population commuted to Büren,

Grenchen Grenchen () is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Lebern (district), Lebern in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Solothurn (canton), Solothurn in Switzerland. It is located at the foot of the Jura mountains betwee ...

Biel Biel/Bienne (official bilingual wording; German language, German: ''Biel'' ; French language, French: ''Bienne'' ; Bernese German, locally ; ; ; ) is a bilingual city in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. With over 55,000 residents, it is the ...

, Bern or Solothurn for work.

Geography

Rüti bei Büren has an area of . Of this area, or 49.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 37.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 9.5% is settled (buildings or roads), or 3.5% is either rivers or lakes.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010 Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 4.8% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.5%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 1.1% of the area Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 38.1% is used for growing crops and 10.0% is pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. The municipality is located on the right bank of the

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 ...

river on the north-western edge of the Bucheggberg plateau. On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Büren, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Seeland.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 two Grubbing-axes Argent handled Or in saltire between two Mullets of five of the second.''

Demographics

Rüti bei Büren has a population () of . , 4.6% 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 -12.7%. Migration accounted for -1.2%, while births and deaths accounted for -4.2%.
accessed 23-August-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 ...

(849 or 94.5%) as their first language, French is the second most common (18 or 2.0%) 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 (11 or 1.2%). There are 6 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 49.2% male and 50.8% female. The population was made up of 387 Swiss men (46.5% of the population) and 23 (2.8%) non-Swiss men. There were 408 Swiss women (49.0%) and 15 (1.8%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 386 or about 43.0% were born in Rüti bei Büren and lived there in 2000. There were 254 or 28.3% who were born in the same canton, while 157 or 17.5% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 66 or 7.3% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 19.6% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 61.5% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 19%. , there were 354 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 439 married individuals, 60 widows or widowers and 45 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 84 households that consist of only one person and 26 households with five or more people. , a total of 346 apartments (92.5% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 16 apartments (4.3%) were seasonally occupied and 12 apartments (3.2%) 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 1.23%. 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:970 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:200 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:40 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1764 from:start till:349 text:"349" bar:1850 from:start till:641 text:"641" bar:1860 from:start till:653 text:"653" bar:1870 from:start till:649 text:"649" bar:1880 from:start till:668 text:"668" bar:1888 from:start till:691 text:"691" bar:1900 from:start till:636 text:"636" bar:1910 from:start till:654 text:"654" bar:1920 from:start till:708 text:"708" bar:1930 from:start till:700 text:"700" bar:1941 from:start till:715 text:"715" bar:1950 from:start till:810 text:"810" bar:1960 from:start till:798 text:"798" bar:1970 from:start till:969 text:"969" bar:1980 from:start till:882 text:"882" bar:1990 from:start till:858 text:"858" bar:2000 from:start till:898 text:"898"

Heritage sites of national significance

The entire village of Rüti bei Büren is 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

The municipal assembly forms the legislature of the municipality. the executive is a seven-member municipal council, chosen by

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to any electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions (Political party, political parties) amon ...

. It was voted in the autumn to reduce the size of the council to five seats and elect by

majority A majority is more than half of a total; however, the term is commonly used with other meanings, as explained in the "#Related terms, Related terms" section below. It is a subset of a Set (mathematics), set consisting of more than half of the se ...

. In the 2011 federal election, the most popular party was the BDP which received 47.8% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (23.7%), the SPS (10%) 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 ...

(5.8%). In the federal election, a total of 311 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 45.5%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election
accessed 8 May 2012

Economy

A business managing chemical waste is located in Rüti. The town gained fame across the country in the 1990s for the company's plans to build a facility for burning hazardous waste. It was eventually abandoned due to resistance from the population. , Rüti bei Büren had an unemployment rate of 2.02%. , there were a total of 455 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 47 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 18 businesses involved in this sector. 138 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 13 businesses in this sector. 270 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 20 businesses in this sector. there were a total of 381

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 33, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 116 of which 99 or (85.3%) were in manufacturing and 16 (13.8%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 232. In the tertiary sector; 170 or 73.3% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 9 or 3.9% were in the movement and storage of goods, 5 or 2.2% were in a hotel or restaurant, 6 or 2.6% were in education and 15 or 6.5% were in health care. , there were 156 workers who commuted into the municipality and 329 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 2.1 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 13% used public transportation to get to work, and 59% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 95 or 10.6% 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 706 or 78.6% 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 was 1 member of an Orthodox church, there was 1 individual who belongs to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 20 individuals (or about 2.23% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 20 (or about 2.23% 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 was 1 person who was

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 ...

. 40 (or about 4.45% 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 24 individuals (or about 2.67% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Rüti bei Büren about 362 or (40.3%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 72 or (8.0%) 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 72 who completed tertiary schooling, 72.2% were Swiss men, 18.1% 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 58 students attending classes in Rüti bei Büren. There was one kindergarten class with a total of 13 students in the municipality. The municipality had 3 primary classes and 45 students. Of the primary students, and 4.4% have a different mother language than the classroom language.Schuljahr 2010/11 pdf document
accessed 4 January 2012 , there was one student in Rüti bei Büren who came from another municipality, while 58 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

Notable residents

Samuel Schmid Samuel Schmid (born 8 January 1947) is a Swiss politician who served as a Member of the Swiss Federal Council from 2000 to 2008. He was the head of the Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sports (notably acting as a defense mini ...

(SVP), member of the

Swiss Federal Council The Federal Council is the federal cabinet of the Swiss Confederation. Its seven members also serve as the collective head of state and government of Switzerland. Since World War II, the Federal Council is by convention a permanent grand co ...

(2000–2008) and

President of the Swiss Confederation The president of the Swiss Confederation, also known as the president of the confederation, federal president or colloquially as the president of Switzerland, is as ''primus inter pares'' among the other members of the Federal Council (Switze ...

in 2005.

References

External links

Official site for the church parish Rüti bei Büren

Vereinigung für Heimatpflege Büren
Distributor of numerous publications about Rüti bei Büren and the Büren district
Community webpage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ruti bei Buren Municipalities of the canton of Bern Cultural property of national significance in the canton of Bern