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Seedorf 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 Canton may refer to: Administrative division terminology * Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries, notably Switzerland * Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French Arts and ent ...
of Bern in Switzerland.


History

Seedorf is first mentioned around 1173-80 as ''Sedorf''. The area around Seedorf was home to a number of prehistoric settlements. The oldest may be the settlement at Lobsigensee from the later half of the 4th millennium BC. It is now a
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. I ...
World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...
. Other prehistoric sites include; a
Hallstatt Hallstatt ( , , ) is a small town in the district of 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 Salzkammer ...
burial mound Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objec ...
at Einschlag, a La Tene skeleton near the Seedorf school house and an
early Early may refer to: History * The beginning or oldest part of a defined historical period, as opposed to middle or late periods, e.g.: ** Early Christianity ** Early modern Europe Places in the United States * Early, Iowa * Early, Texas * Early ...
and
high medieval The High Middle Ages, or High Medieval Period, was the periodization, period of European history that lasted from AD 1000 to 1300. The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and were followed by the Late Middle Ages, which ended ...
settlement near the church. Except for the village of Frieswil, the entire Seedorf
parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...
belonged to Count Udelhard of Saugern. In 1131, he granted the entire parish to what would become
Frienisberg Abbey Frienisberg Abbey is a former Cistercian religious house in the Swiss municipality of Seedorf in the Canton of Bern. History In 1131 Count Udelhard of Saugern granted his land at Frienisberg to the Cistercian Lützel Abbey. In 1138, the Lütz ...
. Initially he granted his land at Frienisberg to the Cistercian Lützel Abbey. In 1138, the Lützel Abbey sent settlers to Frienisberg to found a new abbey. The new abbey remained small and struggled until the first half of the 13th century, when a number of donations allowed it to expand. In 1233 it owned land in Frienisberg, Allenwil, Ried, Tedlingen, Niederwiler, Werd, Gäserz bei Ins and Montils bei Nugerol. In the second half of the 13th century, the abbey founded the nunneries of Fraubrunnen, Steinen and Tedlingen. In 1267, Udelhard's descendant, the Counts of Thierstein, sold their estates, court and church in Seedorf to the Abbey. The village church was first mentioned in 1131 and in 1320 it was incorporated into the Abbey. In 1386, the Abbey tied itself closely to Bern, when it accepted Bernese citizenship for its monks and farmers. This close connection with Bern led to the Abbey's downfall. When Bern embraced 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 ...
, many Bernese monasteries, including Frienisberg, were secularized. The last abbot, Urs Hirsinger, fled to Hauterive in the
Canton of Fribourg The canton of Fribourg, also canton of Freiburg (french: Canton de Fribourg ; german: Kanton Freiburg ; frp, Canton de Fribôrg rm, Chantun Friburg it, Canton Friburgo) is located in western Switzerland. The canton is bilingual, with French ...
rather than remain in Bern. In 1534, the abbey church was demolished. The former convent building was converted into a hospital in 1533 and it housed the local Bernese bailiff until 1798. The bailiff administered the Frienisberg bailiwick, which included Seedorf and Meikirch. Starting around 1850, many of the farms shifted from growing crops to raising livestock and producing dairy. However, the swamps of the Seedorfmoos limited the available land. In multiple stages between 1858 and 1957, the Seedorfmoos was drained, which opened up additional land. While Seedorf was on the old Bern-Neuchatel-Aarberg road, it was bypassed by the Bern-Aarberg road in 1850 and the later railroad and highway. Therefore, the local economy has remained rooted in agriculture and small businesses. Beginning in 1920, agriculture became increasingly mechanized and required fewer farm workers. Due to a lack of jobs the population declined for almost 50 years after that time. In the 1970s the population stabilized as commuters and businesses moved from the nearby cities. In 1834 the Abbey was converted into a home for the
deaf-mute Deaf-mute is a term which was used historically to identify a person who was either deaf and used sign language or both deaf and could not speak. The term continues to be used to refer to deaf people who cannot speak an oral language or have som ...
. In 1889 it was converted into a nursing home, a role that it still fills today.


Geography

Seedorf has an area of . Of this area, or 59.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 32.5% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 7.7% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.2% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.0% 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 4.5% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.4%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 42.7% is used for growing crops and 14.8% is pastures, while 2.2% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. The municipality is located on the northern edge of the Frienisberg Plateau at an elevation of between . It consists of the villages of Seedorf, Aspi, Baggwil, Dampfwil, Frienisberg, Frieswil, Lobsigen, Ruchwil and Wilerand, along with eleven hamlets and scattered farm houses.


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 visua ...
of the municipal
coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in it ...
is ''Per fess Argent and Azure in chief a Semi Bear rampant issuant Sable langued Gules.''


Demographics

Seedorf has a population () of . , 4.7% 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 2.4%. Migration accounted for 2.5%, while births and deaths accounted for 0.9%.
accessed 14-May-2012
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 ...
(3,037 or 96.6%) as their first language,
French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
is the second most common (21 or 0.7%) and Albanian is the third (17 or 0.5%). There are 7 people who speak Italian. , the population was 48.7% male and 51.3% female. The population was made up of 1,391 Swiss men (46.4% of the population) and 69 (2.3%) non-Swiss men. There were 1,468 Swiss women (48.9%) and 71 (2.4%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 1,096 or about 34.9% were born in Seedorf and lived there in 2000. There were 1,354 or 43.1% who were born in the same canton, while 424 or 13.5% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 193 or 6.1% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 20.6% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 63.4% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 16%. , there were 1,354 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 1,473 married individuals, 201 widows or widowers and 116 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 286 households that consist of only one person and 95 households with five or more people. , a total of 1,091 apartments (92.4% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 55 apartments (4.7%) were seasonally occupied and 35 apartments (3.0%) 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 2.06%. 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:3200 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:600 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:120 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1764 from:start till:1019 text:"1,019" bar:1850 from:start till:2585 text:"2,585" bar:1860 from:start till:2487 text:"2,487" bar:1870 from:start till:2648 text:"2,648" bar:1880 from:start till:2797 text:"2,797" bar:1888 from:start till:2759 text:"2,759" bar:1900 from:start till:2822 text:"2,822" bar:1910 from:start till:2793 text:"2,793" bar:1920 from:start till:2854 text:"2,854" bar:1930 from:start till:2655 text:"2,655" bar:1941 from:start till:2616 text:"2,616" bar:1950 from:start till:2628 text:"2,628" bar:1960 from:start till:2610 text:"2,610" bar:1970 from:start till:2531 text:"2,531" bar:1980 from:start till:2598 text:"2,598" bar:1990 from:start till:2957 text:"2,957" bar:2000 from:start till:3144 text:"3,144"


Politics

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 38% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the BDP Party (21.8%), the SPS (12.8%) 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 foundati ...
(6.9%). In the federal election, a total of 1,326 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 Univ ...
was 55.7%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election
accessed 8 May 2012


Economy

, Seedorf had an unemployment rate of 0.71%. , there were a total of 1,199 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 236 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 73 businesses involved in this sector. 216 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 constructio ...
and there were 36 businesses in this sector. 747 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 secon ...
, with 72 businesses in this sector. there were a total of 918
full-time equivalent Full-time equivalent (FTE), or whole time equivalent (WTE), is a unit 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 used to measure a ...
jobs. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 159, of which 146 were in agriculture and 13 were in forestry or lumber production. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 198 of which 126 or (63.6%) were in manufacturing and 72 (36.4%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 561. In the tertiary sector; 69 or 12.3% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 46 or 8.2% were in the movement and storage of goods, 33 or 5.9% were in a hotel or restaurant, 49 or 8.7% were in the information industry, 17 or 3.0% were technical professionals or scientists, 24 or 4.3% were in education and 251 or 44.7% were in health care. , there were 382 workers who commuted into the municipality and 1,066 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 2.8 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010
Of the working population, 13.9% used public transportation to get to work, and 57.4% used a private car.


Religion

From the , 212 or 6.7% 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 letter ...
, while 2,561 or 81.5% 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 20 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.64% of the population), there were 2 individuals (or about 0.06% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 233 individuals (or about 7.41% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 50 (or about 1.59% of the population) who were Islamic. There were 3 individuals who were Hindu and 1 individual who belonged to another church. 116 (or about 3.69% 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 sufficie ...
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 60 individuals (or about 1.91% of the population) did not answer the question.


Education

In Seedorf about 1,276 or (40.6%) of the population have completed non-mandatory
upper secondary education Secondary education or post-primary education covers two phases on the International Standard Classification of Education scale. Level 2 or lower secondary education (less commonly junior secondary education) is considered the second and final ph ...
, and 369 or (11.7%) 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. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which ...
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 ar ...
''). Of the 369 who completed tertiary schooling, 70.7% were Swiss men, 25.7% were Swiss women, 1.6% were non-Swiss men and 1.9% 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 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 trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...
. During the 2009-10 school year, there were a total of 252 students attending classes in Seedorf. There were 3 kindergarten classes with a total of 49 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 10.2% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 10.2% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The municipality had 11 primary classes and 163 students. Of the primary students, 4.3% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 4.3% have a different mother language than the classroom language. During the same year, there were 3 lower secondary classes with a total of 40 students. There were 2.5% who were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens).Schuljahr 2010/11 pdf document
accessed 4 January 2012
, there were 12 students in Seedorf who came from another municipality, while 173 residents attended schools outside the municipality.


World heritage site

It is home to the Lobsigensee prehistoric pile-dwelling (or stilt house) settlement which is part of the
Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps Prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps are a series of prehistoric pile dwelling (or stilt house) settlements in and around the Alps built from about 5000 to 500 BC on the edges of lakes, rivers or wetlands. In 2011, 111 sites located various ...
, an
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. I ...
World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...
.UNESCO World Heritage Site - Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps
/ref> The Lobsigensee site is located on the south-western shore of the lake of the same name. Based on several finds, the site has been dated to the second half of the 4th millennium BC. The first excavation was carried out in 1908, followed by test digs in 1924 and 1953. Starting in the 1950s private collectors found a number of artifacts in Lobsigensee. In 2005 and 2007 the site was explored again. The recent excavations discovered a burnt layer that indicated that at least one of the settlements was destroyed by a fire. The 2005 test borings identified numerous huts or houses.palafittes.org UNESCO nomination files-Volume I: Id-files of the component parts of the serial, Sites Switzerland (2)
accessed 14-May-2012


References


External links

* {{Authority control Municipalities of the canton of Bern