Mühlethurnen is a former

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 ...

in the Bern-Mittelland 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 ente ...

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 ...

. On 1 January 2020 the former municipalities of

Kirchenthurnen Kirchenthurnen is a former municipality in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. On 1 January 2020 the former municipalities of Kirchenthurnen, Lohnstorf and Mühlethurnen merged to form the municipal ...

, Lohnstorf and Mühlethurnen merged to form the municipality of Thurnen.

History

The first mention of the village is in the 14th century when the von Blankenburg family owned land in it and in neighboring

. The family donated their lands and rights in 1343 and 1362 to

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

. In 1528,

accepted 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 i ...

and forcefully secularized the Abbey and all its lands. The village became part of the district and

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 ...

of Thurnen. The Gürbe river correction projects from 1855 until 1911 drained the swampy valley floor and opened up additional farm land. In 1901 the Gürbetal railroad built a station in the municipality and connected it to the rest of the Swiss rail network. In the 1970s the population began to grow as Mühlethurnen became a regional center in the Gürbe valley. Today the residents work in agriculture, produce

sauerkraut Sauerkraut (; , "sour cabbage") is finely cut raw cabbage that has been fermented by various lactic acid bacteria. It has a long shelf life and a distinctive sour flavor, both of which result from the lactic acid formed when the bacteria ...

or in small businesses. About three-fourths of the work force commutes to jobs in nearby towns and cities. A village school opened in Mühlethurnen in 1871. In 1912 it moved to

Riggisberg Riggisberg is a municipality in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. On January 1, 2009, the municipality of Rüti bei Riggisberg became part of the municipality of Riggisberg. On 1 January 2021 th ...

. Today Mühlethurnen and Lohnstorf form a single school district, with the school in Mühlethurnen.

Geography

Mühlethurnen has an area of . As of 2012, a total of or 72.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 7.5% is forested. The rest of the municipality is or 19.5% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.7% is either rivers or lakes.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010 During the same year, housing and buildings made up 11.3% and transportation infrastructure made up 5.5%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 1.4% of the area All of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 51.5% is used for growing crops and 19.1% is pasturage, while 1.4% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. It is located in the

Gürbetal Gürbetal (Gürbe Valley) in Switzerland lies between the towns of Bern and Thun, west of the Aare. It contains the municipality of Seftigen and those that surround it. The valley is named after the river Gürbe, which flows through it. The largest ...

(Gürbe valley) on the slope of Längenberg mountain. The municipality includes the village of Mühlethurnen, the

hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. Its size relative to a parish can depend on the administration and region. A hamlet may be considered to be a smaller settlement or subdivision or satellite entity to a lar ...

of Mühlebach and Pontel-Freudberg and several isolated houses. On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Seftigen, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Bern-Mittelland.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 ...

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 its ...

is ''Gules a Tower embatteled Argent and a Base Semi Wheel of the same.'' Both the half mill wheel (german: halben Mühlrad) and the tower (german: Turm) are examples 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 all ...

Demographics

Mühlethurnen has a population () of . , 4.3% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 2 years (2010-2012) the population has changed at a rate of 1.0%. Migration accounted for 0.1%, while births and deaths accounted for 0.5%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 14 April 2014 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 **Ge ...

(1,247 or 96.7%) 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 (10 or 0.8%) and

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

is the third (4 or 0.3%). , the population was 48.9% male and 51.1% female. The population was made up of 634 Swiss men (46.7% of the population) and 31 (2.3%) non-Swiss men. There were 669 Swiss women (49.2%) and 25 (1.8%) non-Swiss women.Statistical office of the Canton of Bern
accessed 4 January 2012 Of the population in the municipality, 342 or about 26.5% were born in Mühlethurnen and lived there in 2000. There were 681 or 52.8% who were born in the same canton, while 144 or 11.2% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 74 or 5.7% 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 60.9% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 18.4%. , there were 550 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 632 married individuals, 67 widows or widowers and 41 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 162 households that consist of only one person and 38 households with five or more people. , a total of 499 apartments (94.0% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 17 apartments (3.2%) were seasonally occupied and 15 apartments (2.8%) 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 2.8346456693%. In 2011, single family homes made up 62.1% of the total housing in the municipality. The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width: auto height:200 barincrement:45 PlotArea = top:20 left:40 bottom:20 right:35 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:1400 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:300 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:60 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width: 35 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1764 from:start till:231 text:"231" bar:1850 from:start till:642 text:"642" bar:1860 from:start till:639 text:"639" bar:1870 from:start till:681 text:"681" bar:1880 from:start till:661 text:"661" bar:1888 from:start till:660 text:"660" bar:1900 from:start till:648 text:"648" bar:1910 from:start till:668 text:"668" bar:1920 from:start till:660 text:"660" bar:1930 from:start till:647 text:"647" bar:1941 from:start till:600 text:"600" bar:1950 from:start till:700 text:"700" bar:1960 from:start till:702 text:"702" bar:1970 from:start till:737 text:"737" bar:1980 from:start till:869 text:"869" bar:1990 from:start till:1087 text:"1,087" bar:2000 from:start till:1290 text:"1,290" bar:2010 from:start till:1347 text:"1,347"

Politics

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 25.4% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Social Democratic Party (SP) (18.0%), the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (15.8%) 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 foundation f ...

(14.1%). In the federal election, a total of 679 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 62.3%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election
accessed 8 May 2012

Economy

, Mühlethurnen had an unemployment rate of 1.63%. , there were a total of 253 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 28 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 11 businesses involved in this sector. 62 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 construc ...

and there were 16 businesses in this sector. 163 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 43 businesses in this sector. There were 682 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 44.4% of the workforce. there were a total of 174

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 25, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 69 of which 26 or (37.7%) were in manufacturing and 44 (63.8%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 80. In the tertiary sector; 26 or 32.5% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 6 or 7.5% were in the movement and storage of goods, 7 or 8.8% were in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was in the information industry, 14 or 17.5% were the insurance or financial industry, 3 or 3.8% were technical professionals or scientists, 12 or 15.0% were in education and 8 or 10.0% were in health care. , there were 108 workers who commuted into the municipality and 529 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 4.9 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. A total of 152 workers (58.5% of the 260 total workers in the municipality) both lived and worked in Mühlethurnen.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 33.4% used public transportation to get to work, and 44.6% used a private car. In 2011 the average local and cantonal tax rate on a married resident, with two children, of Mühlethurnen making 150,000 CHF was 12.1%, while an unmarried resident's rate was 17.8%. For comparison, the average rate for the entire canton in the same year, was 14.2% and 22.0%, while the nationwide average was 12.3% and 21.1% respectively. In 2009 there were a total of 606 tax payers in the municipality. Of that total, 218 made over 75,000 CHF per year. There were 3 people who made between 15,000 and 20,000 per year. The average income of the over 75,000 CHF group in Mühlethurnen was 115,013 CHF, while the average across all of Switzerland was 130,478 CHF. In 2011 a total of 1.8% of the population received direct financial assistance from the government.

Religion

From the , 965 or 74.8% 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 ...

, while 99 or 7.7% 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 let ...

. Of the rest of the population, there were 5 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.39% of the population), there were 3 individuals (or about 0.23% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 43 individuals (or about 3.33% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 6 (or about 0.47% of the population) who were

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

. 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 ...

and 16 individuals who were

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 ...

. 104 (or about 8.06% 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 sufficien ...

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 48 individuals (or about 3.72% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Mühlethurnen about 60.9% of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 21.3% 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 Stat ...

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 art ...

''). Of the 166 who had completed some form of tertiary schooling listed in the census, 73.5% were Swiss men, 19.9% were Swiss women, 3.0% were non-Swiss men and 3.6% 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 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 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 2011-12 school year, there were a total of 157 students attending classes in Mühlethurnen. There was one kindergarten class with a total of 23 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 4.3% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 4.3% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The municipality had 7 primary classes and 113 students. Of the primary students, 1.8% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 7.1% have a different mother language than the classroom language. During the same year, there were 2 lower secondary classes with a total of 21 students. There were 4.8% who were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 4.8% have a different mother language than the classroom language.Schuljahr 2011/12 pdf document
accessed 9 May 2013 , there were a total of 170 students attending any school in the municipality. Of those, 141 both lived and attended school in the municipality, while 29 students came from another municipality. During the same year, 81 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Muhlethurnen Former municipalities of the canton of Bern