Oberbalm, is a

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 ...

History

Oberbalm is first mentioned in 1228 as ''Balmes''. The village grew up around a

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...

site. It was part of the lands of the counts of Laupen-Sternberg, who lived in a castle near Oberbalm above the Scherliau river. In 1388,

acquired rights over the region, and Oberbalm became part of the Bernese court of Sternberg. It remained a part of Sternberg until 1803 when it became part of the Oberamt of Bern. In 1831 the Oberamt was dissolved and Oberbalm was transferred to the successor Amtsbezirk of Bern. The counts founded and supported the village church of St. Sulpitius, which was built before 1215 and first mentioned in 1228 in the Lausanne Chartular. Portions of the original romanesque building are still visible in 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-typ ...

. The

mural A mural is any piece of 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'' is a Spanis ...

s were painted in 1480 while the tower and

choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which sp ...

were built between 1517 and 1527. Pilgrimages to Oberbalm to see the relics of St. Sulpitius became so profitable that in 1462, the Bernese City Council voted to move them to the new Cathedral of Bern. During 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 ...

the village converted to the new religion and in 1528 the village church was placed under the authority of the city of Bern. Until the 20th century, the village of Oberbalm was only barely larger than the surrounding

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 ...

. In 1838, there were only 19 houses in the village proper, while the surrounding hamlets had a total of 114. The village was the center of the surrounding communities because it had a church, a schoolhouse, a blacksmith and a tavern. However, during the 20th century, the village of Oberbalm grew as commuters moved from Bern and settled in the village.

Geography

Oberbalm has an area of . Of this area, or 74.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 20.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 4.6% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.2% 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 2.8% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.7%. Out of the forested land, 18.2% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.6% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 21.2% is used for growing crops and 50.5% is pastures, while 2.3% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. The municipality is located in the hilly, rural land between the Schwarzwasser and Scherlibach streams. It consists of the village of Oberbalm, scattered hamlets and individual farm houses. On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Bern, 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 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 ''Per fess vert and Argent a Holly branch counterchanged.''

Demographics

Oberbalm has a population () of . , 4.3% 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 2.2%. Migration accounted for -0.2%, while births and deaths accounted for 2.9%.
accessed 19-July-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 **Ge ...

(826 or 98.9%) 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 ...

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 ...

and

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

all have one native speaker. , the population was 50.1% male and 49.9% female. The population was made up of 415 Swiss men (48.0% of the population) and 18 (2.1%) non-Swiss men. There were 413 Swiss women (47.7%) and 19 (2.2%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 390 or about 46.7% were born in Oberbalm and lived there in 2000. There were 332 or 39.8% who were born in the same canton, while 59 or 7.1% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 21 or 2.5% 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 62.5% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 16.9%. , there were 374 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 390 married individuals, 53 widows or widowers and 18 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 102 households that consist of only one person and 40 households with five or more people. , a total of 319 apartments (84.2% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 43 apartments (11.3%) were seasonally occupied and 17 apartments (4.5%) 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 1.2 new units per 1000 residents. 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:1400 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:300 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:60 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1764 from:start till:607 text:"607" bar:1850 from:start till:1304 text:"1,304" bar:1860 from:start till:1250 text:"1,250" bar:1870 from:start till:1293 text:"1,293" bar:1880 from:start till:1212 text:"1,212" bar:1888 from:start till:1198 text:"1,198" bar:1900 from:start till:1091 text:"1,091" bar:1910 from:start till:1100 text:"1,100" bar:1920 from:start till:1044 text:"1,044" bar:1930 from:start till:989 text:"989" bar:1941 from:start till:997 text:"997" bar:1950 from:start till:999 text:"999" bar:1960 from:start till:924 text:"924" bar:1970 from:start till:863 text:"863" bar:1980 from:start till:842 text:"842" bar:1990 from:start till:847 text:"847" bar:2000 from:start till:835 text:"835"

Heritage sites of national significance

The farm house at Stöckli 203 and the granaries at Horbermatt 114 and Oberbalmstrasse 209 A are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance. File:Oberbalm Stöckli Bauernhaus.jpg, Farm House at Stöckli 203 File:Oberbalm Horbermatt 114 Speicher.jpg, Granary at Horbermatt 114 File:Speicher, Oberbalmstrasse 209 A, Vorderansicht.jpg, Granary at Oberbalmstrasse 209 A

Sights

The village of Oberbalm is famous for its church, the St. Sulpitius Church which contains frescoes from 1470. Oberbalm is a place of

. Each summer an open-air Rock Festival ( Outdoor Elch) is held on top of Balmberg Hill.

Politics

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 50.6% of the vote. The next two most popular parties were the BDP Party (14%), and the

SPS SPS may refer to: Law and government * Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures of the WTO * NATO Science for Peace and Security * Single Payment Scheme, an EU agricultural subsidy * The Standard Procurement System, ...

(10.4%). In the federal election, a total of 389 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 56.0%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election
accessed 8 May 2012

Economy

, Oberbalm had an unemployment rate of 1.09%. , there were a total of 278 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 186 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 69 businesses involved in this sector. 53 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 10 businesses in this sector. 39 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 12 businesses in this sector. there were a total of 185

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 112, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 48 of which 6 or (12.5%) were in manufacturing and 42 (87.5%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 25. In the tertiary sector; 8 or 32.0% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 6 or 24.0% were in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was the insurance or financial industry, 2 or 8.0% were technical professionals or scientists, 4 or 16.0% were in education. , there were 27 workers who commuted into the municipality and 298 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 11.0 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 17.9% used public transportation to get to work, and 43.5% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 36 or 4.3% 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 ...

, while 692 or 82.9% 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 was 1 member of an Orthodox church, there was 1 individual who belongs to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 84 individuals (or about 10.06% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 5 (or about 0.60% of the population) who were

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the ...

ic. 37 (or about 4.43% 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 21 individuals (or about 2.51% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Oberbalm about 314 or (37.6%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 86 or (10.3%) 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 86 who completed tertiary schooling, 66.3% were Swiss men, 29.1% 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 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 75 students attending classes in Oberbalm. There was one kindergarten class with a total of 14 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 7.1% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 7.1% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The municipality had 3 primary classes and 61 students. Of the primary students, 1.6% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 1.6% have a different mother language than the classroom language.Schuljahr 2010/11 pdf document
accessed 4 January 2012 , there was one student in Oberbalm who came from another municipality, while 37 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

References

{{Authority control Municipalities of the canton of Bern Cultural property of national significance in the canton of Bern