Bleiken bei Oberdiessbach is a former
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
Bern-Mittelland 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 ...
. On 1 January 2014 the former municipality of Bleiken bei Oberdiessbach merged into the municipality of
Oberdiessbach
Oberdiessbach is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Bern-Mittelland (administrative district), Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Bern (canton), Bern in Switzerland. On 1 January 2010 ...
.
[Nomenklaturen – Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz]
accessed 13 December 2014
History
Bleiken bei Oberdiessbach is first mentioned in 1337 as ''Bleikon''. In 1473 it was mentioned simply as villages (''Dörfer'').
[
The village was settled rather later than many of the nearby villages. In 1880 a medical ]spa resort
A destination spa or health resort is a resort centered on a spa, such as a mineral spa. Historically, many such spas were developed at the location of natural hot springs or mineral springs. In the era before modern biochemistry and pharmacoth ...
was built in the village. The spa eventually closed and the building is now an apartment complex. Even after the spa was built, the village remained isolated. In 1908 a Postauto
PostAuto Switzerland, PostBus Ltd. (known as in Swiss Standard German (), in Swiss French (), in Swiss Italian (), and in Romansh () is a subsidiary company of the Swiss Post, which provides regional and rural bus services throughout Switz ...
route was established which connected Bleiken with Oberdiessbach. Today, over half of the working population commutes to jobs in Oberdiessbach and nearly three-quarters of the jobs in the village are in agriculture or small business.
Geography
Before the merger, Bleiken bei Oberdiessbach had a total area of .[ Of this area, or 57.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 37.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 4.1% is settled (buildings or roads) and or 0.3% 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 3.2% and transportation infrastructure made up 0.9%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 8.5% is used for growing crops and 47.4% is pastures, while 2.0% is used for orchards or vine crops.[
It lies to the north of the town of ]Thun
Thun () is a List of towns in Switzerland, town and a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the administrative district of Thun (administrative district), Thun in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Canton of Bern, Bern in Switzerland. ...
. It is located between the Rothachen canyon and the Äschlenalp mountain. It includes the 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 ...
of Kirch (located in the center), Oberbleiken, Niederbleiken and Egglen as well as scattered individual farm houses.
On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Konolfingen, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Bern-Mittelland.[
]
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 ''Vert on a Bend Argent a Torch Sable inflamed Gules.''
Demographics
Bleiken bei Oberdiessbach had a population (as of 2011) of 391.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office]
accessed 15 January 2014 , 1.3% of the population are resident foreign nationals.
accessed 4 January 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 ...
(367 or 97.1%) 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 (9 or 2.4%) and 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), ...
is the third (1 or 0.3%). There is 1 person who speaks 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 51.6% male and 48.4% female. The population was made up of 196 Swiss men (51.0% of the population) and 2 (0.5%) non-Swiss men. There were 183 Swiss women (47.7%) and 3 (0.8%) non-Swiss women.][ Of the population in the municipality, 142 or about 37.6% were born in Bleiken bei Oberdiessbach and lived there in 2000. There were 177 or 46.8% who were born in the same canton, while 32 or 8.5% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 18 or 4.8% were born outside of Switzerland.][
, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 29.9% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 56.8% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 13.3%.][
, there were 181 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 167 married individuals, 18 widows or widowers and 12 individuals who are divorced.][STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000]
accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 31 households that consist of only one person and 24 households with five or more people. , a total of 127 apartments (83.6% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 19 apartments (12.5%) were seasonally occupied and 6 apartments (3.9%) were empty.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen]
accessed 28 January 2011
The historical population is given in the following chart:
Heritage sites of national significance
The Statthalterhof is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance.
Politics
In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 53.6% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Federal Democratic Union of Switzerland (EDU) (11.9%), the Social Democratic Party (SP) (8.6%) and the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (7.1%). In the federal election, a total of 148 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 49.8%.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election]
accessed 8 May 2012
Economy
, Bleiken bei Oberdiessbach had an unemployment rate of 0.51%. , there were a total of 73 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 38 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 13 businesses involved in this sector. 10 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 3 businesses in this sector. 25 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 8 businesses in this sector.[ There were 192 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 41.7% of the workforce.
there were a total of 49 ]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 23, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 9, all of which were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 17. In the tertiary sector; 2 or 11.8% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 1 was in the movement and storage of goods, 6 or 35.3% were in a hotel or restaurant, 5 or 29.4% were in education.
, there were 13 workers who commuted into the municipality and 139 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 10.7 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb]
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 8.3% used public transportation to get to work, and 58.9% used a private car.[
]
Religion
From the , 9 or 2.4% 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 288 or 76.2% 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 70 individuals (or about 18.52% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 10 (or about 2.65% 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. 27 (or about 7.14% 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 9 individuals (or about 2.38% of the population) did not answer the question.[
]
Education
In Bleiken bei Oberdiessbach about 145 or (38.4%) 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 26 or (6.9%) 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 26 who completed tertiary schooling, 76.9% were Swiss men, 19.2% 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 ...
.[Schuljahr 2010/11 pdf document]
accessed 4 January 2012
, there were 3 students in Bleiken bei Oberdiessbach who came from another municipality, while 10 residents attended schools outside the municipality.[
]
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Former municipalities of the canton of Bern
Cultural property of national significance in the canton of Bern
Populated places disestablished in 2014