Blitzingen is a former
municipality in the district of
Goms GOMS is a specialized human information processor model for human-computer interaction observation that describes a user's cognitive structure on four components. In the book ''The Psychology of Human Computer Interaction''. written in 1983 by Stua ...
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
Valais in
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 2017 the former municipalities of Blitzingen,
Grafschaft,
Münster-Geschinen,
Niederwald and
Reckingen-Gluringen merged into the municipality of
Goms.
History
Blitzingen is first mentioned in 1203 as ''Blicingen''.
[
]
Geography
Blitzingen had an area, , of . Of this area, 36.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while 27.3% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.7% is settled (buildings or roads) and 34.3% is unproductive land.[
It consists of the village of Blitzingen and the hamlets of Ammere, Bodme, Wiler and Gadme.
]
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is ''Azure, issuant from a cliff Vert a flag per fess Gules and Argent two Crosses couped counterchanged staffed of the third and finialed Or, issuant from sinister a Thunderbolt Or, in Chief two Mullets Or.'' The lightning bolt (german: blitz) may be an example of canting arms.
Demographics
Blitzingen had a population () of 90. , 24.4% of the population are resident foreign nationals.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Superweb database - Gemeinde Statistics 1981-2008]
Retrieved 19 June 2010 Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of -24%. It has changed at a rate of -4.8% due to migration and at a rate of -14.4% due to births and deaths.
Retrieved 7 September 2011[
, the gender distribution of the population was 51.9% male and 48.1% female. The population was made up of 26 Swiss men (32.9% of the population) and 15 (19.0%) non-Swiss men. There were 33 Swiss women (41.8%) and 5 (6.3%) non-Swiss women.][Ständige Wohnbevolkerung nach Geschlecht und Heimat am 31.12.2009.xls]
Retrieved 24 August 2011 Of the population in the municipality 44 or about 44.4% were born in Blitzingen and lived there in 2000. There were 21 or 21.2% who were born in the same canton, while 11 or 11.1% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 21 or 21.2% were born outside of Switzerland.[
The age distribution of the population () is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 23.2% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 49.5% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 27.3%.][
, there were 37 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 51 married individuals, 8 widows or widowers and 3 individuals who are divorced.][STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000]
Retrieved 2 February 2011
, there were 42 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.3 persons per household.[ There were 15 households that consist of only one person and 2 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 44 households that answered this question, 34.1% were households made up of just one person and there was 1 adult who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 10 married couples without children, 14 married couples with children There were 2 households that were made up of unrelated people and 2 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.][
there were 51 single family homes (or 57.3% of the total) out of a total of 89 inhabited buildings. There were 30 multi-family buildings (33.7%), along with 2 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (2.2%) and 6 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (6.7%).][Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen]
Retrieved 28 January 2011
, a total of 42 apartments (21.5% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 140 apartments (71.8%) were seasonally occupied and 13 apartments (6.7%) were empty.[ The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 3.02%.][
The historical population is given in the following chart:]
Sights
The entire hamlet of Ammere / Gadme /Wiler and the hamlet of Bodmen are designated as 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
In the 2007 federal election
This electoral calendar 2007 lists the national/federal direct elections held in 2007 in the de jure and de facto sovereign states and their dependent territories. Referendums are included, although they are not elections. By-elections are not i ...
the most popular party was the CVP which received 59.26% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (21.69%), the SVP (10.05%) and the Green Party (4.23%). In the federal election, a total of 28 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 50.9%.
In the 2009 Conseil d'État/Staatsrat election a total of 23 votes were cast, of which 5 or about 21.7% were invalid. The voter participation was 44.2%, which is much less than the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election a total of 28 votes were cast, of which 2 or about 7.1% were invalid. The voter participation was 50.9%, which is much less than the cantonal average of 59.88%.
Economy
, Blitzingen had an unemployment rate of 0.7%. , there were 11 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 5 businesses involved in this sector. 4 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 2 businesses in this sector. 19 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 5 businesses in this sector.[ There were 49 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 40.8% of the workforce.
the total number of full-time equivalent jobs was 29. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 7, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 3, all of which were in manufacturing. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 19. In the tertiary sector; 1 was in the sale or repair of motor vehicles and 16 or 84.2% were in a hotel or restaurant.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Betriebszählung: Arbeitsstätten nach Gemeinde und NOGA 2008 (Abschnitte), Sektoren 1-3]
Retrieved 28 January 2011
, there were 24 workers who commuted away from the municipality.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb]
Retrieved 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 6.1% used public transportation to get to work, and 46.9% used a private car.[
]
Religion
From the , 81 or 81.8% were Roman Catholic, while 2 or 2.0% 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 9 members of an Orthodox church (or about 9.09% of the population). 4 (or about 4.04% 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 sufficient ...
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 3 individuals (or about 3.03% of the population) did not answer the question.[
]
Education
In Blitzingen about 24 or (24.2%) 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 7 or (7.1%) have completed additional higher education (either university 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 arts ...
''). Of the 7 who completed tertiary schooling, 57.1% were Swiss men.[
, there were 13 students from Blitzingen who attended schools outside the municipality.][
]
References
External links
Official website
*
{{Authority control
Former municipalities of Valais