Gampelen () 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 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 ...

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 ...

. Gampelen should not be confused with the municipality

Gampel Gampel is a former municipality in the district of Leuk in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. Gampel should not be confused with the municipality Gampelen in the canton of Bern. It was an independent municipality until January 1, 2009, when ...

in the

canton of Valais Valais ( , ; ), more formally, the Canton of Valais or Wallis, is one of the cantons of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of thirteen districts and its capital and largest city is Sion, Switzer ...

History

Gampelen is first mentioned in 1179 as ''Champion'' and again in 1228 as ''Champlun''. The area around Gampelen was home to several

mesolithic The Mesolithic (Ancient Greek language, Greek: μέσος, ''mesos'' 'middle' + λίθος, ''lithos'' 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic i ...

neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

and

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

settlements. One of the largest was a Late Bronze Age lake front settlement on Witzwil Island. Bricks, money and a dam from

Roman era In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

settlements have been found stretching from Zihlbrücke in Gals through Gampelen to Witzwil in

Ins INS or Ins may refer to: Places * Ins, Switzerland, a municipality * Creech Air Force Base (IATA airport code INS) * Indonesia, ITF and UNDP code INS * INS Park, an entertainment complex in China Biology *'' Ins'', a New World genus of bee flie ...

. During the Middle Ages it was part of the ''

Herrschaft The German term ''Herrschaft'' (plural: ''Herrschaften'') covers a broad semantic field and only the context will tell whether it means, "rule", "power", "dominion", "authority", "territory" or "lordship". In its most abstract sense, it refers ...

'' of Erlach. In 1395 the area became part of the

County of Savoy The County of Savoy () was a feudal state of the Holy Roman Empire which emerged, along with the free communes of Switzerland, from the collapse of the Burgundian Kingdom in the 11th century. It was the cradle of the future Savoyard state. s ...

. Almost a century later, in 1474, it was acquired by

and was placed in the

bailiwick A bailiwick () is usually the area of jurisdiction of a bailiff, and once also applied to territories in which a privately appointed bailiff exercised the sheriff's functions under a royal or imperial writ. In English, the original French combi ...

of Erlach. The village church of St. Martin was first mentioned in 1228. It was destroyed in a fire and rebuilt in 1513 and 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-type ...

was expanded and renovated in 1674–75. The church was probably built over a Roman inn and way station. During the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the papacy and ...

it became the

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

of the local

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

, which eventually grew to include the neighboring municipality of Gals. During the Middle Ages and

Early Modern The early modern period is a Periodization, historical period that is defined either as part of or as immediately preceding the modern period, with divisions based primarily on the history of Europe and the broader concept of modernity. There i ...

era, Gampelen was surrounded by extensive

vineyard A vineyard ( , ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines. Many vineyards exist for winemaking; others for the production of raisins, table grapes, and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is kno ...

s. Several residents grew wealthy from the vineyards and built large mansions or manor houses in the village. The

Jura water correction The correction of the waters of the Swiss Jura consisted of a wide series of hydrological undertakings carried out in Switzerland in the region of the three lakes: Lake Murten connected to Lake Neuchatel by the Broye Canal, the latter connec ...

project of 1874-83 drained the marshy meadows around the village. The former marshes became fields for sugar beet and other vegetables. In 1901 the Bern–Neuchâtel railway line was built through the town. The railway allowed the village's agricultural products to reach distant markets. Today the railway is mostly used for commuters, with about half of all workers in Gampelen commuting to jobs in nearby towns and cities. The Fanel nature preserve and bird sanctuary along the lake is a sanctuary of European importance.

Geography

Gampelen has an area of . Of this area, or 56.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 25.0% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 10.7% is settled (buildings or roads), or 2.1% is either rivers or lakes and or 5.2% is unproductive land.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data . Retrieved 25 March 2010 Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 3.2% and transportation infrastructure made up 4.6%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 1.9%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 47.1% is used for growing crops and 8.1% is pastures, while 1.5% is used for orchards or vine crops. Of the water in the municipality, 0.3% is in lakes and 1.8% is in rivers and streams. Gampelen is the only municipality in the canton of Bern bordering

Lake Neuchâtel Lake Neuchâtel ( ; ; ) is a lake primarily in Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. The lake lies mainly in the canton of Neuchâtel, but is also shared by the cantons of Vaud, Fribourg, and Bern. It comprises one of the lakes in th ...

, and as such is the only German-speaking municipality along the lake. The town of Gampelen has a long, thin shape, and has a railway station on the Bern-Neuenburg line of the BLS. The stop Zihlbrücke also lies within the area of the municipality. Gampelen is part of an evangelical-reformed parish with neighboring Gals. On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Erlach, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Seeland.Nomenklaturen – Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz
. Retrieved 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 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 ''Gules a Bittern head erased Or.''

Demographics

Gampelen has a population () of . , 14.4% of the population are resident foreign nationals.Statistical office of the Canton of Bern
. Retrieved 4 January 2012 Over the last 10 years (2000-2010) the population has changed at a rate of 8.9%. Migration accounted for 10.9%, while births and deaths accounted for 2.7%.
. Retrieved 1 November 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 ...

(689 or 84.9%) as their first language, French is the second most common (93 or 11.5%) and Portuguese is the third (7 or 0.9%). There are 5 people who speak

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 52.2% male and 47.8% female. The population was made up of 338 Swiss men (43.4% of the population) and 68 (8.7%) non-Swiss men. There were 328 Swiss women (42.2%) and 4 (0.5%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 270 or about 33.3% were born in Gampelen and lived there in 2000. There were 281 or 34.6% who were born in the same canton, while 158 or 19.5% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 67 or 8.3% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 21.2% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 62.7% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 16.1%. , there were 347 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 369 married individuals, 53 widows or widowers and 43 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 – 2000
. Retrieved 2 February 2011 , there were 71 households that consist of only one person and 18 households with five or more people. , a total of 276 apartments (86.0% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 32 apartments (10.0%) were seasonally occupied and 13 apartments (4.0%) were empty.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB – Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 – Gebäude und Wohnungen
. Retrieved 28 January 2011 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:910 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:200 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:40 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1764 from:start till:170 text:"170" bar:1850 from:start till:283 text:"283" bar:1860 from:start till:265 text:"265" bar:1870 from:start till:264 text:"264" bar:1880 from:start till:414 text:"414" bar:1888 from:start till:426 text:"426" bar:1900 from:start till:527 text:"527" bar:1910 from:start till:605 text:"605" bar:1920 from:start till:741 text:"741" bar:1930 from:start till:760 text:"760" bar:1941 from:start till:782 text:"782" bar:1950 from:start till:902 text:"902" bar:1960 from:start till:907 text:"907" bar:1970 from:start till:879 text:"879" bar:1980 from:start till:789 text:"789" bar:1990 from:start till:816 text:"816" bar:2000 from:start till:812 text:"812" #NUM!

Heritage sites of national significance

The

Rectory A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of a given religion, serving as both a home and a base for the occupant's ministry. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, p ...

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 38.3% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (19.7%), the Social Democratic Party (SP) (14.1%) and the Federal Democratic Union of Switzerland (EDU) (5.8%). In the federal election, a total of 238 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 42.2%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election
. Retrieved 8 May 2012

Economy

, Gampelen had an unemployment rate of 1.44%. , there were a total of 453 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 76 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 18 businesses involved in this sector. 49 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 11 businesses in this sector. 328 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 30 businesses in this sector. There were 402 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 42.0% of the workforce. there were a total of 374

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 54, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 45 of which 7 or (15.6%) were in manufacturing, 5 or (11.1%) were in mining and 32 (71.1%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 275. In the tertiary sector; 60 or 21.8% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 6 or 2.2% were in the movement and storage of goods, 10 or 3.6% were in a hotel or restaurant, 5 or 1.8% were technical professionals or scientists, 5 or 1.8% were in education and 58 or 21.1% were in health care. , there were 254 workers who commuted into the municipality and 229 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 1.1 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving.Swiss Federal Statistical Office – Statweb
. Retrieved 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 10.2% used public transportation to get to work, and 51.5% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 103 or 12.7% 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 556 or 68.5% 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 was 1 member of an Orthodox church, and there were 66 individuals (or about 8.13% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 2 individuals (or about 0.25% of the population) who were

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

, and 8 (or about 0.99% 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. There was 1 person who was

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

and 2 individuals who were

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

. 80 (or about 9.85% 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 ...

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 26 individuals (or about 3.20% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Gampelen about 310 or (38.2%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 68 or (8.4%) 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 68 who completed tertiary schooling, 73.5% were Swiss men, 14.7% were Swiss women, 8.8% were non-Swiss men. 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 ...

. During the 2010–11 school year, there were a total of 60 students attending classes in Gampelen. There was one kindergarten class with a total of 13 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 23.1% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 46.2% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The municipality had 3 primary classes and 47 students. Of the primary students, 10.6% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 34.0% have a different mother language than the classroom language.Schuljahr 2010/11 pdf document
. Retrieved 4 January 2012 , there were 8 students in Gampelen who came from another municipality, while 45 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

Penitentiary of Witzwil

The main seat of the penitentiary of Witzwil lies on the municipality's territory. Witzwil is a men's prison, holding up to 200 inmates. It is also the largest farm in Switzerland with a total agricultural land area of 612 hectares.

References

External links

*
Website of the evangelical-reformed parish of Gampelen-Gals
{{Authority control Municipalities of the canton of Bern Cultural property of national significance in the canton of Bern