Gsteigwiler 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 Interlaken-Oberhasli 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 ...

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 ...

. Gsteigwiler belongs to the Small Agglomeration ''Interlaken'' with 23,300 inhabitants (2014).

History

Gsteigwiler is first mentioned in 1333 as ''Wiler''. The village first appears during the

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

when it was owned by local nobles. In 1310 they donated the village to

Interlaken Monastery Interlaken Monastery ( or ) was a convent of the Augustinian Canons Regular () from about 1133 until 1528 at Interlaken in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It is a Swiss heritage site of national significance. History The provost of the Mon ...

. It remained in the hands of the monastery until

accepted 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 ...

and secularized the monastery in 1528. Under Bernese rule it became part of the new

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 Interlaken and remained part of the district of Interlaken until it was dissolved in 2009. The village remained isolated until the Wilderswil station of the Bernese Oberland Railway was built nearby in 1890. Two years later the

Schynige Platte Railway The Schynige Platte Railway (, SPB) is a mountain railway in the Bernese Highlands area of Switzerland, which connects the town of Wilderswil, near Interlaken, with the famous wildflower gardens of the Schynige Platte. An impressively and vari ...

, a

rack railway A rack railway (also rack-and-pinion railway, cog railway, or cogwheel railway) is a steep grade railway with a toothed rack rail, usually between the running rails. The trains are fitted with one or more cog wheels or pinions that mesh with ...

, was built from Wilderswil, through the village but without a station, to Breitlauenen on the

Schynige Platte The Schynige Platte (''Scheinige Platte'' on the old Siegfried Map) is a small mountain ridge and a viewpoint in the Bernese Highlands and belongs to the Schwarzhorn group. The mountain range consists of three peaks: Gumihorn (), Tuba (), and t ...

mountains. Today most of the population commutes to Interlaken for work, though there is some tourism in the village.

Geography

Gsteigwiler has an area of . Of this area, or 22.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 65.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 4.4% is settled (buildings or roads), or 1.4% is either rivers or lakes and or 6.7% 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 2.3% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.0%. Out of the forested land, 59.0% of the total land area is heavily forested and 5.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 10.3% is pastures and 11.7% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 2.4% is unproductive vegetation and 4.3% is too rocky for vegetation. The original name of the town was "Wiler," which goes back to the

Old High German Old High German (OHG; ) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally identified as the period from around 500/750 to 1050. Rather than representing a single supra-regional form of German, Old High German encompasses the numerous ...

''wilari'' (small town). The prefix ''Gsteig-'' was added to distinguish it from the many other Wilers, and means "abrupt mountain slope that one cannot drive a wagon on." The municipality contains the church of the village Gsteig bei Interlaken, which is the center of the parish for this and eight nearby municipalities, one of the largest parishes in the canton. The church is noted for its murals. The municipality is located on the western slope of the

mountain region and on the right bank of the

Lütschine The Lütschine () is a Rivers of Switzerland, river in the Bernese Oberland region of Switzerland. The Lütschine proper runs from Zweilütschinen, where its two tribututaries join, to Lake Brienz at Bönigen. The Schwarze Lütschine, or Black Lüt ...

river. On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Interlaken, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Interlaken-Oberhasli.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 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 ''Argent a Semi Chamois rampant couped Sable.''

Demographics

Gsteigwiler has a population () of . , 8.2% 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 -5.6%. Migration accounted for -5.6%, while births and deaths accounted for -0.4%.
accessed 19 March 2013 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 ...

(462 or 96.9%) as their first language, Portuguese is the second most common (4 or 0.8%) 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 (3 or 0.6%). 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 ...

and 1 person who speaks Romansh. , the population was 52.9% male and 47.1% female. The population was made up of 206 Swiss men (48.5% of the population) and 19 (4.5%) non-Swiss men. There were 184 Swiss women (43.3%) and 16 (3.8%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 160 or about 33.5% were born in Gsteigwiler and lived there in 2000. There were 190 or 39.8% who were born in the same canton, while 89 or 18.7% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 28 or 5.9% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 20% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 64% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 16%. , there were 247 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 190 married individuals, 25 widows or widowers and 15 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 58 households that consist of only one person and 21 households with five or more people. , a total of 160 apartments (71.1% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 46 apartments (20.4%) were seasonally occupied and 19 apartments (8.4%) 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 0.82%. 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:480 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:100 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:20 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1764 from:start till:129 text:"129" bar:1850 from:start till:425 text:"425" bar:1860 from:start till:454 text:"454" bar:1870 from:start till:470 text:"470" bar:1880 from:start till:469 text:"469" bar:1888 from:start till:399 text:"399" bar:1900 from:start till:451 text:"451" bar:1910 from:start till:434 text:"434" bar:1920 from:start till:350 text:"350" bar:1930 from:start till:328 text:"328" bar:1941 from:start till:345 text:"345" bar:1950 from:start till:359 text:"359" bar:1960 from:start till:394 text:"394" bar:1970 from:start till:329 text:"329" bar:1980 from:start till:337 text:"337" bar:1990 from:start till:452 text:"452" bar:2000 from:start till:477 text:"477"

Sights

The entire village of Gsteig bei Interlaken is 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 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 33.4% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (18.6%), the Social Democratic Party (SP) (13.2%) and the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice. Green party platforms typically embrace Social democracy, social democratic economic policies and fo ...

(9.5%). In the federal election, a total of 161 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 46.7%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election
accessed 8 May 2012

Economy

, Gsteigwiler had an unemployment rate of 1.86%. , there were a total of 174 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 32 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 12 businesses involved in this sector. 9 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 6 businesses in this sector. 133 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 13 businesses in this sector. There were 212 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 39.2% of the workforce. there were a total of 123

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 15, of which 14 were in agriculture and 1 was in forestry or lumber production. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 8 of which 5 or (62.5%) were in manufacturing and 3 (37.5%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 100. In the tertiary sector; 19 or 19.0% were in the movement and storage of goods, 6 or 6.0% were in a hotel or restaurant, 4 or 4.0% were in education and 55 or 55.0% were in health care. , there were 50 workers who commuted into the municipality and 160 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 3.2 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 17.5% used public transportation to get to work, and 50% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 40 or 8.4% 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 328 or 68.8% 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 113 individuals (or about 23.69% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 5 (or about 1.05% 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 ...

. 36 (or about 7.55% 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 7 individuals (or about 1.47% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Gsteigwiler about 184 or (38.6%) 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 35 or (7.3%) 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 35 who completed tertiary schooling, 68.6% were Swiss men, 20.0% 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 ...

. During the 2010-11 school year, there were a total of 90 students attending classes in Gsteigwiler. There was one kindergarten class with a total of 8 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 12.5% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens). The municipality had one primary class and 21 students. Of the primary students, 9.5% have a different mother language than the classroom language. During the same year, there was one lower secondary class with a total of 8 students. 12.5% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The remainder of the students attend a private or special school.Schuljahr 2010/11 pdf document
accessed 4 January 2012 , there were 5 students in Gsteigwiler who came from another municipality, while 33 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

Transportation

The

Interlaken Interlaken (; lit.: ''between lakes'') is a Swiss town and municipality in the Interlaken-Oberhasli administrative district in the canton of Bern. It is an important and well-known tourist destination in the Bernese Oberland region of the Swiss ...

- Zweilütschinen railway line goes along the valley, but the nearest station is in

Wilderswil Wilderswil is a village and a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Interlaken-Oberhasli (administrative district), Interlaken-Oberhasli administrative district in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Bern (canton), Bern in Switzerla ...

. In Gsteigwiler there is an interstation for the tourist road of the Schynige Platte.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Municipalities of the canton of Bern