Gurzelen 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 administrative district 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. ...
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 ...
.
History
Gurzelen is first mentioned in 1230/31 as ''Gurcellun''.
[
The oldest traces of a settlement in the area are individual ]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 ...
artifacts which were found scattered around the municipality. Hallstatt
Hallstatt () is a small town in the district of Gmunden District, Gmunden, in the Austrian state of Upper Austria. Situated between the southwestern shore of Hallstätter See and the steep slopes of the Dachstein massif, the town lies in the Sa ...
tombs and a 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 ...
settlement provide evidence of further inhabitants. By the High Middle Ages
The High Middle Ages, or High Medieval Period, was the periodization, period of European history between and ; it was preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, which ended according to historiographical convention ...
the village and surround farmland was owned by a local noble. In the 13th century the estate was divided in half, each with its own village, church and castle. Obergurzelen had a church, a fortified tower and a village. Obergurzelen's tower appears in historical records from 1254 until 1353. Niedergurzelen had another church and a castle, known as the Gesäss, which was first mentioned in 1338. The two halves passed through several noble families, before being reunited and then divided again, this time into three portions. After passing through several additional owners, in 1542 the ownership stabilized for two and a half centuries. The von Wattenwyl zu Burgistein family owned two-thirds of the municipality while the city 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 ...
owned the rest. Over the centuries both the tower and castle fell into ruin and were abandoned. In 1664 the nearby municipality of Seftigen
Seftigen is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the administrative district of Thun (administrative district), Thun in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Bern (canton), Bern in Switzerland.
History
Seftigen is first mentioned in 1 ...
joined the Gurzelen 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 ...
. A new church was built in 1710 and the chapel in Obergurzelen was abandoned and demolished. In 1717 the von Graffenried family acquired the Wattenwyl estates, but the two-thirds split remained. Following the 1798 French invasion, and the creation of the Helvetic Republic
The Helvetic Republic (; ; ) was a sister republic of France that existed between 1798 and 1803, during the French Revolutionary Wars. It was created following the French invasion and the consequent dissolution of the Old Swiss Confederacy, ma ...
the old order was abolished and the three sections were united into the municipality of Gurzelen.[
In 1902 the Gürbetal railroad (now part of the BLS) built a station in Gurzelen. While the railroad opened up the municipality, today it is still very rural and agrarian. About two-thirds of the labor force commutes to jobs in Bern and ]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. ...
.[
]
Geography
Gurzelen has an area of . As of 2013, a total of or 80.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 11.9% is forested. The rest of the municipality is or 7.1% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.0% is either rivers or lakes.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics]
2018 data accessed 26 July 2020
During the same year, housing and buildings made up 5.7% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.1%. A total of 11.5% of the total land area is heavily forested and 0.9% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 40.9% is used for growing crops and 31.2% is pasturage, while 3.5% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.[
The municipality is located between the ]Aare river
The Aare () or Aar () is the main tributary of the High Rhine (its discharge even exceeds that of the latter at their confluence) and the longest river that both rises and ends entirely within Switzerland.
Its total length from its source to i ...
and upper Gürbetal
Gürbetal (Gürbe Valley) in Switzerland lies between the towns of Bern and Thun, west of the Aare. It contains the municipality of Seftigen and those that surround it. The valley is named after the river Gürbe, which flows through it. The larges ...
. It includes the villages of Ober- and Niedergurzelen and scattered farm house clusters and individual houses.
On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Seftigen, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Thun.[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 ''Per pale Gules and Sable a Bend sinister Argent.''
Demographics
Gurzelen has a population () of . , 2.2% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last year (2010–2011) the population has changed at a rate of 1.2%. Migration accounted for 1.5%, while births and deaths accounted for -0.2%.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office]
accessed 27 March 2014
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 ...
(696 or 97.9%) as their first language, 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 second most common (8 or 1.1%) and 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 third (5 or 0.7%).[
, the population was 49.4% male and 50.6% female. The population was made up of 392 Swiss men (48.3% of the population) and 9 (1.1%) non-Swiss men. There were 404 Swiss women (49.8%) and 7 (0.9%) non-Swiss women.][Statistical office of the Canton of Bern]
accessed 4 January 2012 Of the population in the municipality, 282 or about 39.7% were born in Gurzelen and lived there in 2000. There were 349 or 49.1% who were born in the same canton, while 49 or 6.9% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 14 or 2.0% were born outside of Switzerland.[
, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 26.3% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 60.3% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 13.4%.][
, there were 294 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 351 married individuals, 45 widows or widowers and 21 individuals who are divorced.][STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000]
accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 84 households that consist of only one person and 32 households with five or more people. , a total of 283 apartments (87.1% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 29 apartments (8.9%) were seasonally occupied and 13 apartments (4.0%) 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 6.2 new units per 1000 residents.[ In 2011, single family homes made up 46.5% of the total housing in the municipality.
The historical population is given in the following chart:]
Politics
In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 41.8% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (17.1%), the Social Democratic Party (SP) (9.5%) 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 ...
(8.4%). In the federal election, a total of 325 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 52.7%.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election]
accessed 8 May 2012
Economy
, Gurzelen had an unemployment rate of 1.03%. , there were a total of 159 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 89 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 31 businesses involved in this sector. 36 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. 34 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 9 businesses in this sector.[ There were 378 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 41.5% of the workforce.
there were a total of 111 ]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 57, of which 56 were in agriculture and 1 was in forestry or lumber production. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 32 of which 6 or (18.8%) were in manufacturing and 15 (46.9%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 22. In the tertiary sector; 5 or 22.7% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 2 or 9.1% were in the movement and storage of goods, 1 was in a hotel or restaurant, 2 or 9.1% were technical professionals or scientists, 3 or 13.6% were in education.
, there were 45 workers who commuted into the municipality and 259 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 5.8 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. A total of 119 workers (72.6% of the 164 total workers in the municipality) both lived and worked in Gurzelen.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb]
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 11.1% used public transportation to get to work, and 59% used a private car.[
In 2011 the average local and cantonal tax rate on a married resident, with two children, of Gurzelen making 150,000 CHF was 12.7%, while an unmarried resident's rate was 18.6%. For comparison, the average rate for the entire canton in the same year, was 14.2% and 22.0%, while the nationwide average was 12.3% and 21.1% respectively.
In 2009 there were a total of 321 tax payers in the municipality. Of that total, 78 made over 75,000 CHF per year. There were 4 people who made between 15,000 and 20,000 per year. The greatest number of workers, 105, made between 50,000 and 75,000 CHF per year. The average income of the over 75,000 CHF group in Gurzelen was 102,318 CHF, while the average across all of Switzerland was 130,478 CHF.
In 2011 a total of 0.5% of the population received direct financial assistance from the government.
]
Religion
From the , 608 or 85.5% 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 ...
, while 22 or 3.1% 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 ...
. Of the rest of the population, there was 1 member of an Orthodox church, and there were 18 individuals (or about 2.53% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 5 (or about 0.70% of the population) who were Muslim
Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
. 43 (or about 6.05% 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 14 individuals (or about 1.97% of the population) did not answer the question.[
]
Education
In Gurzelen about 65% 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 14.4% 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 58 who had completed some form of tertiary schooling listed in the census, 72.4% were Swiss men, 24.1% 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 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 2011/12 pdf document]
accessed 9 May 2013
, there were a total of 63 students attending any school in the municipality. Of those, 62 both lived and attended school in the municipality, while one student came from another municipality. During the same year, 39 residents attended schools outside the municipality.[
]
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Municipalities of the canton of Bern