Kiesen 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 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 ...

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 ...

History

The oldest trace of a settlement in the area is a

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 ...

stone ax which was found at Rotachen. Other prehistoric finds include scattered late-

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 ...

items and tools and

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

coins. The village Kiesen is first mentioned in 1236 as ''Chisun''. At that time much of the village was owned by

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 ...

. Beginning in the 14th century, it was owned by several noble families from the city of

. In 1579, a fire destroyed most of the buildings in the village.Municipal website - History
accessed 29 April 2013 In 1668 a wealthy family built a country manor house on the remains of a medieval castle on the edge of the village. It passed through a couple of hands before the Effinger family of Wildegg bought it in 1776. In 1793 they rebuilt the manor house into its current appearance. In 1815, Rudolf Emanuel Effinger, built a dairy and cheese maker's shop on the estate's grounds. This was the first cheese maker in the Canton of Bern. The estate dairy encouraged farmers throughout the Canton to switch to dairy farming during the 19th century and led to the development of the cheese industry in Bern. The estate was rebuilt and renovated and sold to the Dollfus family of Volckersberg, who held it until 1993. The estate dairy became the Dairy Museum in 1974. Until the Aare water correction project of 1826, the village had maintained their own flood control system. In 1830 a bridge was built over the river, replacing the local ferry. A dock was also built on the river around this time. The Bern-

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. ...

railway built a station in Kiesen in 1859. However, the traditional character of the village remained mostly intact until the construction of the A6 motorway in 1971. A number of farms were moved and marshes were drained. Beginning in the 1980s many commuters moved into the village to take advantage of the convenient transportation links.

Geography

Kiesen has an area of . Of this area, or 53.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 26.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 17.9% is settled (buildings or roads), or 2.8% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.2% 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 4.3% and transportation infrastructure made up 9.8%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 2.8%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 41.5% is used for growing crops and 10.9% is pastures. Of the water in the municipality, 0.2% is in lakes and 2.6% is in rivers and streams. It is located along the banks of the Chisen and Rotachen Rivers where they flow into 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 ...

. 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.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 ''Or a Merchant's Mark Sable between two Flames Gules issuant from a Mount of 3 Coupeaux Vert.''

Demographics

Kiesen has a population () of . , 4.6% of the population are resident foreign nationals. From 2010 to 2013 the population changed at a rate of 7.4%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 15 April 2016 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 ...

(708 or 95.4%) 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 1.2%) and

Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian ( / ), also known as Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS), is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. It is a pluricentric language with four mutually i ...

is the third (7 or 0.9%). There are 4 people who speak

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), ...

, 3 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 ...

and 1 person who speaks Romansh. , the population was 48.7% male and 51.3% female. The population was made up of 390 Swiss men (46.5% of the population) and 18 (2.1%) non-Swiss men. There were 412 Swiss women (49.2%) and 18 (2.1%) non-Swiss women.Statistical office of the Canton of Bern
accessed 4 January 2012 Of the population in the municipality, 193 or about 26.0% were born in Kiesen and lived there in 2000. There were 387 or 52.2% who were born in the same canton, while 99 or 13.3% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 51 or 6.9% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 22% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 66.2% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 11.8%. , there were 321 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 356 married individuals, 33 widows or widowers and 32 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 87 households that consist of only one person and 24 households with five or more people. , a total of 286 apartments (94.1% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 9 apartments (3.0%) were seasonally occupied and 9 apartments (3.0%) 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 28.6 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.79%. The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width: auto height:200 barincrement:45 PlotArea = top:20 left:35 bottom:20 right:35 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:850 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:200 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:40 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width: 35 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1764 from:start till:186 text:"186" bar:1850 from:start till:437 text:"437" bar:1860 from:start till:430 text:"430" bar:1870 from:start till:469 text:"469" bar:1880 from:start till:432 text:"432" bar:1888 from:start till:424 text:"424" bar:1900 from:start till:433 text:"433" bar:1910 from:start till:432 text:"432" bar:1920 from:start till:460 text:"460" bar:1930 from:start till:463 text:"463" bar:1941 from:start till:519 text:"519" bar:1950 from:start till:549 text:"549" bar:1960 from:start till:538 text:"538" bar:1970 from:start till:597 text:"597" bar:1980 from:start till:627 text:"627" bar:1990 from:start till:697 text:"697" bar:2000 from:start till:742 text:"742" bar:2010 from:start till:838 text:"838"

Heritage sites of national significance

The Schlossgut is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance.

Politics

In the 2015 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 33.1% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (15.8%), the Social Democratic Party (SP) (12.3%) and the Green Liberal Party (GLP) (5.8%). In the federal election 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 48.97%.SFSO
accessed 15 April 2016

Economy

, Kiesen had an unemployment rate of 0.86%. , there were a total of 398 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 34 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 12 businesses involved in this sector. 66 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. 298 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 41 businesses in this sector.Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 15 April 2016 there were a total of 190

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 24, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 95 of which 84 or (88.4%) were in manufacturing and 8 (8.4%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 71. In the tertiary sector; 14 or 19.7% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 2 or 2.8% were in the movement and storage of goods, 19 or 26.8% were in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was in the information industry, 16 or 22.5% were technical professionals or scientists, 8 or 11.3% were in education and 2 or 2.8% were in health care. , there were 158 workers who commuted into the municipality and 311 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 2.0 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 25.1% used public transportation to get to work, and 47.7% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 560 or 75.5% 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 85 or 11.5% 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 were 3 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.40% of the population), and there were 64 individuals (or about 8.63% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 10 (or about 1.35% 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. 41 (or about 5.53% 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 11 individuals (or about 1.48% of the population) did not answer the question.

Climate

Between 1981 and 2010 Kiesen had an average of 128.2 days of rain or snow per year and on average received of

precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls from clouds due to gravitational pull. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, rain and snow mixed ("sleet" in Commonwe ...

. The wettest month was August during which time Kiesen received an average of of rain or snow. During this month there was precipitation for an average of 11.7 days. The month with the most days of precipitation was May, with an average of 13.1, but with only of rain or snow. The driest month of the year was February with an average of of precipitation over 8.7 days., the Kiesen weather station elevation is 535 meters above sea level.

Education

In Kiesen about 330 or (44.5%) 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 106 or (14.3%) 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 106 who completed tertiary schooling, 67.0% were Swiss men, 26.4% were Swiss women, 4.7% 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 81 students attending classes in Kiesen. There was one kindergarten class with a total of 11 students in the municipality. The municipality had 4 primary classes and 70 students. Of the primary students, 1.4% have a different mother language than the classroom language.Schuljahr 2010/11 pdf document
accessed 4 January 2012 , there were 20 students in Kiesen who came from another municipality, while 53 residents attended schools outside the municipality. Kiesen is home to the ''Gemeindebibliothek Kiesen'' (municipal library of Kiesen). The library has () 4,471 books or other media. It was open a total of 160 days with average of 5 hours per week during that year.
accessed 14 May 2010

References

External links

* {{Authority control Municipalities of the canton of Bern Cultural property of national significance in the canton of Bern