Konolfingen 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 ...
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
Konolfingen village is first mentioned in 1148 as ''Chonolfingen''.
It is a relatively new municipality, having been formed from the union of Gysenstein and Stalden in 1933.
While the current municipality is relatively new, Konolfingen village was an important local administrative center. Under the
Counts of Kyburg
The Kyburg family (; ; also Kiburg) was a noble family of ''grafen'' (counts) in the Duchy of Swabia, a cadet line of the counts of Dillingen, who in the late 12th and early 13th centuries ruled the County of Kyburg, corresponding to much of what ...
and later 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 ...
, Konolfingen was the center of a district, the home of the
high court and the execution grounds. Originally the town was owned by the Lords of
Krauchtal, but in either 1397 or 1424, they donated Konolfingen to
Thorberg Abbey. In 1528, Bern adopted 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 all the Abbey's lands. It became part of 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 Thorberg and was combined with
Walkringen
Walkringen is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Bern-Mittelland (administrative district), Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Bern (canton), Bern in Switzerland.
History
Walkringen ...
to form a single court. However, the village remained an administrative center until 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 ...
in 1798. In 1814, due to the lack of suitable buildings in Konolfingen,
Schlosswil
Schlosswil is a former municipality in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. On 1 January 2018 the former municipality of Schlosswil merged into the municipality of Grosshöchstetten.
History
Schlossw ...
became the administrative center and court for the district of Konolfingen.
Throughout most of its history it was part of the
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 ...
of
Münsingen
Münsingen (; ) is a municipality in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. On 1 January 2013 the former municipality of Trimstein merged into Münsingen, and on 1 January 2017 the former municipalit ...
. A
filial church
A filial church, in the Roman Catholic Church, is a church to which is annexed the cure of souls, but which remains dependent on another church. The term comes from the Latin ''filialis'', from ''filia'', “daughter”.
Description
The term ''fi ...
was built in Konolfingen in 1898 and in 1911, the villages broke away to form the parish of Stalden. The Stalden name only remained for a year, in 1912 it was renamed Konolfingen parish. A Catholic church was built in the municipality in 1967.
Much of the land around the village was too swampy to farm until a drainage project in 1845–55 and the Kiesen river correction project of 1911–15 opened up the land. Following the first drainage project, traffic began to move through the area near Konolfingen. Between 1851 and 1856 the village of Stalden grew in an important stopping place on the
Aare
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 ...
valley-
Emmental
The Emmental (, ) is a valley in west-central Switzerland, forming part of the canton of Bern. It is a hilly landscape comprising the basins of the rivers Emme and Ilfis. The region is mostly devoted to farming, particularly dairy farming. The ...
and
Burgdorf-
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. ...
roads. In 1864, the Bern-Langnau railroad built a station in the land between Konolfingen and Stalden. This was followed in 1899 by a connection to the Burgdorf-Thun railroad. The convenient transportation links encouraged the Berneralpen dairy to build a factory between the two villages. The first factory brought several other businesses to the villages and led to growth. In 1933 the communities of Gysenstein (which included Konolfingen village) and Stalden merged to form the municipality of Konolfingen. The new municipality continued to grow and in 1949, a secondary school opened.
Geography
Konolfingen has an area of . Of this area, or 66.3% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 19.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 14.5% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.1% is either rivers or lakes.
[Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics]
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010
Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 8.4% and transportation infrastructure made up 3.8%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 39.4% is used for growing crops and 24.6% is pastures, while 2.3% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.
Lying at an altitude of over , Konolfingen is often referred to as the "gateway to the
Emmental
The Emmental (, ) is a valley in west-central Switzerland, forming part of the canton of Bern. It is a hilly landscape comprising the basins of the rivers Emme and Ilfis. The region is mostly devoted to farming, particularly dairy farming. The ...
."
It was created in 1933 through the merger of the former municipalities of Gysenstein and Stalden im Emmental. The municipality includes the new village center which connects the older villages of Konolfingen-Dorf and Stalden. It also includes the farming
hamlets
A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. This is often simply an informal description of a smaller settlement or possibly a subdivision or satellite entity to a larger settlement. Sometimes a hamlet is defined f ...
of Gysenstein, Herolfingen, Hürnberg, Ursellen, Ballenbüel and Hötschigen as well as scattered individual farm houses.
On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Konolfingen, of which it was the capital, 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 Semi Lion Rampant double-tailed Gules issuant from three bricked Wall Sable and in chief two Mullets of the second.''
Demographics
Konolfingen has a population () of . , 8.0% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2001–2011) the population has changed at a rate of 0.6%. Migration accounted for -0.5%, while births and deaths accounted for 0%.
[Swiss Federal Statistical Office]
accessed 30 April 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 ...
(4,281 or 92.9%) as their first language,
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 ...
is the second most common (62 or 1.3%) 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 (44 or 1.0%). There are 22 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), ...
and 1 person who speaks
Romansh.
, the population was 47.6% male and 52.4% female. The population was made up of 2,061 Swiss men (43.3% of the population) and 206 (4.3%) non-Swiss men. There were 2,323 Swiss women (48.8%) and 173 (3.6%) non-Swiss women.
[Statistical office of the Canton of Bern]
accessed 4 January 2012 Of the population in the municipality, 1,446 or about 31.4% were born in Konolfingen and lived there in 2000. There were 2,113 or 45.9% who were born in the same canton, while 492 or 10.7% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 408 or 8.9% were born outside of Switzerland.
, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 19.7% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 60.3% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 20.1%.
, there were 1,916 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 2,230 married individuals, 302 widows or widowers and 158 individuals who are divorced.
[STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 – 2000]
accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 587 households that consist of only one person and 138 households with five or more people. , a total of 1,854 apartments (92.5% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 86 apartments (4.3%) were seasonally occupied and 65 apartments (3.2%) 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 0.4 new units per 1000 residents.
The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.71%.
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:5500
TimeAxis = orientation:vertical
AlignBars = justify
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:1100 start:0
ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:220 start:0
PlotData=
color:yellowgreen width: 35 mark:(line,white) align:center
bar:1850 from:start till:1627 text:"1,627"
bar:1860 from:start till:1598 text:"1,598"
bar:1870 from:start till:1691 text:"1,691"
bar:1880 from:start till:1690 text:"1,690"
bar:1888 from:start till:1668 text:"1,668"
bar:1900 from:start till:2030 text:"2,030"
bar:1910 from:start till:2374 text:"2,374"
bar:1920 from:start till:2750 text:"2,750"
bar:1930 from:start till:2947 text:"2,947"
bar:1941 from:start till:3343 text:"3,343"
bar:1950 from:start till:3656 text:"3,656"
bar:1960 from:start till:3964 text:"3,964"
bar:1970 from:start till:4137 text:"4,137"
bar:1980 from:start till:4360 text:"4,360"
bar:1990 from:start till:4619 text:"4,619"
bar:2000 from:start till:4606 text:"4,606"
bar:2018 from:start till:5282 text:"5,282"
Politics
In the
2011 federal election the most popular party was the
Swiss People's Party
The Swiss People's Party (, SVP; , PPS), also known as the Democratic Union of the Centre (, UDC; , UDC), is a national-conservative and right-wing populist political party in Switzerland. Chaired by Marcel Dettling, it is the largest party in ...
(SVP) which received 32% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the
Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (17%), the
Social Democratic Party (SP) (16.2%) and the
FDP.The Liberals
FDP.The Liberals (, , , ) is a liberal political party in Switzerland.
The party was formed on 1 January 2009, after two parties, the Free Democratic Party (FDP/PRD) and the smaller Liberal Party (LPS/PLS), united. In Vaud and Valais, the parti ...
(7.1%). In the federal election, a total of 1,961 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 53.4%.
[Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election]
accessed 8 May 2012
Economy
, Konolfingen had an unemployment rate of 1.33%. , there were a total of 2,510 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 212 people employed in the
primary economic sector and about 71 businesses involved in this sector. 881 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 48 businesses in this sector. 1,417 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 142 businesses in this sector.
There were 2,422 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 43.8% of the workforce.
there were a total of 2,061
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 128, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 827 of which 565 or (68.3%) were in manufacturing and 262 (31.7%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 1,106. In the tertiary sector; 275 or 24.9% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 42 or 3.8% were in the movement and storage of goods, 108 or 9.8% were in a hotel or restaurant, 67 or 6.1% were the insurance or financial industry, 351 or 31.7% were technical professionals or scientists, 52 or 4.7% were in education and 130 or 11.8% were in health care.
, there were 1,398 workers who commuted into the municipality and 1,456 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.0 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.
[Swiss Federal Statistical Office – Statweb]
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 24.3% used public transportation to get to work, and 43.5% used a private car.
Religion
From the , 3,440 or 74.7% 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 458 or 9.9% 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 29
members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.63% of the population), there were 2 individuals (or about 0.04% of the population) who belonged to the
Christian Catholic Church, and there were 393 individuals (or about 8.53% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There was 1 individual who was
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 139 (or about 3.02% 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 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 ...
and 2 individuals who belonged to another church. 157 (or about 3.41% 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 143 individuals (or about 3.10% of the population) did not answer the question.
Education
In Konolfingen about 1,901 or (41.3%) 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 519 or (11.3%) 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 519 who completed tertiary schooling, 72.1% were Swiss men, 19.3% were Swiss women, 4.8% were non-Swiss men and 3.9% were non-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 534 students attending classes in Konolfingen. There were 3 kindergarten classes with a total of 74 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 14.9% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 4.1% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The municipality had 17 primary classes and 275 students. Of the primary students, 13.5% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 1.1% have a different mother language than the classroom language. During the same year, there were 10 lower secondary classes with a total of 185 students. There were 9.2% who were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 1.1% have a different mother language than the classroom language.
[Schuljahr 2010/11 pdf document]
accessed 4 January 2012
, there were 139 students in Konolfingen who came from another municipality, while 112 residents attended schools outside the municipality.
Konolfingen is home to the ''Bibliothek Konolfingen'' library. The library has () 12,908 books or other media, and loaned out 43,477 items in the same year. It was open a total of 320 days with average of 13 hours per week during that year.
accessed 14 May 2010
Transportation
The municipality has two railway stations, and . The former is located at the junction of the Bern–Lucerne and Burgdorf–Thun lines, while Stalden im Emmental is just to the south of Konolfingen on the Burgdorf–Thun line.
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Municipalities of the canton of Bern