Leissigen () is a
municipality in the
Interlaken-Oberhasli administrative district in the
canton of
Bern 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 ...
.
Origin of the name
The name Leissigen comes from 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 ...
personal name ''Lantgis'' and the toponymic suffix ''-ingun'', meaning "of the people of Langtis."
History
Leissigen is first mentioned in 1285 as ''Lensengne''. In 1290 it was mentioned as ''Lenxingen''.
[
The oldest traces of a settlement in the area are scattered ]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 ...
axes, daggers and swords. The first time the village appears in the historic record, 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 ...
, it belonged to the '' Herrschaft'' of Unspunnen-Rotenfluh. It was eventually inherited by the Freiherr of Weissenburg, who gave it to Interlaken Monastery in 1334. The village remained under the monastery's control for almost two centuries. In 1528, the city of Bern adopted the new faith of the Protestant Reformation and began imposing it on the Bernese Oberland. Lauterbrunnen joined many other villages and the monastery in an unsuccessful rebellion against the new faith. After Bern imposed its will on the Oberland, they secularized the monastery and annexed all the monastery lands.[
The oldest village church was probably a wooden church from the 7th or 8th century. The probable wooden one was replaced with a stone building in the 9th or 10th century. The first stone church was replaced with an Early Medieval building in the 11th century. This second stone church was mentioned in the Strättliger Chronicle as one of the twelve churches around Lake Thun. The current building was built following a devastating fire in 1675.][
The traditional economy of the village was closely tied to the lake. Many of the villagers were fishermen or boat builders while others farmed the narrow margin between the lake and the mountains. That began to change in 1780 when a spa was built around mineral springs on the lake shore. The springs dried up in 1873, but a small tourist industry was established in the village. In 1887 a dock was built for the steam ships which transported people and goods across the lake. Today most of the jobs in the village are in small industry, small businesses or summer tourism. About two-thirds of the working population commute to jobs in nearby Interlaken or to the city of Bern.][
]
Geography
Leissigen has an area of . Of this area, or 31.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 52.0% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 5.9% is settled (buildings or roads), or 1.0% is either rivers or lakes and or 9.8% 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 3.6% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.2%. Out of the forested land, 45.8% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.9% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 13.3% is pastures and 18.1% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 6.6% is unproductive vegetation and 3.3% is too rocky for vegetation.[
Leissigen lies in the Bernese Oberland on Lake Thun. It includes the village and scattered individual farm houses. It stretches from the lake shore though woods and into the alps. The southern border of the municipality includes the ''Morgenberghorn'' .
The settlement of Meielisalp with the scenic restaurant-hotel Meielisalp Leissigen is located in the mountains above the village.
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 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 two Fishes embowed in pale combattant.''
Demographics
Leissigen has a population () of . , 6.8% 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 9.9%. Migration accounted for 13.3%, while births and deaths accounted for -1.1%.
accessed 28 March 2013[
, the population was 50.2% male and 49.8% female. The population was made up of 432 Swiss men (46.1% of the population) and 38 (4.1%) non-Swiss men. There were 441 Swiss women (47.1%) and 26 (2.8%) non-Swiss women.][
, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 19% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 60.4% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 20.6%.][
, there were 323 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 433 married individuals, 98 widows or widowers and 44 individuals who are divorced.][STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000]
accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 140 households that consist of only one person and 19 households with five or more people. , a total of 348 apartments (68.5% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 145 apartments (28.5%) were seasonally occupied and 15 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 8.5 new units per 1000 residents.[
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 30.3% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (21.3%), the Social Democratic Party (SP) (14%) and the FDP.The Liberals (9.1%). In the federal election, a total of 363 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 49.1%.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election]
accessed 8 May 2012
Economy
, Leissigen had an unemployment rate of 1.6%. , there were a total of 240 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 21 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 9 businesses involved in this sector. 58 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 15 businesses in this sector. 161 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 27 businesses in this sector.[ There were 436 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 45.0% of the workforce.
there were a total of 183 ]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 11, of which 8 were in agriculture, 1 was in forestry or lumber production and 1 was in fishing or fisheries. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 50 of which 21 or (42.0%) were in manufacturing, 11 or (22.0%) were in mining and 18 (36.0%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 122. In the tertiary sector; 9 or 7.4% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 5 or 4.1% were in the movement and storage of goods, 37 or 30.3% were in a hotel or restaurant, 4 or 3.3% were in the information industry, 5 or 4.1% were technical professionals or scientists, 7 or 5.7% were in education and 47 or 38.5% were in health care.
, there were 115 workers who commuted into the municipality and 297 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 2.6 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb]
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 21.1% used public transportation to get to work, and 49.1% used a private car.[
]
Religion
From the , 82 or 9.1% 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 ...
, while 652 or 72.6% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 2 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.22% of the population), and there were 82 individuals (or about 9.13% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 25 (or about 2.78% 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 Hindu and 2 individuals who belonged to another church. 58 (or about 6.46% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 35 individuals (or about 3.90% of the population) did not answer the question.[
]
Transport
Leissgen has regular bus service to Spiez and Interlaken. It formerly had rail service at Leissigen railway station on Lake Thun line.
Education
In Leissigen about 366 or (40.8%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 99 or (11.0%) 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''). Of the 99 who completed tertiary schooling, 71.7% were Swiss men, 20.2% were Swiss women and 5.1% were non-Swiss women.[
The Canton of Bern school system provides one year of non-obligatory Kindergarten, 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.][Schuljahr 2010/11 pdf document]
accessed 4 January 2012
, there were 38 students from Leissigen who attended schools outside the municipality.[
]
References
External links
*
Webcam from the Meielisalp over Leissigen
{{Authority control
Municipalities of the canton of Bern
Populated places on Lake Thun