Lüscherz 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 Seeland 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

Lüscherz is first mentioned in 1271 as ''Luschiers'', however the area has been settled since at least the

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 ...

(ca. 3700 to 2700 BC). The municipality was formerly known by its French name ''Locras'', however, that name is no longer used. During the Neolithic era there were two villages pile-dwelling (or stilt house) settlements along the shore of

Lake Biel __NOTOC__ Lake Biel or Lake Bienne (; ) is a lake in western Switzerland. Together with Lake Morat and Lake Neuchâtel, it is one of the three large lakes in the Jura region of Switzerland. It lies on the language boundary between German and F ...

. The two settlements are now part of the Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps, a

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

. The later of the two villages was the center of the Neolithic Lüscherz culture. The two sites are partly under water, though the sites near the beach were excavated during the 19th and 20th century and many artifacts ended up in museums. In addition to the two Neolithic sites, a single

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 ...

building was discovered along the shoreline in 2004. At Schaltenrain and Grossholz in the hills above the village several

Hallstatt era The Hallstatt culture was the predominant Western Europe, Western and Central European archaeological culture of the Late Bronze Age Europe, Bronze Age (Hallstatt A, Hallstatt B) from the 12th to 8th centuries BC and Early Iron Age Europe (Hallst ...

burial mounds A tumulus (: tumuli) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, mounds, howes, or in Siberia and Central Asia as ''kurgans'', and may be found throughout much of the world. ...

have also been discovered. Finally, a late

Paleolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic ( years ago) ( ), also called the Old Stone Age (), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone tools, and which represents almost the entire period of human prehist ...

settlement from around the 12th millennium BC was discovered on a ridge south of the village. During the

Late Middle Ages The late Middle Ages or late medieval period was the Periodization, period of History of Europe, European history lasting from 1300 to 1500 AD. The late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period ( ...

there was a thriving village at Gurzelen, which was first mentioned in 1335 as ''Gurtzellon villa'' and extensive agricultural terraces on the Feiberg. By 1635 Gurzelen only had five occupied houses and in 1730 it was down to three. The terraces were also gradually abandoned. Lüscherz village was part of the ''

Herrschaft The German term ''Herrschaft'' (plural: ''Herrschaften'') covers a broad semantic field and only the context will tell whether it means, "rule", "power", "dominion", "authority", "territory" or "lordship". In its most abstract sense, it refers ...

'' of Erlach, and came with the rest of the ''Herrschaft'' under

ese control in 1474. By 1470 the village began collecting money from pilgrims who came to visit the Chapel of St. Mary under the Seven Oaks. The chapel was abandoned in 1528. The inhabitants of the village mostly fished for a living, though some farmed or tended

vineyard A vineyard ( , ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines. Many vineyards exist for winemaking; others for the production of raisins, table grapes, and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is kno ...

s. Beginning in the 1960s, the village became a vacation spot. The port and a beach resort opened in 1957 which attracted tourists. The village grew as weekend and vacation homes were built. While fishing and boat building remained important, tourism became an important source of income. In 2000, almost two-thirds of workers commuted to jobs in nearby cities such as Biel and Bern.

Geography

Lüscherz has an area of . Of this area, or 44.3% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 45.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 7.7% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.7% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.9% is unproductive land.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data . Retrieved 25 March 2010 Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 4.0% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.9%. Out of the forested land, 44.5% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.3% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 30.4% is used for growing crops and 7.9% is pastures, while 6.0% is used for orchards or vine crops. Of the water in the municipality, 0.5% is in lakes and 0.2% is in rivers and streams. On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Erlach, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Seeland.
. Retrieved 4 April 2011 Lüscherz is located on the right side of

and at the foot of Mt. Feiberg. It includes part of the ''

Grosses Moos Grand Marais () in Seeland is a region in Switzerland, at the foot of the first mountain range of the Jura Mountains contained by the three lakes of Morat (Murten), Neuchâtel and Bienne (Biel). Before the huge hydrological works Jura water cor ...

'', a particularly productive area with nearly black soil in the Bernese Seeland, and crosses the Hagneck Canal. It includes the village of Lüscherz and the

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

of Gurzelen.

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 ''Azure a Ploughshare and in chief a Fish naiant Argent.''

Demographics

Lüscherz has a population () of . , 9.2% of the population are resident foreign nationals.Statistical office of the Canton of Bern
. Retrieved 4 January 2012 Over the last 10 years (2000-2010) the population has changed at a rate of 7.9%. Migration accounted for 11.2%, while births and deaths accounted for -2.6%.
. Retrieved 8 November 2012 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 ...

(464 or 94.3%) 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 (18 or 3.7%) and

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

is the third (4 or 0.8%). 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 ...

. , the population was 52.9% male and 47.1% female. The population was made up of 257 Swiss men (48.4% of the population) and 24 (4.5%) non-Swiss men. There were 225 Swiss women (42.4%) and 2 (0.4%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 175 or about 35.6% were born in Lüscherz and lived there in 2000. There were 186 or 37.8% who were born in the same canton, while 79 or 16.1% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 39 or 7.9% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 15.3% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 68.2% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 16.6%. , there were 193 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 254 married individuals, 25 widows or widowers and 20 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 – 2000
. Retrieved 2 February 2011 , there were 72 households that consist of only one person and 16 households with five or more people. , a total of 200 apartments (61.3% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 104 apartments (31.9%) were seasonally occupied and 22 apartments (6.7%) were empty.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB – Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 – Gebäude und Wohnungen
. Retrieved 28 January 2011 , the construction rate of new housing units was 3.8 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.26%. 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:500 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:227 text:"227" bar:1850 from:start till:403 text:"403" bar:1860 from:start till:383 text:"383" bar:1870 from:start till:392 text:"392" bar:1880 from:start till:376 text:"376" bar:1888 from:start till:395 text:"395" bar:1900 from:start till:365 text:"365" bar:1910 from:start till:334 text:"334" bar:1920 from:start till:335 text:"335" bar:1930 from:start till:348 text:"348" bar:1941 from:start till:325 text:"325" bar:1950 from:start till:332 text:"332" bar:1960 from:start till:363 text:"363" bar:1970 from:start till:344 text:"344" bar:1980 from:start till:329 text:"329" bar:1990 from:start till:406 text:"406" bar:2000 from:start till:492 text:"492"

Heritage sites of national significance

The

at Schaltenrain and Grossholz are listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance.

World Heritage Site

Lüscherz is home to the Lüscherz-Dorfstation archeological site. Lüscherz-Dorfstation is a prehistoric pile-dwelling (or stilt house) settlement that is part of the Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps

.UNESCO World Heritage Site – Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps
/ref> The lake shore village at Lüscherz-Dorfstation was inhabited twice during the

era and once during the

. It is believed to be the center of the Lüscherz culture, a Neolithic group that existed between 3900 BC and 3700 BC. The Lüscherz culture may have been a predecessor of the

Horgen culture The Horgen culture is one of several archaeological cultures belonging to the Neolithic period of Switzerland. The Horgen culture may derive from the Pfyn culture and early Horgen pottery is similar to the earlier Cortaillod culture pottery of ...

, but the exact link is unknown. The site was discovered in 1863 and consisted of an Inner Site (which was close to the shoreline and the village) and an Outer Site away from the village. Looting of the Inner Site led to a temporary ban on private excavations in 1873. Starting in 1878, a doctor named V. Gross began excavations on the Outer Site, but shortly thereafter both sites were abandoned for almost a century. In 1954 the

Historical Museum of Bern The Bern Historical Museum (, ) is the second largest historical museum in Switzerland. It was designed by the Neuchâtel architect André Lambert and built in 1894. Since it was initially conceived as the Swiss National Museum (which the city ...

began excavating the sites in advance of construction on the waterfront. The construction of a harbor in the late 1950s destroyed part of the village. The oldest settlement was a Neolithic settlement in the Inner Site that has been somewhat reliably dated to about 3590/3580 BC by

tree rings Dendrochronology (or tree-ring dating) is the scientific method of dating tree rings (also called growth rings) to the exact year they were formed in a tree. As well as dating them, this can give data for dendroclimatology, the study of climate ...

. The second settlement, the Lüscherz culture site, is in the Outer Site. The piles at that site have been dated to be from the period between 2792 and 2709 BC by reliable tree rings. A scattering of Late Bronze Age items probably came from a village which was farther out in the lake. Very little is known about this village.

Politics

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 46.3% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (15.7%), the Social Democratic Party (SP) (11.7%) and the Green Liberal Party (GLP) (9.2%). In the federal election, a total of 174 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 41.2%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election
. Retrieved 8 May 2012

Economy

, Lüscherz had an unemployment rate of 2.04%. , there were a total of 129 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 48 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 14 businesses involved in this sector. 25 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 7 businesses in this sector. 56 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 14 businesses in this sector. There were 266 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 41.7% of the workforce. there were a total of 97

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 31, of which 29 were in agriculture and 2 were in fishing or fisheries. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 22 of which 14 or (63.6%) were in manufacturing and 9 (40.9%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 44. In the tertiary sector; 8 or 18.2% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 2 or 4.5% were in the movement and storage of goods, 27 or 61.4% were in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was in the information industry, 1 was in education and 1 was in health care. , there were 40 workers who commuted into the municipality and 183 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 4.6 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.Swiss Federal Statistical Office – Statweb
. Retrieved 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 9.8% used public transportation to get to work, and 61.3% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 62 or 12.6% 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 369 or 75.0% 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 12 individuals (or about 2.44% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. 47 (or about 9.55% 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 8 individuals (or about 1.63% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Lüscherz about 203 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 63 or (12.8%) 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 63 who completed tertiary schooling, 65.1% were Swiss men, 27.0% 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 49 students attending classes in Lüscherz. There was one kindergarten class with a total of 17 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 17.6% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 11.8% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The municipality had 2 primary classes and 32 students. Of the primary students, 3.1% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 3.1% have a different mother language than the classroom language.Schuljahr 2010/11 pdf document
Retrieved 4 January 2012 , there were 4 students in Lüscherz who came from another municipality, while 37 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Luscherz Municipalities of the canton of Bern Populated places on Lake Biel Cultural property of national significance in the canton of Bern