Lütschental is a village and 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 Interlaken-Oberhasli administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.

History

Lütschental is first mentioned in 1238 as ''Liscinthal''. In 1275 it was mentioned as ''Lyzental''. During the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

the

Lütschine The Lütschine is a river in the Bernese Oberland region of Switzerland. The Lütschine proper runs from Zweilütschinen, where its two tribututaries join, to Lake Brienz at Bönigen. The Schwarze Lütschine, or Black Lütschine, flows from Grind ...

valley was part of the '' Herrschaft'' of Unspunnen. During the 13th and 14th centuries,

Interlaken Abbey , order = Augustinians , established = by 1133 , disestablished = 1528 , mother = , dedication = , diocese = Lausanne , churches = , founder = B ...

acquired land and rights in the village until they eventually owned most of the land and people in the area. In 1349 the residents of the village joined other villages in the

Bernese Oberland The Bernese Oberland ( en, Bernese Highlands, german: Berner Oberland; gsw, Bärner Oberland; french: Oberland bernois), the highest and southernmost part of the canton of Bern, is one of the canton's five administrative regions (in which context ...

in an unsuccessful rebellion against the Abbey. In 1528, the city of Bern adopted the new faith of the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

and began imposing it on the

. Lütschental joined many other villages and the Abbey in an unsuccessful rebellion against the new faith. After Bern imposed its will on the Oberland, they secularized the Abbey and annexed all the Abbey lands. Lütschental became a part of the Bernese

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. The bailiwick is probably modelled on t ...

Interlaken , neighboring_municipalities= Bönigen, Därligen, Matten bei Interlaken, Ringgenberg, Unterseen , twintowns = Scottsdale (USA), Ōtsu (Japan), Třeboň (Czech Republic) Interlaken (; lit.: ''between lakes'') is a Swiss town and mun ...

. Beginning in the late 19th century, the population of the village dropped as residents moved to the cities of the

Swiss Plateau The Swiss Plateau or Central Plateau (german: Schweizer Mittelland; french: plateau suisse; it, altopiano svizzero) is one of the three major landscapes in Switzerland, lying between the Jura Mountains and the Swiss Alps. It covers about 30% of ...

or emigrated in search of jobs. The construction of a power plant for the

Jungfrau railway The Jungfrau Railway (german: Jungfraubahn, JB) is a mountain railway in the Bernese Alps, connecting Kleine Scheidegg in the Bernese Oberland to the Jungfraujoch, across the Valais border. The railway, which uses a and racks, runs from the ...

, in 1908, provided more jobs but was unable to stop the population decline. Today some residents raise livestock in alpine meadows or work in the small tourism industry. About half of the working population commute to jobs in the nearby municipality of

Grindelwald Grindelwald is a village and municipality in the Interlaken-Oberhasli administrative district in the canton of Berne. In addition to the village of Grindelwald, the municipality also includes the settlements of Alpiglen, Burglauenen, Grund, Itram ...

Geography

Lütschental has an area of . Of this area, or 22.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 47.6% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 1.9% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.6% is either rivers or lakes and or 27.6% 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 0.8% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.1%. Out of the forested land, 39.6% of the total land area is heavily forested and 4.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 6.1% is pastures and 16.4% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 14.3% is unproductive vegetation and 13.3% is too rocky for vegetation. The peak of Winteregg, the highest mountain in the municipality, lies at . Lütschental lies in a valley which extends from

. The name Lütschental means "valley of the Lütschine River", which flows through it. Lütschental belongs to the parish of Gsteig bei Interlaken in the municipality of Gsteigwiler. 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 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 the appropriate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The visua ...

of the municipal

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in it ...

is ''Or a Chamois statant Sable on a Rock Argent.''

Demographics

Lütschental has a population () of . , 7.2% 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 -8.4%. Migration accounted for -1.9%, while births and deaths accounted for -3.1%.
accessed 2 April 2013 Most of the population () speaks

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

(244 or 96.4%) as their first language, Albanian is the second most common (5 or 2.0%) and

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

is the third (1 or 0.4%). , the population was 53.0% male and 47.0% female. The population was made up of 115 Swiss men (48.7% of the population) and 10 (4.2%) non-Swiss men. There were 104 Swiss women (44.1%) and 7 (3.0%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 114 or about 45.1% were born in Lütschental and lived there in 2000. There were 94 or 37.2% who were born in the same canton, while 23 or 9.1% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 15 or 5.9% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 21.2% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 59.3% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 19.5%. , there were 105 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 121 married individuals, 17 widows or widowers and 10 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 20 households that consist of only one person and 11 households with five or more people. , a total of 87 apartments (68.5% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 33 apartments (26.0%) were seasonally occupied and 7 apartments (5.5%) were empty.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen
accessed 28 January 2011 The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 2.24%. 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:460 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:90 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:18 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1764 from:start till:198 text:"198" bar:1850 from:start till:370 text:"370" bar:1860 from:start till:407 text:"407" bar:1870 from:start till:440 text:"440" bar:1880 from:start till:441 text:"441" bar:1888 from:start till:455 text:"455" bar:1900 from:start till:428 text:"428" bar:1910 from:start till:446 text:"446" bar:1920 from:start till:404 text:"404" bar:1930 from:start till:318 text:"318" bar:1941 from:start till:287 text:"287" bar:1950 from:start till:267 text:"267" bar:1960 from:start till:244 text:"244" bar:1970 from:start till:223 text:"223" bar:1980 from:start till:211 text:"211" bar:1990 from:start till:238 text:"238" bar:2000 from:start till:253 text:"253"

Politics

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 60.2% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundati ...

(12.4%), the Christian Social Party (CSP) (6.2%) and the Evangelical People's Party (EVP) (6.1%). In the federal election, a total of 85 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 can be the percentage of registered voters, eligible voters, or all voting-age people. According to Stanford Univ ...

was 44.7%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election
accessed 8 May 2012

Transport

Lütschental railway station is served by trains of the

Berner Oberland Bahn The Bernese Oberland Railway (german: Berner Oberland-Bahn, BOB) is a narrow-gauge mountain railway in the Bernese Oberland region of Switzerland. It runs, via a "Y" junction at Zweilütschinen to serve Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald from I ...

, whose trains operate hourly or more frequent services to Interlaken Ost and

Economy

, Lütschental had an unemployment rate of 1.92%. , there were a total of 74 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 38 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 15 businesses involved in this sector. 14 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 constructio ...

and there was 1 business in this sector. 22 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 secon ...

, with 6 businesses in this sector. There were 114 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 36.0% of the workforce. there were a total of 51

full-time equivalent Full-time equivalent (FTE), or whole time equivalent (WTE), is a unit 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 used to measure a ...

jobs. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 19, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 14 of which or (0.0%) were in manufacturing The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 18. In the tertiary sector; 3 or 16.7% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 4 or 22.2% were in the movement and storage of goods, 7 or 38.9% were in a hotel or restaurant, 4 or 22.2% were in education. , there were 16 workers who commuted into the municipality and 70 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 4.4 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 17.5% used public transportation to get to work, and 48.2% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 14 or 5.5% were

Roman Catholic 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 ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

, while 223 or 88.1% belonged to the

Swiss Reformed Church The Protestant Church in Switzerland (PCS), (EKS); french: Église évangélique réformée de Suisse (EERS); it, Chiesa evangelica riformata in Svizzera (CERiS); rm, Baselgia evangelica refurmada da la Svizra (BRRS) formerly named Federation o ...

. Of the rest of the population, there were 8 individuals (or about 3.16% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 9 (or about 3.56% of the population) who were Islamic. 2 (or about 0.79% of the population) belonged to no church, are

agnostic Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, of the divine or the supernatural is unknown or unknowable. (page 56 in 1967 edition) Another definition provided is the view that "human reason is incapable of providing sufficie ...

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 1 individuals (or about 0.40% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Lütschental about 99 or (39.1%) of the population have completed non-mandatory

upper secondary education Secondary education or post-primary education covers two phases on the International Standard Classification of Education scale. Level 2 or lower secondary education (less commonly junior secondary education) is considered the second and final ph ...

, and 3 or (1.2%) have completed additional higher education (either

university A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which ...

or a ''

Fachhochschule A ''Fachhochschule'' (; plural ''Fachhochschulen''), abbreviated FH, is a university of applied sciences (UAS), in other words a German tertiary education institution that provides professional education in many applied sciences and applied ar ...

''). Of the 3 who completed tertiary schooling, 66.7% were Swiss men, 33.3% 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 cent ...

, 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 new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...

. During the 2010–11 school year, there were a total of 23 students attending classes in Lütschental. There were no kindergarten classes in the municipality. The municipality had one primary class and 13 students. During the same year, there was one lower secondary class with a total of 10 students. One student was a permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and spoke a different mother language than the classroom language.Schuljahr 2010/11 pdf document
accessed 4 January 2012 , there were 15 students from Lütschental who attended schools outside the municipality.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lutschental Municipalities of the canton of Bern