Mirchel 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 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
Mirchel is first mentioned in 1320 as ''Mirchlon''.
[
The oldest traces of a settlement in the area are a La Tene grave and iron tools. During the Middle Ages Mirchel 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 Signau. In 1529 the ''Herrschaft'' came under 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 ...
ese control and Mirchel became 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.
In English, the original French combi ...
of Signau. It has always been 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 Möschberg. Beginning in the 1970s many commuters settled in the municipality and today about two-thirds of the working population commutes to jobs nearby cities and towns.[
]
Geography
Mirchel has an area of . Of this area, or 76.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 10.6% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 13.2% is settled (buildings or roads).[Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics]
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010
Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 5.5% and transportation infrastructure made up 6.0%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 1.3% of the area Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 51.9% is used for growing crops and 19.6% is pastures, while 5.1% is used for orchards or vine crops.[
It is located in the upper Kiesental (Kiesen Valley) and includes the village of Mirchel, 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 Gmeis and scattered farm house clusters and isolated farm houses.
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 ''Per pale Or and Vert an Oak Branch palewise counterchanged.''
Demographics
Mirchel has a population () of . , 1.2% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2001-2011) the population has changed at a rate of 4.2%. Migration accounted for 2.6%, while births and deaths accounted for 1.1%.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office]
accessed 2 May 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 ...
(487 or 99.2%) as their first language, English is the second most common (2 or 0.4%) and French is the third (1 or 0.2%).[
, the population was 51.3% male and 48.7% female. The population was made up of 288 Swiss men (50.4% of the population) and 5 (0.9%) non-Swiss men. There were 276 Swiss women (48.3%) and 2 (0.4%) non-Swiss women.][Statistical office of the Canton of Bern]
accessed 4 January 2012 Of the population in the municipality, 185 or about 37.7% were born in Mirchel and lived there in 2000. There were 235 or 47.9% who were born in the same canton, while 41 or 8.4% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 19 or 3.9% were born outside of Switzerland.[
, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 25.9% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 58.3% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 15.8%.][
, there were 199 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 258 married individuals, 23 widows or widowers and 11 individuals who are divorced.][STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 – 2000]
accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 45 households that consist of only one person and 14 households with five or more people. , a total of 184 apartments (85.2% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 24 apartments (11.1%) were seasonally occupied and 8 apartments (3.7%) 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 14 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 45.3% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (21.1%), the Federal Democratic Union of Switzerland (EDU) (6.8%) and the Evangelical People's Party (EVP) (5.7%). In the federal election, a total of 207 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 45.8%.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election]
accessed 8 May 2012
Economy
, Mirchel had an unemployment rate of 0.66%. , there were a total of 131 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 54 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 23 businesses involved in this sector. 3 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 was 1 business in this sector. 74 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 13 businesses in this sector.[ There were 296 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 41.6% of the workforce.
there were a total of 84 ]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, all of which were in agriculture. There were 2 manufacturing jobs. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 51. In the tertiary sector; 8 or 15.7% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 31 or 60.8% were in a hotel or restaurant, 2 or 3.9% were the insurance or financial industry, 2 or 3.9% were technical professionals or scientists, 5 or 9.8% were in education.
, there were 41 workers who commuted into the municipality and 217 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 5.3 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office – Statweb]
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 13.2% used public transportation to get to work, and 56.4% used a private car.[
]
Religion
From the , 432 or 88.0% 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 ...
, while 19 or 3.9% 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 38 individuals (or about 7.74% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. 15 (or about 3.05% 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 6 individuals (or about 1.22% of the population) did not answer the question.[
]
Education
In Mirchel about 225 or (45.8%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 37 or (7.5%) 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 37 who completed tertiary schooling, 75.7% were Swiss men, 18.9% 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 ...
.[Schuljahr 2010/11 pdf document]
accessed 4 January 2012
, there were 2 students in Mirchel who came from another municipality, while 21 residents attended schools outside the municipality.[
]
Notable residents
* Friedrich Traugott Wahlen
Friedrich Traugott Wahlen (10 April 1899, in Mirchel, Canton of Bern – 7 November 1985, in Bern) was a Swiss agronomist and politician.
During the Second World War, he was responsible of the Swiss programme to reduce food imports and increa ...
(10 April 1899 – 7 November 1985) born in Gmeis hamlet. Swiss agricultural professor and member of the Federal Council.
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Municipalities of the canton of Bern