Reutigen 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 administrative district of
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. ...
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 ...
. On 1 January 2024 the former municipality of
Zwieselberg merged to form the municipality of Reutigen.
History
Reutigen is first mentioned about 1300 as ''Rötingen''.
[
Around 1308 the Burgistein family acquired the entire Strättligen '']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 ...
'' which included Reutigen. In the following decades, the village passed through the hands of several other local nobles. Around 1486 and 1494, the Bubenberg and Schütz families sold their respective portions of the village to 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 ...
. Under Bernese rule the village was placed under the military authority of Seftigen and under the jurisdiction
Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' and 'speech' or 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United States, the concept of jurisdiction applies at multiple level ...
of the Vogt
An , sometimes simply advocate, (German, ), or (French, ), was a type of medieval office holder, particularly important in the Holy Roman Empire, who was delegated some of the powers and functions of a major feudal lord, or for an institutio ...
of Wimmis
Wimmis is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Frutigen-Niedersimmental (administrative district), Frutigen-Niedersimmental administrative district in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Bern (canton), Bern in Switzerland.
Histo ...
. Its political situation remained unchanged for centuries, until the 1803 Act of Mediation
The Act of Mediation () was issued by Napoleon Bonaparte, French Consulate, First Consul of the French Republic on 19 February 1803 to abolish the Helvetic Republic, which had existed since the invasion of Old Swiss Confederacy, Switzerland by F ...
, when it joined the Niedersimmental District. The village remained generally agrarian into the 20th century. As of 2005, almost one-third of all jobs in the municipality are in agriculture, while half are in the services sector. However, many residents commute to jobs in Thun, Spiez or Bern.
The village St. Mary's Chapel was probably built in the 12th century, but is first mentioned in a record in 1330. The ossuary
An ossuary is a chest, box, building, well, or site made to serve as the final resting place of human skeletal remains. They are frequently used where burial space is scarce. A body is first buried in a temporary grave, then after some years th ...
probably dates from around the same time. The interior fresco
Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...
es are from the 14th and 15th centuries. In 1412 it became 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 ...
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 ...
in Wimmis
Wimmis is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Frutigen-Niedersimmental (administrative district), Frutigen-Niedersimmental administrative district in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Bern (canton), Bern in Switzerland.
Histo ...
. Then, in 1474 it became the parish church
A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...
of the Reutigen parish.
Geography
Reutigen has an area of . As of 2012, a total of or 46.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 45.3% is forested. The rest of the municipality is or 4.5% is settled (buildings or roads), or 1.0% is either rivers or lakes and or 2.4% is unproductive land.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics]
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010
During the same year, housing and buildings made up 2.2% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.4%. A total of 43.2% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.1% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 11.7% is used for growing crops and 23.2% is pasturage and 11.2% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, and 1.9% is too rocky for vegetation.[
The municipality is located in the Niedersimmental and includes the village of Reutigen, Hani and Allmi. It runs from the north-east side of the Stockhorn chain down to the Kander river.
On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Niedersimmental, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Thun.][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 ''Azure a Letter H crossed Or.'' The letter "H" with the cross comes from the coat of arms of Hans Schütz who ruled over Reutigen beginning in 1480.
Demographics
Reutigen has a population () of . , 3.3% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2001-2011) the population has changed at a rate of 0.4%. Migration accounted for 0.6%, while births and deaths accounted for 0.2%.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office]
accessed 11 November 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 ...
(887 or 97.6%) as their first language, 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 second most common (5 or 0.6%) and French is the third (3 or 0.3%). There are 3 people who speak 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 ...
and 3 people who speak Romansh.[
, the population was 49.5% male and 50.5% female. The population was made up of 457 Swiss men (47.7% of the population) and 17 (1.8%) non-Swiss men. There were 469 Swiss women (49.0%) and 15 (1.6%) non-Swiss women.][Statistical office of the Canton of Bern]
accessed 4 January 2012 Of the population in the municipality, 343 or about 37.7% were born in Reutigen and lived there in 2000. There were 408 or 44.9% who were born in the same canton, while 95 or 10.5% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 45 or 5.0% were born outside of Switzerland.[
, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 19.4% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 60.4% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 20.2%.][
, there were 379 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 455 married individuals, 42 widows or widowers and 33 individuals who are divorced.][STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000]
accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 118 households that consist of only one person and 20 households with five or more people. , a total of 355 apartments (88.3% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 30 apartments (7.5%) were seasonally occupied and 17 apartments (4.2%) 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 3.6%. In 2011, single family homes made up 49.7% of the total housing in the municipality.
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 42.6% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (22.5%), the Social Democratic Party (SP) (9.2%) and the Green Party
A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice.
Green party platforms typically embrace Social democracy, social democratic economic policies and fo ...
(5%). In the federal election, a total of 428 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 55.7%.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election]
accessed 8 May 2012
Economy
, Reutigen had an unemployment rate of 0.83%. , there were a total of 230 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 63 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 19 businesses involved in this sector. 52 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 9 businesses in this sector. 115 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 23 businesses in this sector.[ There were 459 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 41.2% of the workforce.
there were a total of 181 ]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 44, of which 40 were in agriculture and 4 were in forestry or lumber production. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 45 of which 32 or (71.1%) were in manufacturing and 13 (28.9%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 92. In the tertiary sector; 51 or 55.4% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 4 or 4.3% were in the movement and storage of goods, 13 or 14.1% were in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was the insurance or financial industry, 2 or 2.2% were technical professionals or scientists, 9 or 9.8% were in education.
, there were 78 workers who commuted into the municipality and 316 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 4.1 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. A total of 143 workers (64.7% of the 221 total workers in the municipality) both lived and worked in Reutigen.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb]
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 11.8% used public transportation to get to work, and 54% used a private car.[
In 2011 the average local and cantonal tax rate on a married resident, with two children, of Reutigen making 150,000 CHF was 12.6%, while an unmarried resident's rate was 18.5%. For comparison, the average rate for the entire canton in the same year, was 14.2% and 22.0%, while the nationwide average was 12.3% and 21.1% respectively. In 2009 there were a total of 440 tax payers in the municipality. Of that total, 121 made over 75,000 CHF per year. There were 4 people who made between 15,000 and 20,000 per year. The greatest number of workers, 148, made between 50,000 and 75,000 CHF per year. The average income of the over 75,000 CHF group in Reutigen was 101,445 CHF, while the average across all of Switzerland was 130,478 CHF.
In 2011 a total of 2.2% of the population received direct financial assistance from the government.
]
Religion
From the , 753 or 82.8% 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 64 or 7.0% 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 was 1 individual who belongs to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 13 individuals (or about 1.43% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 8 (or about 0.88% 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 were 5 individuals who were 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 ...
. 50 (or about 5.50% 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 15 individuals (or about 1.65% of the population) did not answer the question.[
]
Education
In Reutigen about 61.7% of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 17.6% 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 97 who had completed some form of tertiary schooling listed in the census, 78.4% were Swiss men, 19.6% 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 2011-12 school year, there were a total of 87 students attending classes in Reutigen. There was one kindergarten class with a total of 17 students in the municipality. The municipality had 2 primary classes and 41 students. Of the primary students, 2.4% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 7.3% have a different mother language than the classroom language. During the same year, there were 2 lower secondary classes with a total of 29 students. 3.4% have a different mother language than the classroom language.[Schuljahr 2011/12 pdf document]
accessed 9 May 2013
, there were a total of 125 students attending any school in the municipality. Of those, 96 both lived and attended school in the municipality, while 29 students came from another municipality. During the same year, 46 residents attended schools outside the municipality.[
Reutigen is home to the ''Schul- und Gemeindebibliothek Reutigen'' (municipal library of Reutigen). The library has () 5,043 books or other media, and loaned out 5,560 items in the same year. It was open a total of 144 days with average of 4 hours per week during that year.]
accessed 14 May 2010
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Municipalities of the canton of Bern