Röthenbach im Emmental 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

Emmental The Emmental (, ) is a valley in west-central Switzerland, forming part of the canton of Bern. It is a hilly landscape comprising the basins of the rivers Emme and Ilfis. The region is mostly devoted to farming, particularly dairy farming. The ...

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

Röthenbach is first mentioned in 1148 as ''Rochembac''. The village probably grew up around the

Cluniac Cluny Abbey (; , formerly also ''Cluni'' or ''Clugny''; ) is a former Order of Saint Benedict, Benedictine monastery in Cluny, Saône-et-Loire, France. It was dedicated to Saint Peter, Saints Peter and Saint Paul, Paul. The abbey was constructed ...

Röthenbach Priory which was founded before 1148. It was subordinate to

Rüeggisberg Priory Rüeggisberg Priory (Kloster Rüeggisberg) was a Cluniac priory in the municipality of Rüeggisberg, Canton of Bern, Switzerland. History The Priory was founded between 1072 and 1076 by Lütold of Rümligen. He granted the property and estates to ...

and was led by a

prior The term prior may refer to: * Prior (ecclesiastical), the head of a priory (monastery) * Prior convictions, the life history and previous convictions of a suspect or defendant in a criminal case * Prior probability, in Bayesian statistics * Prio ...

who was appointed by Rüeggisberg. By 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 village near the Priory and a

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 ...

above Röthenbach at Würzbrunnen. The prior was the landlord and judge over the villagers and administered 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 ...

and parish church. The church was first mentioned in 1275. In 1399,

bought 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 Signau is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the administrative district of Emmental (administrative district), Emmental in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Bern (canton), Bern in Switzerland. History Signau is first mentione ...

which included parts of Röthenbach. The prior retained the low court right over some of the residents of the five settlements near the Priory. The Bernese

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 ...

sat in judgement over the remaining villagers and the further settlements. Rüeggisberg Priory gradually declined and in 1484 both Rüeggisberg and Röthenbach were incorporated into the newly built college of the

Augustinian Canons The Canons Regular of St. Augustine are Catholic priests who live in community under a rule ( and κανών, ''kanon'', in Greek) and are generally organised into religious orders, differing from both secular canons and other forms of religio ...

Bern Minster Bern Minster () is a Swiss Reformed cathedral (or minster) in the old city of Bern, Switzerland. Built in the Gothic style, its construction started in 1421. Its tower, with a height of , was only completed in 1893. It is the tallest cathedr ...

. In 1494 the Priory church of St. Mary and the parish church of St. Stephen were both damaged in a fire and were quickly rebuilt. In 1528, Bern adopted the new faith of the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the papacy and ...

and secularized the monasteries, including Röthenbach Priory. The Priory lands were eventually assigned to the newly created political municipality of Röthenbach. The Priory church was demolished between 1540 and 1558, though it was rebuilt in 1905. The local economy was traditionally based on raising crops and livestock on the valley floor, raising livestock in seasonal alpine camps and cutting timber. By the 19th century expanding demand for timber and growing alpine meadows led to massive deforestation and flooding. By 1850 the forests on Honegg mountain were almost completely gone. The completion of a road to Schüpbach in 1830 and the Schallenberg Pass road in 1896-1900 connected the village with growing cities and markets around Bern. Today, cattle and dairy farming remain an important part of the economy, along with wood processing and tourism.

Geography

Röthenbach im Emmental has an area of . As of 2012, a total of or 43.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 52.6% is forested. The rest of the municipality is or 3.3% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.5% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.1% 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 1.6% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.5%. A total of 50.4% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.2% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 4.9% is used for growing crops and 27.9% is pasturage and 10.6% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. The municipality is located in the Röthenbach valley and includes the core village of Röthenbach which includes the

. Also part of the municipality are the

hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. This is often simply an informal description of a smaller settlement or possibly a subdivision or satellite entity to a larger settlement. Sometimes a hamlet is defined f ...

of Ober- and Niederei, and scattered farm houses. The borders also include the high Honegg mountain. The municipality is divided into nine sections (''Kreise''), each of which elect one member of the town council. On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Signau, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Emmental.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 ''Argent on a Bend wavy Gules three fishes naiant in bend one and two.'' The coat of arms is an example of

canting arms Canting arms are heraldry, heraldic bearings that represent the bearer's name (or, less often, some attribute or function) in a visual pun or rebus. The expression derives from the latin ''cantare'' (to sing). French heralds used the term (), ...

with the red () wavy stripe representing a stream ().

Demographics

Röthenbach im Emmental has a population () of . , 1.1% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Between the last 2 years (2010-2012) the population changed at a rate of -2.8%. Migration accounted for -1.6%, while births and deaths accounted for 0.8%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 29 May 2014 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 ...

(1,247 or 98.8%) as their first language,

Macedonian Macedonian most often refers to someone or something from or related to Macedonia. Macedonian(s) may refer to: People Modern * Macedonians (ethnic group), a nation and a South Slavic ethnic group primarily associated with North Macedonia * Mac ...

is the second most common (6 or 0.5%) and

Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian ( / ), also known as Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS), is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. It is a pluricentric language with four mutually i ...

is the third (3 or 0.2%). There is 1 person who speaks

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), ...

. , the population was 52.2% male and 47.8% female. The population was made up of 652 Swiss men (51.1% of the population) and 14 (1.1%) non-Swiss men. There were 602 Swiss women (47.1%) and 9 (0.7%) non-Swiss women.Statistical office of the Canton of Bern
accessed 4 January 2012 Of the population in the municipality, 746 or about 59.1% were born in Röthenbach im Emmental and lived there in 2000. There were 394 or 31.2% who were born in the same canton, while 45 or 3.6% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 19 or 1.5% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 25.3% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 56.8% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 17.9%. , there were 576 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 587 married individuals, 79 widows or widowers and 20 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 96 households that consist of only one person and 80 households with five or more people. , a total of 399 apartments (85.4% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 39 apartments (8.4%) were seasonally occupied and 29 apartments (6.2%) were empty.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen
accessed 28 January 2011 In 2011, single family homes made up 25.8% of the total housing in the municipality. The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width: auto height:200 barincrement:45 PlotArea = top:20 left:40 bottom:20 right:35 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:1800 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:400 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:80 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width: 35 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1764 from:start till:909 text:"909" bar:1850 from:start till:1701 text:"1,701" bar:1860 from:start till:1628 text:"1,628" bar:1870 from:start till:1679 text:"1,679" bar:1880 from:start till:1589 text:"1,589" bar:1888 from:start till:1526 text:"1,526" bar:1900 from:start till:1525 text:"1,525" bar:1910 from:start till:1533 text:"1,533" bar:1920 from:start till:1408 text:"1,408" bar:1930 from:start till:1482 text:"1,482" bar:1941 from:start till:1477 text:"1,477" bar:1950 from:start till:1451 text:"1,451" bar:1960 from:start till:1368 text:"1,368" bar:1970 from:start till:1320 text:"1,320" bar:1980 from:start till:1314 text:"1,314" bar:1990 from:start till:1258 text:"1,258" bar:2000 from:start till:1262 text:"1,262" bar:2010 from:start till:1263 text:"1,263"

Economy

, Röthenbach im Emmental had an unemployment rate of 1.45%. , there were a total of 586 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 343 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 111 businesses involved in this sector. 64 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 15 businesses in this sector. 179 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 58 businesses in this sector. There were 627 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 37.0% of the workforce. there were a total of 410

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 223, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 59 of which 17 or (28.8%) were in manufacturing and 41 (69.5%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 128. In the tertiary sector; 60 or 46.9% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 10 or 7.8% were in the movement and storage of goods, 23 or 18.0% were in a hotel or restaurant, 2 or 1.6% were in the information industry, 5 or 3.9% were the insurance or financial industry, 3 or 2.3% were technical professionals or scientists, 13 or 10.2% were in education. , there were 60 workers who commuted into the municipality and 304 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 5.1 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. A total of 323 workers (84.3% of the 383 total workers in the municipality) both lived and worked in Röthenbach im Emmental.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 6.2% used public transportation to get to work, and 51.2% used a private car. In 2011 the average local and cantonal tax rate on a married resident, with two children, of Röthenbach im Emmental making 150,000 CHF was 13.1%, while an unmarried resident's rate was 19.3%. 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 428 tax payers in the municipality. Of that total, 88 made over 75,000 CHF per year. There were 12 people who made between 15,000 and 20,000 per year. The greatest number of workers, 109, made between 50,000 and 75,000 CHF per year. The average income of the over 75,000 CHF group in Röthenbach im Emmental was 101,147 CHF, while the average across all of Switzerland was 130,478 CHF. In 2011 a total of 3.1% of the population received direct financial assistance from the government.

Heritage sites of national significance

The Alp Gabelspitz and Church of Würzbrunnen are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance.

Politics

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 65.0% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (11.5%), the Federal Democratic Union of Switzerland (EDU) (9.0%) and the Evangelical People's Party (EVP) (3.6%). In the federal election, a total of 508 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 50.9%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election
accessed 8 May 2012

Religion

From the , 1,079 or 85.5% 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 23 or 1.8% 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 4 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.32% of the population), and there were 49 individuals (or about 3.88% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 7 (or about 0.55% of the population) who were

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

. 42 (or about 3.33% 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 58 individuals (or about 4.60% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Röthenbach im Emmental about 52.4% 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 7.1% 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 50 who had completed some form of tertiary schooling listed in the census, 78.0% were Swiss men, 20.0% 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 2011-12 school year, there were a total of 133 students attending classes in Röthenbach im Emmental. There was one kindergarten class with a total of 9 students in the municipality. The municipality had 5 primary classes and 84 students. Of the primary students, 1.2% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 1.2% have a different mother language than the classroom language. During the same year, there were 2 lower secondary classes with a total of 40 students. 2.5% have a different mother language than the classroom language.Schuljahr 2011/12 pdf document
accessed 9 May 2013 , there were a total of 162 students attending any school in the municipality. Of those, 133 both lived and attended school in the municipality, while 29 students came from another municipality. During the same year, 55 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rothenbach Im Emmental Municipalities of the canton of Bern Cultural property of national significance in the canton of Bern