Seftigen 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 (french: Thoune) is a town and a municipality in the administrative district of Thun in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It is located where the Aare flows out of Lake Thun (Thunersee), southeast of Bern.
the municipality has almost ...
in the
canton of
Bern in
Switzerland.
History
Seftigen is first mentioned in 1277 as ''Seftingen''.
[
The oldest trace of a settlement in the area is a ]Roman
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 lett ...
estate house discovered in Räbzälg. The house's hypocaust
A hypocaust ( la, hypocaustum) is a system of central heating in a building that produces and circulates hot air below the floor of a room, and may also warm the walls with a series of pipes through which the hot air passes. This air can warm th ...
and well are still visible. Following the Collapse of the Western Roman Empire
The fall of the Western Roman Empire (also called the fall of the Roman Empire or the fall of Rome) was the loss of central political control in the Western Roman Empire, a process in which the Empire failed to enforce its rule, and its vas ...
, the area remained inhabited, evidenced by an early medieval
The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th or early 6th century to the 10th century. They marked the start of the Mi ...
cemetery at Leimeried. By the Late Middle Ages
The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Europe, the Ren ...
Seftigen 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 Burgistein. Around 1388 it became the capital of the Seftigen district. In the 15th century Louis von Seftigen turned the village into the center of a semi-independent court. However, the right to hold court in Seftigen was divided in half between his descendants. Eventually, Jakob von Wattenwyl reunited the two halves of the court in 1523 and incorporated it into the Burgistein ''Herrschaft'' again. From then until the 1798 French invasion the Lords of Burgistein and the von Buren family alternated presiding over the court.
Originally it was part of the Kirchdorf parish
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...
, but in 1664 it joined the much nearer Gurzelen parish.
In 1901-02 the Gürbetal railway opened up stations in Burgistein and Seftigen and began to transform the rural farming village. In the 1960s it became more of a bedroom community
A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many o ...
and the new developments of Zälg, Berg and Allmend opened up to house the growing population. Today agriculture still provides slightly less than one-quarter of the jobs in the municipality with small businesses making up the rest. However, over three-quarters of the workforce commute to jobs in nearby cities and towns.
Geography
Seftigen has an area of . As of 2012, a total of or 66.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 17.0% is forested. The rest of the municipality is or 15.9% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.8% is either rivers or lakes.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics]
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010
During the same year, industrial buildings made up 2.1% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 9.0% and transportation infrastructure made up 3.9%. All of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 41.1% is used for growing crops and 22.9% is pasturage, while 2.6% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.[
The municipality is located in the ]Drumlin
A drumlin, from the Irish word ''droimnín'' ("littlest ridge"), first recorded in 1833, in the classical sense is an elongated hill in the shape of an inverted spoon or half-buried egg formed by glacial ice acting on underlying unconsolidate ...
hill country between the Aare
The Aare () or Aar () is a tributary of the High Rhine and the longest river that both rises and ends entirely within Switzerland.
Its total length from its source to its junction with the Rhine comprises about , during which distance it desce ...
valley and the upper Gürbe valley. It consists of the village of Seftigen.
On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Seftigen, of which it was the capital, 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 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 ''Per chevron embowed Gules and Argent and in chief a Rose of the last barbed and seeded proper.''
Demographics
Seftigen has a population () of . , 5.4% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 2 years (2010-2012) the population has changed at a rate of 1.6%. Migration accounted for 1.5%, while births and deaths accounted for 0.3%.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office]
accessed 25 April 2014
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 ...
(2,014 or 97.0%) as their first language, Albanian is the second most common (13 or 0.6%) and Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia an ...
is the third (7 or 0.3%). There are 5 people who speak French and 6 people who speak Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
.[
, the population was 48.9% male and 51.1% female. The population was made up of 984 Swiss men (46.2% of the population) and 57 (2.7%) non-Swiss men. There were 1,026 Swiss women (48.2%) and 62 (2.9%) non-Swiss women.][Statistical office of the Canton of Bern]
accessed 4 January 2012 Of the population in the municipality, 554 or about 26.7% were born in Seftigen and lived there in 2000. There were 1,038 or 50.0% who were born in the same canton, while 234 or 11.3% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 153 or 7.4% were born outside of Switzerland.[
, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 20.1% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 64.0% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 15.9%.][
, there were 820 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 1,050 married individuals, 122 widows or widowers and 84 individuals who are divorced.][STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000]
accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 255 households that consist of only one person and 46 households with five or more people. , a total of 811 apartments (93.9% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 34 apartments (3.9%) were seasonally occupied and 19 apartments (2.2%) 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 0.5 new units per 1000 residents.[ The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 1.3%. In 2011, single family homes made up 53.3% 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 33.9% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (18.3%), the Social Democratic Party (SP) (15.5%) and the Evangelical People's Party (EVP) (6.7%). In the federal election, a total of 866 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 51.9%.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election]
accessed 8 May 2012
Economy
, Seftigen had an unemployment rate of 1.27%. , there were a total of 592 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 47 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 17 businesses involved in this sector. 210 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 were 30 businesses in this sector. 335 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 103 businesses in this sector.[ There were 1,124 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 353 ]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 30, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 144 of which 78 or (54.2%) were in manufacturing and 67 (46.5%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 179. In the tertiary sector; 67 or 37.4% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 9 or 5.0% were in the movement and storage of goods, 14 or 7.8% were in a hotel or restaurant, 2 or 1.1% were the insurance or financial industry, 9 or 5.0% were technical professionals or scientists, 20 or 11.2% were in education and 40 or 22.3% were in health care.
, there were 222 workers who commuted into the municipality and 863 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 3.9 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. A total of 261 workers (54.0% of the 483 total workers in the municipality) both lived and worked in Seftigen.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb]
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 28.3% used public transportation to get to work, and 48.9% used a private car.[
In 2011 the average local and cantonal tax rate on a married resident, with two children, of Seftigen making 150,000 CHF was 12.8%, while an unmarried resident's rate was 18.8%. 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 992 tax payers in the municipality. Of that total, 315 made over 75,000 CHF per year. There were 7 people who made between 15,000 and 20,000 per year. The average income of the over 75,000 CHF group in Seftigen was 118,189 CHF, while the average across all of Switzerland was 130,478 CHF.
In 2011 a total of 2.3% of the population received direct financial assistance from the government.
]
Religion
From the , 1,635 or 78.8% 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 ...
, while 118 or 5.7% 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 ...
. Of the rest of the population, there were 17 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.82% of the population), there was 1 individual who belongs to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 52 individuals (or about 2.50% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 42 (or about 2.02% of the population) who were Muslim. There were 5 individuals who were Buddhist
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
, 14 individuals who were Hindu and 2 individuals who belonged to another church. 129 (or about 6.21% 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 ...
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 61 individuals (or about 2.94% of the population) did not answer the question.[
]
Education
In Seftigen about 61.8% 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 16.7% 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 214 who had completed some form of tertiary schooling listed in the census, 74.3% were Swiss men, 19.2% were Swiss women, 3.7% were non-Swiss men and 2.8% were non-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 2011-12 school year, there were a total of 196 students attending classes in Seftigen. There were 2 kindergarten classes with a total of 48 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 12.5% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 10.4% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The municipality had 7 primary classes and 121 students. Of the primary students, 5.8% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 11.6% have a different mother language than the classroom language. During the same year, there were 2 lower secondary classes with a total of 27 students. There were 18.5% who were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 22.2% have a different mother language than the classroom language.[Schuljahr 2011/12 pdf document]
accessed 9 May 2013
, there were a total of 193 students attending any school in the municipality. Of those, 191 both lived and attended school in the municipality, while 2 students came from another municipality. During the same year, 114 residents attended schools outside the municipality.[
Seftigen is home to the ''Schul- und Volksbibliothek Seftigen'' library. The library has () 3,000 books or other media, and loaned out 4,531 items in the same year. It was open a total of 99 days with an average of 4 hours per week during that year.]
accessed 14 May 2010
References
External links
Official website
{{Authority control
Municipalities of the canton of Bern