Wangen an der Aare 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 Oberaargau administrative district 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 ...

. On 1 January 2024 the former municipality of

Wangenried Wangenried is a former municipality in the Oberaargau administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. On 1 January 2024 the former municipality of Wangenried merged to form the municipality of Wangen an der Aare. Geography Wang ...

merged to form the municipality of Wangen an der Aare. This small town lies between

Olten Olten (; High Alemannic: ''Oute'') is a town in the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland and capital of the district of the same name. Olten grew into a town during the Middle Ages at the location of a bridge over the Aare. After a period of de ...

and

Solothurn Solothurn ( ; ; ; ; ) is a town, a municipality, and the capital of the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland. It is located in the north-west of Switzerland on the banks of the Aare and on the foot of the Weissenstein Jura mountains. The town is ...

in rural surroundings on the

Aare The Aare () or Aar () is the main tributary of the High Rhine (its discharge even exceeds that of the latter at their confluence) and the longest river that both rises and ends entirely within Switzerland. Its total length from its source to i ...

, a major river of the west-central lowland region of Switzerland, the ''Mittelland''. An ancient wooden covered bridge crosses the Aare at this point. Wangen an der Aare was the administrative centre of the former district of the same name. Wangen che Aro aerbildo 090

Transport links

Wangen is situated on the

Biel Biel/Bienne (official bilingual wording; German language, German: ''Biel'' ; French language, French: ''Bienne'' ; Bernese German, locally ; ; ; ) is a bilingual city in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. With over 55,000 residents, it is the ...

Bienne Biel/Bienne (official bilingual wording; German: ''Biel'' ; French: ''Bienne'' ; locally ; ; ; ) is a bilingual city in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. With over 55,000 residents, it is the country's tenth-largest city by population. Th ...

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

line and close to the A1

motorway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway, and expressway. Other similar terms ...

History

Wang(en) means an area at the foot of a slope; in this case the slope in question is almost certainly that of the nearby Jura mountain range. Wangen's

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 ...

shows crossed St Peter's keys in blue on a white ground. The nobles (or ''Vögte'') who held the lordship of Wangen adopted this symbol which had been the badge of the Upper Aargau estates of the

Abbey of Saint Peter in the Black Forest St Peter's Abbey in the Black Forest or St. Peter's Abbey, Schwarzwald () is a former Benedictine monastery in the village of St. Peter im Schwarzwald, in the district of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. History The monas ...

. The earliest document to be sealed with the crossed-keys symbol dates from the year 1380. The castle, built by the Kyburger dynasty in 1407, became the seat of the Bernese regional governorship, and some departments of the regional administration are still housed in the building today. The settlement occupied a strategically important spot, guarding the river-crossing and serving as a customs and staging-point for waterway traffic on the Aare. When the latter trade came to an end the little town experienced a serious economic crisis. The salt house of 1775 remains today as a testament to this past.

Geography

Wangen has an area of . Of this area, 42.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while 28.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 20.3% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (8.1%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains).

Demographics

Wangen has a population (as of ) of . , 12.5% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 7.4%. Most of the population () speaks German (91.0%), with Albanian being second most common ( 3.0%) and Serbo-Croatian being third ( 2.4%). In the 2007 election the most popular party was the SVP which received 39.2% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP (25.4%), the SPS (15.8%) 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 ...

(6.7%). The age distribution of the population () is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 24% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 59.6% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 16.4%. In Wangen about 75.3% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either 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 ...

or additional higher education (either university 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 ...

''). Wangen has an unemployment rate of 1.76%. , there were 53 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 18 businesses involved in this sector. 240 people are 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 are 37 businesses in this sector. 673 people are 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 107 businesses in this sector.Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 22-Jul-2009

Notable people

* Arnold Rikli (1823 in Wangen an der Aare – 1906) a Swiss natural healer, he proposed exposing the body to sun and air, called sun tanning

Army base

The modern-day

Swiss Army The Swiss Armed Forces (; ; ; ; ) are the military and security force of Switzerland, consisting of land and air service branches. Under the country's militia system, regular soldiers constitute a small part of the military and the rest are ...

base at Wangen is a link to the town's history as a military centre. The base grew up around the riverside warehouses, where field howitzer units were stationed in

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. Today Wangen an der Aare is the Transport Corps' main centre and a training-place for disaster relief and rescue units. The Corps of Engineers' bridge-builders, the Pontoniers, also train here.

Economy

The bedware company Roviva Roth & Cie. AG developed from a horsehair spinning-mill first mentioned in 1748.

References

External links

Homepage of Wangen a. A.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wangen An Der Aare Cities in Switzerland Municipalities of the canton of Bern