Wengi 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 Seeland 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 ...

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

Wengi is first mentioned around 1261–63 as ''Wengw''. In 1303 it was mentioned as ''Wengi''. The earliest traces of human settlement come from

neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

tools discovered at Wengimoos. A few scattered

Roman era In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

artifacts were discovered at Äbeni. During the

Early Early may refer to: Places in the United States * Early, Iowa, a city * Early, Texas, a city * Early Branch, a stream in Missouri * Early County, Georgia * Fort Early, Georgia, an early 19th century fort Music * Early B, stage name of Jamaican d ...

and

High Middle Ages The High Middle Ages, or High Medieval Period, was the periodization, period of European history between and ; it was preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, which ended according to historiographical convention ...

the wooden castle of Guldige Hubel in Übererlenacher guarded the village. During the Middle Ages, the village of Wengi and 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 Scheunenberg and Waltwil were all part of the municipality of

Grossaffoltern Grossaffoltern is a municipality in the Seeland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It is known for its stork colony. History Grossaffoltern is first mentioned in 1216 as ''Affoltron''. The oldest evidence of human ...

and were owned by the

House of Kyburg The Kyburg family (; ; also Kiburg) was a noble family of ''grafen'' (counts) in the Duchy of Swabia, a cadet line of the counts of Dillingen, who in the late 12th and early 13th centuries ruled the County of Kyburg, corresponding to much of wh ...

. After the extinction of the Kyburgs, the villages passed through the hands of a number of nobles. The village St. Mary's Church was probably first built during the 8th or 9th century. The first church was replaced with a new building in the 13th century and was built as the seat of a dean. In 1521 the second church was destroyed in a fire. It was rebuilt with a

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

and dedicated to St. Maurice. Beginning in the 18th century and continuing until World War II,

peat Peat is an accumulation of partially Decomposition, decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, Moorland, moors, or muskegs. ''Sphagnum'' moss, also called peat moss, is one of the most ...

was harvested for heating from the Wengimoos bog. The extensive peat bogs proved to be a difficult obstacle during the

amelioration Amelioration may refer to: * Amelioration patterns, a software design pattern * Amelioration Act 1798, a statute in the Leeward Islands regarding the treatment of slaves * Rapid climatic amelioration, in geology, a major change from glacial to i ...

of the Limpach valley between 1944 and 1951. In 1961, the Wengimoos was made into a nature preserve to protect the delicate bog ecosystem.

Geography

Wengi has an area of . Of this area, or 72.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 16.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 7.6% is settled (buildings or roads), or 1.3% is either rivers or lakes and or 1.4% is unproductive land.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010 Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 4.5% and transportation infrastructure made up 3.0%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 62.4% is used for growing crops and 9.8% is pastures. Of the water in the municipality, 0.3% is in lakes and 1.0% is in rivers and streams. The municipality is located in the upper Limpach valley. It consists of the village of Wengi and the hamlets of Scheunenberg, Waltwil and Janzenhaus. On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Büren, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Seeland.
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 three Roses Gules barbed and seeded proper in Pale.''

Demographics

Wengi has a population () of . , 8.1% of the population are resident foreign nationals.Statistical office of the Canton of Bern
accessed 4 January 2012 Over the last 10 years (2000–2010) the population has changed at a rate of 12.2%. Migration accounted for 7.1%, while births and deaths accounted for 6.4%.
accessed 23-August-2012 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 ...

(530 or 96.0%) as their first language, French is the second most common (10 or 1.8%) and Portuguese is the third (4 or 0.7%). , the population was 52.2% male and 47.8% female. The population was made up of 293 Swiss men (47.6% of the population) and 28 (4.6%) non-Swiss men. There were 272 Swiss women (44.2%) and 22 (3.6%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 207 or about 37.5% were born in Wengi and lived there in 2000. There were 217 or 39.3% who were born in the same canton, while 82 or 14.9% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 36 or 6.5% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 23.4% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 61.6% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 15%. , there were 224 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 277 married individuals, 32 widows or widowers and 19 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 51 households that consist of only one person and 17 households with five or more people. , a total of 208 apartments (95.4% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 5 apartments (2.3%) were seasonally occupied and 5 apartments (2.3%) 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 1.6 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 2.94%. The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width:1020 height:210 PlotArea = top:10 left:100 bottom:50 right:100 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:750 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:200 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:40 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1764 from:start till:323 text:"323" bar:1850 from:start till:744 text:"744" bar:1860 from:start till:666 text:"666" bar:1870 from:start till:648 text:"648" bar:1880 from:start till:617 text:"617" bar:1888 from:start till:614 text:"614" bar:1900 from:start till:588 text:"588" bar:1910 from:start till:555 text:"555" bar:1920 from:start till:538 text:"538" bar:1930 from:start till:577 text:"577" bar:1941 from:start till:559 text:"559" bar:1950 from:start till:563 text:"563" bar:1960 from:start till:593 text:"593" bar:1970 from:start till:543 text:"543" bar:1980 from:start till:466 text:"466" bar:1990 from:start till:506 text:"506" bar:2000 from:start till:552 text:"552"

Politics

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 43% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the BDP Party (18%), the SPS (10%) 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 ...

(8.2%). In the federal election, a total of 242 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 55.4%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election
accessed 8 May 2012

Economy

, Wengi had an unemployment rate of 1.59%. , there were a total of 161 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 88 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 29 businesses involved in this sector. 19 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 6 businesses in this sector. 54 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 17 businesses in this sector. there were a total of 121

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 60, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 16 of which 14 or (87.5%) were in manufacturing and 2 (12.5%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 45. In the tertiary sector; 8 or 17.8% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 12 or 26.7% were in the movement and storage of goods, 11 or 24.4% were in a hotel or restaurant, 2 or 4.4% were technical professionals or scientists, 5 or 11.1% were in education. , there were 28 workers who commuted into the municipality and 195 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 7.0 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 6.7% used public transportation to get to work, and 57% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 39 or 7.1% 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 ...

, while 441 or 79.9% 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 ...

. Of the rest of the population, there were 3 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.54% of the population), and there were 18 individuals (or about 3.26% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There was 1 individual who was

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. 45 (or about 8.15% 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 14 individuals (or about 2.54% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Wengi about 213 or (38.6%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 83 or (15.0%) 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 83 who completed tertiary schooling, 65.1% were Swiss men, 30.1% 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 2009–10 school year, there were a total of 73 students attending classes in Wengi. There was one kindergarten class with a total of 14 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 14.3% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 14.3% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The municipality had 3 primary classes and 59 students. Of the primary students, 6.8% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 3.4% have a different mother language than the classroom language.Schuljahr 2010/11 pdf document
accessed 4 January 2012 , there were 13 students in Wengi who came from another municipality, while 36 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

References

External links

Community website
{{Authority control Municipalities of the canton of Bern