Meikirch

Meikirch is a municipality in the administrative district of Bern-Mittelland in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.

History

Meikirch is first mentioned in 1208 as Mönchilcha.<ref name=HDS/>

Evidence of prehistoric settlements in Meikirch include rich Hallstatt sites in Grächwil and a Roman estate with wall paintings in Meikirch. The modern village was first settled and owned by the Monastery of Frienisberg. During the 13th and 14th centuries, the village was owned by the Bernburg family of Bolligen. During the 16th century, it was owned by the hereditary Schultheiss family of Aarberg, the Aebischers. In 1555 the Aebischer family sold the village to the city of Bern.<ref name=HDS/>

The village church was first mentioned in 1275, but was built in the 7th and 8th century on top of the ruins of a Roman villa. Portions of the early medieval and medieval churches have been preserved in spite of later alterations. The church tower is from the 12th century. In 1528, after the Protestant Reformation, the church came under the authority of Bern.<ref name=HDS/>

After the 1798 French invasion, it became part of the District of Zollikofen. Five years later, after the collapse of the Helvetic Republic, it was placed in the District of Aarberg. The municipality was on the old Bern-Frienisberg-Aarberg road and during the 18th and 19th centuries was part of the postal route between those towns. In 1851-52 a new road was built between Wohlen and Frieswil which bypassed Meikirch. The population began to decline after 1850 and the rate increased after World War I. During this time, the local farms changed from grain farming to cattle and dairy farming, which required fewer people and drove villagers away from Meikirch. The decline stopped with improved transport infrastructure, including the 1948 Postauto route to Bern. The population began to increase when, in 1960, a new road to Bern was completed. The old village houses were rebuilt and the new developments of Schützenrain, Weissenstein and Neu-Grächwil were built to provide housing for new residents. The Meikirch secondary school was founded in 1974.<ref name=HDS/>

Geography

File:Wahlendorf.jpg

Wahlendorf village

Meikirch has an area, Template:As of, of Template:Swiss area.Template:Swiss area data Of this area, Template:Convert or 63.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while Template:Convert or 26.3% is forested. Of the rest of the land, Template:Convert or 9.4% is settled (buildings or roads).<ref name=BFS_land>Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics 2018 data Template:In lang accessed 26 July 2020</ref>

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 6.2% and transportation infrastructure made up 3.3%. Out of the forested land, nearly all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 47.5% is used for growing crops and 14.6% is pastures, while 1.8% is used for orchards or vine crops.<ref name=BFS_land/>

The municipality is a distant part of the agglomeration of Bern on the south-eastern edge of the Frienisberg plateau. It consists of the villages of Meikirch, Ortschwaben (first mentioned in 1185 as Nortsuaben) and Wahlendorf, the hamlets of Grächwil, Weissenstein and Äzikofen as well as scattered farms.

Coat of arms

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Azure a Church Argent roofed Gules in chief sinister a Mullet of the second. The church (Template:Langx) makes this an example of canting arms.<ref>Flags of the World.com accessed 8 May 2012</ref>

Demographics

Meikirch has a population (Template:As of) of Template:Swiss populations.Template:Swiss populations ref Template:As of, 5.8% of the population are resident foreign nationals.<ref name=BE_Stat>Statistical office of the Canton of Bern Template:In lang accessed 4 January 2012</ref> Over the last 10 years (2000–2010) the population has changed at a rate of -5.1%. Migration accounted for -4.9%, while births and deaths accounted for 0.9%.<ref name=SFSO>Swiss Federal Statistical Office Template:Webarchive accessed 8 May 2012</ref>

Most of the population (Template:As of) speaks German (2,368 or 95.4%) as their first language, French is the second most common (24 or 1.0%) and Italian is the third (19 or 0.8%).<ref name=STAT2000/>

Template:As of, the population was 48.0% male and 52.0% female. The population was made up of 1,047 Swiss men (44.6% of the population) and 79 (3.4%) non-Swiss men. There were 1,162 Swiss women (49.6%) and 57 (2.4%) non-Swiss women.<ref name="BE_Stat"/> Of the population in the municipality, 631 or about 25.4% were born in Meikirch and lived there in 2000. There were 1,153 or 46.5% who were born in the same canton, while 445 or 17.9% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 196 or 7.9% were born outside of Switzerland.<ref name=STAT2000/>

Template:As of, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 18.6% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 61.2% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 20.3%.<ref name=SFSO/>

Template:As of, there were 999 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 1,297 married individuals, 103 widows or widowers and 83 individuals who are divorced.<ref name=STAT2000>STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 – 2000 Template:Webarchive Template:In lang accessed 2 February 2011</ref>

Template:As of, there were 239 households that consist of only one person and 91 households with five or more people. Template:As of, a total of 958 apartments (94.7% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 33 apartments (3.3%) were seasonally occupied and 21 apartments (2.1%) were empty.<ref name=Housing>Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB – Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 – Gebäude und Wohnungen Template:Webarchive Template:In lang accessed 28 January 2011</ref>

Template:As of, the construction rate of new housing units was 1.3 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, Template:As of, was 4.48%.<ref name=SFSO/>

The historical population is given in the following chart:<ref name=HDS>Template:HDS</ref><ref>Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Bevölkerungsentwicklung nach Region, 1850-2000 Template:Webarchive Template:In lang accessed 29 January 2011</ref> <timeline> 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:2500 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:500 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:100 start:0 PlotData=

color:yellowgreen width:40  mark:(line,white) align:center
bar:1764 from:start till:398 text:"398"
bar:1850 from:start till:1059 text:"1,059"
bar:1860 from:start till:1001 text:"1,001"
bar:1870 from:start till:971 text:"971"
bar:1880 from:start till:941 text:"941"
bar:1888 from:start till:979 text:"979"
bar:1900 from:start till:997 text:"997"
bar:1910 from:start till:959 text:"959"
bar:1920 from:start till:858 text:"858"
bar:1930 from:start till:849 text:"849"
bar:1941 from:start till:823 text:"823"
bar:1950 from:start till:949 text:"949"
bar:1960 from:start till:1031 text:"1,031"
bar:1970 from:start till:1405 text:"1,405"
bar:1980 from:start till:1911 text:"1,911"
bar:1990 from:start till:2178 text:"2,178"
bar:2000 from:start till:2482 text:"2,482"

</timeline>

Politics

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 24.6% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SPS (17.7%), the BDP Party (16.5%) and the Green Party (12.4%). In the federal election, a total of 1,173 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 62.0%.<ref name=election_2011>Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election Template:Webarchive Template:In lang accessed 8 May 2012</ref>

Economy

Template:As of, Meikirch had an unemployment rate of 1.47%. Template:As of, there were a total of 492 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 87 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 29 businesses involved in this sector. 155 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 26 businesses in this sector. 250 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 53 businesses in this sector.<ref name=SFSO/>

Template:As of the total number of full-time equivalent jobs was 376. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 58, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 135 of which 20 or (14.8%) were in manufacturing and 116 (85.9%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 183. In the tertiary sector; 24 or 13.1% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 45 or 24.6% were in the movement and storage of goods, 19 or 10.4% were in a hotel or restaurant, 22 or 12.0% were in the information industry, 12 or 6.6% were technical professionals or scientists, 28 or 15.3% were in education and 9 or 4.9% were in health care.<ref>Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Betriebszählung: Arbeitsstätten nach Gemeinde und NOGA 2008 (Abschnitte), Sektoren 1-3 Template:Webarchive Template:In lang accessed 28 January 2011</ref>

Template:As of, there were 202 workers who commuted into the municipality and 1,031 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 5.1 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.<ref name=commuter>Swiss Federal Statistical Office – StatwebTemplate:Dead link Template:In lang accessed 24 June 2010</ref> Of the working population, 31.6% used public transportation to get to work, and 47.9% used a private car.<ref name=SFSO/>

Religion

From the Template:As of, 314 or 12.7% were Roman Catholic, while 1,749 or 70.5% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 9 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.36% of the population), there was 1 individual who belongs to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 155 individuals (or about 6.24% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There was 1 individual who was Jewish, and 32 (or about 1.29% of the population) who were Islamic. There were 3 individuals who were Buddhist and 3 individuals who were Hindu. 217 (or about 8.74% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 73 individuals (or about 2.94% of the population) did not answer the question.<ref name=STAT2000/>

Education

In Meikirch about 979 or (39.4%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 514 or (20.7%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). Of the 514 who completed tertiary schooling, 66.7% were Swiss men, 27.4% were Swiss women, 3.7% were non-Swiss men and 2.1% were non-Swiss women.<ref name=STAT2000/>

The Canton of Bern school system provides one year of non-obligatory Kindergarten, 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.<ref>Template:Cite report</ref>

During the 2009–10 school year, there were a total of 214 students attending classes in Meikirch. There were 2 kindergarten classes with a total of 35 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 11.4% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 11.4% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The municipality had 6 primary classes and 93 students. Of the primary students, 7.5% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 5.4% have a different mother language than the classroom language. During the same year, there were 4 lower secondary classes with a total of 81 students. There were 8.6% who were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 4.9% have a different mother language than the classroom language.<ref name=School>Schuljahr 2009/10 pdf documentTemplate:In lang accessed 4 January 2012</ref>

Template:As of, there were 4 students in Meikirch who came from another municipality, while 149 residents attended schools outside the municipality.<ref name=commuter/>