Meienried

Meienried
Municipality
Group of houses in Underfar (Meienried), view from the old course of the Zihl river
Coat of arms
Location of Meienried
Meienried Show map of Switzerland Meienried Show map of Canton of Bern
Coordinates: 47°8′N7°20′E / 47.133°N 7.333°E / 47.133; 7.333
Country	Switzerland
Canton	Bern
District	Seeland
Area [1]
• Total	0.7 km2 (0.3 sq mi)
Elevation	430 m (1,410 ft)
Population  (31 December 2018) [2]
• Total	59
• Density	84/km2 (220/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (Central European Time)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (Central European Summer Time)
Postal code(s)	3294
SFOS number	0389
Surrounded by	Büren an der Aare, Dotzigen, Safnern, Scheuren
Website	https://meienried.ch/ SFSO statistics

Meienried is a municipality in the Seeland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.

History

Information board about the Jura water corrections in Underfar (Meienried)

Meienried is first mentioned in 1255 as Meinrieth. ^[3]

The village grew around a medieval ferry dock and customs station, which was first mentioned in 1268. It was located on a small rise between the Zihl and Aare rivers. On the eastern or Zihl side was Underfar village with a boat landing and a ferry to Safnern. On the western or Aare side was Oberfar with ferries to Dotzigen and Büren an der Aare. The village was part of the Büren district in the lands of the Counts of Neuchâtel-Nidau. In 1255, the Counts gave Meienried to the Gottstatt Monastery, which they had recently founded. After the extinction of the Counts, between 1388 and 1393 the entire Herrschaft of Büren, including Meienried, went to Bern. ^[3]

The Jura water correction of 1868-75 helped protect the village from flooding from the surrounding rivers. In 1970 the marshes around the village were drained, which opened up additional farmland. In 1934 the Meienried Nature Preserve was established to help protect the old Zihl water course and the Meienriedloch. ^[3] In 2003 the Tümpel bei Alter Aare was designated as part of the Federal Inventory of Amphibian Spawning Areas. ^[4]

This small village has its own town hall and school district, but most of the residents commute to jobs in Büren or even Bern.

Geography

Meienried has an area of 0.65 km² (0.25 sq mi). ^[5] Of this area, 0.47 km² (0.18 sq mi) or 71.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while 0.11 km² (0.042 sq mi) or 16.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.02 km² (4.9 acres) or 3.0% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.04 km² (9.9 acres) or 6.1% is either rivers or lakes and 0.03 km² (7.4 acres) or 4.5% is unproductive land. ^[6]

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 1.5% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.5%. Out of the forested land, 13.6% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.0% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 56.1% is used for growing crops and 13.6% is pastures, while 1.5% is used for orchards or vine crops. Of the water in the municipality, 4.5% is in lakes and 1.5% is in rivers and streams. ^[6]

The municipality is located at the confluence of the Zihl and Aare rivers.

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. ^[7]

Coat of arms

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Vert on a Chief Argent a Rose Gules barbed of the first and seeded Or. ^[8]

Demographics

Meienried has a population (as of December 2020 ^[update] ) of 53. ^[9] As of 2010 ^[update] , 1.9% of the population are resident foreign nationals. ^[10] Over the last 10 years (2000-2010) the population has changed at a rate of -14.3%. Migration accounted for -9.5%, while births and deaths accounted for -4.8%. ^[11]

Most of the population (as of 2000 ^[update] ) speaks German (55 or 93.2%) as their first language, French is the second most common (3 or 5.1%) and Czech is the third (1 or 1.7%). ^[12]

As of 2008 ^[update] , the population was 52.8% male and 47.2% female. The population was made up of 28 Swiss men (52.8% of the population), 24 Swiss women (45.3%) and 1 (1.9%) non-Swiss women. ^[10]

Of the population in the municipality, 21 or about 35.6% were born in Meienried and lived there in 2000. There were 18 or 30.5% who were born in the same canton, while 14 or 23.7% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 2 or 3.4% were born outside of Switzerland. ^[12]

As of 2010 ^[update] , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 5.7% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 81.1% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 13.2%. ^[11] As of 2000 ^[update] , there were 29 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 24 married individuals, 3 widows or widowers and 3 individuals who are divorced. ^[12]

As of 2000 ^[update] , there were 8 households that consist of only one person and 2 households with five or more people. In 2000 ^[update] , a total of 19 apartments (82.6% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 4 apartments (17.4%) were seasonally occupied. ^[13] The vacancy rate for the municipality, in 2011 ^[update] , was 8.33%.

The historical population is given in the following chart: ^{[3] [14]}

Sights

The entire Meienried area is designated as part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites. ^[15]

Economy

As of  2011 ^[update] , Meienried had an unemployment rate of 2.93%. As of 2008 ^[update] , there were a total of 22 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 13 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 5 businesses involved in this sector. No one was employed in the secondary sector. 9 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 1 business in this sector. ^[11]

In 2008 ^[update] there were a total of 16 full-time equivalent jobs. There were 8 jobs in agriculture and 8 jobs in the tertiary sector, in a hotel or restaurant. ^[16]

In 2000 ^[update] , there were 25 workers who commuted away from the municipality. ^[17] Of the working population, 13.9% used public transportation to get to work, and 63.9% used a private car. ^[11]

Religion

From the 2000 census ^[update] , 3 or 5.1% were Roman Catholic, while 47 or 79.7% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. 6 (or about 10.17% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 3 individuals (or about 5.08% of the population) did not answer the question. ^[12]

Education

In Meienried about 21 or (35.6%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 7 or (11.9%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule ). Of the 7 who completed tertiary schooling, 85.7% were Swiss men, 14.3% were Swiss women. ^[12] During the 2010-11 school year, there were no students attending school in Meienried. ^[18]

As of 2000 ^[update] , there were 12 students from Meienried who attended schools outside the municipality. ^[17]

References

1. "Arealstatistik Standard - Gemeinden nach 4 Hauptbereichen". Federal Statistical Office. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
2. "Ständige Wohnbevölkerung nach Staatsangehörigkeitskategorie Geschlecht und Gemeinde; Provisorische Jahresergebnisse; 2018". Federal Statistical Office. 9 April 2019. Retrieved 11 April 2019.
3. Meienried in German , French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland .
4. Ordinance on the Protection of Amphibian Spawning Sites of National Importance / Verordnung über den Schutz der Amphibienlaichgebiete von nationaler Bedeutung (Amphibienlaichgebiete-Verordnung, AlgV) / Ordonnance sur la protection des sites de reproduction de batraciens d'importance nationale (Ordonnance sur les batraciens, OBat) / Ordinanza sulla protezione dei siti di riproduzione di anfibi di importanza nazionale (Ordinanza sui siti di riproduzione degli anfibi, OSRA) of 2001-06-15, SR/RS 451.34 ^(E·D·F·I), art. pp1 ^(E·D·F·I)
5. Arealstatistik Standard - Gemeindedaten nach 4 Hauptbereichen
6. Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics 2009 data (in German) accessed 25 March 2010
7. Nomenklaturen – Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz Archived 2015-11-13 at the Wayback Machine (in German) accessed 4 April 2011
8. Flags of the World.com accessed 21-August-2012
9. "Ständige und nichtständige Wohnbevölkerung nach institutionellen Gliederungen, Geburtsort und Staatsangehörigkeit". bfs.admin.ch (in German). Swiss Federal Statistical Office - STAT-TAB. 31 December 2020. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
10. Statistical office of the Canton of Bern (in German) accessed 4 January 2012
11. Swiss Federal Statistical Office Archived January 5, 2016, at the Wayback Machine accessed 21-August-2012
12. STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000 Archived August 9, 2013, at the Wayback Machine (in German) accessed 2 February 2011
13. Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen Archived September 7, 2014, at the Wayback Machine (in German) accessed 28 January 2011
14. Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Bevölkerungsentwicklung nach Region, 1850-2000 Archived September 30, 2014, at the Wayback Machine (in German) accessed 29 January 2011
15. "Kantonsliste A-Objekte". KGS Inventar (in German). Federal Office of Civil Protection. 2009. Archived from the original on 28 June 2010. Retrieved 25 April 2011.
16. Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Betriebszählung: Arbeitsstätten nach Gemeinde und NOGA 2008 (Abschnitte), Sektoren 1-3 Archived December 25, 2014, at the Wayback Machine (in German) accessed 28 January 2011
17. Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb (in German) accessed 24 June 2010
18. Schuljahr 2010/11 pdf document (in German) accessed 4 January 2012