Merzligen

Merzligen
Municipality
Flag Coat of arms
Location of Merzligen
Merzligen Show map of Switzerland Merzligen Show map of Canton of Bern
Coordinates: 47°5′N7°15′E / 47.083°N 7.250°E / 47.083; 7.250
Country	Switzerland
Canton	Bern
District	Seeland
Area [1]
• Total	2.3 km2 (0.9 sq mi)
Elevation	509 m (1,670 ft)
Population  (31 December 2018) [2]
• Total	393
• Density	170/km2 (440/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (Central European Time)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (Central European Summer Time)
Postal code(s)	3274
SFOS number	0741
Surrounded by	Bellmund, Hermrigen, Jens, Kappelen
Twin towns	Jamné (Czech Republic)
Website	www.merzligen.ch SFSO statistics

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

History

Battle of St. Niklaus memorial, near Merzligen

Merzligen is first mentioned in 1278 as Merzelingen. ^[3]

The oldest trace of settlement in the area is the remains of a Roman road which was discovered near the Kühmatt section. By the Late Middle Ages a number of local nobles and monasteries owned land in the village. In 1398 it was acquired by the city of Bern and incorporated into the bailiwick of Nidau. The hamlet of St. Niklaus was named after a small chapel and hermitage. By 1480 the hermitage had grown into a small monastery. When Bern adopted the new faith of the Protestant Reformation in 1528, the monastery was closed. ^[3] During the 1798 French invasion, on 5 March 1798, a small battle was fought outside St. Niklaus. The Swiss forces had 16 men killed in the battle, all of whom were buried there and a small memorial was erected. In 1824 the original monument was replaced with the current obelisk. ^[4]

For most of its history, it was part of the parish of Bürglen. In 1674, the residents built their own church and unsuccessfully attempted to split away from the Bürglen parish. Other attempts in 1724, 1776 and 1932 was also unsuccessful. In 1947 it joined the parish of Worben.

Geography

Merzligen has an area of 2.3 km² (0.89 sq mi). ^[5] As of 2012, a total of 1.63 km² (0.63 sq mi) or 71.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while 0.38 km² (0.15 sq mi) or 16.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.24 km² (0.093 sq mi) or 10.5% is settled (buildings or roads) and 0.01 km² (2.5 acres) or 0.4% is unproductive land. ^[6]

During the same year, housing and buildings made up 6.6% and transportation infrastructure made up 3.5%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 61.8% is used for growing crops and 5.7% is pastures, while 3.9% is used for orchards or vine crops. ^[6]

Merzligen is located on the heights between Lake Biel and the Bernese Seeland. It includes the village of Merzligen and part of the hamlet of St. Niklaus (the other part belongs to Bellmund).

On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Nidau, 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 Argent a Linden Tree Vert issuant from a Base of the same. ^[8]

Demographics

Merzligen has a population (as of December 2020 ^[update] ) of 389. ^[9] As of 2010 ^[update] , 5.9% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2001-2011) the population has changed at a rate of 1%. Migration accounted for 1.2%, while births and deaths accounted for -0.2%. ^[10]

Most of the population (as of 2000 ^[update] ) speaks German (376 or 91.5%) as their first language, French is the second most common (25 or 6.1%) and Italian is the third (2 or 0.5%). ^[11]

As of 2008 ^[update] , the population was 49.8% male and 50.2% female. The population was made up of 189 Swiss men (46.6% of the population) and 13 (3.2%) non-Swiss men. There were 193 Swiss women (47.5%) and 1 (0.2%) non-Swiss women. ^[12] Of the population in the municipality, 131 or about 31.9% were born in Merzligen and lived there in 2000. There were 199 or 48.4% who were born in the same canton, while 53 or 12.9% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 25 or 6.1% were born outside of Switzerland. ^[11]

As of 2011 ^[update] , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 19.3% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 54.4% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 26.3%. ^[10]

As of 2000 ^[update] , there were 155 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 224 married individuals, 22 widows or widowers and 10 individuals who are divorced. ^[11]

As of 2010 ^[update] , there were 31 households that consist of only one person and 12 households with five or more people. ^[13] In 2000 ^[update] , a total of 150 apartments (94.3% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 3 apartments (1.9%) were seasonally occupied and 6 apartments (3.8%) were empty. ^[14] As of 2010 ^[update] , the construction rate of new housing units was 4.9 new units per 1000 residents. ^[10] In 2011, single family homes made up 66.9% of the total housing in the municipality. ^[15]

The historical population is given in the following chart: ^{[3] [16]}

Politics

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 23.6% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (23.6%), the Social Democratic Party (SP) (20.4%) and the FDP.The Liberals (10.6%). In the federal election, a total of 184 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 56.6%. ^[17]

Economy

As of  2011 ^[update] , Merzligen had an unemployment rate of 0.42%. As of 2008 ^[update] , there were a total of 40 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 23 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 10 businesses involved in this sector. 4 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 3 businesses in this sector. 13 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 7 businesses in this sector. ^[10] There were 214 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 41.1% of the workforce.

In 2008 ^[update] there were a total of 25 full-time equivalent jobs. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 11, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 3 of which 1 was in manufacturing and 2 were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 11. In the tertiary sector; 3 or 27.3% were in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was in the information industry, 3 or 27.3% were technical professionals or scientists and 3 or 27.3% were in health care. ^[18]

In 2000 ^[update] , there were 8 workers who commuted into the municipality and 175 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 21.9 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. A total of 39 workers (83.0% of the 47 total workers in the municipality) both lived and worked in Merzligen. ^[19] Of the working population, 11.7% used public transportation to get to work, and 65.9% used a private car. ^[10]

In 2011 the average local and cantonal tax rate on a married resident, with two children, of Merzligen making 150,000 CHF was 12.4%, while an unmarried resident's rate was 18.2%. ^[20] For comparison, the rate for the entire canton in the same year, was 14.2% and 22.0%, while the nationwide rate was 12.3% and 21.1% respectively. ^[21] In 2009 there were a total of 187 tax payers in the municipality. Of that total, 72 made over 75,000 CHF per year. There were 4 people who made between 15,000 and 20,000 per year. The average income of the over 75,000 CHF group in Merzligen was 115,099 CHF, while the average across all of Switzerland was 130,478 CHF. ^[22]

In 2011 a total of 0.5% of the population received direct financial assistance from the government. ^[23]

Religion

From the 2000 census ^[update] , 306 or 74.5% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church, while 33 or 8.0% were Roman Catholic. Of the rest of the population, there were 17 individuals (or about 4.14% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There was 1 individual who was Islamic. There were 2 individuals who were Buddhist and 6 individuals who were Hindu. 41 (or about 9.98% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 5 individuals (or about 1.22% of the population) did not answer the question. ^[11]

Education

In Merzligen about 58.2% of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 22.6% have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule ). ^[10] Of the 59 who had completed some form of tertiary schooling listed in the census, 74.6% were Swiss men, 23.7% were Swiss women. ^[11]

As of  2000 ^[update] , there was one student living in Merzligen and attending some form of schooling in the municipality. A total of 61 students from Merzligen attended schools outside the municipality. ^[19]

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. Merzligen in German , French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland .
4. Moser, Andres (2005). Die Kunstdenkmäler des Kantons Bern, Land, Bd. 3 (PDF). Bern: Gesellschaft für Schweizerische Kunstgeschichte. pp. 199–200.
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 (in German) accessed 4 April 2011
8. Flags of the World.com accessed 12 August 2013
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. Swiss Federal Statistical Office Archived 2016-01-05 at the Wayback Machine accessed 12 August 2013
11. STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000 Archived 2014-04-09 at the Wayback Machine (in German) accessed 2 February 2011
12. Statistical office of the Canton of Bern (in German) accessed 4 January 2012
13. Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Haushaltsgrösse Archived 2014-10-06 at the Wayback Machine (in German) accessed 8 May 2013
14. Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen Archived 2014-09-07 at the Wayback Machine (in German) accessed 28 January 2011
15. Statistischer Atlas der Schweiz - Anteil Einfamilienhäuser am gesamten Gebäudebestand, 2011 accessed 17 June 2013
16. Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Bevölkerungsentwicklung nach Region, 1850-2000 Archived 2014-09-30 at the Wayback Machine (in German) accessed 29 January 2011
17. Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election Archived 2013-11-14 at the Wayback Machine (in German) accessed 8 May 2012
18. Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Betriebszählung: Arbeitsstätten nach Gemeinde und NOGA 2008 (Abschnitte), Sektoren 1-3 Archived 2014-12-25 at the Wayback Machine (in German) accessed 28 January 2011
19. Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb Archived 2012-08-04 at archive.today (in German) accessed 24 June 2010
20. Statistischer Atlas der Schweiz - Steuerbelastung, 2011 Politische Gemeinden (in German) accessed 15 May 2013
21. Swiss Federal Tax Administration - Grafische Darstellung der Steuerbelastung 2011 in den Kantonen (in German and French) accessed 17 June 2013
22. Federal Tax Administration Report Direkte Bundessteuer - Natürliche Personen - Gemeinden - Steuerjahr 2009 Archived 2014-10-06 at the Wayback Machine (in German and French) accessed 15 May 2013
23. Statistischer Atlas der Schweiz - Bezüger/-innen von Sozialhilfeleistungen (Sozialhilfeempfänger/-innen), 2011 accessed 18 June 2013