Mötschwil

Mötschwil
State :	Switzerland
Canton :	Bern (BE)
Administrative district :	Emmental
BFS no. :	0416
Postal code :	3324
Coordinates :	609 877  /  210974 coordinates: 47 ° 2 '59 "  N , 7 ° 34' 7"  O ; CH1903:  609877  /  210974
Height :	530  m above sea level M.
Height range :	515–651 m above sea level M.
Area :	2.95  km²
Residents:	119 (December 31, 2018)
Population density :	46 inhabitants per km²
Location of the municipality

Mötschwil is a municipality in the Emmental administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland .

geography

Mötschwil lies at 530  m above sea level. M. , 4.5 km west of the city of Burgdorf (linear distance). The farming village stretches along the southern edge of the flood plain of the Emme , increased slightly at the edge of moss and at the foot of tertiary sandstone of higher Swiss Central Plateau .

The area of ​​the municipal area of ​​2.9 km² comprises a slightly undulating section of the central Bernese plateau. The northern part of the municipality is occupied by the Plateau des Mooses, which is bordered in the northwest by the Chräiholz forest and in the northeast by Büelhölzli ( 543  m above sea level ). To the south, the municipality extends into the wide hollow of Schleumen, surrounded by the wooded Molasse heights of Haselberg (at 651  m above sea level, the highest elevation of Mötschwil) in the west, Rosenhölzli ( 601  m above sea level ) in the south and Schneiteberg (up to 620  m above sea level ) in the east. In 1997, 5% of the municipal area was accounted for by settlements, 31% for forests and woodlands and 64% for agriculture.

Mötschwil includes the hamlet Schleumen ( 552  m above sea level ) in a valley east of the Haselberg and some individual farms. The neighboring communities of Mötschwil are Lyssach , Rüti bei Lyssach , Burgdorf , Krauchthal and Hindelbank .

population

With 119 inhabitants (as of December 31, 2018) Mötschwil is one of the smallest communities in the canton of Bern. 99.1% of the residents speak German and 0.9% speak English (as of 2000). The population of Mötschwil was 198 inhabitants in 1850 and 234 in 1900. In the course of the 20th century, the population decreased by almost 50% due to heavy emigration. In 2000 there were just as many people in Mötschwil as in 1764.

Population development
year	1764	1850	1880	1900	1930	1950	1980	1990	2000	2010
Residents	112	198	229	234	207	208	152	144	112	137

politics

Mötschwil is recorded in the electoral archive of the Canton of Bern together with its neighboring municipality of  Rüti near Lyssach  .

The voting shares of the parties on the occasion of the  National Council elections in 2019  were:  SVP  46.7%, GPS  19.6%,  BDP  9.9%,  SP  5.5%,  FDP  4.2%,  EDU  0.9%,  glp  5.3 %,  EVP  4.4%,  CVP  0.4%, PdA 0.9%.

economy

Until the second half of the 20th century, Mötschwil was a village dominated by agriculture . Even today, the have farming , the fruit-growing and cattle breeding an important role in the employment structure of the population. Some other jobs are available in local small businesses and in the service sector. Many workers are commuters who work mainly in the Burgdorf region and the Bern agglomeration .

traffic

The community is located on the old main road from Bern via Hindelbank to Burgdorf . The next connection to the A1 motorway (Bern – Zurich) is around 5 km from the town center. The former bus line of Regionalverkehr Mittelland AG, which served the route from Burgdorf via Hindelbank to Bolligen , was discontinued. The municipality is no longer connected to the public transport network.

history

The place was first mentioned in a document in 1294 under the name Müschwile . Later the names Mötschwile (1327), Mütschwile (1380) and Mötschwil (1452) appeared. The origin of the place name is unclear.

In the Middle Ages Mötschwil was under the sovereignty of the Counts of Kyburg . When the village came under the rule of the Bernese, it was assigned to the Burgdorf Mayor's Office in the 15th century. After the collapse of the Ancien Régime (1798) Mötschwil belonged to the Burgdorf district during the Helvetic Republic and from 1803 to the Burgdorf Oberamt, which received the status of an official district with the new cantonal constitution of 1831. In 1911 the previously official double name Mötschwil-Schleumen was changed to Mötschwil .

Attractions

See also : List of cultural assets in Mötschwil

In the old town center there are numerous characteristic farmhouses in the Bernese country style, mostly from the 19th century. Mötschwil does not have its own church, it belongs to the Hindelbank parish. In the center of the village, numerous figures by the iron sculptor Bernhard Luginbühl are on display in the Luginbühl Foundation's sculpture park.

Personalities

• Fritz Kobel (1896–1981), fruit, wine, vegetable and horticultural scientist, born in Schleumen
• Bernhard Luginbühl (1929–2011), sculptor and iron sculptor, lived in Mötschwil

Web links

Commons : Mötschwil  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Anne-Marie Dubler : Mötschwil. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Permanent resident population from STAT-TAB of the BfS , municipalities see also regional portraits 2020 on bfs.admin.ch, accessed on May 29, 2020
2. ^ Canton of Bern: Election platform. October 20, 2019, accessed July 31, 2020 .