Reutigen facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Reutigen
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 Reutigen
Location in Switzerland
Reutigen
Location in Canton of Bern
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| Country | Switzerland | |
| Canton | Bern | |
| District | Thun | |
| Area | ||
| • Total | 11.29 km2 (4.36 sq mi) | |
| Elevation | 622 m (2,041 ft) | |
| Population
(Dec 2020 )
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| • Total | 1,023 | |
| • Density | 90.61/km2 (234.68/sq mi) | |
| Postal code |
3647
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| Surrounded by | Erlenbach im Simmental, Höfen, Niederstocken, Spiez, Wimmis, Zwieselberg | |
Reutigen is a small town, also called a municipality, located in Switzerland. It is part of the Thun area in the Bern region. On January 1, 2024, another nearby town called Zwieselberg joined with Reutigen to become one bigger municipality.
Contents
Reutigen's Past: A Brief History
Early Days and Ownership Changes
Reutigen was first mentioned in old records around the year 1300. Back then, it was known as Rötingen.
Around 1308, a powerful family called Burgistein took control of the entire Strättligen Herrschaft, which was a large area of land they ruled. Reutigen was part of this territory. Over the next few decades, the town was owned by different noble families.
Becoming Part of Bern
Later, around 1486 and 1494, two families, Bubenberg and Schütz, sold their parts of Reutigen to the city of Bern. Under Bern's rule, Reutigen was placed under the military protection of Seftigen. It was also managed by a local official called a Vogt from Wimmis.
This way of governing stayed the same for many centuries. Then, in 1803, a new law called the Act of Mediation changed things. Reutigen became part of the Niedersimmental District.
Life in Reutigen: Then and Now
For a long time, Reutigen was mostly a farming community. Even in 2005, about one-third of all jobs in the town were in agriculture. However, half of the jobs were in the services sector, like shops or offices. Many people who live in Reutigen also travel to work in bigger nearby towns like Thun, Spiez, or Bern.
The Village Chapel: A Place of Worship
Reutigen's St. Mary's Chapel was likely built in the 1100s. The first time it was written about was in 1330. The building next to it, where old bones were kept (an ossuary), is probably from around the same time. Inside the chapel, you can see beautiful old paintings on the walls, called frescoes, from the 1300s and 1400s.
In 1412, the chapel became a smaller church connected to the main church in Wimmis. Then, in 1474, it became the main church for the Reutigen area.
Reutigen's Landscape: Geography and Land Use
Reutigen covers an area of about 11.3 square kilometers (about 4.36 square miles). This is how the land is used:
- About 46.8% of the land is used for farming. This includes fields for crops and pastures for animals.
- About 45.3% of the land is covered by forests.
- About 4.5% of the land has buildings or roads on it.
- About 1.0% is rivers or lakes.
- About 2.4% is unproductive land, meaning it's not used for farming or building. This might be rocky areas or steep slopes.
What the Land is Used For
More specifically, 2.2% of the land has houses and other buildings. Roads and other transport areas make up 1.4%. A large part, 43.2%, is dense forest. Another 2.1% has orchards or small groups of trees.
For farming, 11.7% is used for growing crops. About 23.2% is for pastures where animals graze. Another 11.2% is used for alpine pastures, which are high mountain grasslands. All the water in Reutigen is from flowing rivers or streams. Some unproductive areas, about 1.9%, are too rocky for plants to grow.
Location and Rivers
The town is located in the Niedersimmental valley. It includes the main village of Reutigen, along with smaller areas called Hani and Allmi. The municipality stretches from the northeast side of the Stockhorn mountain chain down to the Kander river.
On December 31, 2009, Reutigen's old administrative district, Amtsbezirk Niedersimmental, was closed. The next day, January 1, 2010, Reutigen joined a new administrative area called Verwaltungskreis Thun.
Reutigen's Symbol: The Coat of Arms
The official symbol, or blazon, of Reutigen's municipal coat of arms is described as: Azure a Letter H crossed Or. This means it's a blue shield with a golden letter "H" that has a cross on it.
This special "H" with a cross comes from the family symbol of Hans Schütz. He was a ruler who took charge of Reutigen starting in 1480.
Who Lives in Reutigen: Demographics
Population Numbers
Reutigen has a population of about 962 people (as of December 2011). In 2010, about 3.3% of the people living in Reutigen were foreign nationals, meaning they were not Swiss citizens. Over the past 10 years (2001-2011), the population has changed a little, growing by about 0.4%. This growth was mostly due to people moving into the town.
Languages Spoken
Most people in Reutigen speak German as their main language. In 2000, about 97.6% of the population spoke German. The second most common language was Albanian, spoken by 0.6% of people. A small number of people also spoke French, Italian, or Romansh.
Population Breakdown
In 2008, about 49.5% of the population was male and 50.5% was female. Most residents were Swiss citizens. About 37.7% of the people living in Reutigen in 2000 were also born there. Many others were born in the same canton (Bern), while some came from other parts of Switzerland or from other countries.
In 2011, children and teenagers (ages 0-19) made up 19.4% of the population. Adults (ages 20-64) made up 60.4%, and seniors (over 64) made up 20.2%.
Family Life and Homes
In 2000, about 379 people in Reutigen were single and had never been married. There were 455 married people, 42 widows or widowers, and 33 divorced individuals.
In 2010, there were 118 homes where only one person lived. There were also 20 homes with five or more people. Most apartments in Reutigen are lived in all the time. In 2011, about half of the homes in the town were single-family houses.
The chart below shows how Reutigen's population has changed over many years:
Reutigen's Jobs: The Economy
Employment and Businesses
In 2011, Reutigen had a very low unemployment rate of 0.83%. This means almost everyone who wanted a job had one. In 2008, there were 230 people working in the town.
Jobs are often grouped into three main types:
- Primary sector: This includes jobs that get raw materials from nature, like farming or forestry. In Reutigen, 63 people worked in this sector, with 19 businesses.
- Secondary sector: These jobs turn raw materials into products, like manufacturing or construction. There were 52 people working in this sector, with 9 businesses.
- Tertiary sector: These jobs provide services to people, like shops, restaurants, or schools. There were 115 people working in this sector, with 23 businesses.
In 2008, there were 181 full-time equivalent jobs. This means if you add up all the hours worked, it's like 181 people working full-time.
- 44 jobs were in the primary sector, mostly farming.
- 45 jobs were in the secondary sector, mostly in manufacturing and construction.
- 92 jobs were in the tertiary sector. Many of these were in sales, transport, hotels, or education.
Commuting and Taxes
In 2000, 78 workers traveled into Reutigen for their jobs, while 316 workers traveled out of Reutigen to work somewhere else. This means more people leave Reutigen for work than come in. However, 143 workers both lived and worked in Reutigen.
About 11.8% of working people used public transport to get to work, and 54% used a private car.
In 2011, the average tax rate for a married couple with two children in Reutigen was 12.6%. For a single person, it was 18.5%. These rates are lower than the average for the whole canton of Bern.
In 2011, a small number of people, about 2.2% of the population, received financial help from the government.
Faith in Reutigen: Religion
Based on the 2000 census, most people in Reutigen belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church, about 82.8%. Another 7.0% were Roman Catholic.
A small number of people belonged to other Christian churches, or were Islamic or Buddhist. About 5.5% of the population said they didn't belong to any church, or were agnostic or atheist.
Learning in Reutigen: Education
Schooling Levels
In Reutigen, about 61.7% of adults have finished non-mandatory upper secondary education. This is like high school. About 17.6% have gone on to higher education, like a university or a special college called a Fachhochschule.
The Swiss School System
The school system in the Canton of Bern works like this:
- First, there's one year of non-required Kindergarten.
- Then, six years of Primary school.
- After that, three years of required lower Secondary school. Students are grouped based on their abilities.
- After lower Secondary, students can choose to continue their schooling or start an apprenticeship, which is like learning a job while working.
Students in Reutigen
During the 2011-12 school year, 87 students attended classes in Reutigen.
- There was one kindergarten class with 17 students.
- There were two primary classes with 41 students. A small number of these students were not Swiss citizens or had a different first language than the classroom language.
- There were two lower secondary classes with 29 students. A few of these students also had a different first language.
In 2000, 125 students went to school in Reutigen. Most of them (96) lived and went to school in the town. The rest came from other nearby towns. Also, 46 residents of Reutigen went to schools outside the municipality.
Reutigen's Library
Reutigen has its own public library called the Schul- und Gemeindebibliothek Reutigen. In 2008, the library had over 5,000 books and other media. It loaned out more than 5,500 items that year. The library was open for 144 days, usually about 4 hours a week.
See also
In Spanish: Reutigen para niños
