1. History

2. Geography

3. Coat of arms

4. Demographics

5. Politics

6. Economy

7. Religion

8. Education

9. References

10. External links

Aeschi bei Spiez is a municipality in the Frutigen-Niedersimmental administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.

History

Aeschi bei Spiez is first mentioned in 1228 as Asshes. In 1269 it was mentioned as (villa) Esche..^[1]

The earliest traces of settlements in the area include scattered La Tene era graves and individual prehistoric tools. During the Middle Ages, it was part of the Herrschaft of Mülenen, under the Lords of Kien. The Herrschaft then passed through several other nobles, including the Wädenswil and Turn families. By the 13th century, Aeschi was the center of a large parish. The Romanesque parish church of St. Peter was first mentioned in 1228. The frescoes in the church were painted in the 14th century. In 1352, the city of Bern acquired the village land, while the low court rights remained with other noble families. Under Bernese rule, the village was initially part of the district of Mülenen. In the 15th and 16th centuries, it became part of Frutigen. The town charter was first documented in 1469.^[1]

In 1528, Bern forced the villagers to adopt the Protestant Reformation. In the following year, the parish was split and the village of Reichenbach became an independent parish.^[1]

During the 19th century the economy stagnated and the village population began to decrease. The rise of tourism the late 19th century allowed the population to begin to grow once again. In 1855, the Bad Heustrich medical spa opened in Aeschi. It soon grew into a well known resort and tourist destination. In 1901 the Lötschberg railroad allowed an increasing number of tourists to visit the village. A rail station opened in Mülenen in 1906. In the late 1960s the municipality experienced a building boom as the population grew and as demand for vacation homes rose. By 1990 almost two-thirds of the population worked in the services industry.^[1]

Geography

Aeschi bei Spiez has an area of {{Swiss area|0562|mi=on}}.{{Swiss area data|0562|QUELLE}} Of this area, {{convert|14.35|km2|mi2|abbr=on}} or 46.3% is used for agricultural purposes, while {{convert|8.5|km2|mi2|abbr=on}} or 27.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, {{convert|1.58|km2|mi2|abbr=on}} or 5.1% is settled (buildings or roads), {{convert|0.38|km2|mi2|abbr=on}} or 1.2% is either rivers or lakes and {{convert|6.11|km2|mi2|abbr=on}} or 19.7% is unproductive land.^[1]

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 2.6% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.0%. Out of the forested land, 22.6% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 20.6% is pastures and 25.2% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 7.6% is unproductive vegetation and 12.1% is too rocky for vegetation.^[1]

Aeschi bei Spiez is located along a ridge between the Kander valley and Lake Thun. The municipality includes Aeschi bei Spiez and Aeschiried, Heustrich-Emdtal, Mülenen and Alpen im hinteren Suldtal. The parish church serves both Aeschi and Krattigen.

On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Frutigen, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Frutigen-Niedersimmental.^[2]

Coat of arms

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Argent a Bear paw Sable issuant from chief sinister.^[3]

Demographics

Aeschi bei Spiez has a population ({{as of|{{Swiss populations YM|CH-BE}}|lc=on}}) of {{Swiss populations|CH-BE|0562}}.{{Swiss populations ref|CH-BE}} {{as of|2010}}, 4.9% of the population are resident foreign nationals.^[4] Over the last 10 years (2000-2010) the population has changed at a rate of 8.4%. Migration accounted for 9.6%, while births and deaths accounted for -0.1%.^[5]

Most of the population ({{as of|2000|lc=on}}) speaks German (1,927 or 95.2%) as their first language, Serbo-Croatian is the second most common (25 or 1.2%) and Albanian is the third (19 or 0.9%). There are 10 people who speak French, 3 people who speak Italian.^[11]

The historical population is given in the following chart:^[8][9]

  id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9)  id:darkgrey  value:gray(0.8)

  color:yellowgreen width:40   mark:(line,white) align:center  bar:1764 from:start till:804 text:"804"  bar:1850 from:start till:1251 text:"1,251"  bar:1860 from:start till:1075 text:"1,075"  bar:1870 from:start till:1131 text:"1,131"  bar:1880 from:start till:1167 text:"1,167"  bar:1888 from:start till:1195 text:"1,195"  bar:1900 from:start till:1409 text:"1,409"  bar:1910 from:start till:1225 text:"1,225"  bar:1920 from:start till:1248 text:"1,248"  bar:1930 from:start till:1299 text:"1,299"  bar:1941 from:start till:1358 text:"1,358"  bar:1950 from:start till:1364 text:"1,364"  bar:1960 from:start till:1319 text:"1,319"  bar:1970 from:start till:1402 text:"1,402"  bar:1980 from:start till:1511 text:"1,511"  bar:1990 from:start till:1847 text:"1,847"  bar:2000 from:start till:2025 text:"2,025"

Politics

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 42.2% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (15.1%), the Social Democratic Party (SP) (9.8%) and the Evangelical People's Party (EVP) (6.7%). In the federal election, a total of 928 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 57.9%.^[10]

Economy

Religion

From the {{as of|2000|alt=2000 census}}, 150 or 7.4% were Roman Catholic, while 1,560 or 77.0% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 28 members of an Orthodox church (or about 1.38% of the population), and there were 236 individuals (or about 11.65% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There was 1 individual who was Jewish, and 21 (or about 1.04% of the population) who were Islamic. There were 2 individuals who were Buddhist. 89 (or about 4.40% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 55 individuals (or about 2.72% of the population) did not answer the question.^[6]

Education

In Aeschi bei Spiez about 760 or (37.5%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 195 or (9.6%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). Of the 195 who completed tertiary schooling, 72.8% were Swiss men, 18.5% were Swiss women, 5.1% were non-Swiss men and 3.6% were non-Swiss women.^[6]

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.^[13]

During the 2010-11 school year, there were a total of 283 students attending classes in Aeschi bei Spiez. There were 2 kindergarten classes with a total of 37 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 2.7% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens). The municipality had 7 primary classes and 121 students. Of the primary students, 4.1% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 4.1% have a different mother language than the classroom language. During the same year, there were 5 lower secondary classes with a total of 103 students. and 2.9% have a different mother language than the classroom language.^[14]

Aeschi bei Spiez is home to the Bibliothek Aeschi library. The library has ({{as of|2008|lc=on}}) 1,800 books or other media, and loaned out 750 items in the same year. It was open a total of 260 days with average of 39 hours per week during that year.^[15]

References

External links

• {{HDS|320|Aeschi bei Spiez}}

• Emminger Decrees
• Emminger Reform
• Emmiseration
• Emmis Publishing
• Emmit mchenry
• Emmit McHenry
• Emmitt Ford
• Emmi Zeulner
• EMML
• Emmonaspis
• Emmons Cemetery Site
• Emmons Cottage
• Emmons House
• Emmons H. Woolwine
• Emmonsia parva
• Emmons mask
• Emmons's rice rat
• Emmor Cope
• Emmott, Lancashire
• Emmotum
• Emmram Gospels
• Emmrichops
• Emms Division
• EMMS International
• Emmsje Gauti