1. History

2. Geography

3. Coat of arms

4. Demographics

5. Economy

6. Politics

7. Religion

8. Education

9. References

10. External links

Uebeschi is a municipality in the administrative district of Thun in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.

History

Uebeschi is first mentioned in 1233 as Ibisshe.^[1]

The oldest traces of settlements in the area come from scattered neolithic and Bronze Age artifacts. Part of a wall, ceramic floor tiles, a stone path and coins have been found from the Roman era, indicating that there was a small settlement in the area.^[1]

During the Middle Ages the village was part of the court and parish of Thierachern in the Strättligen Herrschaft. While there is a Ministerialis (unfree knights in the service of a feudal overlord) family von Uebeschi, there are no records that connect them to the village. In 1417 the village was donated to the mendicant Franciscan friars in Bern. In 1528 Bern adopted the new faith of the Protestant Reformation and secularized all the property of the friars. Under Bernese rule, Uebeschi became part of the low court of Amsoldingen in the district of Thun.^[1]

Traditionally the village economy relied on farming and raising cattle. Today, agriculture remains important but about half of the working population commutes to jobs in Bern, Thun or other nearby towns.^[1]

Geography

Uebeschi has an area of {{Swiss area|0943|mi=on}}.{{Swiss area data|0943|QUELLE}} As of the 2004 survey, a total of {{convert|3.92|km2|mi2|abbr=on}} or 89.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while {{convert|0.11|km2|mi2|abbr=on}} or 2.5% is forested. Of rest of the municipality {{convert|0.32|km2|mi2|abbr=on}} or 7.3% is settled (buildings or roads), {{convert|0.01|km2|acre|abbr=on}} or 0.2% is either rivers or lakes and {{convert|0.02|km2|acre|abbr=on}} or 0.5% is unproductive land. Between the 1981 and 2004 surveys the settled area increased from {{convert|0.23|km2|mi2|abbr=on}} to {{convert|0.32|km2|mi2|abbr=on}}, an increase of 39.13%.^[1]

From the same survey, housing and buildings made up 4.5% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.3%. A total of 1.1% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 43.0% is used for growing crops and 43.0% is pasturage, while 3.2% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is in lakes.^[1]

It lies some {{convert|6|km|mi|abbr=on}} to the southwest of the district capital Thun. It is located in the drumlin landscape between the Stocken valley and Aare valley.

It consists of the village of Uebeschi, the hamlet of Kärselen and scattered farmhouses. Lake Uebeschi after which the village is named lies several hundred meters to the south, however a greater part of it belongs to the neighboring municipalities of Amsoldingen and Höfen.

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

Coat of arms

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Azure three Mullets Argent.^[3]

Demographics

Uebeschi has a population ({{as of|{{Swiss populations YM|CH-BE}}|lc=on}}) of {{Swiss populations|CH-BE|0943}}.{{Swiss populations ref|CH-BE}} {{as of|2012}}, 1.3% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Between the last 2 years (2010-2012) the population changed at a rate of -3.9%. Migration accounted for -3.7%, while births and deaths accounted for 0.0%.^[4]

Most of the population ({{as of|2000|lc=on}}) speaks German (660 or 97.3%) as their first language, French is the second most common (8 or 1.2%) and Albanian is the third (6 or 0.9%).^[10]

The historical population is given in the following chart:^[10][11][12]

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

  color:yellowgreen width: 35   mark:(line,white) align:center  bar:1764 from:start till:274 text:"274"  bar:1850 from:start till:652 text:"652"  bar:1860 from:start till:588 text:"588"  bar:1870 from:start till:542 text:"542"  bar:1880 from:start till:530 text:"530"  bar:1888 from:start till:468 text:"468"  bar:1900 from:start till:506 text:"506"  bar:1910 from:start till:452 text:"452"  bar:1920 from:start till:445 text:"445"  bar:1930 from:start till:443 text:"443"  bar:1941 from:start till:437 text:"437"  bar:1950 from:start till:480 text:"480"  bar:1960 from:start till:486 text:"486"  bar:1970 from:start till:493 text:"493"  bar:1980 from:start till:546 text:"546"  bar:1990 from:start till:584 text:"584"  bar:2000 from:start till:678 text:"678"  bar:2010 from:start till:681 text:"681"

Economy

The local and cantonal tax rate in Uebeschi is one of the lowest in the canton. In 2012 the average local and cantonal tax rate on a married resident, with two children, of Uebeschi making 150,000 CHF was 12.5%, while an unmarried resident's rate was 18.8%.^[15] For comparison, the average rate for the entire canton in 2011, was 14.2% and 22.0%, while the nationwide average was 12.3% and 21.1% respectively.^[16]

In 2010 there were a total of 267 tax payers in the municipality. Of that total, 71 made over 75,000 CHF per year. There were 3 people who made between 15,000 and 20,000 per year. The greatest number of workers, 83, made between 50,000 and 75,000 CHF per year. The average income of the over 75,000 CHF group in Uebeschi was 104,541 CHF, while the average across all of Switzerland was 131,244 CHF.^[17]

In 2011 a total of 5.5% of the population received direct financial assistance from the government.^[18]

Politics

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 43.6% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Federal Democratic Union of Switzerland (EDU) (14.3%), the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (13.2%) and the Social Democratic Party (SP) (8.1%). In the federal election, a total of 290 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 56.8%.^[19]

Religion

From the {{as of|2000|alt=2000 census}}, 490 or 72.3% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church, while 33 or 4.9% were Roman Catholic. Of the rest of the population, there was 1 member of an Orthodox church, and there were 85 individuals (or about 12.54% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 7 (or about 1.03% of the population) who were Muslim. 34 (or about 5.01% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 28 individuals (or about 4.13% of the population) did not answer the question.^[6]

Education

In Uebeschi about 59.2% of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 13.3% have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule).^[4] Of the 56 who had completed some form of tertiary schooling listed in the census, 78.6% were Swiss men, 19.6% were 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.^[20]

During the 2012-13 school year, there were a total of 79 students attending classes in Uebeschi. There were a total of 11 students in the German language kindergarten classes and 68 students in German language primary classes.^[21] The secondary students go to Thierachern for their schooling.

References

External links

• {{de icon}} Official website

• John Francis Fitzgerald
• John Francis Granvile Scrope Egerton, 4th Earl of Ellesmere
• John Francis Granville Scrope Egerton, 4th Earl of Ellesmere
• John Francis Harter
• John Francis Hobler
• John Francis Hodgess Roper
• John Francis "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald
• John Francis "Jack" Quinn
• John Francis "Jack" Reed
• John Francis "Jack" Shelley
• John Francis Kennedy (politician)
• John Francis Kieran
• John Francis Kilkenny
• John Francis Lewis
• John Francis Maisto
• John Francis McCullough
• John Francis McLaren
• John Francis McNamara
• John Francis Mercer
• John Francis Moore (politician)
• John Francis Moore (writer)
• John Francis Nash
• John Francis O'Ryan
• John Francis Parker
• John Francis Quayle