Toffen

Toffen is first mentioned in 1148 as Toffen. The oldest trace of a settlement in the area is a Bronze Age grave which was discovered near the castle. During the Roman era there was a manor house near Bodenacker. In addition to the house, Roman coins and ceramics have been found around the municipality. The Romans also quarried Tuff stone from the area and the Latin word for Tuff, tofus probably becoming Toffen. By the 13th century it was part of the Herrschaft of the Freiherr von Belp-Montenach. Around 1300 the village was acquired by another noble family and for several centuries it was owned by a number of different noble families. By the mid-14th century Bern ruled over the village and the owners now included Bernese patrician families. The castle was first mentioned in 1306 and was the center of the local Herrschaft. In 1507 Bartholomew May expanded and renovated it into a late Gothic country manor house. In 1628 Loy Knoblauch redesigned the entire interior. In 1671-73 Johann Georg renovated the castle into a Baroque manor. Around 1750 Georg Samuel von Werdt expanded and renovated the castle again. Following the 1798 French invasion, and the creation of the Helvetic Republic the owners of the castle lost their medieval rights to rule over, judge and punish the villagers. However, they retained ownership of the castle and it remained in private hands. The Gürbe river correction projects of 1855 to 1911 drained the swampy valley floor and opened up additional farm and settlement land. The construction of the Gürbetal railroad in 1901 made it easier for residents to move to and from the municipality. In the 1960s, good road and rail links allowed it to grow into a bedroom community for the growing city of Bern. In the 1980s, Toffen became part of the Bern agglomeration. Today over 80% of the population commutes to jobs in Bern and surrounding communities. However, there is still a small farming and dairy industry in Toffen. ==Geography==

Toffen has an area of . As of 2012, a total of or 62.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 19.4% is forested. The rest of the municipality is or 16.9% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.4% is either rivers or lakes. During the same year, industrial buildings made up 1.6% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 8.4% and transportation infrastructure made up 6.3%. A total of 17.8% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.6% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 38.4% is used for growing crops and 22.2% is pasturage, while 1.8% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. ==Coat of arms==

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Gules a Swan passant Argent beaked and membered Or. ==Demographics==

Toffen has a population () of . , 8.3% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 2 years (2010-2012) the population has changed at a rate of 2.0%. Migration accounted for 1.5%, while births and deaths accounted for 0.2%. Most of the population () speaks German (2,112 or 95.0%) as their first language, French is the second most common (28 or 1.3%) and Albanian is the third (18 or 0.8%). There are 11 people who speak Italian and 5 people who speak Romansh. Of the population in the municipality, 509 or about 22.9% were born in Toffen and lived there in 2000. There were 1,182 or 53.2% who were born in the same canton, while 289 or 13.0% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 182 or 8.2% were born outside of Switzerland. , there were 282 households that consist of only one person and 50 households with five or more people. , a total of 888 apartments (93.2% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 41 apartments (4.3%) were seasonally occupied and 24 apartments (2.5%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 6.8 new units per 1000 residents. The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width: auto height:200 barincrement:45 PlotArea = top:20 left:40 bottom:20 right:35 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:2500 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:500 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:100 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width: 35 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1764 from:start till:333 text:"333" bar:1850 from:start till:691 text:"691" bar:1860 from:start till:667 text:"667" bar:1870 from:start till:719 text:"719" bar:1880 from:start till:746 text:"746" bar:1888 from:start till:629 text:"629" bar:1900 from:start till:667 text:"667" bar:1910 from:start till:707 text:"707" bar:1920 from:start till:822 text:"822" bar:1930 from:start till:809 text:"809" bar:1941 from:start till:780 text:"780" bar:1950 from:start till:820 text:"820" bar:1960 from:start till:901 text:"901" bar:1970 from:start till:1265 text:"1,265" bar:1980 from:start till:1645 text:"1,645" bar:1990 from:start till:1970 text:"1,970" bar:2000 from:start till:2223 text:"2,223" bar:2010 from:start till:2429 text:"2,429" ==Heritage sites of national significance==

Toffen Castle is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance. ==Politics==

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 30.9% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (22.0%), the Social Democratic Party (SP) (15.9%) and the Green Party (6.9%). In the federal election, a total of 998 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 54.4%. ==Economy==

, Toffen had an unemployment rate of 1.83%. , there were a total of 568 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 54 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 18 businesses involved in this sector. 111 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 24 businesses in this sector. 403 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 98 businesses in this sector. , there were 292 workers who commuted into the municipality and 997 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 3.4 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. A total of 254 workers (46.5% of the 546 total workers in the municipality) both lived and worked in Toffen. Of the working population, 29.3% used public transportation to get to work, and 52.7% used a private car. For comparison, the average rate for the entire canton in the same year, was 14.2% and 22.0%, while the nationwide average was 12.3% and 21.1% respectively. In 2009 there were a total of 1,113 tax payers in the municipality. Of that total, 459 made over 75,000 CHF per year. There were 6 people who made between 15,000 and 20,000 per year. The average income of the over 75,000 CHF group in Toffen was 116,652 CHF, while the average across all of Switzerland was 130,478 CHF. In 2011 a total of 1.6% of the population received direct financial assistance from the government. ==Religion==

From the , 1,675 or 75.3% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church, while 224 or 10.1% were Roman Catholic. Of the rest of the population, there were 19 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.85% of the population), and there were 68 individuals (or about 3.06% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 28 (or about 1.26% of the population) who were Muslim. There were 6 individuals who were Buddhist, 2 individuals who were Hindu and 2 individuals who belonged to another church. 134 (or about 6.03% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 65 individuals (or about 2.92% of the population) did not answer the question. ==Education==

In Toffen about 59.8% of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 19.9% have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). During the 2011-12 school year, there were a total of 222 students attending classes in Toffen. There were 2 kindergarten classes with a total of 35 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 17.1% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 17.1% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The municipality had 8 primary classes and 151 students. Of the primary students, 7.3% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 7.9% have a different mother language than the classroom language. During the same year, there were 2 lower secondary classes with a total of 36 students. There were 2.8% who were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 11.1% have a different mother language than the classroom language. , there were a total of 207 students attending any school in the municipality. Of those, 193 both lived and attended school in the municipality, while 14 students came from another municipality. During the same year, 108 residents attended schools outside the municipality. ==References==