Trachselwald

The name of this municipality means "Drechsler-Wald" ("Woodturner-Forest) and was first mentioned in 1131 as Trahselwalt. The village around Trachselwald Castle first belonged to the barons of Trachselwald, then to the barons of Rüti bei Lyssach, and then finally to the barons of Sumiswald until the sovereignty over the village was sold to the city of Bern in 1408. The castle became the sheriffhood. In 1574 the village was destroyed by a fire. During the Swiss Peasants' War, on 3 April 1653, there was a gathering in the inn Tanne, which became the first public appearance of the peasants' leader Niklaus Leuenberger, who was executed in Trachselwald Castle on August 27 of the same year. The village church was first mentioned in 1275 and was destroyed in the 1574 fire. It was rebuilt in 1668. The bell tower was first added in 1464 and was rebuilt to its current appearance in 1786. ==Geography==

(1922) Trachselwald has an area of . As of the 2006 survey, a total of or 56.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 38.3% is forested. Of rest of the municipality or 4.6% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.4% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.2% is unproductive land. From the same survey, housing and buildings made up 3.0% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.4%. A total of 34.1% of the total land area is heavily forested and 4.2% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 7.9% is used for growing crops and 46.8% is pasturage, while 1.7% 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 Fir Tree Vert trunked and eradicated Or and in chief dexter a Mullet of the same. ==Demographics==

Trachselwald has a population () of . , 3.7% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Between the last 2 years (2010-2012) the population changed at a rate of -4.1%. Migration accounted for -2.0%, while births and deaths accounted for 0.8%. Most of the population () speaks German (1,086 or 98.7%) as their first language, French and Italian both have only 2 speakers in the municipality. Of the population in the municipality, 521 or about 47.4% were born in Trachselwald and lived there in 2000. There were 436 or 39.6% who were born in the same canton, while 91 or 8.3% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 26 or 2.4% were born outside of Switzerland. , there were 99 households that consist of only one person and 48 households with five or more people. , a total of 355 apartments (87.7% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 26 apartments (6.4%) were seasonally occupied and 24 apartments (5.9%) were empty. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 2.2%. In 2012, single family homes made up 31.5% of the total housing in the municipality. 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:1800 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:400 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:80 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width: 35 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1764 from:start till:970 text:"970" bar:1850 from:start till:1717 text:"1,717" bar:1860 from:start till:1672 text:"1,672" bar:1870 from:start till:1670 text:"1,670" bar:1880 from:start till:1604 text:"1,604" bar:1888 from:start till:1554 text:"1,554" bar:1900 from:start till:1473 text:"1,473" bar:1910 from:start till:1531 text:"1,531" bar:1920 from:start till:1458 text:"1,458" bar:1930 from:start till:1387 text:"1,387" bar:1941 from:start till:1335 text:"1,335" bar:1950 from:start till:1393 text:"1,393" bar:1960 from:start till:1269 text:"1,269" bar:1970 from:start till:1199 text:"1,199" bar:1980 from:start till:1054 text:"1,054" bar:1990 from:start till:1046 text:"1,046" bar:2000 from:start till:1100 text:"1,100" bar:2010 from:start till:1015 text:"1,015" ==Economy==

culture museum in Trachselwald , Trachselwald had an unemployment rate of 1.37%. , there were a total of 370 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 197 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 72 businesses involved in this sector. The secondary sector employs 46 people and there were 12 businesses in this sector. The tertiary sector employs 128 people, with 32 businesses in this sector. , there were 49 workers who commuted into the municipality and 318 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 6.5 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. A total of 245 workers (83.3% of the 294 total workers in the municipality) both lived and worked in Trachselwald. Of the working population, 7.1% used public transportation to get to work, and 52.8% used a private car. In 2011 there were a total of 336 tax payers in the municipality. Of that total, 73 made over 75,000 CHF per year. The greatest number of workers, 74, made between 40,000 and 50,000 CHF per year. The average income of the over 75,000 CHF group in Trachselwald was 104,066 CHF, while the average across all of Switzerland was 136,785 CHF. In 2011 a total of 3.0% of the population received direct financial assistance from the government. ==Heritage sites of national significance==

The village church and Trachselwald Castle are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance. The entire village of Trachselwald is part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites, though it is shared between Lützelflüh and Trachselwald municipalities. The baroque church in the village was designed by Abraham Dünz in 1685. The oldest parts of the castle were built in the 12th century; nowadays it is the governor's seat of the district of Trachselwald. A Zither culture museum, which was founded in 1999 and first located in Konolfingen has been in Trachselwald since March 2003. ==Politics==

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 47.4% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (17.6%), the Social Democratic Party (SP) (9.9%) and the Green Party (6.3%). In the federal election, a total of 384 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 47.4%. ==Religion==

From the , 975 or 88.6% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church, while 25 or 2.3% were Roman Catholic. Of the rest of the population, there was 1 member of an Orthodox church, and there were 35 individuals (or about 3.18% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 3 (or about 0.27% of the population) who were Muslim. There was 1 person who was Buddhist and 4 individuals who were Hindu. 31 (or about 2.82% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 25 individuals (or about 2.27% of the population) did not answer the question. ==Education==

In Trachselwald about 57.7% of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 13.9% have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). During the 2012–13 school year, there were a total of 95 students attending classes in Trachselwald. There were a total of 19 students in the German language kindergarten classes in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 10.5% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 5.3% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The municipality's primary school had 55 students in German language classes. Of the primary students, 7.3% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 1.8% have a different mother language than the classroom language. During the same year, the lower secondary schools in neighboring municipalities had a total of 21 students from Trachselwald. , there were a total of 128 students attending any school in the municipality. Of those, 118 both lived and attended school in the municipality, while 10 students came from another municipality. During the same year, 71 residents attended schools outside the municipality. == Notable people ==

• Gottlieb Sigmund Gruner (1717–1778), cartographer and geologist; the author of the first connected attempt to describe in detail the snowy mountains of Switzerland. • Leah Hirsig (1883–1975) a Swiss-American woman notably associated with the author and occultist Aleister Crowley. == References ==