Wimmis

(1919) Wimmis is first mentioned in 994 as Windemis. The castle and surrounding bailiwick were inherited by the Freiherr von Brandis in 1368. However, in 1398 he sold a half share of the estates to the von Scharnachtal family and in 1437 sold the remaining half to them. The von Scharnachtals held the castle and bailiwick until Bern bought it back in 1449. ==Geography==

Wimmis is located between the Simmenfluh and Burgfluh rivers at the entrance to the Simmental. The municipal borders stretch up the flank of the Niesen mountain to its peak at . It consists of the village of Wimmis and the settlements of Oberdorf, Brodhüsi, Hasli and Burgholz. The municipality has an area of . As of 2012, a total of or 28.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 47.0% is forested. The rest of the municipality is or 7.7% is settled (buildings or roads), or 1.6% is either rivers or lakes and or 14.8% is unproductive land. During the same year, industrial buildings made up 1.6% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 2.8% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.0%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 1.1% of the area A total of 43.3% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 5.4% is used for growing crops and 14.9% is pasturage and 8.1% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 8.2% is unproductive vegetation and 6.7% is too rocky for vegetation. ==Coat of arms==

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Gules a Castle embatteled Argent. ==Demographics==

Wimmis has a population () of . , 8.4% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2001-2011) the population has changed at a rate of 3%. Migration accounted for 2.1%, while births and deaths accounted for 0.4%. Most of the population () speaks German (2,223 or 96.1%) as their first language, Serbo-Croatian is the second most common (27 or 1.2%) and French is the third (15 or 0.6%). There are 15 people who speak Italian and 3 people who speak Romansh. Of the population in the municipality, 714 or about 30.9% were born in Wimmis and lived there in 2000. There were 1,067 or 46.1% who were born in the same canton, while 288 or 12.4% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 171 or 7.4% were born outside of Switzerland. , there were 322 households that consist of only one person and 67 households with five or more people. , a total of 916 apartments (88.8% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 82 apartments (8.0%) were seasonally occupied and 33 apartments (3.2%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 7.1 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:35 bottom:20 right:35 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:2400 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:573 text:"573" bar:1850 from:start till:1353 text:"1,353" bar:1860 from:start till:1278 text:"1,278" bar:1870 from:start till:1328 text:"1,328" bar:1880 from:start till:1347 text:"1,347" bar:1888 from:start till:1242 text:"1,242" bar:1900 from:start till:1423 text:"1,423" bar:1910 from:start till:1310 text:"1,310" bar:1920 from:start till:1471 text:"1,471" bar:1930 from:start till:1429 text:"1,429" bar:1941 from:start till:1681 text:"1,681" bar:1950 from:start till:1736 text:"1,736" bar:1960 from:start till:1756 text:"1,756" bar:1970 from:start till:1833 text:"1,833" bar:1980 from:start till:1969 text:"1,969" bar:1990 from:start till:2096 text:"2,096" bar:2000 from:start till:2314 text:"2,314" bar:2010 from:start till:2366 text:"2,366" ==Heritage sites of national significance==

The village church of Wimmis, the Letzi Spissi fortifications, and Wimmis Castle are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance. The entire village of Wimmis is part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites. The village church of St. Martin was built on the site of an early medieval church. Under the Kingdom of Upper Burgundy a fortified estate was built near the church and became a local administrative center. Around the 9th century the early church was replaced with a new building that had a wider aisle. In 994 King Otto III granted his estate and church in Wimmis to Selz Abbey. In the 1228 Strättliger Chronicle it was listed as one of the 12 Lake Thun churches. In the 13th century a fire destroyed the roof, though it was quickly replaced. It was converted into an aisleless church in 1450 and the wall murals are from the 15th century. The north-west corner houses a painting of the procession to Calvary and fragments of the Crucifixion and descent from the Cross. The church converted to the Reformed faith in 1527. The pulpit was built in 1672 and the baptismal font was carved in 1552. The Letzi Spissi fortifications were built by Freiherr von Weissenburg about 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) south-west of the castle. It was built to help defend the entrance to the Niedersimmental. The castle was built around the 12th or 13th century on or near the site of an earlier fortified estate. It was owned by the Freiherr von Strättligen and then the Freiherr von Weissenburg. In 1334 the town and castle were attacked and taken by Bernese troops. In 1449 Bern bought it from its current owner, the von Scharnachtal family. Under Bernese rule the castle became the center of the Niedersimmental district. During the 17th and 18th centuries the castle was expanded in several stages into its current appearance. After the 1803 Act of Mediation, the castle became the center of new Niedersimmental district. In 1967 the district administration moved into a modern office building but the district court remained in the castle. In 2010 the administrative structure of the Canton of Bern changed. The court moved from Wimmis to Thun and the castle was given to the municipality. File:Wimmis Eglise Suisse canton Berne.jpg | The village church File:Wimmis Schloss Kirche-7.jpg|Interior of the village church, looking toward the choir File:Wimmis Schloss Kirche-6.jpg|Interior of the village church, looking toward the back File:Panzersperre in Wimmis 02.JPG|Site of the Letzi Spissi fortifications at Wimmis File:SchlossWimmis.jpg | Wimmis Castle ==Politics==

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 42.3% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (16.8%), the Social Democratic Party (SP) (12.3%) and the Evangelical People's Party (EVP) (5.2%). In the federal election, a total of 920 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 50.2%. ==Economy==

, Wimmis had an unemployment rate of 1.88%. , there were a total of 1,081 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 90 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 29 businesses involved in this sector. 683 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 40 businesses in this sector. 308 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 69 businesses in this sector. , there were 708 workers who commuted into the municipality and 724 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.0 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. A total of 409 workers (36.6% of the 1,117 total workers in the municipality) both lived and worked in Wimmis. Of the working population, 15.1% used public transportation to get to work, and 55.6% 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 989 tax payers in the municipality. Of that total, 272 made over 75,000 CHF per year. There were 9 people who made between 15,000 and 20,000 per year. The greatest number of workers, 304, made between 50,000 and 75,000 CHF per year. The average income of the over 75,000 CHF group in Wimmis was 102,451 CHF, while the average across all of Switzerland was 130,478 CHF. In 2011 a total of 5.5% of the population received direct financial assistance from the government. ==Religion==

From the , 1,771 or 76.5% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church, while 211 or 9.1% were Roman Catholic. Of the rest of the population, there were 15 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.65% of the population), there was 1 individual who belongs to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 79 individuals (or about 3.41% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 44 (or about 1.90% of the population) who were Muslim. There were 2 individuals who belonged to another church. 110 (or about 4.75% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 81 individuals (or about 3.50% of the population) did not answer the question. ==Transport==

Wimmis sits on the Spiez–Zweisimmen line and is served by trains at the Wimmis and Eifeld railway stations. ==Climate==

Between 1981 and 2010 Wimmis had an average of 138.8 days of rain or snow per year and on average received of precipitation. The wettest month was July during which time Wimmis received an average of of rain or snow. During this month there was precipitation for an average of 12.9 days. The month with the most days of precipitation was June, with an average of 14.2, but with only of rain or snow. The driest month of the year was February with an average of of precipitation over 9.8 days. ==Education==

In Wimmis about 59.8% of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 14.1% have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). During the 2011-12 school year, there were a total of 309 students attending classes in Wimmis. There were 2 kindergarten classes with a total of 39 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 10.3% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 7.7% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The municipality had 7 primary classes and 145 students. Of the primary students, 11.7% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 10.3% have a different mother language than the classroom language. During the same year, there were 7 lower secondary classes with a total of 125 students. There were 5.6% who were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 5.6% have a different mother language than the classroom language. , there were a total of 231 students attending any school in the municipality. Of those, 138 both lived and attended school in the municipality, while 93 students came from another municipality. During the same year, 216 residents attended schools outside the municipality. ==References==