Reutigen is a municipality in the administrative district of Thun in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.
History
Reutigen is first mentioned about 1300 as Rötingen.
Around 1308 the Burgistein family acquired the entire Strättligen Herrschaft which included Reutigen. In the following decades, the village passed through the hands of several other local nobles. Around 1486 and 1494, the Bubenberg and Schütz families sold their respective portions of the village to the city of Bern. Under Bernese rule the village was placed under the military authority of Seftigen and under the jurisdiction of the Vogt of Wimmis. Its political situation remained unchanged for centuries, until the 1803 Act of Mediation, when it joined the Niedersimmental District. The village remained generally agrarian into the 20th century. As of 2005, almost one-third of all jobs in the municipality are in agriculture, while half are in the services sector. However, many residents commute to jobs in Thun, Spiez or Bern.
The village St. Mary's Chapel was probably built in the 12th century, but is first mentioned in a record in 1330. The ossuary probably dates from around the same time. The interior frescoes are from the 14th and 15th centuries. In 1412 it became a filial church of the parish in Wimmis. Then, in 1474 it became the parish church of the Reutigen parish.
Geography
Reutigen has an area of . As of 2012, a total of or 46.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 45.3% is forested. The rest of the municipality is or 4.5% is settled (buildings or roads), or 1.0% is either rivers or lakes and or 2.4% is unproductive land.
During the same year, housing and buildings made up 2.2% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.4%. A total of 43.2% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.1% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 11.7% is used for growing crops and 23.2% is pasturage and 11.2% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, and 1.9% is too rocky for vegetation.
The municipality is located in the Niedersimmental and includes the village of Reutigen, Hani and Allmi. It runs from the north-east side of the Stockhorn chain down to the Kander river.
On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Niedersimmental, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Thun.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Azure a Letter H crossed Or. The letter "H" with the cross comes from the coat of arms of Hans Schütz who ruled over Reutigen beginning in 1480.
Demographics
Reutigen has a population () of . , 3.3% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2001-2011) the population has changed at a rate of 0.4%. Migration accounted for 0.6%, while births and deaths accounted for 0.2%.
Most of the population () speaks German (887 or 97.6%) as their first language, Albanian is the second most common (5 or 0.6%) and French is the third (3 or 0.3%). There are 3 people who speak Italian and 3 people who speak Romansh.
, the population was 49.5% male and 50.5% female. The population was made up of 457 Swiss men (47.7% of the population) and 17 (1.8%) non-Swiss men. There were 469 Swiss women (49.0%) and 15 (1.6%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 343 or about 37.7% were born in Reutigen and lived there in 2000. There were 408 or 44.9% who were born in the same canton, while 95 or 10.5% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 45 or 5.0% were born outside of Switzerland.
, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 19.4% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 60.4% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 20.2%.
, there were 379 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 455 married individuals, 42 widows or widowers and 33 individuals who are divorced.
, there were 118 households that consist of only one person and 20 households with five or more people. , a total of 355 apartments (88.3% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 30 apartments (7.5%) were seasonally occupied and 17 apartments (4.2%) were empty. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 3.6%. In 2011, single family homes made up 49.7% of the total housing in the municipality.
The historical population is given in the following chart: