Berneck
Encyclopedia
Berneck is a municipality
in the Wahlkreis (constituency) of Rheintal in the canton
of St. Gallen in Switzerland
.
of the municipal coat of arms
is Or a Vine Vert fructed Azure issuant from base of the second and twined around a stake Gules that is held by a Bear rampant Sable langued armed and in his virility of the third. The presence of a bear ( and also the root of Bern) is a weak example of canting
, where a symbol on the coat of arms forms a visual pun
or rebus
.
The municipality is located in the former Unterrheintal district of the Rheintal Wahlkreis. It is between a line of hills and a side channel of the Rhine valley. It consists of the village of Berneck and the hamlets
of Kobel, Rüden, Taa, Husen, Hinterburg and Buechholz.
, 114 are from Italy
, 190 are from ex-Yugoslavia
, 72 are from Austria
, 15 are from Turkey
, and 38 are from another country. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 3.7%. Most of the population speaks German (93.3%), with Italian being second most common ( 1.9%) and Albanian being third ( 1.6%). Of the Swiss national languages , 3,068 speak German
, 5 people speak French
, 61 people speak Italian
, and 1 person speaks Romansh.
The age distribution, , in Berneck is; 394 children or 12.0% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 505 teenagers or 15.4% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 345 people or 10.5% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 529 people or 16.1% are between 30 and 39, 498 people or 15.1% are between 40 and 49, and 395 people or 12.0% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 295 people or 9.0% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 182 people or 5.5% are between 70 and 79, there are 122 people or 3.7% who are between 80 and 89,and there are 24 people or 0.7% who are between 90 and 99.
there were 383 persons (or 11.6% of the population) who were living alone in a private dwelling. There were 729 (or 22.2%) persons who were part of a couple (married or otherwise committed) without children, and 1,836 (or 55.8%) who were part of a couple with children. There were 207 (or 6.3%) people who lived in single parent home, while there are 34 persons who were adult children living with one or both parents, 12 persons who lived in a household made up of relatives, 22 who lived household made up of unrelated persons,and 66 who are either institutionalized or live in another type of collective housing.
In the 2007 federal election
the most popular party was the SVP
which received 30.5% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the CVP
(23.3%), the FDP
(21%) and the SP
(12.2%).
The entire Swiss population is generally well educated. In Berneck about 76.1% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either University or a Fachhochschule
). Out of the total population in Berneck, , the highest education level completed by 692 people (21.0% of the population) was Primary, while 1,269 (38.6%) have completed Secondary, 386 (11.7%) have attended a Tertiary school, and 106 (3.2%) are not in school. The remainder did not answer this question.
The historical population is given in the following table:
the average unemployment rate was 3.4%. There were 228 businesses in the municipality of which 58 were involved in the secondary sector of the economy while 135 were involved in the third.
there were 623 residents who worked in the municipality, while 1,061 residents worked outside Berneck and 1,118 people commuted into the municipality for work.
. Of the rest of the population, there are 25 individuals (or about 0.76% of the population) who belong to the Orthodox Church, and there are 103 individuals (or about 3.13% of the population) who belong to another Christian church. There are 155 (or about 4.71% of the population) who are Islam
ic. There are 7 individuals (or about 0.21% of the population) who belong to another church (not listed on the census), 189 (or about 5.75% of the population) belong to no church, are agnostic
or atheist
, and 74 individuals (or about 2.25% of the population) did not answer the question.
. The first is the urbanized village of Berneck. The second is the Schlosslandschaft Ober/Unterrheintal, a concentration of castles that spans Altstätten
, Balgach
, Berneck and Marbach
. While the third is the shared, urbanized village of Balgach/Herrbrugg, which is shared between Au (SG)
, Balgach and Berneck.
Municipalities of Switzerland
Communes , also known as municipalities, are the smallest government division in Switzerland, numbering 2,596 . While many have a population of a few hundred citizens, the largest cities such as Zürich or Geneva also have the legal status of municipalities...
in the Wahlkreis (constituency) of Rheintal in the canton
Cantons of Switzerland
The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the member states of the federal state of Switzerland. Each canton was a fully sovereign state with its own borders, army and currency from the Treaty of Westphalia until the establishment of the Swiss federal state in 1848...
of St. Gallen in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
.
History
Berneck is first mentioned in 892 as Farniwang. In 1210 it was mentioned as Bernanc.Coat of arms
The blazonBlazon
In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct the appropriate image...
of the municipal coat of arms
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...
is Or a Vine Vert fructed Azure issuant from base of the second and twined around a stake Gules that is held by a Bear rampant Sable langued armed and in his virility of the third. The presence of a bear ( and also the root of Bern) is a weak example of canting
Canting arms
Canting arms are heraldic bearings that represent the bearer's name in a visual pun or rebus. The term cant came into the English language from Anglo-Norman cant, meaning song or singing, from Latin cantāre, and English cognates include canticle, chant, accent, incantation and recant.Canting arms –...
, where a symbol on the coat of arms forms a visual pun
Visual pun
A visual pun is a pun involving an image or images .Visual puns in which the image is at odds with the inscription are common in Dutch gable stones as well as in cartoons such as Lost Consonants or The Far Side...
or rebus
Rebus
A rebus is an allusional device that uses pictures to represent words or parts of words. It was a favourite form of heraldic expression used in the Middle Ages to denote surnames, for example in its basic form 3 salmon fish to denote the name "Salmon"...
.
Geography
Berneck has an area, , of 5.6 km² (2.2 sq mi). Of this area, 49.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while 29.6% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 20.3% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (0.5%) is non-productive (rivers or lakes).The municipality is located in the former Unterrheintal district of the Rheintal Wahlkreis. It is between a line of hills and a side channel of the Rhine valley. It consists of the village of Berneck and the hamlets
Hamlet (place)
A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village...
of Kobel, Rüden, Taa, Husen, Hinterburg and Buechholz.
Demographics
Berneck has a population (as of ) of . , about 16.8% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Of the foreign population, , 60 are from GermanyGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, 114 are from Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, 190 are from ex-Yugoslavia
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...
, 72 are from Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, 15 are from Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, and 38 are from another country. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 3.7%. Most of the population speaks German (93.3%), with Italian being second most common ( 1.9%) and Albanian being third ( 1.6%). Of the Swiss national languages , 3,068 speak German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, 5 people speak French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, 61 people speak Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
, and 1 person speaks Romansh.
The age distribution, , in Berneck is; 394 children or 12.0% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 505 teenagers or 15.4% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 345 people or 10.5% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 529 people or 16.1% are between 30 and 39, 498 people or 15.1% are between 40 and 49, and 395 people or 12.0% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 295 people or 9.0% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 182 people or 5.5% are between 70 and 79, there are 122 people or 3.7% who are between 80 and 89,and there are 24 people or 0.7% who are between 90 and 99.
there were 383 persons (or 11.6% of the population) who were living alone in a private dwelling. There were 729 (or 22.2%) persons who were part of a couple (married or otherwise committed) without children, and 1,836 (or 55.8%) who were part of a couple with children. There were 207 (or 6.3%) people who lived in single parent home, while there are 34 persons who were adult children living with one or both parents, 12 persons who lived in a household made up of relatives, 22 who lived household made up of unrelated persons,and 66 who are either institutionalized or live in another type of collective housing.
In the 2007 federal election
Swiss federal election, 2007
Elections to the Swiss Federal Assembly, the federal parliament of Switzerland, were held on Sunday, 21 October 2007. In a few cantons, a second round of the elections to the Council of States was held on 11 November, 18 November, and 25 November 2007...
the most popular party was the SVP
Swiss People's Party
The Swiss People's Party , also known as the Democratic Union of the Centre , is a conservative political party in Switzerland. Chaired by Toni Brunner, but spearheaded by Christoph Blocher, the party is the largest party in the Federal Assembly, with 58 members of the National Council and 6 of...
which received 30.5% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the CVP
Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland
The Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland is a Christian democratic political party in Switzerland. It is the fourth-largest party in the National Council, with 31 seats, and the largest in the Council of States, with 15 seats. It has one seat, that of Doris Leuthard, on the Swiss...
(23.3%), the FDP
Free Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Free Democratic Party was a classical liberal political party in Switzerland. It was one of the major parties in Switzerland until its merger with the smaller classical liberal Liberal Party, to form FDP.The Liberals on 1 January 2009....
(21%) and the SP
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....
(12.2%).
The entire Swiss population is generally well educated. In Berneck about 76.1% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either University or a Fachhochschule
Fachhochschule
A Fachhochschule or University of Applied Sciences is a German type of tertiary education institution, sometimes specialized in certain topical areas . Fachhochschulen were founded in Germany and later adopted by Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Greece...
). Out of the total population in Berneck, , the highest education level completed by 692 people (21.0% of the population) was Primary, while 1,269 (38.6%) have completed Secondary, 386 (11.7%) have attended a Tertiary school, and 106 (3.2%) are not in school. The remainder did not answer this question.
The historical population is given in the following table:
| year | population |
|---|---|
| 1837 | 2,564 |
| 1850 | 2,044 |
| 1900 | 2,250 |
| 1930 | 2,096 |
| 1950 | 2,390 |
| 2000 | 3,289 |
Economy
, Berneck had an unemployment rate of 1.64%. , there were 109 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 40 businesses involved in this sector. 725 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 55 businesses in this sector. 782 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 114 businesses in this sector.the average unemployment rate was 3.4%. There were 228 businesses in the municipality of which 58 were involved in the secondary sector of the economy while 135 were involved in the third.
there were 623 residents who worked in the municipality, while 1,061 residents worked outside Berneck and 1,118 people commuted into the municipality for work.
Religion
From the , 1,627 or 49.5% are Roman Catholic, while 1,109 or 33.7% belonged to the Swiss Reformed ChurchSwiss Reformed Church
The Reformed branch of Protestantism in Switzerland was started in Zürich by Huldrych Zwingli and spread within a few years to Basel , Bern , St...
. Of the rest of the population, there are 25 individuals (or about 0.76% of the population) who belong to the Orthodox Church, and there are 103 individuals (or about 3.13% of the population) who belong to another Christian church. There are 155 (or about 4.71% of the population) who are Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
ic. There are 7 individuals (or about 0.21% of the population) who belong to another church (not listed on the census), 189 (or about 5.75% of the population) belong to no church, are agnostic
Agnosticism
Agnosticism is the view that the truth value of certain claims—especially claims about the existence or non-existence of any deity, but also other religious and metaphysical claims—is unknown or unknowable....
or atheist
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...
, and 74 individuals (or about 2.25% of the population) did not answer the question.
Sights
There are three regions which are designated as part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage SitesInventory of Swiss Heritage Sites
The Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites is part of a 1981 Ordinance of the Swiss Federal Council implementing the Federal Law on the Protection of Nature and Cultural Heritage.-Sites of national importance:-Types:...
. The first is the urbanized village of Berneck. The second is the Schlosslandschaft Ober/Unterrheintal, a concentration of castles that spans Altstätten
Altstätten
Altstätten is a town in the district Rhine Valley, in the canton of St. Gall in Switzerland.- Overview :The town consists of the following tracts: Alter Zoll, Altstätten, Bächis, Baumert, Bieser, Büeberg, Bühl, Bühl , Bühl bei Hinterforst, Burgfeld, Bürglen, Burst, Domishäuser, Fidern, Gätziberg,...
, Balgach
Balgach
Balgach is a municipality in the Wahlkreis of Rheintal in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland.-Coat of arms:The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Per fess Or a Semi Lion rampant issuant Gules and Vert two Bars Argent....
, Berneck and Marbach
Marbach, St. Gallen
Marbach is a municipality in the Wahlkreis of Rheintal in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland.-Geography:Marbach has an area, , of . Of this area, 75.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while 6.3% is forested...
. While the third is the shared, urbanized village of Balgach/Herrbrugg, which is shared between Au (SG)
Au, St. Gallen
Au is a municipality in the Wahlkreis of Rheintal in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland.-Coat of arms:The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Azure a Crescent Or in bend issuant behind a Cliff Argent.-Geography:...
, Balgach and Berneck.
External links
- Germeinde Berneck Official website