Köniz is a municipality

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 Bern-Mittelland administrative district

Bern-Mittelland (administrative district)

Bern-Mittelland District in the Canton of Bern was created on 1 January 2010. It is part of the Bern-Mittelland administrative region, and is the only district in the region...

 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 Bern 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....

. With a population of 38,793 inhabitants (2008), the municipality is one of the 15 most populous cities in Switzerland.

History

The current municipality has long been inhabited; there have been a number of Bronze

Bronze Age

The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...

- and Iron Age

Iron Age

The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...

 finds, as well as Roman

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

 villa

Villa

A villa was originally an ancient Roman upper-class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became small farming compounds, which were increasingly fortified in Late Antiquity,...

s (villae rusticae) and Early Middle Ages

Early Middle Ages

The Early Middle Ages was the period of European history lasting from the 5th century to approximately 1000. The Early Middle Ages followed the decline of the Western Roman Empire and preceded the High Middle Ages...

 graveyards. The oldest parts of the current reformed parish church

Parish church

A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....

 (formerly. St. Peter and Paul

Peter and Paul

Peter and Paul is a 1981 film starring Anthony Hopkins as Paul of Tarsus and Robert Foxworth as Peter the Fisherman, David Gwillim as Mark and Jon Finch as Luke. It was directed by Robert Day. The film mostly shows the works of Paul, beginning with his being struck down and converted by the Lord...

) date back to around 1100. There may have other previous buildings on this sight, but archaeological

Archaeology

Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...

 dig

Dig

-Music:* Dig , an American rock bandAlbums* Dig , or the title song* Dig * Dig * Dig , or the title song* Dig...

s have uncovered no evidence of them thus far.

According to legend

Legend

A legend is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude...

 the church was founded by Burgundian

Kingdom of Burgundy

Burgundy is a historic region in Western Europe that has existed as a political entity in a number of forms with very different boundaries. Two of these entities - the first around the 6th century, the second around the 11th century - have been called the Kingdom of Burgundy; a third was very...

 King Rudolph II

Rudolph II of Burgundy

Rudolph II was king of Upper Burgundy , Lower Burgundy , and Italy . He was the son of Rudolph I, king of Upper Burgundy, and it is presumed that his mother was his father's known wife, Guilla of Provence...

 and his wife Bertha

Bertha of Swabia

Bertha of Swabia was Queen consort of Burgundy. She was the daughter of Burchard II, Duke of Swabia and his wife Regelinda.In 922, she was married to Rudolph II of Burgundy. Adelaide of Italy was their common daughter...

. The parish

Parish

A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...

 did not only comprise the current municipality, but also the area around present day Bern, around 5 km away. In 1191 it became the parish church of the newly founded town, until it was given the status of its own parish in 1276.

There was an Augustinian

Augustinians

The term Augustinians, named after Saint Augustine of Hippo , applies to two separate and unrelated types of Catholic religious orders:...

 monastery at the church, which was given to the Teutonic Knights

Teutonic Knights

The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem , commonly the Teutonic Order , is a German medieval military order, in modern times a purely religious Catholic order...

 by King Heinrich VII

Henry VII, Holy Roman Emperor

Henry VII was the King of Germany from 1308 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1312. He was the first emperor of the House of Luxembourg...

, the son and heir to the Holy Roman Emperor Friedrich II

Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor

Frederick II , was one of the most powerful Holy Roman Emperors of the Middle Ages and head of the House of Hohenstaufen. His political and cultural ambitions, based in Sicily and stretching through Italy to Germany, and even to Jerusalem, were enormous...

, in 1226. The order established a commendam at the church, which belonged to the Ballei of Schwaben-Elsass-Burgund, as well as a settlement in Bern. One of the friars was installed as parish priest. With the growth of the parish of Bern, the settlement there was raised to commendam status, whose principle was the parish priest in Bern.

The Köniz commendam was secularised in 1528 during the Bernese Reformation

Protestant Reformation

The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...

, but was given back to the Order in 1552 after pressure from the Catholic Cantons. In 1729 the Order sold the commendam to Bern. A bailiwick

Bailiwick

A bailiwick is usually the area of jurisdiction of a bailiff, and may also apply to a territory in which the sheriff's functions were exercised by a privately appointed bailiff under a royal or imperial writ. The word is now more generally used in a metaphorical sense, to indicate a sphere of...

 was established, which existed until the collapse of the old Bern in 1798. The municipality

Municipality

A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

 of Köniz in its present form, came into being in 1846.

Geography

Köniz lies to the south of Bern, and has an area, , of 51.01 km² (19.7 sq mi). Of this area, 25.78 km² (10 sq mi) or 50.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while 15.73 km² (6.1 sq mi) or 30.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 9.39 km² (3.6 sq mi) or 18.4% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.17 km² (0.065637366960731 sq mi) or 0.3% is either rivers or lakes and 0.01 km² (2.5 acre) or 0.0% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 1.2% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 10.7% and transportation infrastructure made up 4.8%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 1.1%. 29.5% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 31.2% is used for growing crops and 18.0% is pastures, while 1.4% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is in rivers and streams.

Demographics

Köniz has a population (as of ) of . , 14.2% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 4%. Most of the population speaks German (87.3%), with French being second most common ( 2.7%) and Italian being third ( 2.2%). The municipality is the largest suburban municipality

Agglomeration

In the study of human settlements, an urban agglomeration is an extended city or town area comprising the built-up area of a central place and any suburbs linked by continuous urban area. In France, INSEE the French Statistical Institute, translate it as "Unité urbaine" which means continuous...

 in Switzerland, is the fourth largest municipality in the Canton of Bern and is the twelfth largest overall in Switzerland. Although it has more than three times the required 10'000 inhabitants, Köniz refuses the title of City.

In the 2007 election 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 25.2% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SPS

Social Democratic Party of Switzerland

The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....

 (24.1%), 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....

 (16.6%) and the Green Party

Green Party of Switzerland

The Green Party of Switzerland is the fifth-largest party in the National Council of Switzerland, and the largest party that is not represented on the Federal Council.-History:...

 (14.8%).

The age distribution of the population is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 20.8% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 61.8% and the seniors (over 64 years old) make up 17.4%. The entire Swiss population is generally well educated. In Köniz about 78.5% 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...

).

Köniz has an unemployment rate of 2.49%. , there were 596 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 176 businesses involved in this sector. 3613 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 250 businesses in this sector. 11642 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 962 businesses in this sector.

Villages

In December 2003 the population of the villages that made up the municipality of Köniz had the following populations. Current populations will be similar.

Village	Inhabitants
Köniz	6,925
Wabern Wabern bei Bern Wabern, or Wabern bei Bern, is a village in the municipality of Köniz in the Swiss canton of Bern. Situated some from the centre of the city of Bern, it can be considered a suburb of that city....	6,422
Liebefeld	4,908
Spiegel	4,506
Schliern	4,102
Niederscherli	2,273
Niederwangen	1,616
Oberwangen	1,085
Schwanden	987
Thörishaus	920
Mittelhäusern	910
Ried	825
Gasel	778
Oberscherli	491
Halen	300
Liebewil	155
Moos	115
Ulmiz	98
Mengestorf	96
Oberried	95
Schlatt	85
Herzwil	63
Total	37,955