Lützelflüh
Encyclopedia
Lützelflüh 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 administrative district of Emmental
Emmental (administrative district)
Emmental District in the Canton of Bern was created on 1 January 2010. It is part of the Emmental-Oberaargau administrative region. It contains 42 municipalities with an area of and a population of 93,082....

 in the Swiss
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....

 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.

Geography

Lützelflüh has an area, , of 26.9 km² (10.4 sq mi). Of this area, 17.6 km² (6.8 sq mi) or 65.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while 6.64 km² (2.6 sq mi) or 24.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 2.45 km² (0.945950288551711 sq mi) or 9.1% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.19 km² (0.0733594101325817 sq mi) or 0.7% is either rivers or lakes and 0.02 km² (4.9 acre) or 0.1% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 4.2% and transportation infrastructure made up 3.3%. 22.9% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.7% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 26.0% is used for growing crops and 37.2% is pastures, while 2.2% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is in rivers and streams.

Lützelflüh lies in the lower Emmental
Emmental
For the cheese made in the region, see Emmental .The Emmental is a region in west central Switzerland, forming part of the canton of Bern. It is a hilly landscape comprising the basins of the Emme and Ilfis rivers. The region is mostly devoted to farming, particularly dairy farming...

, right on the Emme between Langnau
Langnau im Emmental
-Sport:Langnau is the home of the SCL Tigers, who plays in the Swiss National League A. They play their home games at the Ilfis Stadium.- External links :* * *...

 and Burgdorf. The Emme divides the village into the older part on the right shore and the younger part on the left shore. The exclaves Lauterbach and Oberried also belong to the municipality. The municipality is neighbored by Rüegsau
Rüegsau
Rüegsau is a municipality in the administrative district of Emmental in the Swiss canton of Bern.-History:Rüegsau was first mentioned in 1139. The name comes from ruggere aue, in modern German ruhe Aue, meaning calm floodplain.-Geography:...

, Sumiswald
Sumiswald
Sumiswald is a municipality in the district of the Emmental administrative district in the canton of Bern, Switzerland.-Geography:Sumiswald has an area, , of . Of this area, or 47.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 46.3% is forested...

, Trachselwald
Trachselwald
Trachselwald is a municipality in the administrative district of Emmental in the Swiss canton of Bern.- History :The name of this municipality means "Drechsler-Wald" and was first mentioned in 1131...

, Rüderswil
Rüderswil
Rüderswil is a municipality in the administrative district of Emmental in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.-Geography:Rüderswil has an area, , of . Of this area, or 68.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 23.7% is forested...

, and Hasle bei Burgdorf
Hasle bei Burgdorf
Hasle bei Burgdorf is a municipality in the administrative district of Emmental in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.-Geography:Hasle bei Burgdorf is located as the crow flies southeast of the district capital Burgdorf. It is in the Emmental in the floodplain on the left shore of the Emme in the...

.

History

Lützelflüh is first mentioned in 1225 as Lucelfluo.

The Freiherr
Freiherr
The German titles Freiherr and Freifrau and Freiin are titles of nobility, used preceding a person's given name or, after 1919, before the surname...

e or barons of Lützelflüh were first mentioned in 1130. The town of Lützelflüh developed out of this barons' seat. In 1230 the Freiherre of Brandis took the place of those of Lützelflüh and built themselves a castle between Lützelflüh and Rüegsau.

In 1450, the Brandis' castle was sold to the nobility of Bern. It was then sold and inherited several times until it ended up in the hand of the city of Bern in 1607. The town then became a sheriff
Sheriff
A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....

hood of Bern. The last sheriff was Franz Ludwig May.

On April 14, 1798, the castle burnt down and this was the end of the sheriffhood Brandis. The municipality Lützelflüh became part of the district Trachselwald.

Demographics

Lützelflüh has a population (as of ) of . , 4.2% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 2.5%. Most of the population speaks German (96.2%), with Italian being second most common ( 0.9%) and Albanian being third ( 0.8%).

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 47.9% 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....

 (12.7%), 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:...

 (10.3%) and 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....

 (9.7%).

The age distribution of the population is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 25.4% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 58.4% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 16.2%. The entire Swiss population is generally well educated. In Lützelflüh about 72.8% 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...

).

Lützelflüh has an unemployment rate of 1.06%. , there were 429 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 145 businesses involved in this sector. 542 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 61 businesses in this sector. 594 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 110 businesses in this sector.
The historical population is given in the following table:
year population
1764 1,691
1850 3,433
1900 3,444
1950 4,042
2000 3,957

Main sights

  • The church of Lützelflüh was built in 1505 and renovated in 1962. The graves of the 3 poets of Lützelflüh: Jeremias Gotthelf
    Jeremias Gotthelf
    Albert Bitzius , Swiss novelist, best known by his pen name of Jeremias Gotthelf, was born at Murten, where his father was pastor.In 1804 the home was moved to Utzenstorf, a village in the Bernese Emmental...

    , Simon Gfeller and Emanuel Friedli are located on the south side of the church.
  • The Gotthelf-Museum named after the poet is located near the church

Tourism

Tourism in Lützelflüh is small but not unimportant. Several inns typical for the region offer rooms and it is also possible to vacation in the local farms.

External links

Official website
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK