Münsingen (; ) is a municipality in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. On 1 January 2013 the former municipality of Trimstein merged into Münsingen, and on 1 January 2017 the former municipality of Tägertschi also merged.
The village lies on the River Aare between the cities of Bern and Thun.
History
thumb|left|Münsingen psychiatric clinic today.
thumb|left|Aerial view from 400 m by [[Walter Mittelholzer (1925)]]
Münsingen developed from a Celtic village first settled in around 400 BC. The origin of the name is unclear, though attributed to the Alamanni. During the early and middle La Tene era the residents of the village built about 220 tombs along the Aare river. Some of the men were buried with their weapons and the women and children were buried with jewelry. A total of 1,200 items were discovered from the village. The rich collection of artifacts and the clear stratigraphic layers at Münsingen have helped archeologists to develop a model for dating isolated graves from Germany to Romania to Italy. The relatively small number of individuals combined with the rich grave goods indicate that the settlement at Münsingen was home to Celtic nobility. Two of the graves contain skulls that show evidence of trepanation or holes bored into the skull.
Geography
thumb|Aerial view of Münsingen town
Münsingen has an area of . Before the 2017 merger, the area of the municipality was . Of this area, or 46.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 17.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 35.1% is settled (buildings or roads), or 1.4% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.2% is unproductive land.
Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 2.4% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 20.8% and transportation infrastructure made up 8.3%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 3.3%. Out of the forested land, 15.8% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.3% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 38.1% is used for growing crops and 6.6% is pastures, while 2.1% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.
Demographics
thumb|Münsingen castle and surrounding town
Münsingen has a population () of . , 9.2% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2001-2011) the population has changed at a rate of 0.1%. Migration accounted for -0.1%, while births and deaths accounted for 0.1%.
Most of the population () speaks German (10,164 or 92.9%) as their first language, Italian is the second most common (160 or 1.5%) and French is the third (117 or 1.1%). There are 9 people who speak Romansh. Of the population in the municipality, 2,660 or about 24.3% were born in Münsingen and lived there in 2000. There were 4,905 or 44.8% who were born in the same canton, while 1,714 or 15.7% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 1,167 or 10.7% were born outside of Switzerland.
, there were 1,386 households that consist of only one person and 249 households with five or more people. , a total of 4,274 apartments (93.7% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 210 apartments (4.6%) were seasonally occupied and 78 apartments (1.7%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 3.4 new units per 1000 residents.
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Heritage sites of national significance
The Münsingen Clinic Building, the village rectory and the USM factory and corporate offices are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance. The facility and grounds around Münsingen Clinic are part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.
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File:DSC05531 bearbeitet-1.jpg|Münsingen Clinic
File:Pfarrhaus00714.jpg|Village rectory
File:Muensingen USM Besucherpavillon.jpg|Visitor's center for the USM factory and corporate offices
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Main sights
thumb|Münsingen Castle
- Münsingen Castle
- Landwirtschaftliche Schule Schwand (the former Schwand Agricultural School)
Administration
Münsingen is administered by a seven-member council and a 30-seat municipal assembly.
Politics
In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 21.4% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Social Democratic Party (SP) (19.1%), the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (16.7%) and the Green Party (12.8%). In the federal election, a total of 4,488 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 55.3%.
Religion
From the , 7,464 or 68.2% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church, while 1,472 or 13.5% were Roman Catholic. Of the rest of the population, there were 57 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.52% of the population), there were 7 individuals (or about 0.06% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 1,181 individuals (or about 10.80% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 6 individuals (or about 0.05% of the population) who were Jewish, and 261 (or about 2.39% of the population) who were Islamic. There were 21 individuals who were Buddhist, 88 individuals who were Hindu and 4 individuals who belonged to another church. 687 (or about 6.28% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 271 individuals (or about 2.48% of the population) did not answer the question.
, there were 3,211 workers who commuted into the municipality and 3,464 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.1 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 31.7% used public transportation to get to work, and 38.1% used a private car. D
During the 2010–11 school year, there were a total of 1,341 students attending classes in Münsingen. There were 10 kindergarten classes with a total of 177 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 14.1% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 19.8% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The municipality had 34 primary classes and 682 students. Of the primary students, 11.6% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 16.7% have a different mother language than the classroom language. During the same year, there were 23 lower secondary classes with a total of 454 students. There were 8.4% who were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 9.9% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The remainder of the students attend a private or special school.
, there were 204 students in Münsingen who came from another municipality, while 355 residents attended schools outside the municipality.