Spiez () is a town and municipality on the shore of Lake Thun in the Bernese Oberland region of the Swiss canton of Bern. It is part of the Frutigen-Niedersimmental administrative district. Besides the town of Spiez, the municipality also includes the settlements of Einigen, Hondrich, Faulensee, and Spiezwiler.

The official language of Spiez is (the Swiss variety of Standard) German, but the main spoken language is the local variant of the Alemannic Swiss German dialect.

History

Spiez is first mentioned around 761–62 as Spiets.

During the same year, industrial buildings made up 2.6% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 17.3% and transportation infrastructure made up 9.5%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 1.4%. A total of 28.8% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.1% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 5.5% is used for growing crops and 28.0% is pasturage, while 2.6% is used for orchards or vine crops. Of the water in the municipality, 1.0% is in lakes and 1.0% is in rivers and streams.

Coat of arms

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Argent three Piles Azure issuing from the base.

Demographics

250px|thumb|Spiez town in 2006

Spiez has a population () of . , 8.4% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2001–2011) the population has changed at a rate of -0.5%. Migration accounted for -0.7%, while births and deaths accounted for 0%.

Most of the population () speaks German (11,302 or 94.0%) as their first language, Serbo-Croatian is the second most common (135 or 1.1%) and French is the third (101 or 0.8%). There are 100 people who speak Italian and 5 people who speak Romansh. Of the population in the municipality, 3,135 or about 26.1% were born in Spiez and lived there in 2000. There were 5,220 or 43.4% who were born in the same canton, while 2,014 or 16.7% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 1,198 or 10.0% were born outside of Switzerland.

, there were 1,924 households that consist of only one person and 275 households with five or more people. , a total of 5,109 apartments (83.7% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 795 apartments (13.0%) were seasonally occupied and 200 apartments (3.3%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 2 new units per 1000 residents.

The historical population is given in the following chart:

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bar:1764 from:start till:1059 text:"1,059"

bar:1850 from:start till:2115 text:"2,115"

bar:1860 from:start till:2132 text:"2,132"

bar:1870 from:start till:2079 text:"2,079"

bar:1880 from:start till:2214 text:"2,214"

bar:1888 from:start till:2045 text:"2,045"

bar:1900 from:start till:3031 text:"3,031"

bar:1910 from:start till:3503 text:"3,503"

bar:1920 from:start till:4547 text:"4,547"

bar:1930 from:start till:4992 text:"4,992"

bar:1941 from:start till:5679 text:"5,679"

bar:1950 from:start till:6536 text:"6,536"

bar:1960 from:start till:8168 text:"8,168"

bar:1970 from:start till:9911 text:"9,911"

bar:1980 from:start till:9800 text:"9,800"

bar:1990 from:start till:11182 text:"11,182"

bar:2000 from:start till:12027 text:"12,027"

bar:2010 from:start till:12276 text:"12,276"

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Sights

The medieval castle in the town dates from the 15th and 16th Centuries. Visitors can visit the grand halls within the castle, including the Baroque banquet hall built in 1614.

The Hotel Belvédère in Spiez accommodated the Germany national football team during the 1954 FIFA World Cup held in Switzerland. "The Spirit of Spiez", developed there among the players, is regarded as important factor that helped the German team to win the world championship.

Heritage sites of national significance

The Bürg archeological site with prehistoric and medieval settlement ruins, the Swiss Reformed castle church, Spiez Castle and the Weinbauernhof are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance.

<gallery>

File:Schlosskirche Spiez.JPG|Swiss Reformed Castle Church

File:Spiez_020_Rebbaumuseum.jpg|Weinbauernhof

File:Schloss Spiez.jpg|Spiez Castle. Parts of the central tower were built around 933

File:Faulensee.JPG|Faulensee village in Spiez municipality

File:Spiez am Thunersee um 1900.jpg|Spiez harbour and Lake Thun (ca. 1900)

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Politics

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 26% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Social Democratic Party (SP) (18.3%), the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (16.7%) and the FDP.The Liberals (8.1%). In the federal election, a total of 5,127 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 53.3%.

Economy

, Spiez had an unemployment rate of 1.37%. , there were a total of 4,649 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 155 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 48 businesses involved in this sector. 1,220 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 95 businesses in this sector. 3,274 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 399 businesses in this sector.

, there were 2,387 workers who commuted into the municipality and 3,399 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.4 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. A total of 2,529 workers (51.4% of the 4,916 total workers in the municipality) both lived and worked in Spiez. Of the working population, 23% used public transportation to get to work, and 47.2% used a private car. For comparison, the average rate for the entire canton in the same year, was 14.2% and 22.0%, while the nationwide average was 12.3% and 21.1% respectively. In 2009 there were a total of 5,701 tax payers in the municipality. Of that total, 1,986 made over 75,000 CHF per year. There were 39 people who made between 15,000 and 20,000 per year. The average income of the over 75,000 CHF group in Spiez was 114,437 CHF, while the average across all of Switzerland was 130,478 CHF.

In 2011 a total of 4.0% of the population received direct financial assistance from the government.

Religion

200px|thumb|upright|The new Reformed church in Spiez

From the , 8,504 or 70.7% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church, while 1,516 or 12.6% were Roman Catholic. Of the rest of the population, there were 150 members of an Orthodox church (or about 1.25% of the population), there were 14 individuals (or about 0.12% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 518 individuals (or about 4.31% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 3 individuals (or about 0.02% of the population) who were Jewish, and 203 (or about 1.69% of the population) who were Muslim. There were 14 individuals who were Buddhist, 63 individuals who were Hindu and 7 individuals who belonged to another church. 694 (or about 5.77% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 341 individuals (or about 2.84% of the population) did not answer the question.

During the 2011–12 school year, there were a total of 1,286 students attending classes in Spiez. There were 9 kindergarten classes with a total of 182 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 8.2% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens), and 12.6% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The municipality had 35 primary classes and 630 students. Of the primary students, 9.4% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens), and 13.7% have a different mother language than the classroom language. During the same year, there were 22 lower secondary classes with a total of 444 students. There were 9.0% who were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens), and 13.3% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The remainder of the students attend a private or special school.

, there were a total of 1,779 students attending any school in the municipality. Of those, 1,291 both lived and attended school in the municipality, while 488 students came from another municipality. During the same year, 229 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

Crime

In 2014 the crime rate, of the over 200 crimes listed in the Swiss Criminal Code (running from murder, robbery and assault to accepting bribes and election fraud), in Spiez was 47.1 per thousand residents. This rate is only 72.9% of the average rate in the entire country. During the same period, the rate of drug crimes was 8 per thousand residents. This rate is about one and half times greater than the rate in the district, but due to a low rate in the rest of the district it is only 59.3% of the cantonal rate. The rate of violations of immigration, visa and work permit laws was 3.3 per thousand residents. This rate is about two and one-third times greater than the rate in the district, but is only 67.3% of the rate for the entire country.

Transport

300px|thumb|Spiez railway station

The municipality of Spiez is served by the Spiez railway station and the outlying station of . Spiez is a major junction point of one of the two major north–south railway axis in Switzerland through the Alps: the Simplon line. Coming from Germany, Basel and Bern, the line further goes through two major Alps traversing tunnels, namely the Lötschberg Base Tunnel (, since 2007) to Brig in Valais with a totally distinct climate in just 35 minutes, and then further through the Simplon Tunnel (, 1906) to reach Italy, where it finally arrives at the major junction point of northern Italy: Milan. The old line through the since 1913 existing and higher situated Lötschberg Tunnel () is still operating and a touristic highlight. The parts between Bern and Brig is operated by BLS AG (Lötschberg railway line), but also intensely served by SBB CFF FFS. The lines between Bern and Interlaken (Lake Thun railway line) is served by BLS, SBB, ICE, and TGV. BLS' Spiez–Erlenbach–Zweisimmen railway line is part of the Golden Pass Express between Lucerne and Montreux at Lake Geneva.

Notable people

  • Jakob Streit (1910–2009) a Swiss author, teacher and anthroposophist, born and died in Spiez.
  • Maya Pedersen-Bieri (born 1972 in Spiez) a Swiss-Norwegian skeleton racer, won the gold medal in the women's skeleton event at the 2006 Winter Olympics
  • Caroline Steffen (born 1978 in Spiez) a professional triathlete

See also

  • Spiez Laboratory

References

  • Official web page of the municipality Spiez
  • SPIEZ LABORATORY, the Swiss NBC-defence institute
  • Spiez: Map and Photos