Wald () is a municipality in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.
History
In January 2004 it incorporated the two independent municipalities of Zimmerwald and Englisberg.
- Englisberg, population: 201
- Zimmerwald, population: 870
Englisberg is first mentioned in 1166 as Endlisperc.
Zimmerwald was first mentioned in 1296 as Zymmerwalt. Until 1902 it was officially known as Obermuhlern und Zimmerwald.
Englisberg
thumb|left|Granary in Englisberg
Englisberg first appears in a historic record with the Kyburg Ministerialis (unfree knights in the service of a feudal overlord) family of Englisberg. By the 15th century Bernese patrician families owned the village and surrounding Herrschaft. The right to hold court in the Herrschaft was sold to the villagers in 1570 and then split into 70 shares. This situation remained until the 18th century, when Bernese patricians bought the majority of the shares back. It was originally part of the parish of Belp, but in 1699 became an independent parish.
During the same year, housing and buildings made up 3.9% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.1%. A total of 17.5% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.7% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 40.1% is used for growing crops and 32.7% is pasturage, while 1.7% is used for orchards or vine crops.
On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Seftigen, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Bern-Mittelland.
Most of the population () speaks German (97.7%) as their first language, French is the second most common (0.6%) and Italian is the third (0.5%).
, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 20.2% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 59.0% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 20.9%. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.9%. In 2011, single family homes made up 48.5% of the total housing in the municipality.
Historic population
The historical population is given in the following chart:
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id:EN value:green legend:Englisberg
id:WA value:blue legend: Wald
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bar:1850 from: 0 till:810 text:"810" color:ZI
bar:1860 from: 0 till:838 text:"838" color:ZI
bar:1870 from: 0 till:791 text:"791" color:ZI
bar:1880 from: 0 till:809 text:"809" color:ZI
bar:1890 from: 0 till:754 text:"754" color:ZI
bar:1900 from: 0 till:648 text:"648" color:ZI
bar:1910 from: 0 till:687 text:"687" color:ZI
bar:1920 from: 0 till:740 text:"740" color:ZI
bar:1930 from: 0 till:686 text:"686" color:ZI
bar:1940 from: 0 till:703 text:"703" color:ZI
bar:1950 from: 0 till:697 text:"697" color:ZI
bar:1960 from: 0 till:660 text:"660" color:ZI
bar:1970 from: 0 till:688 text:"688" color:ZI
bar:1980 from: 0 till:882 text:"882" color:ZI
bar:1990 from: 0 till:932 text:"932" color:ZI
bar:2000 from: 0 till:885 text:"885" color:ZI
bar:1850 from: 810 till:1085 text:"275" color:EN
bar:1860 from: 838 till:1146 text:"308" color:EN
bar:1870 from: 791 till:1079 text:"288" color:EN
bar:1880 from: 809 till:1075 text:"266" color:EN
bar:1890 from: 754 till:1007 text:"253" color:EN
bar:1900 from: 648 till:1215 text:"567" color:EN
bar:1910 from: 687 till:1264 text:"577" color:EN
bar:1920 from: 740 till:1284 text:"544" color:EN
bar:1930 from: 686 till:1213 text:"527" color:EN
bar:1940 from: 703 till:1241 text:"538" color:EN
bar:1950 from: 697 till:1261 text:"564" color:EN
bar:1960 from: 660 till:1170 text:"510" color:EN
bar:1970 from: 688 till:1221 text:"533" color:EN
bar:1980 from: 882 till:1340 text:"458" color:EN
bar:1990 from: 932 till:1342 text:"410" color:EN
bar:2000 from: 885 till:1262 text:"377" color:EN
bar:2010 from: 0 till:1175 text:"1175" color:WA
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Politics
In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 36.5% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (18.0%), the Social Democratic Party (SP) (12.5%) and the Green Party (7.8%). In the federal election, a total of 812 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 59.8%.
Economy
thumb|The "Leuen", the local tavern and inn of Zimmerwald, built in 1840
, Wald had an unemployment rate of 1.04%. , there were a total of 498 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 164 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 59 businesses involved in this sector. 16 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 8 businesses in this sector. 318 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 63 businesses in this sector. Of the working population, 18.9% used public transportation to get to work, and 45.5% 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 533 tax payers in the municipality. Of that total, 188 made over 75,000 CHF per year. There were 5 people who made between 15,000 and 20,000 per year. The average income of the over 75,000 CHF group in Wald was 119,159 CHF, while the average across all of Switzerland was 130,478 CHF.
In 2011 a total of 0.4% of the population received direct financial assistance from the government.
Religion
thumb|upright|Church of Zimmerwald, view towards Belpberg and Alps
thumb|left|Church of Zimmerwald with adjoining municipal cemetery
In 2000 about 83.2% of the population belonged to a Protestant church, 9.4% were Roman Catholic and 5.2% had no religious affiliation.
During the 2011–12 school year, there were a total of 84 students attending classes in Wald. There was one kindergarten class with a total of 18 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 11.1% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 5.6% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The municipality had 3 primary classes and 66 students. Of the primary students, 6.1% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 10.6% have a different mother language than the classroom language.
Prominent citizens
- Rudolf Joder (1950), Swiss politician, National Council
- Bruno Messerli (1931), geographer
- Mark Streit (1977), Swiss hockey player
- Judith Wyder (1988), athlete