Mühleberg

Mühleberg is a municipality in the Bern Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.

Mühleberg is first mentioned in 1011–16 as Mulinberg. In 2003, 68% of the population rejected the initiative named Strom ohne Atom, that proposed that the plant should be shut down in 2005 to be replaced by non nuclear power generation. A similar proposal at cantonal level had already been rejected in 2000 by 64% of voters. The two power plants remain the largest employers in the municipality. Gümmenen Castle, of which nothing remains, was built by either the Counts of Burgundy or the Dukes of Zähringen as part of the defenses along the Saane, along with Laupen Castle and Grasburg Castle. The castle was built to defend a bridge over the river. By 1391, a village (villa inferiori Dicti castri) had developed around the bridge. In 1259, Peter of Savoy made Gümmenen into an imperial fief and imperial castellans took over the castle and village. In 1282–83 King Rudolph I of Germany forced the Savoy castellan out and granted it to a Habsburg knight, Ulrich II of Maggenberg as a fief. Ulrich's heirs sold the castle, ferry and ford to Fribourg in 1319. Fribourg then granted the lands to the knights of Vuippens, who lost it back to either the Holy Roman Empire or Fribourg in 1325. The castle and village were besieged and destroyed in 1333 during Bern and Fribourg's first war over the Sense and Saane valleys, the Gümmenenkrieg. The peace treaty brokered in 1333 by Queen Agnes returned Gümmenen to Fribourg. Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 3.2% and transportation infrastructure made up 4.0%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 1.4% of the area Out of the forested land, 31.3% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.6% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 39.1% is used for growing crops and 12.6% is pastures, while 1.7% is used for orchards or vine crops. Of the water in the municipality, 2.7% is in lakes and 1.8% is in rivers and streams.

Mühleberg has a population of as of 2010, 6.2% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000–2010) the population has changed at a rate of 5.9%. Migration accounted for 6%, while births and deaths accounted for 1.9%. Most of the population (as of 2000) speaks German (2,579 or 94.7%) as their first language, French is the second most common (36 or 1.3%) and Albanian is the third (23 or 0.8%). There are 7 people who speak Italian and 1 person who speaks Romansh. Of the population in the municipality, 917 or about 33.7% were born in Mühleberg and lived there in 2000. There were 1,154 or 42.4% who were born in the same canton, while 381 or 14.0% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 185 or 6.8% were born outside of Switzerland. as of 2000, there were 1,139 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.4 persons per household. as of 2009, the construction rate of new housing units was 2.3 new units per 1000 residents.

The Railroad Viaduct BN over the Saane (shared with Ferenbalm) is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance. The entire Mühleberg power plant is part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 41.24% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP (16.95%), the SPS (16.14%) and the Green Party (10.48%). In the federal election, a total of 981 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 46.2%.

as of 2010, Mühleberg had an unemployment rate of 1.5%. as of 2008, there were 216 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 77 businesses involved in this sector. 587 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 41 businesses in this sector. 373 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 81 businesses in this sector. In 2000, there were 588 workers who commuted into the municipality and 974 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.7 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 22.6% used public transportation to get to work, and 53% used a private car. During the 2009 10 school year, there were a total of 273 students attending classes in Mühleberg. There were 2 kindergarten classes with a total of 47 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 2.1% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 4.3% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The municipality had 6 primary classes and 112 students. Of the primary students, 1.8% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 5.4% have a different mother language than the classroom language. During the same year, there were 7 lower secondary classes with a total of 114 students. There were 5.3% who were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 2.6% have a different mother language than the classroom language. as of 2000, there were 49 students in Mühleberg who came from another municipality, while 75 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

The municipality has a railway station, , on the Bern–Neuchâtel line.