Бельп: История и современность швейцарской общины.

the place in Switzerland

Belp is a municipality in the Bern Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It is close to Bern's Belp Airport. The municipality of Belpberg merged on 1 January 2012 into the municipality of Belp.

Belp is first mentioned in 1263 as Belpo. During the 12th and 13th centuries, the family expanded their authority from Belp to include neighboring villages. In 1277 they created the Herrschaft of Belp to include all their estates and villages. Their expanding power brought them into conflict with the growing city state of Bern and in 1298 Bern attacked Belp. At the Battle of Donnerbühl or Dornbühl in 1298 Bern destroyed the castle. Eight years later, in 1306, they forced the Freiherren of Belp Montenach to become citizens of Bern and give up their independence. The Hölzernes Schloss or Wooden Castle was built in 1327 by the Freiherr in Belp village. By the late 14th century the male line of the Belp Montenach family died out and Belp and the surrounding lands were acquired by a noble family in Bern. Over the following centuries, Belp passed through several noble families. In 1550 54 the von Luternau family built the Old Castle in the village across from the Wooden Castle. The Old Castle was the administrative seat of the Herrschaft during the 16th and 17th centuries. By the 18th century, wealthy Bernese families began moving to Belp to escape the noise and crowding in the city. In 1735 Victor Fischer built Oberried Estate above the growing town. This estate was followed in 1740 by the Schlössli or Neues Schloss on Rubigenstrasse which was built for the historian Alexander Ludwig von Wattenwyl. Lindenegg Mansion was built in 1800. The Wooden Castle was demolished in 1783. In 1721 the von Wattenwyl family acquired the Herrschaft, which they ruled until the 1798 French invasion and creation of the Helvetic Republic abolished the old aristocratic order. In 1810 the Canton of Bern bought the castle from Karl von Wattenwyl and used it as the center of the newly created Seftigen District. During the same year, housing and buildings made up 7.3% and transportation infrastructure made up 4.9%. A total of 24.6% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 39.1% is used for growing crops and 17.3% is pasturage, while 1.1% is used for orchards or vine crops. Of the water in the municipality, 0.3% is in lakes and 1.8% is in rivers and streams. 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.

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Quartered Gules and Argent.

The Bider Hangar at the airport and Oberried Estate are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance.

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 29.9% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Social Democratic Party (SP) (17.8%), the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (15.9%) and the FDP. The Liberals (7.9%). In the federal election, a total of 3,948 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 51.3%.

Sky Work Airlines has its head office in Belp. The head office of Heliswiss is located on the grounds of Bern Airport in Belp, and SkyWorks previously had its head office on the airport grounds. as of 2011, Belp had an unemployment rate of 2.02%. as of 2008, there were a total of 4,372 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 323 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 85 businesses involved in this sector. 1,147 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 93 businesses in this sector. 2,902 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 345 businesses in this sector. In 2000, there were 2,464 workers who commuted into the municipality and 3,297 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.3 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. A total of 1,784 workers (42.0% of the 4,248 total workers in the municipality) both lived and worked in Belp. Of the working population, 26.8% used public transportation to get to work, and 46% 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 4,678 tax payers in the municipality. Of that total, 1,787 made over 75,000 CHF per year. There were 31 people who made between 15,000 and 20,000 per year. The average income of the over 75,000 CHF group in Belp was 115,784 CHF, while the average across all of Switzerland was 130,478 CHF. In 2011 a total of 4.1% of the population received direct financial assistance from the government.

From the 2000 census, 6,020 or 65.5% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church, while 1,277 or 13.9% were Roman Catholic. Of the rest of the population, there were 75 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.82% of the population), there were 2 individuals (or about 0.02% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 560 individuals (or about 6.09% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 9 individuals (or about 0.10% of the population) who were Jewish, and 307 (or about 3.34% of the population) who were Muslim. There were 22 individuals who were Buddhist, 50 individuals who were Hindu and 7 individuals who belonged to another church. 585 (or about 6.36% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 279 individuals (or about 3.03% of the population) did not answer the question.

In Belp about 60.8% of the population have completed non mandatory upper secondary education, and 19.8% have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). During the 2011–12 school year, there were a total of 1,161 students attending classes in Belp. There were 8 kindergarten classes with a total of 140 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 20.0% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 11.4% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The municipality had 31 primary classes and 602 students. Of the primary students, 16.3% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 14.3% have a different mother language than the classroom language. During the same year, there were 22 lower secondary classes with a total of 411 students. There were 10.5% who were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 6.3% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The remainder of the students attend a private or special school. as of 2000, there were a total of 949 students attending any school in the municipality. Of those, 876 both lived and attended school in the municipality, while 73 students came from another municipality. During the same year, 371 residents attended schools outside the municipality.