Schattenhalb
Schattenhalb is a municipality in the Interlaken-Oberhasli administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. The municipality includes the settlements of Willigen, Geissholz, Falcheren and Lüögen. History. The municipality was created in 1834 from the cooperative farms ("Bäuerten") of "Willigen," "Geissholz," "Falchern" and "Lugen." The name Schattenhalb ("Shadow-half") refers to the shady face of the mountainside south of Meiringen. The oldest traces of settlements in the area are scattered Bronze Age ax and spear heads and a Roman era coin hoard. By the Middle Ages the scattered Bäuerten of Schattenhalb were part of the parish of  Meiringen and the Vogtei of Hasli. In 1334 the entire Vogtei was acquired by the city of Bern. Traditionally the villagers raised cattle and horses in seasonal alpine meadows and then sold the livestock and cheese to traders. During the 18th and 19th century authors, such as Charles Victor de Bonstetten and Jakob Samuel Wyttenbach, explored and described the natural beauty of the canyons, waterfalls and glaciers of the Bernese Oberland including many sights near Schattenhalb. Tourists began to visit the area and explore the land around the municipality. In 1788 the Rosenlauibad (Rosenlaui baths or pools) opened and by  the 19th century a hotel and spa developed at the Rosenlaui river. A spa opened along the Reichenbach river before 1800 followed by a hotel in 1835. A cable car was built in 1899 which allowed guests to travel to the top of the falls. Reichenbach hotel burned in 1901 and was rebuilt as a larger, luxury hotel. However, it was converted into a psychiatric hospital in 1919. The nearby Aare gorge became a tourist destination in 1888. Between 1912 and 1956 a tram connected Meiringen, Schattnehalb and the Aare gorge. Today the municipality shares a post office and telephone  exchange with Meiringen. While some residents still are involved in agriculture, about three-fourths of the jobs in Schattenhalb are in the services sector. A village school opened in Falchern in 1659, followed by one in Willigen in 1714 and Geissholz in 1788. The schools in Falchern and Geissholz closed in 1970 and 2004 respectively, leaving the Willigen school as the only primary school in the municipality. Geography. Schattenhalb has an area of . As of 2012, a total of or 26.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 39.3% is forested. The rest of the municipality is or 2.2% is  settled (buildings or roads), or 1.2% is either rivers or lakes and or 30.6% is unproductive land. During the same year, housing and buildings made up 1.0% and transportation infrastructure made up 0.9%. A total of 33.8% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.3% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 6.2% is pasturage and 20.3% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 6.5% is unproductive vegetation, 21.3% is too rocky for vegetation and 2.8% of the land is covered  by glaciers. Schattenhalb lies in the Bernese Oberland in the Hasli valley, where the Aare River flows. It includes the villages of Willigen im Tal at an elevation of about , Geissholz am Kirchet () and Falchern, Schwendi and Lugen on a terrace above the valley at an elevation of about . The highest mountain is the Wellhorn, on the southwestern edge of the municipality (). Part of the municipality is covered by the Rosenlaui Glacier. At a lower altitude is the Rosenlaui gorge, a tourist attraction, which can be reached from the Hasli valley via the Reichenbachtal valley. At the lower end  of this valley are the famous Reichenbach Falls. On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Oberhasli, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Interlaken-Oberhasli. Coat of arms. The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is "Per chevron Sable Five Mullets Or three and two and of the second an Eagle of the first crowned of the second." Demographics. Schattenhalb has a population () of . , 12.0% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last year (2010-2011) the population has changed at a rate of -2.5%. Migration  accounted for -0.8%, while births and deaths accounted for -0.3%. Most of the population () speaks German (607 or 92.8%) as their first language, Spanish is the second most common (19 or 2.9%) and Portuguese is the third (9 or 1.4%). There are 2 people who speak French and 4 people who speak Italian. , the population was 50.5% male and 49.5% female. The population was made up of 261 Swiss men (44.1% of the population) and 38 (6.4%) non-Swiss men. There were 251 Swiss women (42.4%) and 42 (7.1%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 271 or  about 41.4% were born in Schattenhalb and lived there in 2000. There were 184 or 28.1% who were born in the same canton, while 75 or 11.5% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 73 or 11.2% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 21.8% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 56.2% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 22%. , there were 270 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 304 married individuals, 51 widows or widowers and 29 individuals who are divorced. , there  were 80 households that consist of only one person and 27 households with five or more people. , a total of 237 apartments (83.2% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 28 apartments (9.8%) were seasonally occupied and 20 apartments (7.0%) were empty. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.3%. In 2011, single family homes made up 51.1% of the total housing in the municipality. The historical population is given in the following chart: Politics. In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 45.5% of the vote. The next three  most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (24.9%), the Social Democratic Party (SP) (10.7%) and the Green Party (8.3%). In the federal election, a total of 198 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 46.4%. Economy. , Schattenhalb had an unemployment rate of 0.74%. , there were a total of 624 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 48 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 21 businesses involved in this sector. 89 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 6 businesses in this sector. 487 people were employed in the tertiary  sector, with 14 businesses in this sector. There were 330 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 41.8% of the workforce. , there were 81 workers who commuted into the municipality and 237 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 2.9 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. A total of 93 workers (53.4% of the 174 total workers in the municipality) both lived and worked in Schattenhalb. Of the working population, 4.2% used public transportation to get to work, and 49.7% used a private  car. In 2011 the average local and cantonal tax rate on a married resident, with two children, of Schattenhalb making 150,000 CHF was 13.4%, while an unmarried resident's rate was 19.6%. 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 249 tax payers in the municipality. Of that total, 68 made over 75,000 CHF per year. There were 2 people who made between 15,000 and 20,000 per year. The greatest number of workers, 72, made  between 50,000 and 75,000 CHF per year. The average income of the over 75,000 CHF group in Schattenhalb was 101,716 CHF, while the average across all of Switzerland was 130,478 CHF. In 2011 a total of 1.7% of the population received direct financial assistance from the government. Religion. From the , 501 or 76.6% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church, while 105 or 16.1% were Roman Catholic. Of the rest of the population, there were 3 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.46% of the population), and there were 4 individuals (or about 0.61% of the population) who belonged to  another Christian church. There were 6 (or about 0.92% of the population) who were Muslim. There were 2 individuals who were Buddhist. 27 (or about 4.13% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 6 individuals (or about 0.92% of the population) did not answer the question. Education. In Schattenhalb about 57.3% of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 11% have completed additional higher education (either university or a "Fachhochschule"). Of the 44 who had completed some form of tertiary schooling listed in the census, 65.9% were Swiss men, 20.5% were Swiss  women. The Canton of Bern school system provides one year of non-obligatory Kindergarten, followed by six years of Primary school. This is followed by three years of obligatory lower Secondary school where the students are separated according to ability and aptitude. Following the lower Secondary students may attend additional schooling or they may enter an apprenticeship. During the 2011-12 school year, there were a total of 42 students attending classes in Schattenhalb. There were no kindergarten classes in the municipality. The municipality had 3 primary classes and 42 students. Of the primary students, 9.5% were permanent or temporary  residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 11.9% have a different mother language than the classroom language. , there were a total of 20 students attending any school in the municipality. Of those, 18 both lived and attended school in the municipality, while 2 students came from another municipality. During the same year, 50 residents attended schools outside the municipality.