Ersigen is a municipality

Municipalities of Switzerland

Communes , also known as municipalities, are the smallest government division in Switzerland, numbering 2,596 . While many have a population of a few hundred citizens, the largest cities such as Zürich or Geneva also have the legal status of municipalities...

 in the administrative district of Emmental

Emmental (administrative district)

Emmental District in the Canton of Bern was created on 1 January 2010. It is part of the Emmental-Oberaargau administrative region. It contains 42 municipalities with an area of and a population of 93,082....

 in the canton

Cantons of Switzerland

The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the member states of the federal state of Switzerland. Each canton was a fully sovereign state with its own borders, army and currency from the Treaty of Westphalia until the establishment of the Swiss federal state in 1848...

 of Bern in Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

.

History

Based on a few, individual finds the Ersigen area was settled during the Neolithic

Neolithic

The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...

 era. There is a Hallstatt

Hallstatt culture

The Hallstatt culture was the predominant Central European culture from the 8th to 6th centuries BC , developing out of the Urnfield culture of the 12th century BC and followed in much of Central Europe by the La Tène culture.By the 6th century BC, the Hallstatt culture extended for some...

 burial mound

Tumulus

A tumulus is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, Hügelgrab or kurgans, and can be found throughout much of the world. A tumulus composed largely or entirely of stones is usually referred to as a cairn...

 in Allmendwald and a Roman

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

 storehouse in Murrain.

The town is first mentioned in 1112 as Ergisingen. Between 1112 and 1418 there was a line of Ministerialis

Ministerialis

Ministerialis ; a post-classical Latin word, used in English, meaning originally servitor, agent, in a broad range of senses...

(unfree knights) from Ersigen, who served the Zähringen

Zähringen

Zähringen is the name of an old German family that founded a large number of cities in what are today Switzerland and Baden-Württemberg. While the junior line that first assumed the title Duke of Zähringen, a cadet branch of the House of Baden, became extinct in 1218, the senior line persists and...

 and Kyburg

Kyburg

Kyburg may refer to:*Henry E. Kyburg, Jr., the philosopher/logician*The castle Kyburg in the Canton of Zurich*The municipality surrounding the castle, Kyburg, Zurich*The noble House of Kyburg that took their name from the castle....

 families. This family was, most likely, the second largest land owner (after the monasteries) in Ersigen. However, in 1367 they sold their holdings to Peter von Thorberg. In 1375 the village was likely attacked by the Gugler

Gugler

The Gugler were a body of mostly English and French knights who as mercenaries invaded Alsace and the Swiss plateau under the leadership of Enguerrand VII de Coucy during the Gugler War of 1375.-Origin of the term:...

 army. A large graveyard is the only evidence of this attack. In 1397 Thorburg gave his property, woods and the rights to low justice in Ersigen to the Thorberg

Schloss Thorberg

Thorberg Castle is a former Carthusian monastery, or charterhouse, now a prison, located in Krauchthal, canton of Bern, Switzerland.-History:...

 Carthusian

Carthusian

The Carthusian Order, also called the Order of St. Bruno, is a Roman Catholic religious order of enclosed monastics. The order was founded by Saint Bruno of Cologne in 1084 and includes both monks and nuns...

 monastery. The rights to high justice

High Justice

High Justice is a 1974 collection of science fiction short stories by Jerry Pournelle. It was republished in a omnibus edition with Exiles to Glory in 2009 as Exile -- and Glory....

 were held by the Vogt

Vogt

A Vogt ; plural Vögte; Dutch voogd; Danish foged; ; ultimately from Latin [ad]vocatus) in the Holy Roman Empire was the German title of a reeve or advocate, an overlord exerting guardianship or military protection as well as secular justice...

ei of Wangen

Wangen

Wangen may refer to:* in Germany** Wangen im Allgäu, Ravensburg district, Baden-Württemberg** Wangen , Göppingen district, Baden-Württemberg...

. After 1528 the rights to low justice were held by the Thorberg vogt.

By 1481 there was a daughter

Filial church

A filial church, in the Roman Catholic Church, is a church to which is annexed the cure of souls, but which remains dependent on another church. The term comes from the Latin filialis, from filia, daughter....

 chapel in Ersigen, which was under the Parish

Parish (Catholic Church)

In the Roman Catholic Church, a parish is the lowest ecclesiastical geographical subdivision: from ecclesiastical province to diocese to deanery to parish.-Requirements:A parish needs two things under common law to become a parish...

 church at Kirchberg

Kirchberg

-Austria:*Kirchberg am Wagram, a town in Lower Austria*Kirchberg am Wechsel, a town in Lower Austria*Kirchberg an der Raab, a town in Styria*Kirchberg bei Mattighofen, a town in the district of Braunau, Upper Austria...

. The chapel was abandoned in 1528, and very little remains. In 1640 the village was involved in the construction and upkeep of the Emmen bridge as well as the Bern-Zürich road.

In 1803, following the Act of Mediation

Act of Mediation

The Act of Mediation was issued by Napoleon Bonaparte on 19 February 1803 establishing the Swiss Confederation. The act also abolished the previous Helvetic Republic, which had existed since the invasion of Switzerland by French troops in 1798. After the withdrawal of French troops in July 1802,...

, Ersigen became part of the district of Burgdorf. In 1824 a cheesemaker

Cheesemaker

A cheesemaker is a person who makes cheese.The craft of making cheese dates back at least 4,000 years. Archaeological evidence exists of cheesemaking by the ancient Egyptian civilizations....

 set up shop in Ersigen. In 1836 Ersigen received the Thorbergerwald, the forests formerly owned by the Thorberg family, from the canton. During the 20th Century the villages of Ober- and Niederösch joined Ersigen. The village remained isolated until 1965 when the A1 motorway was built which provided easy access to Ersigen. This led to the construction of several new housing areas.

During the first half of the 20th Century, Bad Rudswil in Ersigen was a well known medicinal thermal bath. Later in the 20th Century the baths closed, leaving the most of the village employed in farming or light industry.

Geography

Ersigen has an area, , of 8.7 km² (3.4 sq mi). Of this area, 5.12 km² (2 sq mi) or 58.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while 2.77 km² (1.1 sq mi) or 31.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.83 km² (0.320464791631804 sq mi) or 9.5% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.01 km² (2.5 acre) or 0.1% is either rivers or lakes and 0.01 km² (2.5 acre) or 0.1% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 6.1% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.1%. 31.6% of the total land area is heavily forested. Of the agricultural land, 48.5% is used for growing crops and 8.9% is pastures, while 1.5% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is in rivers and streams.

Demographics

Ersigen has a population (as of ) of . , 2.8% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 1.9%. Most of the population speaks German (95.8%), with Serbo-Croatian being second most common ( 1.0%) and Albanian being third ( 0.8%).

In the 2007 election the most popular party was the SVP

Swiss People's Party

The Swiss People's Party , also known as the Democratic Union of the Centre , is a conservative political party in Switzerland. Chaired by Toni Brunner, but spearheaded by Christoph Blocher, the party is the largest party in the Federal Assembly, with 58 members of the National Council and 6 of...

 which received 45.5% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SPS

Social Democratic Party of Switzerland

The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....

 (16.8%), the FDP

Free Democratic Party of Switzerland

The Free Democratic Party was a classical liberal political party in Switzerland. It was one of the major parties in Switzerland until its merger with the smaller classical liberal Liberal Party, to form FDP.The Liberals on 1 January 2009....

 (15.8%) and the Green Party

Green Party of Switzerland

The Green Party of Switzerland is the fifth-largest party in the National Council of Switzerland, and the largest party that is not represented on the Federal Council.-History:...

 (7.6%).

The age distribution of the population is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 25.5% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 57.7% and the seniors (over 64 years old) make up 16.8%. The entire Swiss population is generally well educated. In Ersigen about 80.4% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule

Fachhochschule

A Fachhochschule or University of Applied Sciences is a German type of tertiary education institution, sometimes specialized in certain topical areas . Fachhochschulen were founded in Germany and later adopted by Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Greece...

).

Ersigen has an unemployment rate of 0.52%. , there were 96 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 32 businesses involved in this sector. 104 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 19 businesses in this sector. 133 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 26 businesses in this sector.

The historical population is given in the following table:

year	population
1764	409
1850	1,149
1870	1,283
1900	1,113
1950	1,194
2000	1,483