Wimmis () is a municipality in the Frutigen-Niedersimmental administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.
History
Wimmis is first mentioned in 994 as Windemis.
The oldest traces of a settlement in Wimmis include the Mesolithic and Bronze Age settlements on the Chienberg and the Bronze Age and High Middle Ages settlements on the Pintel. Roman era artifacts were found at Engfeld and bronze statue of Emperor Gordian III was found at Tägerstein. The area remained inhabited during the Middle Ages and in 994 King Otto III granted his estates in Wimmis to Selz Abbey.
By the 12th or 13th century the Lords of Wimmis or Strättligen built Wimmis Castle above the village. The exact relationship between the two families is unclear, but the Wimmis line became extinct in the mid-13th century and by 1260 the Freiherr von Strättligen owned Wimmis Castle and the surrounding lands. A few years later the castle and lands were incorporated into the extensive holdings of the Freiherr von Weissenburg. Over the following years, the town at the foot of the castle was attacked and burned twice by Bernese troops, in 1298 and 1334 and the castle was attacked and taken in 1334. After the war, Freiherr Johann the Elder von Weissenburg was forced to sign a treaty with Bern.Burgenwelt.de accessed 11 December 2013 The castle and surrounding bailiwick were inherited by the Freiherr von Brandis in 1368. However, in 1398 he sold a half share of the estates to the von Scharnachtal family and in 1437 sold the remaining half to them. The von Scharnachtals held the castle and bailiwick until Bern bought it back in 1449.
The castle church of St. Martin was first mentioned in 1228 as one of the twelve churches surrounding Lake Thun in the Strättliger Chronicle. The castle church was built in the 10th century on the site of an earlier 7th or 8th century church. It was expanded in the 14th century and again in the 15th. The murals are from the 15th century expansion. In 1527 it, along with the entire Niedersimmental converted to the new faith of the Protestant Reformation.
Under Bernese rule the castle became the center of the Niedersimmental district. During the 17th and 18th centuries the castle was expanded in several stages into its current appearance. In 1708 a fire broke out in the castle town, destroying the entire settlement around the castle. The castle town was abandoned and the current castle gardens were planted on the site. After the 1803 Act of Mediation, the castle became the center of new Niedersimmental district. In 1967 the district administration moved into a modern office building but the district court remained in the castle. In 2010 the administrative structure of the Canton of Bern changed. The court moved from Wimmis to Thun and the castle was given to the municipality.
Wimmis' location at the entrance to the Simmental made it into an important local trading center. In 1815 the construction of the Simmental road allowed more traffic to travel through Wimmis. A village school opened in 1859. In the 1870s it was envisioned as a railroad hub, before the hub was moved to Spiez. Between 1897 and 1902 the Spiez-Zweisimmen railway passed through the village and built stations at Wimmis and Eifeld. The railroad helped factories move into Wimmis. In 1919 the Swiss military established the Federal Gunpowder factory at Wimmis. In the 1990s it became Nitrochemie Wimmis, which in addition to producing smokeless powder, explosives and industrial chemicals is the world's largest paper deacidification facility.
During the Cold War, the Swiss military maintained a store of uranium in Wimmis, which was a part of its nuclear weapons programme.
Geography
Wimmis is located between the Simmenfluh and Burgfluh rivers at the entrance to the Simmental. The municipal borders stretch up the flank of the Niesen mountain to its peak at . It consists of the village of Wimmis and the settlements of Oberdorf, Brodhüsi, Hasli and Burgholz.
The municipality has an area of . As of 2012, a total of or 28.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 47.0% is forested. The rest of the municipality is or 7.7% is settled (buildings or roads), or 1.6% is either rivers or lakes and or 14.8% is unproductive land.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics 2009 data accessed 25 March 2010
During the same year, industrial buildings made up 1.6% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 2.8% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.0%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 1.1% of the area A total of 43.3% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 5.4% is used for growing crops and 14.9% is pasturage and 8.1% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 8.2% is unproductive vegetation and 6.7% is too rocky for vegetation.
On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Niedersimmental, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Frutigen-Niedersimmental.Nomenklaturen – Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz accessed 4 April 2011
Coat of arms The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Gules a Castle embatteled Argent.Flags of the World.com accessed 9 December 2013
Demographics
Wimmis has a population () of . , 8.4% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2001-2011) the population has changed at a rate of 3%. Migration accounted for 2.1%, while births and deaths accounted for 0.4%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 9 December 2013
Most of the population () speaks German (2,223 or 96.1%) as their first language, Serbo-Croatian is the second most common (27 or 1.2%) and French is the third (15 or 0.6%). There are 15 people who speak Italian and 3 people who speak Romansh.
, the population was 51.4% male and 48.6% female. The population was made up of 1,116 Swiss men (46.7% of the population) and 112 (4.7%) non-Swiss men. There were 1,074 Swiss women (44.9%) and 89 (3.7%) non-Swiss women.Statistical office of the Canton of Bern accessed 4 January 2012 Of the population in the municipality, 714 or about 30.9% were born in Wimmis and lived there in 2000. There were 1,067 or 46.1% who were born in the same canton, while 288 or 12.4% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 171 or 7.4% were born outside of Switzerland.
, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 22.1% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 60.2% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 17.7%.
, there were 943 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 1,134 married individuals, 137 widows or widowers and 100 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000 accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 322 households that consist of only one person and 67 households with five or more people.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Haushaltsgrösse accessed 8 May 2013 , a total of 916 apartments (88.8% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 82 apartments (8.0%) were seasonally occupied and 33 apartments (3.2%) were empty.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen accessed 28 January 2011 , the construction rate of new housing units was 7.1 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.58%. In 2011, single family homes made up 51.3% of the total housing in the municipality.Statistischer Atlas der Schweiz - Anteil Einfamilienhäuser am gesamten Gebäudebestand, 2011 accessed 17 June 2013
The historical population is given in the following chart:Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Bevölkerungsentwicklung nach Region, 1850-2000 accessed 29 January 2011Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Ständige Wohnbevölkerung in Privathaushalten nach Gemeinde und Haushaltsgrösse accessed 12 August 2013
Heritage sites of national significance The village church of Wimmis, the Letzi Spissi fortifications, and Wimmis Castle are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance. The entire village of Wimmis is part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.
The village church of St. Martin was built on the site of an early medieval church. Under the Kingdom of Upper Burgundy a fortified estate was built near the church and became a local administrative center.Burgenwelt.de website-Schloss Wimmis accessed 11 December 2013 Around the 9th century the early church was replaced with a new building that had a wider aisle. In 994 King Otto III granted his estate and church in Wimmis to Selz Abbey. In the 1228 Strättliger Chronicle it was listed as one of the 12 Lake Thun churches. In the 13th century a fire destroyed the roof, though it was quickly replaced. It was converted into an aisleless church in 1450 and the wall murals are from the 15th century. The north-west corner houses a painting of the procession to Calvary and fragments of the Crucifixion and descent from the Cross. The church converted to the Reformed faith in 1527. The pulpit was built in 1672 and the baptismal font was carved in 1552.Swiss protection of cultural property inventory (Federal Office for Civil Protection), description of Wimmis church accessed 11 December 2013
The Letzi Spissi fortifications were built by Freiherr von Weissenburg about 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) south-west of the castle. It was built to help defend the entrance to the Niedersimmental.
The castle was built around the 12th or 13th century on or near the site of an earlier fortified estate. It was owned by the Freiherr von Strättligen and then the Freiherr von Weissenburg. In 1334 the town and castle were attacked and taken by Bernese troops. In 1449 Bern bought it from its current owner, the von Scharnachtal family. Under Bernese rule the castle became the center of the Niedersimmental district. During the 17th and 18th centuries the castle was expanded in several stages into its current appearance. After the 1803 Act of Mediation, the castle became the center of new Niedersimmental district. In 1967 the district administration moved into a modern office building but the district court remained in the castle. In 2010 the administrative structure of the Canton of Bern changed. The court moved from Wimmis to Thun and the castle was given to the municipality.
Politics In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 42.3% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (16.8%), the Social Democratic Party (SP) (12.3%) and the Evangelical People's Party (EVP) (5.2%). In the federal election, a total of 920 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 50.2%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election accessed 8 May 2012
Economy , Wimmis had an unemployment rate of 1.88%. , there were a total of 1,081 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 90 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 29 businesses involved in this sector. 683 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 40 businesses in this sector. 308 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 69 businesses in this sector. There were 1,133 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 39.0% of the workforce.