Golaten is a former municipality in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. On 1 January 2019 the former municipality of Golaten merged into the municipality of Kallnach.
History
Golaten is first mentioned in 983-93 as Gulada. In 1277 it was mentioned as Golatun.
The oldest trace of a settlement in the area are Roman era bricks and pottery fragments which were found near the Wittenberg farm. By the 10th century St. Maurice's Abbey was the largest landholder in the village. It eventually became part of the Herrschaft of Oltigen. The entire Herrschaft was absorbed by Bern in 1410/12, including Golaten. The village was always part of the parish of Kerzers. During the Protestant Reformation both municipalities converted to the new faith and Golaten remained part of the Kerzers parish. In 1793, it fought with the neighboring communities, in the Canton of Fribourg, over the Golatenmoos moor. The Golatenmoos is now part of the Bernese municipality of Kallnach. After the 1798 French invasion, Golaten remained part of the Canton of Bern, despite attempts by the Canton of Fribourg to annex it.
Today about half of the population of the municipality commute to jobs in Kerzers or Bern.
Geography
Golaten has an area of . As of 2012, a total of or 51.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 20.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 8.2% is settled (buildings or roads), or 10.4% is either rivers or lakes and or 9.3% is unproductive land.
During the same year, housing and buildings made up 5.7% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.4%. Out of the forested land, 19.3% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.1% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 31.4% is used for growing crops and 13.2% is pastures, while 6.4% is used for orchards or vine crops. Of the water in the municipality, 8.2% is in lakes and 2.1% is in rivers and streams.
There are two towns within the municipality, Golaten and Lachen and multiple small groups of farm houses (ex. Mannenwil, Wittenberg).
Golaten lies in the Swiss plateau on the reservoir Niederried, which makes it a good area for waterfowl. On the southeastern edge of the municipality the Aare and Saane rivers flow together.
On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Laupen, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Bern-Mittelland.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Sable a Horse Shoe Argent.
Demographics
Golaten had a population () of 302. , 6.3% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2001-2011) the population has changed at a rate of 2.1%. Migration accounted for 1.1%, while births and deaths accounted for -0.4%.
Most of the population () speaks German (312 or 94.3%) as their first language, Albanian is the second most common (9 or 2.7%) and Portuguese is the third (4 or 1.2%). There is 1 person who speaks French.
, the population was 51.1% male and 48.9% female. The population was made up of 130 Swiss men (45.8% of the population) and 15 (5.3%) non-Swiss men. There were 136 Swiss women (47.9%) and 3 (1.1%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 165 or about 49.8% were born in Golaten and lived there in 2000. There were 97 or 29.3% who were born in the same canton, while 35 or 10.6% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 26 or 7.9% were born outside of Switzerland.
, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 17.9% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 61.7% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 20.3%.
, there were 150 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 164 married individuals, 14 widows or widowers and 3 individuals who are divorced.
, there were 35 households that consist of only one person and 6 households with five or more people. , a total of 106 apartments (90.6% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 5 apartments (4.3%) were seasonally occupied and 6 apartments (5.1%) were empty. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 2.8%.
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 43.5% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (17.9%), the Green Party (6.8%) and the FDP.The Liberals (6.6%). In the federal election, a total of 117 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 48.5%.