Linden is a municipality in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.
History
The municipality was formed in 1945 when the former municipalities of Ausserbirrmoos, Innerbirrmoos, and Otterbach merged.
Ausserbirrmoos
Ausserbirrmoos was the largest in land area of the three communities that formed Linden. It was first mentioned in 1298 as Birmos. Throughout the Middle Ages it was part of the Herrschaft of Diessbach. Originally it formed a single community with Innerbirrmoos, but in 1633 the two communities separated to form independent municipalities. It absorbed the land and population of the communities of Schöntal (BE) and Barschwand when they dissolved in 1887. In 1941, before the merger, it had a population of 466.
Innerbirrmoos
It was mentioned, along with Ausserbirrmoos, in 1298. Around 1399 it became part of the Bernese district of Röthenbach. Then, in 1529 it became part of the Landvogtei of Signau. It separated from Ausserbirrmoos in 1633. For much of its history, the established farmers and the landless sharecroppers fought each other over usage of the commons. Finally, over a decade starting 1778, the city of Bern intervened and ended the conflict. In 1941, it had a population of 558. Today, the village is still mostly agricultural.
Otterbach
Otterbach is first mentioned in 1236 as Ottirbach. Like Innerbirrmoos, around 1399 it became part of the Bernese district of Röthenbach and in 1529 the Landvogtei of Signau. It was the smallest and poorest of the three municipalities that joined to form Linden. In 1941 it had a population of 310.
Linden
The hamlet of Linden was first mentioned in 1354. While it was geographically in the center of the three municipalities, it was never an independent municipality itself. All three municipalities, Ausserbirrmoos, Innerbirrmoos, and Otterbach, were part of the parish of Oberdiessbach until 1860, when they broke away to form the parish of Kurzenberg. After the creation of the independent municipality of Linden in 1945, it became the parish of Linden. The parish church was built in the hamlet of Linden in 1848. Since it was in the center of the communities, the local school was also built there. Beginning in the 1970s, a training base for the Swiss Army opened in the community. Today the municipality is still rural and agricultural in character, though about two-thirds of the working population commute to jobs outside the municipality.
Geography
mini|Linden (BE), General view from the north
mini|Linden (BE) – Aerial view (1954)
Linden has an area of . Of this area, or 60.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 32.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 6.3% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.4% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.2% is unproductive land.
Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 3.2% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.3%. Out of the forested land, 31.6% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.2% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 11.4% is used for growing crops and 47.5% is pastures, while 1.1% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.
Linden does not have a central village, rather it is composed of scattered houses and settlements on a low hill between the Aare River and Emme River. It formed from the merger of the formerly independent municipalities of Ausserbirrmoos, Innerbirrmoos and Otterbach in 1945.
On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Konolfingen, 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 Argent on a Linden Tree Vert trunked proper issuant from a Mount of 3 Coupeaux of the second three Mullets Or. The linden tree, of course, makes this an example of canting arms.
Demographics
Linden has a population () of . , 4.3% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2001-2011) the population has changed at a rate of 0%. Migration accounted for 0.7%, while births and deaths accounted for -1%.
Most of the population () speaks German (1,262 or 96.6%) as their first language, French is the second most common (25 or 1.9%) and English is the third (3 or 0.2%). There are 2 people who speak Italian and 2 people who speak Romansh.