Hilterfingen is a municipality in the administrative district of Thun in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.

[3] The oldest trace of a settlement in the area are some early-Bronze Age graves near Hünegg and Aebnit.

The area was inhabited during the Early Middle Ages as evidenced by 6th and 7th century graves at Eichbühl and Hünegg.

By the Middle Ages it was owned by the Freiherr von Oberhofen, who donated the village to the college of canons at Amsoldingen.

Four years later, in 1488, Hilterfingen was officially incorporated into the Bernese Thun District.

Following the 1798 French invasion, Hilterfingen became part of the Helvetic Republic Canton of Oberland.

After the collapse of the Republic and 1803 Act of Mediation it joined the newly recreated Thun District.

[3] In the 19th century several wealthy patricians built three stately manor houses in the community, two of which are still visible.

The first was the neo-Gothic Chartreuse Manor built in 1807 for Schultheiss Niklaus Friedrich von Mülinen.

A few years later, in 1811, he founded the Swiss Historians Research Society (Schweizerische Geschichtforschende Gesellschaft) at the manor.

The final estate Hünegg Castle was built by the wealthy Prussian art collector Baron Albert Ernst von Parpart and today is a museum, which still hosts regular exhibitions.

According to the "Strättliger Chronicle" it is one of the original twelve churches around Lake Thun.

A dock was built in 1925 for the steam ships that traveled around the lake and a sailing school opened ten years later.

After World War II the population grew as commuters moved out of the cities and settled along the lake front.

While a number of factories and businesses settled in the municipality, today about two-thirds of the population commutes to jobs in other cities.

[10] Most of the population (as of 2000[update]) speaks German (3,593 or 94.0%) as their first language, French is the second most common (35 or 0.9%) and English is the third (30 or 0.8%).

In the tertiary sector; 89 or 19.8% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 19 or 4.2% were in the movement and storage of goods, 57 or 12.7% were in a hotel or restaurant, 6 or 1.3% were in the information industry, 34 or 7.6% were technical professionals or scientists, 52 or 11.6% were in education and 105 or 23.4% were in health care.

[23] Hünegg Castle is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance.

[24] Hünegg Castle was built by the wealthy Prussian art collector Baron Albert Ernst von Parpart who married the widow Adelheid de Rougemont of Chartreuse Manor in 1846.

Lehmann bought the castle and then sold it in 1899 to the architect Gustav Lemke from Wiesbaden.

The Canton converted it into an Art Nouveau (Jugendstil) museum, which still hosts regular exhibitions.

[25] From the 2000 census[update], 2,691 or 70.4% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church, while 467 or 12.2% were Roman Catholic.

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.

There were a total of 83 students in the German language kindergarten classes in the municipality.