Koppigen is a municipality in the administrative district of Emmental in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.

Bronze Age items and a Hallstatt grave mound were found along the Utzenstorfstrasse.

During the Middle Ages the village formed a ring divided by three roads around Koppigen Castle.

The ministerialis (unfree knights in the service of a feudal overlord) family of Koppigen were pledged to the House of Zähringen.

[3] In 1386 Peter of Thornberg supported the Habsburgs against the city of Bern in the Sempach War.

During the war, Bernese troops attacked Koppigen Castle and burned it to the ground.

He left all his possessions in Koppigen to the newly established Carthusian Charterhouse of Thornberg, which he had founded shortly before.

The Carthusians made Koppigen the center of a parish that included Hellsau, Alchenstorf, Höchstetten and Willadingen.

Bern placed a vogt and a high court in Koppigen and it became part of the district of Burgdorf.

The hostel in St. Niklaus eventually became the Gasthof Bären became a boys' boarding school in 1924 and is now the children's home of Friedau.

The hostel in Öschberg became the Gasthof Sonne which became a work house and model farm in 1906.

[3] During the early 19th century, the local farmers switched from growing grain to raising dairy cattle and hay.

At the end of the 21st century there were small businesses in manufacturing, construction, automotive parts and producing décolletage.

[10] Most of the population (as of 2000[update]) speaks German (1,952 or 94.5%) as their first language, Albanian is the second most common (24 or 1.2%) and Serbo-Croatian is the third (16 or 0.8%).

The historical population is given in the following chart:[3][13] The former Gasthof Bären with its outbuildings in the hamlet of St. Niklaus is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance.

[14] The Gasthof (inn and restaurant) building was built in 1824 in the late baroque and neoclassical style.

In the tertiary sector; 78 or 19.7% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 9 or 2.3% were in the movement and storage of goods, 7 or 1.8% were in a hotel or restaurant, 10 or 2.5% were the insurance or financial industry, 33 or 8.3% were technical professionals or scientists, 36 or 9.1% were in education and 162 or 40.9% were in health care.

[10] From the 2000 census[update], 184 or 8.9% were Roman Catholic, while 1,654 or 80.1% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church.

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.

[19] During the 2010–11 school year, there were a total of 372 students attending classes in Koppigen.