Münsingen

Münsingen (Highest Alemannic: Münsige) is a municipality in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.

During the early and middle La Tene era the residents of the village built about 220 tombs along the Aare river.

The rich collection of artifacts and the clear stratigraphic layers at Münsingen have helped archeologists to develop a model for dating isolated graves from Germany to Romania to Italy.

The relatively small number of individuals combined with the rich grave goods indicate that the settlement at Münsingen was home to Celtic nobility.

[4] During the Roman era there was a country estate or very small settlement near where the village church stands today.

The bath house floor was decorated with mosaics depicting fishes and the god Oceanus.

[4] Münsingen is first mentioned between 993 and 1010 as Munisingam when King Rudolph III of Burgundy granted it to Count Kuno.

Then, in the 13th and 14th centuries Münsingen came under the lordship of the Senn knights from whom the present arms of the municipality are derived.

It passed through several families before the city of Bern gradually acquired all the rights to the town.

[4] As an important gathering-place during the Peasants' War, and in the ensuing process of democratization, Münsingen played a major part in the history of the canton of Bern.

Originally, the town was ruled from a castle located on the heights above the Müli valley.

The wooden outbuilding was rebuilt in 1570 into a country estate house by the Schultheiss Johannes Steiger.

[4] The clinic played an important role in the 1930s in introducing the somatic therapies in psychiatry.

[7] The municipality is located in the Aare valley and includes the village of Münsingen, and the canton's psychiatric clinic.

[3] The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Gules a Chief and a Pale Argent.

[10] Most of the population (as of 2000[update]) speaks German (10,164 or 92.9%) as their first language, Italian is the second most common (160 or 1.5%) and French is the third (117 or 1.1%).

The historical population is given in the following chart:[4][14] The Münsingen Clinic Building, the village rectory and the USM factory and corporate offices are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance.

The facility and grounds around Münsingen Clinic are part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.

[16] From the 2000 census[update], 7,464 or 68.2% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church, while 1,472 or 13.5% were Roman Catholic.

In the tertiary sector; 756 or 23.2% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 56 or 1.7% were in the movement and storage of goods, 153 or 4.7% were in a hotel or restaurant, 63 or 1.9% were in the information industry, 113 or 3.5% were the insurance or financial industry, 188 or 5.8% were technical professionals or scientists, 400 or 12.3% were in education and 1,175 or 36.1% were in health care.

This is followed by three years of obligatory lower Secondary school where the students are separated according to ability and aptitude.

Münsingen psychiatric clinic today.
Aerial view from 400 m by Walter Mittelholzer (1925)
Aerial view of Münsingen town
Münsingen castle and surrounding town
Münsingen Castle
USM factory in Münsingen
Schwand-Münsingen agricultural school
Simone Niggli-Luder, 2006