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

[3] The oldest traces of a settlement in the area are several Bronze Age graves around Vorderrainstrasse and Höstettli.

After the murder of Albert I of Germany in 1308 by Duke John Parricida, the area was sold or pledged to the Barons of Strättligen.

The Barons held the villages until the extinction of their line in 1349, after which it was inherited by the Lords of Burgistein.

The three settlements that today make up Wattenwil never had a central village, castle or manor house.

In 1376, the city-state of Bern acquired control of the nearby city of Nidau and began expanding their power over the region.

In 1388 Bern acquired rights over the Wattenwil area, however the high court and gallows remained under the authority of local nobles who opposed Bernese expansion.

Partially in 1499 and more fully in 1516 the Bernese citizen Bartholomew May acquired the Strättligen lands and ownership of Wattenwil.

However, in the following year, they sold the right to Bern for 1000 pounds and became part of the District of Seftigen.

In 1683 the chapel was replaced with a larger parish church, which still stands today.

It gradually grew into a district hospital which served Wattenwil and nine other municipalities.

The hospital and the secondary school, which opened in 1902, made Wattenwil into a regional center.

The local economy is based on agriculture, cheese production, forestry and small businesses.

[5] The municipality is located in the upper Gürbetal on the eastern slope of Gurnigel Mountain.

[9] Most of the population (as of 2000[update]) speaks German (2,648 or 95.6%) as their first language, Albanian is the second most common (22 or 0.8%) and Italian is the third (12 or 0.4%).

The number of jobs in the primary sector was 79, of which 75 were in agriculture and 4 were in forestry or lumber production.

In the tertiary sector; 101 or 21.0% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 26 or 5.4% were in the movement and storage of goods, 16 or 3.3% were in a hotel or restaurant, 9 or 1.9% were in the information industry, 5 or 1.0% were the insurance or financial industry, 12 or 2.5% were technical professionals or scientists, 47 or 9.8% were in education and 217 or 45.1% were in health care.

[23] From the 2000 census[update], 2,140 or 77.3% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church, while 125 or 4.5% 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.