Altstetten

This article explains the district of the city of Zurich; for other meanings see Altstetten (disambiguation) .

Altstetten district of Zurich
Coordinates	679.07 thousand  /  249050 coordinates: 47 ° 23 '15 "  N , 8 ° 29' 9"  O ; CH1903:  679.07 thousand  /  249050
height	402  m
surface	7.47 km²
Residents	33,461 (December 31, 2018)
Population density	4479 inhabitants / km²
BFS no.	261-092
Post Code	8048
Urban district	District 9 since 1934

Altstetten is a district of the city of Zurich . The formerly independent municipality Altstetten was incorporated in 1934 and is today together with Albisrieden the Kreis 9 .

coat of arms

Blazon

In gold on red Dreienberg a black tower with three battlements

The coat of arms is identical to the shield of the von Altstetten family, which was first mentioned in 1287.

Location and structure

In the two Reformed Altstetten churches, the 15th and 20th centuries, agriculture and the city meet.

Altstetten is located at the foothills of the Uetliberg on the Limmat , has around 33,000 inhabitants and is - according to the classification of the statistical office of the city of Zurich - the most populous district in the city.

Altstetten is divided into three contiguous areas by the A1H motorway (Zurich – Bern) and parallel to it by the Swiss Federal Railways - part of the main Zurich – Bern axis. To the north of the autobahn is the Grünau, to the south of the railway lines is the "old" Altstetten with the actual village center around Lindenplatz. Between the railway lines and the motorway lies the area that was baptized in March 2005 with the name Altstetten-Juch .

history

Local museum, originally multi-row stand construction with a tattach roof, built around 1500; Predecessor farm mentioned in the 14th century

Obligation of CHF 500 from the Altstetten Political Community of March 20, 1910

The area of ​​today's Altstetten must have been settled in pre-Christian times. A grave field from the La Tène period was uncovered near the Letzigraben, and a robe fibula from the late Bronze Age and the gold bowl from Altstetten were found in the Loogarten .

During the main settlement period of the Romans around 15 BC. There were a few buildings on the church hill, by the Salzweg and on the Karstenbühl, today the area of ​​the Micafil company . The Roman road from Chur ( Curia Raetorum ) via Zurich ( Turicum ) to Baden ( Aquae Helveticae ) ran over Altstetter Boden. The Eugen-Huber-Strasse was called until 1933 Roman road. The place name is first attested in 1249 as Altstetin , an Alemannic education with the meaning “in the old homes”. The extinction of the Counts of Lenzburg and the division of the Zürichgau brought Altstetten under the care of the Counts of Kyburg and later the Habsburgs in 1173 . Altstetten was also lent to the Lords of Schönenwerd for a long time by the Kyburgers. The Altstetten family is first mentioned in 1297 .

The city of Zurich joined the Old Confederation in 1351 . Altstetten remains under Habsburg rule. In 1410, the Blaue Ente tavern was opened at (today's) Badenerstrasse 663. On January 17, 1432, the Vogtei Altstetten was sold to the city of Zurich and remained under the regiment and administration of the city until the overthrow of 1798. The high court remained with the Habsburgs or the county of Baden , which was administered by the " Eight Old Places " until 1798 . In 1443 Altstetten was cremated by the Confederates.

The oldest depiction of today's coat of arms - the tower on Dreiberg - as the coat of arms of the "von Altstetten" family dates from 1488. In 1515, 27 citizens of Altstetter known by name took part in the battle of Marignano ; four of them died in battle. In 1629 the Altstetter Rotte numbered 70 men, who were equipped with muskets, armor, half-pieces and spears. In 1773 the first village well was built. The Wegisen coat of arms, which served the community from 1770 to 1896, is affixed to the head of the well. Today the fountain is on Lindenplatz. The billeting of French soldiers in 1798/99 caused damage that could only be repaired after decades.

The commissioning of the Zurich – Baden railway line of the Swiss Northern Railway (“Spanish-Brötli-Bahn”) in 1847 and the opening of the Altstetten station encouraged Altstetten to flourish and develop.

Eugen Huber , the law teacher and creator of the Swiss Civil Code, was born in Stammheim on July 13, 1849 in the doctoral center . Huber was an old man on both his father's and mother's side.

Altstetten on the Dufour map around 1850		The municipality within the Zurich district before the merger in 1933

In April 1890 the "Anzeiger für das Limmattal" appeared for the first time in Altstetten, initially only on Saturday. With the daily publication in 1930 he changed the name to “Limmattaler Tagblatt”.

13 restaurants were open to the 1700 inhabitants in 1890. The rail pass for 360 return trips to the city a year cost 36 francs. Eight industrial companies employed 426 people, more than half of whom are women. The square foot of land cost CHF 1.50 near the railway line in 1895 and CHF 3 on Bahnhofstrasse, today Altstetterstrasse.

In 1920 the Limmattal tram transported almost two million people a year.

In 1934 the independent municipality of Altstetten became part of the city of Zurich. The Altstetten neighborhood association was founded on February 24th . The first president was Carl Forster, the last mayor. On June 2nd, the Letzi guild was founded. In 1937 the Kappeli school was inaugurated; 1961 the Buchlern school house.

Aerial photo (1965)

In 1966 the Altstetten station followed as an early high-rise in Zurich . In 1967 the church community center in Altstetten was built - but not according to the plans of the architectural competition winner Alvar Aalto . The N1 motorway in the Altstetten area was completed in 1971. The expensive Zurich is noticeable after more than 70 million francs had to be spent on the 1.6 km long, level stretch between Juchhof and Hardturm Stadium .

Churches and religions

Old Reformed Church

Church history up to the Reformation

In Altstetten there was a pilgrimage chapel of Our Lady in the Middle Ages , which was a branch chapel of St. Peter (Zurich) . This chapel was first mentioned in a document in 1266. The church patronage of this chapel, together with the mother parish of St. Peter, came to the mayor Rudolf Brun in 1345 , and after his death in 1360 to the hospital in Zurich. The chapel had had its own chaplain since 1418 and was a popular place of pilgrimage to which the city of Zurich held five processions a year and to which Birmenstorf AG made a pilgrimage on the day after Ascension Day . In 1517, at the request of the priest at the Grossmünster , Erhard Blattmann, Zwingli's predecessor , Cardinal Matthäus Schiner issued a letter of indulgence for participants in the pilgrimages and in the memorial of the benefactors in the chapel in Altstetten.

Churches and religious centers today

Holy Cross Catholic Church

Reformed Church in the Suteracher

There are some churches and places of worship in Altstetten today:

The Evangelical Reformed Church has four churches in Altstetten:

• The Altstetten Old Church , which dates back to an early Romanesque church from the 11th century. The current church was built around 1303 as a village and pilgrimage church. In 1418 the nave and sacristy were rebuilt and the star vault was built in 1485. In 1761 and 1842 the nave was rebuilt and extended. This extension was dismantled in the years 1938–1941. In 1941 the church cemetery was closed. During the renovation in 1974–1975, a parish room was built into the tower staircase. On the north side of the old Reformed church is a bronze plaque with the following text: In the years 1938–1941, in the middle of the hard war, this church was completely renovated and a new one was built next to it. The excavations revealed the remains of a Roman villa rustica and the foundation walls of two Romanesque churches from the 11th and 13th centuries. Time goes by, the word of God remains in eternity. On November 30, 1941. The church maintenance.
• The New Church Altstetten , also called the Great Church of Altstetten . It was built according to plans by the architect Werner Max Moser between 1939–1941 and completed in 1942. The church received the award for good buildings from the city of Zurich.
• The Suteracher Church , which was built in 1981–1982 by the architect Benedikt Huber near the Farbhof. The church has a crown shape and impresses with the clever lighting in the interior. In 1985 it received the City of Zurich's Good Buildings Award. In addition to the Reformed congregation, the Catholic parish of Altstetten also regularly celebrates services in this church.
• The Chilehuus Grüenau , which was built in 1990 according to plans by the architect Werner Gysel and based on the basic structure of a Roman villa with atrium . In this church building services of several religions and denominations are held. The Chilehuus Grüenau was the first church in the city of Zurich to receive an electronic organ with the Allen digital organ .

The Roman Catholic Church is present in the Altstetten district with the parish Heilig-Kreuz.

• The Church of the Holy Cross was built between 1977 and 1979 by the architect Dezsö Ercsi and is located on Saumackerstrasse. This church is the youngest new building of the Catholic Church in the city of Zurich and replaces a previous church built in 1900.

The Methodist Church has a chapel in the neighborhood.

There are also the following religious centers in Altstetten:

• The Zoe Gospel Center Altstetten is located in a commercial building built in 1964 on Badenerstrasse. It was inaugurated in 1998.
• The Kadampa is a Buddhist meditation center that has been located in a residential and commercial building on Mirabellenstrasse since 2003.

Economy and Infrastructure

The IBM high-rise (architect Max Dudler ) on the northern side of the tracks ...		... and the Obsidian skyscraper opposite form the modern entrance gate to Zurich

There are a number of small businesses in Altstetten; many jobs, on the other hand, are located in the IT, banking and service industries. To mention are certainly UBS , IBM , ABB Micafil standpoint.

The central workshop of Verkehrsbetriebe Zürich (VBZ) has been located in Altstetten since 1975 . The VBZ's operational operations center has also been located on the site in the new “Silberwürfel” administrative building in 1993.

In Altstetten there are two cemeteries of different character: The Altstetten cemetery from 1908 is a traditional district cemetery , which has the common grave in the roses as a special feature . The Eichbühl cemetery from 1968 is considered one of the most important works of Swiss landscape architecture.

Landmarks / architecture

Evidence of early industrialization: former farmhouse with silk twisting

See also : List of cultural assets in Zurich / District 9

The quarter was hardly able to retain the originally village character in the former town center. Especially in the second half of the 20th century, Altstetten grew strongly due to enormous building activity. In addition to a few building sins , Altstetten also has a high level of architecture: Werner Max Moser's new reformed church is a building that fits very well next to the old church. Max Vogt's station building is an award-winning high-rise. The Helvetia Patria insurance office building at the train station is also of good quality. Max Dudler's IBM headquarters is also an energetically efficient high-rise.

From an architectural point of view, today's Zurich Altstetten station is one of the most important buildings of the SBB and one of the reasons why they received the 2005 Wakker Prize for a high-quality building culture.

Personalities

• Stefan Gabriel (1570–1638), Evangelical Reformed pastor in Altstetten 1623–1626
• Emilie Kempin-Spyri (1853 - 1901), the first Swiss woman to receive a doctorate in law and a habilitation in Switzerland
• Otto Baumberger (1889–1961), Zurich poster artist, painter and set designer
• Ernst Sieber (1927–2018), Protestant Reformed pastor in Altstetten 1967–1992

sport and freetime

Sports facilities:

• Letzigrund Stadium
• Altstetten indoor swimming pool
• Buchlern sports ground
• Juchhof sports ground 1 and 2
• Hardhof sports field (Grünau)
• Finnenbahn (exists since 1977)
• Community Center (GZ) Loogarten
• Community Center (GZ) Grünau
• Community Center (GZ) Bachwiesen

literature

• Episcopal Ordinariate Chur (ed.): Schematism of the Diocese of Chur. Chur 1980
• Building Department of the City of Zurich, Office for Urban Development: Wiedikon, Albisrieden, Altstetten . Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung , Zurich 2005 (Baukultur in Zurich, Volume IV), ISBN 3-03823-153-3
• Presidential Department of the City of Zurich, Statistics City of Zurich: Quartierspiegel Altstetten . Zurich 2015 ( read online )
• Patrick Düblin, Isabelle Fehlmann, Christophe Girot, Myriam Uzor (eds.): Exclusive Europabrücke: A detour through Zurich-Altstetten. gta Verlag, Zurich 2020 (Pamphlet +), ISBN 978-3-85676-404-3

Web links

Commons : Altstetten  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Martin Illi: Altstetten. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Altstetten on the ETHorama platform
• Video reconstruction of Alvar Aalto's non-built church project . In the competition for the church and the associated ref. He received the first prize in the parish center of Zurich-Altstetten.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Altstetten at ortsnames.ch ; Listed spelling variants: Altstetin , Altstettin , Altsteten , Altstetten , Altstätten ; Other variants: Alsteten (Hans Heinrich Bluntschli, Merckworthiness Der Statt Zürich und Dero Landschektiven , Zürich 1711), Alstetten (Official Gazette of the Canton of Zürich 53, 1863), Allstetten ( Thursday News XXXVI, 1779).
2. ^ Charles Knapp, Maurice Borel, Victor Attinger, Heinrich Brunner, Société neuchâteloise de geographie (editor): Geographical Lexicon of Switzerland . Volume 1: Aa - Emmengruppe . Verlag Gebrüder Attinger, Neuenburg 1902, p. 69, keyword Altstetten   ( scan of the lexicon page ).
3. ^ Felix Marbach: Zurich-Wollishofen , in: Bischöfliches Ordinariat Chur (Ed.): Schematismus des Diocese Chur. , P. 272
4. ↑ See the following: Robert Schönbächler: Churches and places of worship in the city of Zurich. New Year's Gazette Industriequartier / Aussersihl. Zurich 2013, pp. 97–102
5. ^ VBZ: company history
6. ^ Fachstelle Naturschutz, quoted from: Norbert Loacker and Christoph Hänsli: Where Zurich comes to rest. P. 35.