Baden AG

AG is the abbreviation for the canton of Aargau in Switzerland and is used to avoid confusion with other entries of the name Baden .

to bathe
State :	Switzerland
Canton :	Aargau (AG)
District :	to bathe
BFS no. :	4021
Postal code :	5400 5405 ( Dättwil ) 5406 ( Rütihof )
UN / LOCODE :	CH BAD (Baden) CH DWL (Dättwil)
Coordinates :	665 537  /  258 378 coordinates: 47 ° 28 '22 "  N , 8 ° 18' 29"  O ; CH1903:  six hundred and sixty-five thousand five hundred and thirty-seven  /  two hundred and fifty-eight thousand three hundred seventy-eight
Height :	381  m above sea level M.
Height range :	339–618 m above sea level M.
Area :	13.17  km²
Residents:	19,578 (December 31, 2019)
Population density :	1487 inhabitants per km²
Proportion of foreigners : (residents without citizenship )	26.8% (December 31, 2019)
Website:	www.baden.ch
The old town of Baden
Location of the municipality

Baden (in local dialect : [ ˈb̥ɑːd̥ə ]) is a city, municipality and the capital of the Baden district in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland . The city is located in the densely populated Limmat Valley , 21 kilometers northwest of Zurich , 22 kilometers northeast of the canton capital Aarau and 18 kilometers south of the Baden town of Waldshut-Tiengen (both as the crow flies).

Within the metropolitan region of Zurich , Baden is the center of an important sub-agglomeration with around 100,000 inhabitants. The city itself has over 19,000 inhabitants; This makes it the third most populous municipality in the canton after Aarau and the neighboring municipality of Wettingen , with which it is closely linked geographically and economically. When Brown, Boveri & Cie. (now ABB ) and an important location for the GE group ( Alstom until 2015 ), Baden is an internationally important center of the electrical engineering industry .

The history of Baden goes back to the 1st century AD, when the Romans began to use the warm thermal springs in what was then Aquae Helveticae . In 1297 the city was formally founded by the Habsburgs . The confederates conquered the city in 1415; Baden was a subject town until 1798, but had a prominent position as a health resort and the most important meeting place for the federal diets (until 1712). At the time of the Helvetic Republic , Baden was the capital of the canton of Baden , and since 1803 the city has belonged to the canton of Aargau.

geography

geology

The westernmost part of the Lägerngrat broke off in a rock fall in 1899, and the individual limestone layers are clearly visible.

Aerial photo (1950)

Baden lies at the intersection of the Swiss Plateau and the Jura Mountains . The Lägern , a rocky ridge (up to 866  m above sea level ) stretching as far as Dielsdorf in the Zürcher Unterland , forms the easternmost foothills of the Folded Jura . The ridge was formed four to nine million years ago through the unfolding of limestone layers . The Fold Jura continues in the west with the Hundsbuck ( 539  m above sea level ) and the upstream Schlossberg ( 457  m above sea level ). The two hills east and west of Baden are separated by a gorge that was created by the Limmat during the unfolding of the Jura. The Klus is so narrow at its narrowest point that the road could be led over the river with a short wooden bridge. In the area of ​​the throat, the Limmat has shallows and light rapids due to the steeper gradient.

On both sides of the Klus, the Limmattal expands to form broad basins with gravel deposits , the Wettingerfeld in the southeast and the Haselfeld in the north. From Killwangen to Baden, the river has dug deep into the gravel plain. The Limmat , which flows northward in Baden, meets the Goldwand at the edge of the Haselfeld and turns there to the west. At the bend in the river there are 21 springs from which thermal water with a high concentration of minerals comes to the surface (→ Baden thermal baths ). The Martinsberg ( 496  m above sea level ) and the Goldwand complete the Haselfeld and form a second clus. To the south of it lies the Eichtal between Martinsberg and Hundsbuck, which merges into the Müseren plateau. This is one of mainly of limestone existing Tafeljura .

In the south of the urban area , the landscape is dominated by the Heitersberg , a ridge of the Swiss plateau consisting of fresh water molasses . In contrast to the Folded Jurassic, the layers here were placed at an angle. The Heitersberg is divided into several hills; in Baden, these are the Chrüzliberg ( 513  m above sea level ), the Baregg ( 531  m above sea level ) and the Oberhau ( 617  m above sea level ) as the highest point in the city. Between Chrüzliberg and Baregg is the Teufelskeller , a sack with caves and striking rock towers. To the west of the Heitersberg range, separated by a lateral moraine since the Würm glacial period , lies the Reuss valley plain .

climate

Baden is in the moderate climatic zone . The climate is shaped on the one hand by the winds from the west, which often bring precipitation , and on the other hand by the bise (east or north-east wind), which is mostly associated with high pressure, but brings cooler weather phases in all seasons than would be expected on average. The foehn , which is important in the Alpine valleys and on the edge of the Alps , does not normally have any special climatic effects on Baden.

The closest MeteoSwiss climate measuring stations are in Buchs / Aarau and Zurich-Affoltern . Both are around 20 kilometers away and provide approximately the same values. This results in an annual mean temperature of 8.6 ° C for Baden . The coldest month is January with -0.6 ° C, the warmest is July with 18.0 ° C. The amount of precipitation is around 1050 mm per year, with higher amounts being measured during the three summer months than in winter due to the convective precipitation.

City structure

Bathing in the Siegfried Atlas (1874)

Due to the natural spatial structure, the settlement area has a radial structure. The center is formed by the old town located on the left bank of the Limmat in the gorge between the Lägern and the Schlossberg. To the north of it are the modern center with the train station , the spa district and the industrial area. Separated from the industrial area by the narrow area at the Klus am Martinsberg, the Kappelerhof district adjoins in the northwest on a level above the Limmat. The Allmend district and the former hamlet of Münzlishausen are located in the Eichtal west of the old town. To the south-west of the old town, in the narrow valley of the Stadtbach between Hundsbuck and Chrüzliberg, the Meierhof district extends to the Weiherhof, in the south on the eastern slope of the Chrüzliberg the Brunnmatt district with the cemetery. On the right side of the Limmat, Baden has a small area on the Wettingerfeld and on the slope of the Lägern foothills to below Schartenfels Castle.

Almost three kilometers southwest of the old town on the lateral moraine of the former Reuss glacier are the districts of Dättwil and Segelhof with a total of around 2800 inhabitants. The city owns almost all of its building land reserves in this area. Another two kilometers further south-west in the Reuss valley is the Rütihof district , an almost completely built-up exclave between the municipal areas of Fislisbach and Mellingen . With around 2,400 inhabitants, it is the most populous exclave in Switzerland.

The municipal area is 1317 hectares , of which 737 hectares are covered with forest and 453 hectares are built over. Baden has a very large forest area on the slope above the Limmat near Kappelerhof, in the Müseren, Langholz and Brenntrain area and on the Baregg to the Oberforst. Around a quarter of Baden's forest area is under nature protection; There are forest reserves in the Teufelskeller, on the Unterwilerberg and on the Sonnenberg. The highest point is at 619 meters on Oberhau, the lowest at 341 meters on the Limmat.

The neighboring communities of Baden are Obersiggenthal in the north, Ennetbaden and Wettingen in the east, Neuenhof in the south-east, Fislisbach in the south, Birmenstorf and Gibstorf in the west and Turgi in the north-west. The Rütihof exclave borders on Birmenstorf, Fislisbach and Mellingen . For its part, the municipality of Turgi owns a small enclave in the northwest of the Baden city area, a meadow surrounded by forest. Baden's city center, together with Ennetbaden, Neuenhof, Obersiggenthal and Wettingen, forms a seamlessly merged settlement area.

history

Prehistory and early history

The Limmattal was already settled during the Mesolithic . The people went fishing, as is shown by harpoons made from bone and deer antlers. During the Neolithic Age , a continuous settlement area developed along the Limmat. Objects found in the urban area can be assigned to the Horgen culture and the ceramic cord culture , including shoe last wedges , stone hatchets and hand spindles . Stone tools remained in use for a long time during the Bronze Age as copper and bronze had to be imported. Therefore, finds of metal objects are rather sparse, including an ax discovered near Dättwil . Only a primer is known from the Hallstatt period, and a clay bowl from the Latène period . Greek traders brought in in the 5th century BC. An apotropaion to Baden, which came to light in 1871. Around the 2nd century BC The Celtic ethnic group of the Helvetii began to settle in the 3rd century BC . Baden was probably one of 400 Helvetian settlements mentioned by Julius Caesar in his De bello Gallico report .

Roman time

→ Main article : Aquae Helveticae

In the 14th AD. Who built Romans about five kilometers west of Baden, in the municipality of Windisch , the legion camp Vindonissa . The Roman legionaries recognized the healing properties of the thermal water and built thermal baths at the bend in the Limmat, with inscriptions as Aquae Helveticae . Immediately adjacent was a vicus inhabited by traders and craftsmen in the first quarter of the 1st century . The place, which was probably under military administration, was at the intersection of important traffic connections. The main axis led from Augusta Raurica ( Augst ) via Vitudurum ( Oberwinterthur ) to Brigantium ( Bregenz ), before the bridge in Aquae Helveticae a road turned off in the direction of Turicum ( Zurich ), which led on to the Alpine passes. In 2008, excavations revealed that the settlement also extended to the Ennetbaden area.

Aquae Helveticae suffered a setback in the four-emperor year 69. The 21st Legion ( Legio XXI Rapax ), which supported the counter-emperor Vitellius , carried out a punitive action against the Helvetii, allied with Galba . As Tacitus reports in the Histories , the Legionnaires Aquae Helveticae burned down and wiped out the Helvetian militia. The 11th Legion ( Legio XI Claudia ) was involved in the reconstruction. A period of prosperity began in the second half of the 2nd century, which ended between 259 and 270 with repeated raids and looting by the Alamanni . The population decreased because the population was expelled and the Roman military could not offer protection because of the temporary retreat over the Alps. In late antiquity , the place was again inhabited, but it was significantly smaller than before.

Early and High Middle Ages

Ruin stone

Alemannic tombs from the 7th century indicate that the area was continuously populated after the final withdrawal of the Romans in the first decade of the 5th century. In the second half of the 9th century, the first previous building of today's parish church was built, which was on the edge of a village settlement.

Even before the turn of the millennium was built on the rocky ridge Schlossberg the castle stone . On whose order it was established is unclear; it was probably the Counts of Nellenburg , the rulers of the Zurichgau at that time . Since the Counts of Lenzburg , in contrast to the Nellenburgers, sided with the German King Heinrich IV in the investiture dispute , they were awarded the Zürichgau in 1077, and thus also Baden. Before 1127 there was a division of the Lenzburg rule; the descendants of Arnold II (1070–1127) referred to themselves as Counts of Baden : 1130 Arnold de Baden, 1140 Werinherus comes de Badin etc. The place name itself is in the necrology of the Liber Heremi for the, preserved in a copy from the 16th century First attested in its German form around 1030: Comes Eberhardus dedit huobam in Baden. It is a translation of the Roman name Aquae in the dative of the place (ze) badun "at the baths".

The Baden line died out in 1172, the main line in 1173. Emperor Barbarossa reassigned the fiefdoms . The western Zurichgau between Limmat and Reuss came under the control of the Habsburgs . Exceptions were Baden and Stein Castle, which were inherited by the Counts of Kyburg . Hartmann IV. Von Kyburg died in 1264 without male offspring. The later King Rudolf I , Count of Habsburg, took over the guardianship of the minor heiress and thus also the administration of the rule. In 1273 he forced the cession of the dominions in Aargau and Zürichgau, which also meant Baden fell to the Habsburgs.

Habsburg city

The settlement at the narrowest point of the Klus began to take on urban features after the granting of market rights . The 1265 mentioned "Niderhus" (later Landvogteischloss ) protected the eastern bridgehead on impassable Lägerngrat and bolted together with the castle stone from the bottleneck. Around 800 meters north of the main settlement, there was a second settlement focus around the thermal springs, with the “large baths” on the left and the “small baths” on the right bank of the river. Around 1250, Baden developed into its own high court district .

Agnes of Hungary

During the first phase of the Habsburg Wars, Albrecht I recognized the strategic potential. In 1297 he granted city rights and had Baden expanded as a fortress against Zurich's expansionist efforts. 1303–1307 the Habsburg land register was created , an inventory of the Habsburg claims. Its place of storage was Stein Castle, which developed into the administrative seat and central archive of Upper Austria . Queen Agnes of Hungary founded the Agnespital in 1349 , which was able to acquire numerous basic and patronage rights and became an important economic and power factor.

At the end of 1351 Zurich troops moved through the Ostaargau. They could not take the city, but burned the baths and looted the surrounding villages. In the battle of Dättwil on December 26th they were able to fight their way back and bring the prey to safety. In 1375, Baden withstood an attack by the Gugler , but the suburb caught fire. The battle of Sempach in 1386 was followed by raids by the Confederates . Zürcher and Schwyzer burned down the baths again in July 1388. Duke Frederick IV fell out of favor in March 1415 at the Council of Constance after he had given the antipope John XXIII. had helped escape. King Sigismund urged the Confederates to conquer Aargau in the name of the empire.

Siege of Baden by the Confederates (1415)

The confederates took the Aargau towns and castles with little resistance. On April 25, 1415, they began to siege Baden, the last Habsburg bastion. The defenders under Landvogt Burkart von Mansberg had to give up the city on May 3rd and withdrew to the castle. After the Confederates had received reinforcements, Mansberg concluded an armistice on May 11th. He wanted to gain time with this, because Duke Friedrich had reconciled himself with the king in the meantime. Sigismund demanded the immediate cessation of hostilities and the return of the conquered territories. The Confederates resisted this order: They forced the defenders to surrender on May 18, took the Habsburg archives to Lucerne and razed the castle.

Under the rule of the confederates

Sigismund declared Baden a free imperial city , but this status was purely fictitious after just a few weeks, as the king sold the imperial pledge to Zurich via eastern Aargau. In December 1415 Zurich included the other participating towns in the imperial pledge. As a result, the Swiss took over de facto rule. Baden and the surrounding area became the county of Baden as a common rule , a jointly administered subject area of ​​the Eight Old Places . Every two years each place provided a governor who resided in the governor's palace.

Diet in the town hall (1531)

Baden was already a popular venue for negotiations during the Habsburg era because of the baths and the distractions that went with them. The confederates continued this tradition. The administration of the jointly conquered areas made more frequent agreements necessary. Therefore, from 1416 onwards, the delegates met in Baden's town hall for the daily statutes . These took place in other cities as well, but the most important deals were negotiated in Baden. This included the acceptance of the annual accounts of all common lords, but also decisions about war, peace and alliances. Important treaties that were negotiated here are the Baden Treaty of 1585 and the Defensionale of 1668.

King Friedrich III. allied with Zurich in 1443 in the Old Zurich War . Baden surrendered to the other places without a fight. On July 2, 1443, they confirmed the theoretical status as a Free Imperial City and enforced unrestricted access at all times. In addition, Baden had to behave neutrally in future disputes. A few days later the Austrians attacked Baden, but it failed. Up until 1446, the people of Zurich tried four times to take the city. The attempts failed, but the people of Zurich plundered the area and set the baths and the suburb on fire.

The county of Baden was a tightly managed administrative district, with the city having a special autonomous position. The mayor and the six-member Small Council were the holders of government and judicial powers. They jointly ran the administration, supervised the market, were appellants and appointed officials. The mayor was elected from among the ranks of the Small Council, which also appointed new members. The Council of Forty, which was also complementary, was consulted for particularly important business. Schultheiss, Little Council and Council of Forty appointed the Council of Sixty, which only had representative tasks. Over time a patriciate formed that excluded ordinary citizens from politics.

Because of the baths and the location at the intersection of several important streets, the economic structure was diverse. The share of goods traffic on the Limmat, on the other hand, was small, as Zurich controlled it like a monopoly. The catchment area of ​​the market encompassed almost the entire county of Baden and oppressed those of the nearby small towns. Which was represented above average among the artisans due to the demand of bathers and envoys crafts . The handicraft branches were organized in brotherhoods, which however had no political influence. High unpaid income led to a strong financial strength . The "Rentamt" invested the surplus funds from the city budget in loans that went to private individuals, princes, monasteries and cities.

Reformation turmoil and religious wars

Baden Disputation (1526)

In 1512, the city of Baden received from Pope Julius II a valuable Julius banner for the services rendered in the Great Pavier Campaign in 1508–1510 to expel the French. Huldrych Zwingli began to spread the teachings of the Reformation in 1519 and soon found followers in the county of Baden. When the pastor of Fislisbach (a collature of the Agnesspital) sided with the reformer in 1522, this led to a tumult, which was one of the triggers of the Zurich disputations of 1523. In May and June 1526 the Baden disputation between Johannes Eck and Johannes Oekolampad took place. Four of the Thirteen Old Places opted for the new faith, which meant the end of denominational unity. Numerous parishes in the county joined the Reformation. The city, on the other hand, remained Catholic, mainly because it did not want to endanger its status as a meeting place and health resort.

In 1529 the latent tensions led to the First Kappel War , which ended without a fight. In the common rulers, the parishes were allowed to decide autonomously about religious beliefs, although Baden remained true to the old faith. In the Second Kappel War of 1531, the Catholic towns prevented the Reformation from spreading further. According to the Second Land Peace , several parishes around Baden and the Wettingen monastery were re-Catholicized. The Agnesspital continued to own their collatures in Zurich area, but had to tolerate the appointment of Reformed clergymen.

View of the city of Baden by Matthäus Merian (1642)

Baden continued to be a popular travel destination for secular and spiritual dignitaries of both denominations. In 1588, the Capuchins founded the monastery of St. John and Katharina , which served as a meeting place for the Catholic delegates during the daily statutes. In 1612, a year after a devastating plague epidemic , the Capuchin Convent of the Virgin Mary was founded . The city founded the Canons of the Assumption in 1624 .

After the defeat of the Reformed in the First Villmerger War of 1655/56, Baden planned to rebuild Stein Castle as a fortress . At the end of 1657 the construction work, financed with own funds, began, which represented a clear disregard of the peace and neutrality provisions. Zurich protested against the building of the fortress, banned its citizens from visiting baths for six years and issued economic sanctions. But the other places did not want to be drawn into another conflict. The construction of the fortress was completed in 1670, and the city walls were reinforced by 1692. During the War of the Spanish Succession , Baden was the seat of the Austrian ambassador; the ambassadors of France and Spain often stayed in the city.

The defense structure was already technically obsolete when it was completed. In particular, there was no external works , so that the opponents had an easy target. A few weeks after the outbreak of the Second Villmerger War, the Bernese and Zurich residents besieged Baden on May 30, 1712; they bombarded the city and fortress with artillery . While the Schultheiss was still negotiating with the Bernese in view of the severe damage, four councilors handed the gate keys to the people of Zurich on the morning of May 31, whereupon they marched in.

Witch hunt

The burning of three witches on November 4th, 1585, Baden AG

The witch hunts in Baden are a dark chapter in the city's history. In the 16th century, over 30 witch trials were conducted by the jurisdiction of the County of Baden . Johann Jakob Wick depicts the burning of three witches on November 4, 1585 in Baden. There was rivalry between the county of Baden and the city over the jurisdiction of the jurisdiction. There is no record of any trial conducted by the city's judicial authorities prior to 1608. At the beginning of the 17th century, the mayor and the small council and large council of the city of Baden tried to obtain a judicial monopoly on witch hunts. All women accused were sentenced to death. There is no evidence of witch trials against men. For the city of Baden, there are references to the names of 17 victims of the witch trials for the 17th century. The last two victims of the witch hunt in 1642 were Maria Bodmer von Baden, who is said to have belonged to one of the city's first citizen families, and Barbel Zingin from Schneisingen .

Crisis and revolution

Member of the Baden Peace Congress 1714, painting by Johann Rudolf Huber

In 1712, Baden had to accept tough terms of surrender. The winners took possession of all weapons, cash, silver dishes as well as art objects and church bells. The people of Zurich destroyed the fortress by June 18 and forced the people of Baden to use the demolished material to build the reformed church . The Catholic places were excluded from the administration of the county, and the city had to cede powers to the governors. Citizens had to swear a submissive oath of homage every 15 years.

After the end of the War of Succession, peace negotiations between the European powers took place in Baden from the beginning of June to September 7, 1714. The inclusion of the Holy Roman Empire in the Peace of Rastatt was negotiated. Emissaries from 39 governments were in the city; the French envoy alone had around 300 companions, including a theater company. The glamor of the pompous congress, which ended with the Peace of Baden , could only briefly conceal the significant loss of importance after 1712. Although there were still occasional meetings, the Catholic places refused to discuss the administration and the accounts of the common lords here. Due to the increasing lack of bathers, Baden experienced an economic weakening for decades.

The reformed church was built from the demolition material from the Stein fortress

During the years of the French Revolution , refugees repeatedly stayed in Baden. During the French invasion of 1798, the situation initially remained calm. But after Bern capitulated on March 5th, resistance against the old order arose here too. On April 12, the Helvetic Republic was founded under French pressure . The day before, the County of Baden, the free offices , the Merenschwand office and the cellar office formed the new canton of Baden . In the central Swiss state, the cantons were purely administrative units, which were further subdivided into districts and municipalities . Baden was designated the canton's capital on May 17th.

The Second Coalition War had serious effects on Baden in 1799. Thousands of French soldiers had to be accommodated and fed. During the First Battle of Zurich , General André Masséna had the bridges in Baden and at Wettingen Monastery destroyed in order to secure the retreat. Reconstruction began after the Second Battle of Zurich , but the opening was delayed until 1809. Between 1802 and 1805, prisoners built a bypass road on the left bank, despite protests from the city and the monastery, which saw their bridge toll income at risk.

After the French had temporarily withdrawn in late summer 1802, the situation destabilized. On September 13, farmers from Ehrendingen and Siggenthal occupied the town without resistance. The uprising expanded into a Stecklik war and after a few days led to the overthrow of the Helvetic government. The French moved in again at the end of October. With the mediation act signed by Napoleon Bonaparte on March 19, 1803 , the Helvetic Republic ceased to exist. The canton of Baden was dissolved, since then Baden has been the district capital in the canton of Aargau. Dättwil aspired to the union with Baden. But on September 12, 1804, against the will of the residents, the cantonal government ordered the merger of Dättwils with Rütihof , Münzlishausen and several individual farms to form an independent municipality. The French rule ended in 1813.

Change in values, railway construction, industrialization

Territorial development of Baden

For centuries there was a complicated legal relationship with Ennetbaden , the district on the right bank of the Limmat. Only the owners of the "small baths" had citizenship, the other residents were back seaters , who were liable to pay a tenth to the monastery of St. Blasien . After 1415, tax liability increasingly shifted to the city, without the Ennetbaden residents being granted the same rights. From 1798 onwards they sent a representative to the city council, but he only had a limited right of participation, so that tensions often arose. When the Ennetbaden residents refused to pay the police tax, in January 1817 the city council applied to the canton to separate the district and create an independent municipality from it. After long negotiations, the cantonal government issued a corresponding decree, which came into force on December 22, 1819 after the approval of the Grand Council .

A cultural change took place in the course of the 19th century. New buildings fundamentally changed the cityscape and the settlement area expanded. The previously dominant Catholic influence waned. The liberal cantons passed the Baden Articles on January 27, 1834 , with the aim of bringing the Catholic Church under state control. In the course of the Aargau monastery dispute , when the Aargau government abolished all monasteries in January 1841, the two monasteries in Baden also had to close. Although the Capuchin convent was reopened in 1843, it was finally closed in 1867. The Kulturkampf let the denominational differences collide one last time in 1874/1875 when the city council liquidated the monastery. The change in values ​​also led to the demolition of traditional buildings such as the Agnesspital, the Mellingerturm and the Capuchin Church.

Baden railway station around 1850

The industrialization began late. The first factory, the Wild & Solivo spinning mill , started operations in 1837 and used the hydropower of the Limmat. The railway had a decisive influence on later economic development : From August 7, 1847, Baden was the terminus of the first purely Swiss railway line, the Swiss Northern Railway from Zurich. It was nicknamed "Spanish-Brötli-Bahn", after the Spanish rolls made in Baden . The first railway tunnel in Switzerland was built under the Schlossberg . On September 29, 1856, the route to Brugg was extended.

Spa district around the turn of the century (postcard view)

The construction of the railway led, with a little delay, to the settlement of metalworking companies. In 1863 the trade association for the promotion of the economy founded the bank in Baden (1905 in the bank in Winterthur , one of the original UBS companies , merged). In the following year the trade bank was founded by the craftsmen and trade association, from which the trade bank developed (part of the NAB since 1995 ). Even the tourism benefited: Major investments led to a flowering of baths operation. After the opening of the Kursaal , the Kurpark and the Grand Hotel in the mid-1870s, more and more international spa guests found their way to Baden.

During the railway boom in the 1870s, Baden took part in the Swiss National Railways (SNB). A “Volksbahn” financed with community money was planned to compete with the private “Herrenbahnen” SCB and NOB . On September 6, 1877, the SNB opened the Wettingen - Lenzburg - Zofingen section with the Baden Oberstadt train station. The forced liquidation of the SNB and its takeover by the NOB followed as early as 1878. The repayment of the guaranteed capital burdened the city's finances until 1935. Armin Kellersberger , the then city ​​administrator , was able to avert the opening of bankruptcy proceedings because of the debt burden.

In 1891 Charles Eugene Lancelot Brown and Walter Boveri founded Brown, Boveri & Cie. In Baden . (BBC). Extensive manufacturing facilities were built on the Haselfeld. The first order from the BBC was to build generators for the Kappelerhof municipal power station , which began operations in 1892 (it was also the first power station in Aargau). Boveri also founded Elektrizitätswerke Olten-Aarburg AG in 1894 and Motor AG in 1895 . from which Axpo and Motor-Columbus later emerged.

Development to the Ostaargau regional center

Entrance to the Brown, Boveri & Cie. (around 1900)

Due to the great success of the BBC and its rise to a global corporation, Baden experienced rapid population growth that also affected neighboring communities. The industrial sector benefited from the elimination of foreign competition during the First World War . Because of the high inflation, however, large parts of the population became impoverished, which posed major socio-political problems for the city. The Spanish flu was also rampant . During the national strike in November 1918, the military occupied the city for three days. The global economic crisis hit the export-dependent electrical engineering industry hard: Around half of the workers had to be laid off, but after a few years an upswing followed. During the Second World War , bunkers and anti-tank barriers were built around Baden as part of the “ Limmat Line ” against a possible German attack, and part of the forest was cleared for agricultural use in the course of the “cultivation battle” ( Plan Wahlen ).

Based on the regional planning by Hans Marti , the city implemented the “major traffic rehabilitation” between 1957 and 1965. The aim was to defuse road traffic in the natural bottleneck. The railway line was moved to the new Kreuzlibergtunnel , which made it possible to remove the level crossings at Schlossbergplatz and Schulhausplatz , which were increasingly obstructing traffic. Road traffic was banned from the old town and has since passed through the Schlossberg railway tunnel from 1847. In 1972, the first pedestrian zone in Switzerland was created in Badstrasse as part of the station renovation.

Just before the First World War, bathing tourism had reached its peak. But the following years of war and crisis led to a gradual decline. The Grand Hôtel went bankrupt and was blown up by the Swiss Army in 1944 , and numerous other hotels also had to close as a result. Baden suffered a loss of importance as a health resort and fell far behind its Aargau competitors Bad Zurzach , Rheinfelden and Schinznach-Bad . This contrasted with the growing importance of industry: around 1960 two thirds of the workforce were employed in the industrial sector.

Former farmhouse in Dättwil

From the 1940s, efforts were made to incorporate the community of Dättwil with the exclaves Rütihof , Segelhof and Münzlishausen into Baden. In 1959, the Baden City Council received the Municipal Assembly instructed to draw up an agreement. The Baden community assembly approved the merger agreement with a clear majority; in the entire community of Dättwil there was a majority of 96 to 32 votes. However, the approval varied greatly: While there were almost no votes against in the districts of Münzlishausen and Rütihof, a slim majority in the largest district of Dättwil spoke out against it and was consequently outvoted. After the result was formally confirmed by the Grand Council , the merger took place on January 1, 1962. The main motivation for the merger on the part of Baden was the structural development opportunities that resulted from it. The later growth of the city then took place almost exclusively in the incorporated districts. In 1967 the BBC's research center was built in the Segelhof and in 1978 the cantonal hospital in Dättwil .

In the 1980s, a profound structural change began, which was associated with de-industrialization and the shift towards the service sector. For example, the fittings company Oederlin and the washing machine manufacturer Merker turned into real estate companies. The merger of the BBC and the Swedish ASEA in 1988 to form Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) had an even greater impact . Although ABB continued to be present in Baden, it relocated numerous manufacturing companies to other locations in Switzerland; the systems that were no longer needed were given new uses.

21st century

Since the turn of the millennium, Baden has again reached its growth limits. Following the trend towards increased parish mergers , Baden sought to merge with Neuenhof between 2012 and 2014. The councils of both municipalities signed a declaration of intent in March 2008. The community assembly of Neuenhof and the residents' council of Baden approved the merger on March 30, 2010, which should have been implemented on January 1, 2012. In the referendum on June 13, 2010, Neuenhof clearly agreed to the merger, but the population of Baden narrowly rejected it. The merger would have made Baden the most populous municipality in the canton. The goal of the cantonal government to develop Baden into a center with national appeal through further mergers has thus suffered a major setback.

Seal, flag and coat of arms

Heraldic shield with heralds and banner (1501)

The first use of a city ​​seal is attested in a document dated February 25, 1311. It showed, bathed in spring water and entwined with grapevines, a bathing pool in which a man and a woman sit and eat grapes. It was in use until 1497; there were also six similar seals that were used until around 1800. The hospital had its own seal (a hand stretching out two fingers in front of the Greek cross). The first written mention of the Baden city banner comes from the year 1361. The city regiment took it with them to the Battle of Sempach in 1386 , the oldest pictorial representation can be found in 1470 in the Tschachtlan chronicle .

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms reads: "Under a red shield head in white black post." In 1441, the first depiction of the banner in the form of a coat of arms, cast in iron, was affixed above the gate of the city tower, with the raised imperial eagle , which should clarify the theoretical status as a free imperial city . The meaning of the coat of arms is not known. Possibly it goes back to the Counts of Lenzburg-Baden, or it is a derivative of the red-white-red Austrian coat of arms. The city coat of arms remains unchanged as the district coat of arms. The city colors are black and white.

Cityscape and architecture

See also : List of cultural assets in Baden

Old town

View of the old town around 1800

Baden's old town stretches between the wedge-shaped, towering Schlossberg in the west and the heap, which slopes steeply towards the banks of the Limmat. In terms of settlement history, it can be divided into three parts. The oldest part in the west was laid out in a fan shape in the middle of the 13th century, was the center of the market and took up the through traffic in north-south direction. At the beginning of the 14th century, the concentric middle section followed with a church district and representative buildings. Finally, in the second half of the 14th century, an extension to the north and down to the river followed. Most of the building fabric dates from the 16th to 18th centuries, the houses are built in the Gothic , and occasionally in the Baroque style. Rule usually traufständige of three continuous rows of houses to four storeys before. The townscape as a whole is one of the most impressive in Switzerland and is a cultural asset of national importance; Apart from the public buildings, few houses stand out because of their unusual character.

City tower

The Stein ruin rises around 60 meters above the old town, and is Baden's landmark due to its exposed location on the Schlossberg . The castle, which was built around the year 1000, was the Habsburg archive for almost 150 years , until it was destroyed by the Confederates in 1415. The city had the castle rebuilt as a fortress from 1657 to 1670 ; in 1712 it was razed again . In addition to the reconstructed watchtower, only the St. Nicholas Castle Chapel has survived . To the east of the ruin, remains of the old city wall lead down to the city ​​tower . It was built around 1445 and is 56.45 meters high. The tower, decorated with bay windows and painted with frescoes, served the architect Gustav Gull as a template for the tower of the National Museum Zurich .

City parish church

The tower of the parish church Maria Himmelfahrt in the middle of the old town reaches a height of 52 meters . The Gothic church has existed in its current form since 1460; its first predecessor dates back to the second half of the 9th century. The neighboring Sebastian Chapel , the former ossuary, dates from 1509 . A row of houses consisting of four public buildings is located near the church square. This includes the town hall , the town hall , the former armory and the city ​​chancellery . The conference room on the second floor of the town hall was the most important meeting place of the federal constitution for three centuries.

With the Bernerhaus in Weiten Gasse, built in 1676, the city of Bern was the only place in the Confederation to provide permanent quarters for its envoys. The granary on the river bank by the wooden bridge , dating from the early 16th century, served as a grain store, barracks, prison and theater, among other things. The most striking fountain in the city is the lion fountain erected in front of the city tower in 1822, named after the lion-shaped fountain figure.

Spa area

View of the spa area

The spa district is located at the bend in the river, where the north-flowing Limmat turns west. As early as the Middle Ages, the spa district was a geographically independent settlement that was clearly separated from the old town and consisted mainly of inns. The left bank, unorganized, was surrounded by a wall on the south and west sides, the smaller right bank, now part of Ennetbaden, consists of a row of houses along the river bank.

In the 19th century, numerous late medieval and early modern buildings were replaced by buildings in the classicist and historicist style, whereby the angled and partly interlocking floor plans were retained. They are grouped around Kurplatz, on Bäderstrasse and at the northern end of the Limmat promenade. After the health resort flourished at the beginning of the 20th century, the building fabric was often neglected, but renovation measures have been underway since the turn of the millennium. The hotels Bären , Blume , Limmathof , Ochsen and Verenahof as well as the Inhalatorium are particularly worth mentioning . The Dreikönigskapelle , which had existed since the 12th century, was demolished in 1881 and a new building in neo-Gothic style was built in its place .

Remaining city area

Governor's Palace

The historically most important building outside the old town and the spa district is the Landvogteischloss on the right bank of the Limmat . It forms the eastern bridgehead of the wooden bridge and the counterpart to the Stein ruins, with which it secured the narrow point of the Badener Klus. The core of the three-story castle is erected in the first half of the 12th century castle keep , in three stages extensions were added to the. From 1415 to 1798 resided here Landvogt the county Baden . The rock ridge of the Lägern once reached right in front of the castle, but broke off in a rock fall in 1899, so that there is now a wide gap. The St. Anna Chapel of the former infirmary is in the immediate vicinity .

Kursaal

The station building of the Baden train station , built in 1847 according to plans by Ferdinand Stadler , halfway between the old town and the spa district, is the oldest in the country, which has been preserved in its original state and is still used today for rail operations. The reformed church is located between the train station and the banks of the Limmat . This baroque church building was erected in 1714 by order of the victorious Reformed villages from the demolition material from the destroyed Stein fortress and represented a provocation for the then exclusively Catholic population. One of the oldest representative residential buildings between the two settlement centers is the neighboring Haus zum Schwert (built in 1791) . The largest green space within the built-up area is the Kurpark, north of the train station, in the middle of which is the classical Kursaal , built in 1875 .

Another outstanding classicist building is the district building immediately south of the old town on Schulhausplatz. Originally built as a schoolhouse in 1856, it is now the seat of the district authorities and the district prison. In the Kappelerhof district to the northwest of the center is the Maria Wil chapel , a baroque pilgrimage chapel from the 17th century. The former community building Martinsberg of the BBC is considered to be one of the most important buildings of Swiss post-war modernism . In the villages of Dättwil and Rütihof, individual farmhouses from the 19th century have been preserved, while Münzlishausen presents itself as a group of farmsteads from around 1800. The viewing platform on the 34 meter high water tower near the Baldegg excursion restaurant offers an impressive panorama.

population

Population development in the city of Baden

The population developed as follows:

year	1690	1799	1850	1900	1930	1950	1960	1970	1980	1990	2000	2010
Residents	around 1800	1202	3159	6489	10,624	12,127	14,553	14'115	13,870	15,718	16'270	18'059

On December 31, 2019, 19,578 people lived in Baden, the proportion of foreigners was 26.8% and was thus just above the cantonal average of 25.2%. In the 2015 census, 34.4% described themselves as Roman Catholic and 20.6% as Reformed ; 45.0% were non-denominational or of other faiths. 83.8% of the population reported in the 2000 census German as their primary language, 3.3% Italian , 3.0% Serbo-Croatian , 1.5% English , 1.4% French , the 1.0% Albanian and Spanish , as well as 0.7% Portuguese . According to the 2015 census, of the 5076 residents with foreign citizenship at the time, the citizens of Germany were most strongly represented with 24.8%. This was followed by 14.3% from Italy , 4.4% from Serbia , 3.6% from Portugal , 3.5% each from Kosovo and Spain , 3.2% from Austria , 3.1% from Croatia , 2.4 % from Turkey and 2.2% from Sri Lanka .

Politics and law

The Political Municipality (called community of residents in the canton of Aargau) performs all municipal tasks that have not been declared to be the sphere of activity of another type of municipality (for example, the parishes of the regional churches ) by superordinate law .

legislative branch

Instead of a usual in smaller communities Municipal Assembly represented the company since 1972, chosen by the voters of Baden municipal parliament, the Einwohnerrat , the concerns of the population. It consists of 50 members who are each elected for four years by proportional representation. He is responsible for approving the tax rate , the budget, the annual accounts, the annual report and the loans. It also issues regulations, controls the conduct of office of the executive and decides on naturalizations . The residents' councils can submit parliamentary proposals ( motion , postulate , small questions ). The venue is the hall of the “Pfaffechappe” schoolhouse.

The graphic on the right shows the distribution of seats after the election on September 24, 2017. In the last five elections, the parties achieved the following number of seats:

4th

9

8th

1

4th

7th

11

6th

4th 9 8th 1 4th 7th 11 6th 

A total of 50 seats

• GPS : 4
• SP : 9
• team Baden : 8
• EVP : 1
• glp : 4
• CVP : 7
• FDP : 11
• SVP : 6

Political party	2001	2005	2009	2013	2017
FDP	11	12	11	10	11
SP	12	11	9	9	9
bathe team	5	7th	7th	9	8th
CVP	10	11	8th	8th	7th
SVP	7th	5	8th	8th	6th
GPS	2	3	4th	3	4th
glp	-	-	2	2	4th
EPP	2	1	1	1	1
SD	1	-	-	-	-

Various elements of direct democracy can also be found at the level of the resident community . The population is entitled to optional and compulsory referendums as well as the popular initiative .

executive

Baden City Hall (before renovation 2013)

See also : List of Stadtammänner von Baden AG

The executing authority is the seven-member city ​​council . He is elected by the people for four years in a majority process . The city council leads and represents the local community. To this end, it implements the resolutions of the residents' council and the tasks assigned to it by the canton. The meetings take place in the city ​​chancellery .

The seven city councilors for the 2018–2021 term are:

• Markus Schneider (CVP), city ​​administrator
• Regula Dell'Anno-Doppler (SP), Vice-Captain
• Matthias Gotter (CVP)
• Sandra Kohler (independent)
• Ruth Müri (team bathing)
• Erich Obrist (independent)
• Philippe André Ramseier (FDP)

Judiciary

The Baden District Court is responsible for litigation in the first instance . Baden is the seat of Friedensrichterkreis III, which comprises seven communities in the north of the district. In addition, the city has been the seat of the regional public prosecutor's office for the Baden district since 2011.

National elections

In the Swiss parliamentary elections in 2019, the share of the vote in Baden was: SP 24.4%, Greens 15.4%, FDP 14.8%, SVP 14.7%, glp 13.6%, CVP 9.4%, EPP 2, 5%, BDP 2.2%.

Local citizen

The local citizens' community includes those residents who are citizens of Baden. The main task is the administration of the local citizens' property. Its origin lies in the civil estates that were taken over from the time of the Ancien Régime. Almost the entire forest in the urban area belongs to the local community; it has it managed by its own city forestry office. They also own the St. Anna retirement home, land and real estate, two restaurants and a 2.5 hectare vineyard . The legislature is the local citizens' assembly, the executive is the city council of the municipality (which also includes non-local citizens).

Twin town

Sighișoara (Schässburg) in Romania has been the twin town of Baden since 1991 . The focal points of the partnership are the development and expansion of waste disposal and drinking water treatment, enabling training stays in and around Baden, humanitarian support and the modernization of schools and administration.

economy

Baden, once the industrial center of Aargau, has been shaped by the service sector since the structural change at the end of the 20th century . Economic activities are concentrated in the city center and the Täfern industrial and commercial zone in Dättwil . According to the company structure statistics (STATENT) collected in 2015, around 29,700 jobs are offered in over 2,300 companies, 0.2% of them in agriculture , 29.2% in industry and 70.6% in the service sector. More than two thirds of the people working in Baden live in the agglomeration communities or in the wider area, which means that there are large flows of commuters on working days .

Established businesses

The spacious industrial quarter with the ABB and Alstom plants

Cantonal Hospital in Dättwil

The headquarters of the Swiss-Swedish electrical engineering group ABB is now in Zurich ; numerous production facilities were relocated to other locations. The seat of ABB Schweiz AG is still Baden, even if the company is much less dominant than the former Brown, Boveri & Cie. (BBC). The company management, a research center, further training facilities and the production of high-voltage technology, industrial robots and turbochargers are located here. The part of the ABB site that is no longer used has been converted into the new Baden Nord district with mixed residential and commercial zones. Since the sale of the ABB power plant division (1999/2000), the French Alstom was another global group based in Baden. In November 2015, the Alstom energy division, including all parts of the company based in Baden (with the exception of a small part, which was spun off to Ansaldo Energia for competition reasons ), was taken over by General Electric and integrated into the newly created Power business area. General Electric's main business areas in Baden are the development of components for gas and steam power plants, the handling of power plant projects and services.

The energy company Axpo and its subsidiary Nordostschweizerische Kraftwerke are also based in Baden . The Motor-Columbus , the power plants financed and planned, was 2,007 in Atel Holding on.

The largest employer outside the electrical engineering and electricity industry is the Baden Cantonal Hospital . The companies Enics and COS Computer Systems are active in the electronics and IT sectors, and the Swiss branches of Oracle and Brother are also located here . The H. Müller brewery is one of the largest independent breweries in Switzerland. Aquilana Insurance developed from the former BBC company health insurance fund . The AZ Medien are in Baden with the Executive Committee, the editors of the Aargauer Zeitung and the AT Verlag represented. The German weekly newspaper Die Zeit maintains the editorial office for the Swiss articles. The regional television station Tele M1 had its studio in Baden until 1999 before it was relocated to Aarau .

shop

The retail trade is dominated by the Migros and Coop shopping centers , the Manor department store and the Jumbo DIY store . The Metroshop shopping arcade extends under the station , to which the Badstrasse and Weite Gasse shopping streets are connected.

The weekly market on Saturdays (from March to November also on Tuesdays) and the two annual markets in May and November have a centuries-old tradition . Several times a year there is a flea market on Theaterplatz , at the beginning of December there is an Advent market and a Christmas market on the church square.

tourism

→ Main article : Baden thermal baths

Hotel Limmathof

The 18 thermal springs make Baden a well-known health resort . The 46.6 ° C warm thermal water is characterized by a high total mineralization of 4450 mg / l, the highest in Switzerland. The proportion of sulfates and calcium is particularly high . The spa cures are particularly suitable for rheumatic complaints, mechanical damage and metabolic disorders.

The Romans had already used the springs and the baths had been known nationwide since the late Middle Ages. Writers such as Niklaus Manuel , Thomas Murner and David Hess referred to the "Badenfahrten". After the Reformation, these were particularly popular in Reformed Zurich , as some things were permitted in Catholic Baden that were forbidden by the Zwinglian moral laws. The importance of the spa business fell sharply in the 20th century, although it even made its way into world literature with the story of Hermann Hesse's spa guest . Baden missed the connection with modern developments and fell behind other Aargau health resorts.

Efforts have been underway since the beginning of the 21st century to get rid of the somewhat old-fashioned image. One deviated from the purely medical aspect of the cure and turned more towards wellness . A casino , the Grand Casino Baden, was opened in the former Kursaal in 2002 . A new thermal bath according to plans by the architect Mario Botta will be built in the spa district by 2021 . Baden is becoming increasingly important as a conference venue. The city is located in a scenic hiking area on the Jurahöhenweg . Along the Limmat, between the Baden wooden bridge and the wooden bridge at Wettingen Monastery , the Limmat Culture Trail leads with sculptures by regional artists. This partly coincides with the industrial culture trail Limmat – Wasserschloss .

Transport and infrastructure

Roads and railways

Baden railway station

Baden is an important traffic junction. The main road through the city is Hauptstrasse 3 , which leads from Basel via Zurich and Chur to Chiavenna . In Baden it crosses the connections Lenzburg - Kaiserstuhl and Bremgarten - Waldshut . Baden has been connected to the motorway network since 1970 . Between the Baden-West and Baden-Ost connections in Dättwil and Neuenhof , the A1 runs south of the city center through the Baregg Tunnel . The old town is free of through traffic; Since 1965 this has been routed through the Schlossberg tunnel (which was created as a railway tunnel in 1847) and since 2007 through the Goldwand tunnel in Ennetbaden . The hub of regional road traffic is the Schulhausplatz , one of the busiest squares in Switzerland.

The Baden train station is located on the Bözberg railway line of the Swiss Federal Railways . Express trains to Basel , Bern , Zurich HB and Zurich Airport stop here . Since the 19th century, the railway line has led above ground over the Schulhausplatz to the Schlossberg tunnel and the increasing traffic regularly caused a large backlog of individual traffic at the railway barrier. Since 1961, the railway line has crossed the area in the almost one kilometer long Kreuzliberg tunnel . Regional trains and S-Bahn Zurich trains run on several lines . There are two more stations on the Zofingen – Wettingen railway line, Dättwil and Baden Oberstadt. They have been out of service since passenger traffic was discontinued on December 12, 2004.

Baden is considered a hub for bus traffic. The regional transport company Baden-Wettingen operates a dense network of bus routes in Baden, Wettingen and other communities in the region. The PostBus terminal at the train station is one of the largest in Switzerland; From here buses run to Berikon - Widen , Bremgarten (via Mellingen or Stetten ), Kaiserstuhl, Mägenwil and Tegerfelden . The Rütihof exclave is also served by the Mellingen Heitersberg - Brugg post bus line.

On weekends there is a night S-Bahn line ( Winterthur –Zürich HB – Baden– Brugg - Lenzburg - Aarau ) and night bus lines from Baden train station to Bad Zurzach , Berikon-Widen, Birmenstorf , Bremgarten, Dietikon , Würenlingen and Würenlos .

bridges

The covered wooden bridge with the governor's castle

The oldest transition is the covered wooden bridge from the old town to the governor's palace . It was first mentioned in 1242 together with the customs post and was rebuilt several times in the following centuries. After the destruction by the French in 1799, the current structure was built eleven years later. The Leaning Bridge , opened in 1874, replaced a footbridge that had existed since 1819. It got its name because of its 7.5% gradient to compensate for the difference in altitude on both banks.

Crooked bridge

Until 1877 the railway line ran along the left bank of the Limmat. In order to create a connection to the national railway line at Wettingen station , the Swiss Northeast Railway (NOB) abandoned the old route and built a railway bridge so that four lines came together in Wettingen. The bridge also has a pedestrian and bicycle path. The high bridge opened in 1926 made it possible to better develop Wettingen immediately south of the old town and to block the wooden bridge for through traffic. The Siggenthaler Bridge was opened in September 2002; it leads from the Kappelerhof to Obersiggenthal and is the most direct connection to the north.

The footbridge from the spa district to Ennetbaden has existed since 1968. It is officially called the Mercier footbridge, but is popularly known as the “Finkensteg” because the city council wore slippers (in Swiss German: “finches”) to avoid disturbing the peace and quiet of the spa guests . The newest crossing, a footbridge to Ennetbaden, has been near the train station since June 2007. In order to compensate for the difference in altitude on the Baden side, the promenade lift was built from the Bahnhofplatz down to the Limmat promenade. There are other footbridges at the Kappelerhof and Aue power plants .

Infrastructure and security

Aue hydropower plant

The community of Baden is 100% owner of the Regionalwerke Baden AG , which supplies Baden, Ennetbaden and some other communities with electricity, natural gas , district heating and drinking water. It has a 60% stake in Limmatkraftwerke AG (the remaining 40% belong to AEW Energie AG of the Canton of Aargau). This operates four hydropower plants on the Limmat . In Baden, these are the Aue and Kappelerhof power plants, and further downstream, the Schiffmühle and Turgi power plants.

The area of ​​responsibility of the community also includes garbage removal and wastewater treatment. Together with five other municipalities, Baden is a member of the Baden Wettingen region wastewater association ; the Laufäcker wastewater treatment plant is located in Turgi. Baden has been one of the Swiss Climate Alliance cities since 1994 and has been an energy city since 2006 .

The base fire brigade is stationed in Dättwil and has around 110 militia members . In addition to local tasks, she supports the local fire brigades in 52 communities in eastern Aargau. The civil defense organization covers the communities of Baden, Ehrendingen, Ennetbaden, Freienwil and Obersiggenthal. In addition to the canton police , an independent city police also ensure security.

Culture

Museums and libraries

Langmatt Museum

The Langmatt Museum , which opened in 1990, has an international reputation . It is located in the listed Art Nouveau villa of the art collector Sidney Brown . On display is the collection of paintings of French Impressionism that he and his wife Jenny have assembled . Works by well-known painters such as Edgar Degas , Paul Cézanne , Paul Gauguin , Claude Monet , Camille Pissarro and Pierre-Auguste Renoir are exhibited . The home decor of the early 20th century is also shown on the basis of the original furnishings.

The Kunstraum Baden specializes in contemporary Swiss art and also runs a public documentation center for artists in the region. The Swiss Children's Museum deals with the world of children and its changes since the 17th century. The Teddy Bear Museum shows hundreds of teddy bears from the period from 1904 to 1970. One of 40 objects on the Limmat-Wasserschloss industrial heritage trail is the Kappelerhof power station, which opened in 1892 and is the oldest power station in the canton of Aargau, which today also serves as the history of electricity generation . The church treasure museum with a collection of liturgical objects is located in the vault above the sacristy of the Catholic town church .

The Landvogteischloss has been the location of the Historical Museum since 1913 (supplemented in 1992/93 by a modern extension by the architects Wilfrid and Katharina Steib ). It deals with the city's history from the Romans to the present day, including the development of baths and industry. Archaeological finds from the region are also presented, along with temporary exhibitions on cultural history. Attached to the museum is the city archive, in which the documents of the city administration from 1300 onwards are kept. The city ​​library has existed since 1836.

Theater, cinema and music

Spa theater

The transformer that houses the cinema of the same name

The Kurtheater Baden dates back to 1675 when the first theater hall in Switzerland was built. The current building in the spa gardens was built in 1952 and can accommodate 600 spectators. Guest performances in the fields of drama, music theater, dance, children's and youth theater are organized, as well as staged readings as well as cabaret and comedy performances. The Nateschwara Theater is the first theater in Europe to specialize in Indian dance and music. The professional small theater Teatro Palino , which relocates its performances outside in summer, offers its own pieces in particular . The Theater im Kornhaus only organizes guest performances . The Figura Theater Festival has been held since 1994, an international festival for puppet theater .

Baden has two cinemas : The Sterk cinema with two halls (opened in 1928 in the city's oldest Bauhaus building) specializes in arthouse films and is named after the owner family. In 2002 it opened a multiplex cinema , the Trafokino with five halls, in the former ABB transformer factory , which also includes an event hall as well as a culture and congress center. Since 1995, Baden has been the venue for the international Fantoche festival, which now takes place annually, and is Switzerland's largest film festival for animated films . The oldest cinema in Baden, the Royal , built by Arthur Betschon in 1913 , has not been used regularly for film screenings since 2008. A new owner intended to demolish the building, which had been inventoried as «worth preserving» (municipal inventory of cultural assets). In December 2010, a broad-based community of interests presented the city council with a petition signed by over 3,900 people. Since then, the Royal has been operated on a voluntary basis as an alternative cultural stage. The oldest cinema still in operation is the Orient cinema on the border with Wettingen. It was opened in 1923 and saved from closure in 2002 by an association. Since then it has been operated as an art house cinema. The Orient specializes in art house films from around the world and pearls of film history.

Concerts of various styles are performed in the Villa Boveri , in the Trafohalle , in the Nordportal cultural center and in the Merkker youth culture club . Since 2004 there has been an annual blues festival with national and international artists.

regional customs

Stein Castle with the flag for the city festival 2012

As in the rest of the Catholic areas of Aargau, Carnival has a long tradition in Baden . It is largely shaped by the Lucerne Carnival . The Baden Carnival begins on Dirty Thursday with the burning of the rag doll Hieronymus Füdlibürger , who is charged with all the negative events of the previous year during the trial. Masked balls, a parade, a Guggenmusik concert and a carnival market will follow until Ash Wednesday .

The Cordula celebration takes place on October 22nd. The custom goes back to 1444, when during the Old Zurich War, on the day of Saint Cordula, Zurich troops tried to take the city, but were driven out by vigilant Badeners. Until the end of the 19th century, a mass was read and a festival was celebrated on Cordula Day. The custom was forgotten, but was revived in 1964. People are honored with bread and wine who have rendered services to the population through their work.

The Badenfahrt is a ten-day festival . It usually only takes place every ten years, but with up to a million visitors each it is one of the largest festivals in Switzerland and by far the largest in the canton of Aargau. The festival area extends over the entire old town and also includes areas around the train station. The name refers to the "bathing trips" which have been handed down from at least the early 16th century. This refers to the spa stays of the noble gentlemen who enjoyed themselves in Baden together with their entourage.

Bathing in art and literature

After a spa stay in Baden, Hermann Hesse wrote the volume Kurgast , which was published by S. Fischer Verlag in 1925. Essentially, the experiences during a spa stay in the spa district are described.

The novel I am the one my mother warned me about, published in 2019, is set largely in Baden, with the narrator and main character Alba Doppler from Neuenhof . Numerous historical buildings play an important role in the novel, such as the canton hospital , the canton school , the high bridge , the city ​​tower , the Bernerhaus , the Stein ruins and others. The novel was written by the writer Demian Lienhard , who himself comes from Baden .

education

Baden Cantonal School

Vocational school in the Martinsberg community center

The elementary school Baden includes all school offers from pre-school age to the 9th grade ( kindergarten , primary school , district school , secondary school and junior high school ). Six primary schools are distributed across the city, in which the kindergartens are also located: Dättwil, Kappelerhof, Ländli, Meierhof, Rütihof and Tannegg. Secondary and Realschule can be found in the Pfaffechappe school complex, the district school in the Burghalde school complex.

The Baden Cantonal School is a secondary school from the 10th grade. It comprises the grammar school ( canton school ), the business school and the computer science school . In the area of ​​the main subjects, there is a cooperation with the neighboring canton school Wettingen. Although there were calls for a grammar school in Baden at the beginning of the 19th century, the Aarau Cantonal School remained the only higher education institution in Aargau for a long time. It was not until 1961 that the Baden Cantonal School was founded after several failed attempts. The school complex designed by the architect Fritz Haller was built to the right of the Limmat by 1964 .

The BBB vocational school provides theoretical lessons as part of basic vocational training and was created in 1999 from the merger of the commercial-industrial vocational school with the ABB Group's own vocational school. One of their school buildings is the Martinsberg community center . The business school KV Baden-Zurzach is responsible for vocational training in the commercial area, while the ABB technical school is a federally recognized higher technical school for technical further education.

The Burghalde Baden secondary school center has existed since 1930 .

Sports

The city's best-known sports club is FC Baden . The first men's team played in the National League A , the highest soccer league in Switzerland , in 1985/1986 and was represented in the second highest division for years. In 2006 she was relegated to the 1st league of amateurs. The first women's team in the National League B represented. FC Baden, which also includes numerous junior teams, plays its home games at the Esp stadium in Fislisbach .

The basketball club founded in 1954 by BBC employees was taken over by Alstom in 2002 . The BC Alstom Baden is now one of the clubs with the largest number of members in German-speaking Switzerland. The women's team of BC Alstom Baden plays in the National League B, the men's team in the 2nd regional league. The sports club with the largest number of members is the Stadtturnverein Baden, which acts as an umbrella organization for five clubs ( gymnastics , handball , floorball , volleyball and winter sports ). VBC Kanti Baden, whose men's and women's teams are both in the second-highest league, also plays volleyball. Curling has been played in a specially built hall in Dättwil since 1997 ; the CC Baden-Regio is represented with a men's and a women's team in the top division of the Swiss Curling League .

Since 1934, Baden has had the “Terrassenbad” on the right bank of the Limmat, an outdoor pool with three pools and a 100-meter-long slide. In 1969 an indoor pool was added. The city also owns the sports facilities Aue (mainly athletics), Esp (football, in the municipality of Fislisbach) and Langacker (football). There is a Vitaparcours on Chrüzliberg . The Süpercross Baden cycling competition has been held on the Baldegg since 2011 .

Personalities

→ Main article : List of personalities from Baden AG

The most lasting influence on Baden's development had people in connection with the electrical engineering company Brown, Boveri & Cie. (today ABB). These include in particular Charles Eugene Lancelot Brown and Walter Boveri , who made a significant contribution to the economic upturn by founding the company. The art collector Sidney Brown also belongs to this founding generation . The most famous person in the world who was born in Baden is the chemist Albert Hofmann , who discovered LSD .

literature

• Martin Hartmann, Andreas Steigmeier : Baden (AG, municipality). In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Fabian Furter, Bruno Meier , Andrea Schaer, Ruth Wiederkehr: City history of Baden . here + now , Baden 2015, ISBN 978-3-03919-341-7 .
• Werner Frenkel: Baden, a small Jewish community . Fragments from the story 1859–1947. Menes (Books on Demand GmbH), Baden AG 2003, ISBN 3-0344-0174-4 .
• Peter Hoegger: The art monuments of the canton of Aargau . Ed .: Society for Swiss Art History. Volume VI, District of Baden I. Birkhäuser, Basel 1976, ISBN 3-7643-0782-X .
• David Hess: The Badenfahrt . Orell Füssli, Zurich 1811.
• Peter Hoegger: The art monuments of the canton Aargau VIII. The district of Baden III . tape 87 . Society for Swiss Art History GSK, Bern 1998, ISBN 3-909164-65-X .
• Otto Mittler : History of the City of Baden . tape 1 - From the earliest times to around 1650. Sauerländer, Aarau 1962.
• Otto Mittler: History of the City of Baden . tape 2 - From 1650 to the present. Sauerländer, Aarau 1965.
• Otto Mittler, Peter Felder: 500 years of the Baden town church . Book printing, Baden 1958.
• Uli Münzel, Josef Bürge (preface): Changes in the Baden cityscape . Ed .: Local citizen community Baden. Baden-Verlag, Baden 1994, ISBN 3-85545-084-6 .
• Hans Rudolf Sennhauser (Hrsg.): Excavations in the town church and Dreikönigskapelle Baden 1967/1968 . Churches and settlement history from the early days to the late Middle Ages. vdf Hochschulverlag AG at the ETH Zurich, Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-7281-3229-1 .
• Thomas Bolt, Uli Münzel: The spa district of Baden and Ennetbaden. (= Swiss Art Guide. No. 399). Ed. Society for Swiss Art History GSK. Bern 1986, ISBN 3-85782-399-9 .
• Guido Faccani: The parish church of Baden. Development of the Church of St. Mary and the settlement. Hier + now, Baden 2010, ISBN 978-3-03919-151-2 .
• Markus Somm : Electropolis on the Limmat: Baden and the BBC, 1870 to 1925 - The description of a transformation. Stämpfli, Bern 2019, ISBN 978-3-72726-062-9

Web links

Wikisource: Baden (Aargau)  - Sources and full texts

Commons : Baden  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Archives: Baden City Archives (from 1286). Baden City Archives. link

• Official website of the community of Baden
• Baden AG on the ETHorama platform

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Cantonal population statistics 2019. Department of Finance and Resources, Statistics Aargau, March 30, 2020, accessed on April 2, 2019 . 
2. ↑ Cantonal population statistics 2019. Department of Finance and Resources, Statistics Aargau, March 30, 2020, accessed on April 2, 2019 . 
3. ↑ ^{a b} Beat Zehnder: The community names of the canton of Aargau. Historical sources and linguistic interpretations . In: Historical Society of the Canton of Aargau (Ed.): Argovia . Annual journal of the Historical Society of the Canton of Aargau. tape 100 / II . Verlag Sauerländer, Aarau 1991, ISBN 3-7941-3122-3 , p. 69 ff . The phonetic transcription used : bā́dǝ .
4. ↑ ^{a b} Gabrielle Schmid: Baden AG (Baden). In: Dictionnaire toponymique des communes suisses - Lexicon of Swiss municipality names - Dizionario toponomastico dei comuni svizzeri (DTS | LSG). Center de dialectologie, Université de Neuchâtel, Verlag Huber, Frauenfeld / Stuttgart / Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-7193-1308-5 and Éditions Payot, Lausanne 2005, ISBN 2-601-03336-3 , p. 115. The phonetic transcription given: [ ˈBɑːdə ].
5. ↑ ^{a b} Geo path. (PDF; 989 kB) City of Baden, 2004, accessed on May 30, 2019 . 
6. ↑ ^{a b c d e} National map of Switzerland, sheet 1070, Swisstopo.
7. ^ Geology and thermal baths. ThermalBaden, archived from the original on June 9, 2009 ; Retrieved June 5, 2009 . 
8. ↑ Urs Sandfuchs, Oliver Knab: Des Teufels Untergrund. (PDF; 2.4 MB) Swiss Society for Speleology, Lenzburg Section, accessed on June 5, 2009 . 
9. ↑ Norm value tables 1961–1990. MeteoSwiss, archived from the original on April 19, 2009 ; Retrieved June 5, 2009 . 
10. ↑ Standard area statistics - municipalities according to 4 main areas. Federal Statistical Office , November 26, 2018, accessed on May 30, 2019 . 
11. ↑ natural space. wald.baden.ch, accessed on November 19, 2019 . 
12. ↑ Mittler: History of the City of Baden. Volume 1, pp. 10-17.
13. ↑ Max Him : Aqua, Aquae 46) . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume II, 1, Stuttgart 1895, Col. 301.
14. ↑ ^{a b} Martin Hartmann, Hans Weber: The Romans in Aargau . Verlag Sauerländer, Aarau 1985, ISBN 3-7941-2539-8 , p. 161-164 .
15. ↑ A luxurious bath from Roman times uncovered. Neue Zürcher Zeitung , December 8, 2008, accessed June 5, 2009 . 
16. ^ Tacitus , Historien I, 67.
17. ↑ Mittler: History of the City of Baden. Volume 1, pp. 38-39.
18. ↑ Carmela Kuonen Ackermann: The parish church Maria Himmelfahrt and the Sebastian chapel in Baden. Swiss Art Guide GSK, 2002, ISBN 3-85782-703-3 , p. 5.
19. ↑ Helmut Maurer: Comparative and supplementary remarks on high medieval bathing. In: Excavations in the town church and Dreikönigskapelle Baden 1967/1968. Churches and settlement history from the early days to the late Middle Ages. Edited by Hans-Rudolf Sennhauser, Zurich 2008, p. 421.
20. ↑ Maurer: Comparative and supplementary remarks on bathing in the High Middle Ages. P. 413.
21. ↑ Mittler: History of the City of Baden. Volume 1, pp. 56-58.
22. ↑ Mittler: History of the City of Baden. Volume 1, pp. 162-170.
23. ↑ Mittler: History of the City of Baden. Volume 1, p. 62.
24. ↑ Mittler: History of the City of Baden. Volume 1, pp. 70-72.
25. ↑ This term first appeared in 1442 in the alliance agreement between the city of Zurich and King Friedrich III. Mittler: History of the city of Baden. Volume 1, p. 74.
26. ↑ Mittler: History of the City of Baden. Volume 1, pp. 80-84.
27. ↑ Mittler: History of the City of Baden. Volume 1, pp. 97-105.
28. ↑ Mittler: History of the City of Baden. Volume 1, pp. 173-177.
29. ↑ Mittler: History of the City of Baden. Volume 1, pp. 188-195.
30. ↑ Winfried Hecht: The Julius banner of the town facing Rottweil. In: Der Geschichtsfreund: Messages from the Central Switzerland Historical Association . 126/7 (1973/4). doi : 10.5169 / seals-118647
31. ↑ Mittler: History of the City of Baden. Volume 1, pp. 295-310.
32. ↑ Mittler: History of the City of Baden. Volume 1, pp. 310-316.
33. ↑ Mittler: History of the City of Baden. Volume 2, pp. 16-23.
34. ↑ Mittler: History of the City of Baden. Volume 2, pp. 48-56.
35. ↑ Mittler: History of the City of Baden. Volume 2, pp. 27-38.
36. ↑ Mittler: History of the City of Baden. Volume 2, pp. 61-65.
37. ↑ Hansjörg Frank: So help you God !: on the persecution of witches in the city of Baden in the 17th century , in: Badener Neujahrsblätter 89 (2014), DOI: 10.5169 / seals-391529 . Pp. 42-50.
38. ↑ Mittler: History of the City of Baden. Volume 2, pp. 65-70 and 76-81.
39. ↑ Mittler: History of the City of Baden. Volume 2, pp. 82-96.
40. ↑ Mittler: History of the City of Baden. Volume 2, pp. 138-144.
41. ↑ Mittler: History of the City of Baden. Volume 2, pp. 153-157.
42. ↑ Mittler: History of the City of Baden. Volume 2, pp. 162-166.
43. ↑ Mittler: History of the City of Baden. Volume 2, pp. 172-173.
44. ↑ Urs Tremp: "Scenes from a marriage". (PDF, 2.9 MB) In: Ennetbadener Post, No. 2/2008. Municipal administration Ennetbaden, 2008, pp. 10–13 , accessed on May 30, 2019 . 
45. ↑ Mittler: History of the City of Baden. Volume 2, pp. 215-218.
46. ↑ Mittler: History of the City of Baden. Volume 2, pp. 225-229.
47. ↑ Mittler: History of the City of Baden. Volume 2, pp. 234-245.
48. ↑ Mittler: History of the City of Baden. Volume 2, pp. 301-306.
49. ↑ Mittler: History of the City of Baden. Volume 2, pp. 245-252.
50. ↑ Mittler: History of the City of Baden. Volume 2, pp. 269-273.
51. ↑ Switzerland as home, the world as location and market. (No longer available online.) ABB Switzerland , March 21, 2007, archived from the original on December 9, 2008 ; Retrieved June 5, 2009 . 
52. ^ Meier: City history of Baden. P. 168.
53. ^ Meier: City history of Baden. P. 173.
54. ↑ History of the major construction site - The major traffic redevelopment. werft22.com, accessed June 5, 2009 . 
55. ^ Furter: City history of Baden. Pp. 282, 288.
56. ^ Furter: City history of Baden. P. 277.
57. ^ Furter: City history of Baden. Pp. 294-296.
58. ↑ ABB, a company on the move: Cross-sections through a success story. (PDF; 4.1 MB) ABB Schweiz AG, 2005, archived from the original on November 9, 2017 ; accessed on May 30, 2019 . 
59. ↑ neuehof.ch ( memento of September 11, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF) accessed on June 13, 2010.
60. ↑ Voting result as a combination of distrust of Neuenhof, tax situation and politics. (PDF; 179 kB) City of Baden, GfS Bern, August 2010, archived from the original on May 2, 2016 ; accessed on May 1, 2016 . 
61. ^ Growth initiative 2005–2009. (PDF) Department of Economics and Home Affairs, 2005, archived from the original on May 1, 2016 ; accessed on May 1, 2016 . 
62. ↑ Hoegger: monuments of the Canton of Aargau. Volume VI, pp. 26-29.
63. ^ Joseph Galliker, Marcel Giger: Municipal coat of arms of the Canton of Aargau . Lehrmittelverlag des Kantons Aargau, book 2004, ISBN 3-906738-07-8 , p. 109 .
64. ↑ Hoegger: monuments of the Canton of Aargau. Volume VI, pp. 29-36.
65. ↑ Hoegger: monuments of the Canton of Aargau. Volume VI, pp. 268-269.
66. ↑ Lion Fountain. City of Baden, accessed on June 5, 2009 . 
67. ↑ Hoegger: monuments of the Canton of Aargau. Volume VI, pp. 37-43.
68. ↑ Thomas Bolt, Uli Münzel: The bathing district of Baden and Ennetbaden. (Swiss Art Guide, No. 399). Ed. Society for Swiss Art History GSK. Bern 1986.
69. ↑ Population development in the municipalities of the Canton of Aargau since 1850. (Excel) In: Eidg. Volkszählung 2000. Statistics Aargau, 2001, archived from the original on October 8, 2018 ; accessed on May 30, 2019 . 
70. ↑ Resident population by religious affiliation, 2015. (Excel) In: Population and Households, Community Tables 2015. Statistics Aargau, accessed on May 30, 2019 . 
71. ↑ Swiss Federal Census 2000: Economic resident population by main language as well as by districts and municipalities. (Excel) Statistics Aargau, archived from the original on August 10, 2018 ; accessed on May 30, 2019 . 
72. ↑ Foreigners by country of origin, 2015. (Excel) In: Population and Households, Municipal Tables 2015. Statistics Aargau, accessed on May 30, 2019 . 
73. ↑ Results of the residents' council elections for the 2014/17 term of office on September 22, 2013. (PDF; 1.6 MB) City of Baden, September 22, 2013, accessed on September 24, 2013 . 
74. ↑ Residents' council elections 2018/2021. (PDF; 853 kB) City of Baden, September 24, 2017, accessed on September 24, 2017 . 
75. ↑ Votes and elections. City of Baden, November 26, 2017, accessed on December 22, 2017 . 
76. ↑ circles of justice of the peace. Canton of Aargau, accessed on June 18, 2019 . 
77. ↑ Baden Public Prosecutor's Office. Department of Economics and Home Affairs of the Canton of Aargau, accessed on June 19, 2019 . 
78. ↑ Results of the National Council elections 2019 - Canton Aargau. Retrieved August 2, 2020 . 
79. ^ Federal Statistical Office : NR - Results parties (municipalities) (INT1). In: Federal Elections 2019 | opendata.swiss. August 8, 2019, accessed August 1, 2020 . 
80. ↑ local community. City of Baden, accessed on June 5, 2009 . 
81. ^ Partnership with the city of Sighișoara. City of Baden, archived from the original on May 1, 2016 ; Retrieved June 5, 2009 . 
82. ↑ Statistics of the corporate structure (STATENT). (Excel, 157 kB) Statistics Aargau, 2016, accessed on May 30, 2019 . 
83. ↑ Locations of the business units and the companies. (No longer available online.) ABB Switzerland Ltd, April 20, 2009, archived from the original on June 1, 2009 ; Retrieved June 5, 2009 . 
84. ↑ Press release from the EU Commission on the takeover of Alstom by GE
85. ↑ Press release from GE Power on the integration of Alstom Power
86. ↑ Motor-Columbus from 1895 to 2006. (PDF, 2.4 MB) Atel Holding, 2006, archived from the original on December 6, 2008 ; accessed on May 30, 2019 . 
87. ↑ Baden market calendar 2019 (PDF) City of Baden, accessed on May 30, 2019 . 
88. ^ Schaer: City history of Baden. P. 10.
89. ↑ Limmat Culture Trail. Baden-Wettingen-Neuenhof Cultural Path Foundation, accessed on June 5, 2009 . 
90. ↑ Heinz Meier: "From over there to over there". (PDF, 3.4 MB) In: Ennetbadener Post, No. 1/2005. Municipal administration Ennetbaden, March 2005, pp. 13–15 , accessed on May 30, 2019 . 
91. ↑ Baden Regional Works
92. ^ Wastewater Association Region Baden Wettingen
93. ^ Public safety in Baden
94. ^ Art space Baden
95. ^ ^{A b} Museums and Galleries in Baden
96. ^ Theater in Baden
97. ↑ Cinemas in Baden
98. ↑ How the parking lot thriller turned into a happy ending. Aargauer Zeitung, October 26, 2011, accessed on October 26, 2011 . 
99. ↑ The Orient Cinema. Kino Orient, 2020, accessed on February 26, 2020 . 
100. ↑ Baden Blues Festival
101. ↑ Baden Carnival
102. ↑ Cordula celebration. Spanish bread, accessed on May 19, 2019 . 
103. ^ Hermann Hesse: Kurgast. Notes from a Baden cure. 1st edition. S. Fischer, Berlin 1925.
104. ↑ Demian Lienhard: I am the one my mother warned me about . 1st edition. Frankfurter Verlagsanstalt, Frankfurt am Main 2019, ISBN 978-3-627-00260-2 .
105. ^ School of Baden
106. ↑ Mittler: History of the City of Baden. Volume 2, pp. 352-359.
107. ↑ Further educational offers
108. ^ FC Baden
109. ↑ Alstom Baden basketball club
110. ^ STV Baden
111. ^ VBC Kanti Baden
112. ↑ CC Baden-Regio
113. ^ Sports facilities in Baden

This article was added to the list of excellent articles on June 17, 2009 in this version .