Gerlafingen

Gerlafingen
State :	Switzerland
Canton :	Solothurn (SO)
District :	Water authority
BFS no. :	2519
Postal code :	4563
UN / LOCODE :	CH GFG
Coordinates :	610255  /  224594 coordinates: 47 ° 10 '20 "  N , 7 ° 34' 26"  O ; CH1903:  610255  /  224594
Height :	451  m above sea level M.
Height range :	446–458 m above sea level M.
Area :	1.85  km²
Residents:	5204 (December 31, 2018)
Population density :	2813 inhabitants per km²
Website:	www.gerlafingen.ch
View towards the steelworks
Location of the municipality

Gerlafingen (in the local dialect Gerlafinge or Gingu ) is a political municipality in the Wasseramt district in the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland . Until 1939 the community was officially called Niedergerlafingen .

geography

Aerial photo (1953)

Gerlafingen lies on the eastern bank of the Emme, which was corrected in 1889 . The neighboring municipalities starting from the north and clockwise are Biberist , Derendingen , Kriegstetten , Obergerlafingen , Zielebach and Bätterkinden .

population

year	2016	2010	2000	1970	1950	1900	1880	1850	1798
Residents	5,098	4,822	4,694	4,873	3,774	1,743	766	381	120

The strong overbuilding, which extends practically over the entire municipality, means that Gerlafingen is the most densely populated municipality in the Wasseramt district.

Origin / nationality

The steelworks traditionally employs many foreigners, particularly from Italy and Turkey. 40.4% (2008) of the population are foreigners. With this high proportion, Gerlafingen is one of the communities with the highest proportion of foreigners in Switzerland. Recently, more and more people from the Balkans have immigrated to work.

73.8% of the population speak German, 12.76% Serbo-Croatian, 8.02% Turkish and 5.42% Italian.

Religions - denominations

There are three parishes or churches in Gerlafingen:

• The Evangelical Reformed parish with the Thomaskirche
• The Roman Catholic parish with the Brother Klaus church , established in 1955 by the renowned church architect Fritz Metzger
• The United Methodist Church with the church at Schulhausstrasse 31

All three have a church or a parish hall.

economy

The community is closely linked to the fate of the resident Stahl Gerlafingen AG. The steel and rolling mill processes approx. 1 million tons of scrap metal annually into 650,000 tons of concrete reinforcement products, mainly rebars. There are currently around 550 employees in the steelworks, making it the largest employer in Gerlafingen.

politics

5

1

2

3

5 1 2 3 

A total of 11 seats

• SP : 5
• CVP : 1
• FDP : 2
• SVP : 3

Source:

In 2009 the municipal council was reduced from 17 to 11 municipal council mandates. In 2013, the Christian Democratic People's Party managed to be re-elected to the local council for the first time in 12 years. The Green Liberal Party , which was also running, was surrendered without a seat.

Political party	2017-2021	(+/-)	2013-2017	2009-2013
Social Democratic Party	5	+1	4th	5
FDP. The Liberals ( Free Democratic Party until 2009 )	2	−1	3	3
Swiss People's Party	3		3	3
Christian Democratic People's Party	1		1	-

traffic

Gerlafingen has had a train station on the Solothurn - Burgdorf line since 1876 . In December 2015, the connection to the Bern S-Bahn network took place, which makes the community even more attractive for commuters. The motorway connection to the A1 can be reached through the neighboring municipality of Kriegstetten . For several years there has been a bus connection to Solothurn, operated by the bus company Solothurn and the surrounding area .

history

Schoolhouse center

Today's place Gerlafingen was officially called Niedergerlafingen until 1939, in the sense of a twin community to Obergerlafingen, a little further south. Simple, unmarked Gerlafingen meant both places until the 19th century. The place was first mentioned in 1278 as Nidergerolvingen . That means for the members of the Gerolf .

Economic history

Von Rollschen Eisenwerke photographed by Walter Mittelholzer in 1930

The long history of the steelworks (it goes back to the pre-industrial times of Switzerland) is also the history of the village of Gerlafingen, which strongly depended and depends on its prosperity. In 1818 Ludwig von Roll founded an iron works (forge) on the premises of a bankrupt textile company. A rolling mill followed in 1836 , and in 1918, when the importation of ore and iron was problematic due to the chaos of war, a real steel mill . In the peak of the 1960s, the steelworks employed 5,000 people, almost ten times as many as it is today. Production, however, was significantly lower at that time due to lower productivity.

In a severe economic crisis that threatened its existence in 1996, von Roll sold the steelworks to the Lucerne-based von Moos Holding. This ultimately brought it together with its own steelworks activities and henceforth called itself Swiss Steel. After a few years of restructuring, the Gerlafinger Stahlwerk (new Stahl Gerlafingen AG) is back in the black today. At that time, however, the Gerlafingen plant was even threatened with temporary closure.

Many older facades that were blackened by the emitted dust are evidence of the time of the industrial town. The Emme was also contaminated by the process water from the rolling mill until the 1990s. Today filters for exhaust air and wastewater prevent such environmental pollution. Between 1997 and 2007 around 37 million Swiss francs were invested in environmental protection measures.

In 2003 the majority of Swiss Steel and thus the Gerlafingen plant were sold to the German Schmolz & Bickenbach and Gebuka AG. It turned out to be a job-preserving, friendly takeover. In 2006 there was another change of ownership, with the majority of shares of 65% in Stahl Gerlafingen AG being transferred to the Italian AFV Acciaierie Beltrame SpA. Modernization and diversification investments of around 170 million francs were then made, and the plant has been profitable ever since.

Attractions

See also : List of cultural assets in Gerlafingen

• In Gerlafingen there are still numerous workers 'and salaried employees' houses of the former von Roll workforce. Some of them date from the 19th century and are still worth seeing neighborhood ensembles.
• The steel mill area is impressive because of its size. It can also be viewed from the rear along an Emme promenade. On the area accessible is a duck pond created by the company , which is also visited by rarer water birds.
• The Catholic Church of Brother Klaus was built in 1955 by the renowned architect Fritz Metzger . It has been on the list of protected historical cultural monuments since 2017.

coat of arms

Blazon

In red, a blue, oblique hook, accompanied by two six-pointed yellow stars placed on stakes

literature

• André Kienzle: There is only one Gerlafingen , Univ. Zurich, dissertation, 1996, ISBN 3-905312-05-0
• Heinz Hösli: Gerlafingen: data and facts on history and geography , 1996, ISBN 3-9521164-0-8

Web links

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

• Official website of the municipality of Gerlafingen
• Hellmut Gutzwiller: Gerlafingen. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• The situation of the von Roll workers in the 19th century

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Permanent and non-permanent resident population by year, canton, district, municipality, population type and gender (permanent resident population). In: bfs. admin.ch . Federal Statistical Office (FSO), August 31, 2019, accessed on December 22, 2019 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Solothurner Zeitung: This is how the new municipal councils are composed
3. ↑ Berner Zeitung: The SP nominated for the reduced municipal council (edition of March 20, 2009)
4. ^ Gerlafingen municipality: Municipal elections of April 14, 2013 - publication of the lists and names of the candidates (PDF; 143 kB)
5. ^ Website of the political municipality Gerlafingen. Church section. Retrieved August 6, 2019.