Hilfikon

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hilfikon
Coat of arms of Hilfikon
State : SwitzerlandSwitzerland Switzerland
Canton : Kanton AargauKanton Aargau Aargau (AG)
District : Bremgarten
Residential municipality : Villmergeni2
Postal code : 5613
former BFS no. : 4070
Coordinates : 661 065  /  242791 coordinates: 47 ° 19 '59 "  N , 8 ° 14' 48"  O ; CH1903:  six hundred and sixty-one thousand and sixty-five  /  242791
Height : 479  m above sea level M.
Residents: 251 (December 31, 2008)
Proportion of foreigners :
(residents without
citizenship ) 		8.5% (Dec 31, 2009)
Village center

Village center
map
Hilfikon (Switzerland)
Hilfikon
w w
Parish before the merger on January 1, 2010

Hilfikon ( Swiss German : ˈhɪl.fɪ.kχə ) is a village in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland . Until the end of 2009 it was an independent community in the Bremgarten district , since then the village has belonged to the Villmergen community . In terms of population, Hilfikon was the smallest municipality in the district and the tenth smallest in the canton at the time of the merger.

geography

The village lies at the eastern foot of the Rietenberg, a wooded foothill of the Lindenberg , which separates the lower Bünztal from the Seetal . Hilfikon is drained from south to north by the Erusbach. This takes on the Hinterbach north of the village, is called Holzbach in the further course and flows into the Bünz near Dottikon . While the western side of the valley rises steeply to the Rietenberg, the eastern side of the valley merges into the plateau at the foot of the Lindenberg. On a protruding hill is the Hilfikon Castle , the symbol of the village, which otherwise has a distinctly rural character.

The area of ​​the former municipality was 172 hectares , of which 44 hectares were covered with forest and 25 hectares built over. The highest point was at 640 meters, the deepest at 455 meters. Neighboring communities were Villmergen in the north, Büttikon in the east, Sarmenstorf in the south and Seengen in the west.

history

Hilfiniswilare was first mentioned in a document in 924 in an interest sled at the Fraumünster in Zurich . The place name can be derived from the Old High German Helfineswilari , which means "Hofgut des Helfini". The ending "-wil" ​​indicates that the village was created during the second Alemannic settlement phase in the 8th or 9th century. In 1261 the village is mentioned as Hilfinchon , and in 1281 for the first time as Hilfikon. The change in the ending is due to the influence of the surrounding villages. In 1290 the rulership of the land and lower courts passed to the Lords of Hilfikon, a family of ministers serving the Habsburgs . They built a residential tower that controlled the road between Lucerne and Brugg . They also had the domain cultivated and collected the taxes from the other farms of the small lordship. Individual farms were integrated into the Villmergen village association and were subordinate to the local court there.

In 1415 the Lucerne people conquered the villages of Hilfikon, Büttikon , Sarmenstorf , Uezwil and Villmergen, but in 1425 they had to return the area to the common property of the Confederates . From then on, Hilfikon was in the office of Villmergen in the free offices , a common rule . In 1472 the Meiss family from Zurich is named as the owner of the Hilfikon manor. Melchior zur Gilgen from Lucerne united the rule of Hilfikon with the Vogtei Sarmenstorf in 1514. In 1547 the federal towns wanted to acquire the castle and make it the residence of the bailiff , but the negotiations failed because of the purchase price.

The first battle of Villmergen on January 24, 1656 took place partly in the municipality of Hilfikon and claimed several hundred deaths. Before the Second Battle of Villmergen on July 25, 1712, the castle served as the headquarters of the troops of the Catholic towns of the Confederation. In the Fourth Land Peace, the warring parties agreed that in the lower free offices, including in Hilfikon, only the Reformed towns of Bern, Zurich and Glarus would rule. The French took Switzerland in March 1798 and proclaimed the Helvetic Republic , which meant the end of the old system of rule. Hilfikon and Büttikon formed an agency in the Sarmenstorf district of the short-lived canton of Baden . When the canton of Aargau was founded in 1803, Büttikon was separated again.

From an ecclesiastical point of view, Hilfikon has always belonged to the parish of Villmergen. The palace chapel was built in 1510 and completely rebuilt in 1750. In 1832 the parish bought the chapel , which was looked after by a chaplain , and in 1947 left it to a private chapel association. In the first half of the 19th century, the canton expanded the previously poorly maintained road through Hilfikon into a modern traffic route. The population lived from agriculture and also from handicrafts. Of some importance was the homework for Freiaemter straw industry . In 1904, Hilfikon received its first water reservoir, and a year later it was connected to the electricity network. The Wohlen-Meisterschwanden Railway , which opened on December 18, 1916, replaced the stagecoach that had operated between Wohlen and Fahrwangen since 1853 . The trains only stopped at the Hilfikon station on request. On May 31, 1997, the railway was set.

Historic aerial photo by Walter Mittelholzer between 1918 and 1937

In 1923, the then castle owner had an airfield with hangar set up on Brunnmatte , and from 1925 it was also used by the military . However, the airfield was unprofitable and drained the lord's fortune. The self-sufficiency doctrine in the Second World War led to the plowing of the runway, the unused hangar was dismantled in 1948 and rebuilt in Spreitenbach on the former airfield. In 1944/45 the Swiss Refugee Aid used the castle as a vocational school for over three dozen refugees; the young women came mainly from Eastern Europe. Motocross races have been held in Hilfikon every April since 1956, although the event is known as “Motocross Wohlen”. In 1958 a European championship was held for the first time. The number of viewers increased continuously and reached a peak in 1973 with 36,530 visitors. A gradual decline followed due to growing competition from other leisure activities. The number of viewers has now leveled off between 4,000 and 6,000.

The population has only grown insignificantly to this day and the village has been able to retain its rural character. On June 15, 2007, the community assemblies of Hilfikon and Villmergen approved the merger of the two communities. This was confirmed in the ballot of November 25, 2007 in both communities. On January 1, 2010, the independence of Hilfikon ended.

Attractions

Hilfikon Castle
Former Gasthaus zum Elefant

The development of the village was always strongly influenced by the Hilfikon Castle . Erected as a residential tower in the 13th century and later converted into a castle, it has seen several changes of ownership and is still privately owned today. It is a rectangular castle, mainly rebuilt in 1650/60 with a medieval keep. The palace chapel has a rococo interior with an altar by Johann Baptist Babel and ceiling paintings by Franz Anton Rebsamen.

coat of arms

The blazon of the former municipality and today's village coat of arms reads: "Black elephant with yellow armor and yellow belt and red tower." From 1811, the municipality used a simple seal with the municipality name, later the Aargau coat of arms was added. In 1915 the historian Walther Merz suggested using the coat of arms of the Lords of Hilfikon, which has been known since the 16th century. After various associations followed this proposal, the municipal council followed suit in 1953. The claws were white until 2002, but were then colored yellow in accordance with the heraldic rules (horns, claws, teeth, etc. must always be the same color). The origin of the unusual motif is not known, but the writer Charles Tschopp pointed out the similarity between the Middle High German word for elephant (helfant) and the early place name form Helfini .

population

The population developed as follows:

year 1798 1850 1900 1930 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000
Residents 119 159 179 193 172 185 165 168 216 224

On December 31, 2008, 251 people lived in Hilfikon, the proportion of foreigners was 7.6%. In the 2000 census, 63.8% described themselves as Roman Catholic and 27.7% as Reformed . 95.1% said German as their main language and 3.1% French .

economy

Various smaller commercial and service companies exist in Hilfikon. More than half of the jobs can be found in agriculture . Most of the employed are commuters and work in the neighboring towns, mainly in Wohlen and Villmergen.

traffic

Kantonsstrasse 298 runs through Hilfikon between Wohlen and the Seetal . Since the closure of the Wohlen-Meisterschwanden railway in 1997, a bus line operated by Limmat Bus has been operating between Wohlen and Meisterschwanden , which also opens up Hilfikon. On weekends there is a night bus from Dietikon via Wohlen to Sarmenstorf . The former railway line was converted into a cycle path .

education

School lessons for children from Hilfikon did not begin until 1809, initially in the private homes of the respective schoolmasters. Due to the strongly fluctuating number of pupils, the children had to attend classes from 1843 to 1859 in Villmergen. In 1861, after numerous requests from the cantonal authorities, Hilfikon built a school building; the municipal administration also used the building. A single teacher always looked after all primary school classes together. In 1973 a pavilion replaced the old school building, and in 1995 a new school building with four rooms and a small gymnasium could be moved into. The school was closed in 2009 because the number of students was constantly decreasing.

literature

  • Peter Felder: The art monuments of the canton of Aargau . Ed .: Society for Swiss Art History . Volume IV: Bremgarten district. Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel 1967, ISBN 3-906131-07-6 .
  • Dieter Kuhn: Hilfikon - history of the village and castle on the Rietenberg . Ed .: Municipality of Hilfikon. Hilfikon 2010.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ^ National map of Switzerland, sheet 1090, Swisstopo
  2. ^ Kuhn: Hilfikon - history of the village and castle on the Rietenberg. P. 17.
  3. ^ Beat Zehnder: The community names of the canton of Aargau . In: Historical Society of the Canton of Aargau (Ed.): Argovia . tape 100 . Verlag Sauerländer, Aarau 1991, ISBN 3-7941-3122-3 , p. 197-198 .
  4. ^ Kuhn: Hilfikon - history of the village and castle on the Rietenberg. P. 15.
  5. ^ Kuhn: Hilfikon - history of the village and castle on the Rietenberg. Pp. 18, 29.
  6. ^ Kuhn: Hilfikon - history of the village and castle on the Rietenberg. Pp. 30-31.
  7. ^ Kuhn: Hilfikon - history of the village and castle on the Rietenberg. Pp. 33-34.
  8. ^ Kuhn: Hilfikon - history of the village and castle on the Rietenberg. Pp. 35-39.
  9. ^ Kuhn: Hilfikon - history of the village and castle on the Rietenberg. Pp. 62-66.
  10. ^ Kuhn: Hilfikon - history of the village and castle on the Rietenberg. P. 97.
  11. ^ Kuhn: Hilfikon - history of the village and castle on the Rietenberg. Pp. 77-78.
  12. ^ Kuhn: Hilfikon - history of the village and castle on the Rietenberg. Pp. 54-59.
  13. ↑ Moto Cross Wohlen. Motorsport-Club Wohlen, accessed on December 31, 2009 .
  14. ^ Kuhn: Hilfikon - history of the village and castle on the Rietenberg. Pp. 114-115.
  15. ↑ Ongoing trend towards parish mergers . Neue Zürcher Zeitung , November 26, 2007, accessed on December 31, 2009 .
  16. ↑ Peter Felder: The art monuments of the canton Aargau . Volume IV, Bremgarten district. Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel 1967, p. 269-284 .
  17. ^ Kuhn: Hilfikon - history of the village and castle on the Rietenberg. P. 18.
  18. ^ 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. 176 .
  19. ↑ 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 15, 2019 .
  20. ↑ 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 15, 2019 .
  21. ^ Kuhn: Hilfikon - history of the village and castle on the Rietenberg. Pp. 88-96.