Kauhajoki
| coat of arms | map |
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| Basic data | |
| State : |
 Finland
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| Landscape : | South Ostrobothnia |
| Administrative community : | Suupohja |
| Geographical location | 62 ° 25 ' N , 22 ° 11' E |
| Surface: | 1,315.71 km² |
| of which land area: | 1,299.25 km² |
| of which inland waterways: | 16.46 km² |
| Residents : | 13,375 (Dec. 31, 2018) |
| Population density : | 10.3 inhabitants / km² |
| Municipality number : | 232 |
| Language (s) : | Finnish |
| Website : | kauhajoki.fi |
Kauhajoki [ ˈkɑu̯ɦɑˌjoki ] is a small town in western Finland . The municipality is located in the South Ostrobothnian countryside , was founded in 1868 and has 13,375 inhabitants (as of December 31, 2018). On July 1, 2001 it was granted city rights .
geography
Kauhajoki is located in the south of the western Finnish landscape of South Ostrobothnia on the border with Satakunta . Neighboring cities and municipalities are Kurikka in the north and east, Karvia in the south-east, Honkajoki in the south, Isojoki in the south-west, Karijoki in the west and Teuva in the north-west. The next largest cities are Seinäjoki 58 kilometers east and Vaasa 97 kilometers northwest. The distance to the capital Helsinki is 334 kilometers.
With 1,315 square kilometers, Kauhajoki is the largest municipality in the province of western Finland in terms of area. In its southern part the city has a share of the moraine ridge of the Suomenselkä . In this landscape dominated by forests and moors there are two national parks: The Lauhanvuori National Park with the 231 meter high Lauhanvuori Hill and the Kauhaneva Pohjakangas National Park . The north of Kauhajoki belongs to the flat, intensively agriculturally used Ostrobothnian coastal plain. The city is traversed by the eponymous Kauhajoki River, a tributary of the Kyrönjoki .
In addition to the main town of Kauhajoki, the city includes the following villages:
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history
A first settlement in the area of today's Kauhajoki can be found around the year 8500 BC. When the flat northern part of the municipality was still under the floods of the Ancylussee . With the isostatic land elevation, the coast moved steadily to the west, and the area became more and more impassable due to forest cover and swamp. Over the next millennia, the sparse archaeological finds suggest only sporadic settlement.
In the Middle Ages, the Kauhajoki area was used as wilderness by the inhabitants of the neighboring regions of Satakunta , Österbotten and Häme , mainly as a hunting and fishing ground. A permanent settlement only arose in the second half of the 16th century, mainly due to the influx of new settlers from Ilmajoki in the north and Hämeenkyrö in the south along the Kyrönkankaan tie. For a long time, this summer route was the only path that could be removed between the Häme landscape inland and the Ostrobothnian coast with the commercial port of Korsholm / Mustasaari . By means of Schwendbau , more and more areas were reclaimed starting from the banks of the rivers and lakes. From the 17th century onwards, some extensive manors were built. The largest of these was the Knuutila estate, the largest part of which was bought by the von Schantz family after an inheritance had been divided up in 1815. Under the Schantzens, the manor house Sanssinkartano, which can be visited today, was built in the lordly Empire style in 1863.
During the Finnish War , which led to Finland's detachment from the Union of the Swedish Empire, Kauhajoki was the scene of a Swedish-Finnish defensive success in August 1808. The Russian units commanded by General Sepelev attacked the location at an important crossroads on August 10 with a strength of a good 1,000 soldiers. The brigade defending the place under Georg Carl von Döbeln was able to repel the attack. While withdrawing from Nummijärvi, the attackers set the entire village on fire.
In 1913 the railway line from Seinäjoki to Kaskinen , which ran through Kauhajoki , was opened. During the Winter War , the Finnish Parliament stayed temporarily in Kauhajoki. After the capital Helsinki became the target of Soviet air strikes, the parliament decided to relocate to a place that was sufficiently far from the front and should not have any strategic importance. The choice fell on Kauhajoki, where on December 1, 1939 a train with the parliamentarians and the most important files arrived. The evacuation was also kept secret from the Finnish press, and the resettlement decision , signed by President Kyösti Kallio on December 2nd of that year , was not archived in the minutes of the parliamentary session. The parliamentarians in Kauhajoki were accommodated in the parish, the town hall and in private households, but even many residents of Kauhajoki are said not to have learned anything about the parliamentary stay in their community until the end of the war. The ballroom of the local high school was converted into a meeting room. The parliamentarians sat on chairs in the school and took their notes on their laps, as there was no space for tables due to the cramped space. The Finnish parliament held a total of 34 plenary sessions in Kauhajoki up to February 12, 1940, including the final session in 1939 and the constituent session in 1940; Parliament's whereabouts were also not disclosed in the radio speeches broadcast on the YLE on this occasion . As the air raids on Helsinki waned and communication with the administrative bodies in the rest of the country was difficult, Parliament returned to Helsinki in February 1940.
After Finland's defeat in the Continuation War , around 1,500 refugees from the areas of Karelia ceded to the Soviet Union were settled in Kauhajoki. During the war, around 2000 Ingermanland women had already been resettled to Kauhajoki, but most of them returned to their homeland after the end of the war. At the end of the 1940s, the country's largest uniform settlement area for frontline veterans was established in the village of Sahankylä. 42 new farms were established, which were taken over by soldiers from all over Finland.
In the post-war period, Kauhajoki experienced a rapid structural change. In 1950, 76 percent of the population lived from agriculture. The population that year was 19,027, but began to decline towards the end of the decade. Many residents left the community for the cities or for Sweden. The development reached its lowest point in 1976, when Kauhajoki still had 14,444 inhabitants. At that time, 39 percent of the population was still earning their living in agriculture. Instead, there was a significant recovery in the industrial sector, which again caused the population to rise. In 1990, before the Finnish economy plunged into crisis, the population was 15,569 and the unemployment rate was moderate. In the following economic crisis, the large employers Rauma-Repola in the woodworking industry and Strömberg in the electrical industry gave up their locations in Kauhajoki, which meant that the unemployment rate was among the highest in the region for many years.
On 23 September 2008 Kauhajoki came into the public spotlight, as a student at a vocational training center with a gun ten people and even when shooting rampage in Kauhajoki killed.
population
The population development of Kauhajoki has been in a slightly decreasing trend in recent years. Between 1996 and 2006, the population of the city fell by 5.5 percent from 15,303 to 14,457.
In contrast to the Swedish-speaking coastal strip of Ostrobothnia, the inland areas of southern Ostrobothnia are purely Finnish-speaking . Kauhajoki, 99.2 percent of the population of which have Finnish as their mother tongue, is officially monolingual Finnish.
politics
As in most rural areas of Finland, the Center Party is the strongest political force in Kauhajoki . In the 2008 local elections she received almost half of the votes, and in the 2007 parliamentary elections even two-thirds of the votes. In the city council, the highest decision-making body in local affairs, it has 17 of 35 deputies. The second strongest party is the conservative National Collection Party with just under a quarter of the votes and eight seats on the city council. The right-wing populist base Finns are disproportionately represented with five seats. The third big party in Finland, the Social Democrats , plays a subordinate role with a single-digit election result and three members of the Kauhajoki city council. Also represented in the city council are the local electoral alliance “For Kauhajoki” ( Kauhajoen puolesta ) and the left-wing alliance , each with one MP.
| Political party | 2008 election results | Seats |
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| Center Party | 44.7% | 17th |
| National rally party | 23.3% | 8th |
| Base fins | 15.2% | 5 |
| Social democrats | 7.9% | 3 |
| For Kauhajoki | 4.1% | 1 |
| Left alliance | 3.9% | 1 |
Town twinning
Kauhajoki maintains a city partnership with the Swedish municipality of Hudiksvall .
coat of arms
The city coat of arms was designed by Ahti Hammar and has been in use since October 17, 1952. The blazon reads “divided by blue and silver in a wave cut. Two silver hammers of the speaker crossed diagonally at the top, a red-tongued black bear's head looking out at the bottom ” .
Culture and sights
Kauhajoki Church was built in 1958 based on plans by Veikko Larkas . The shape of the modern building should resemble a standing open Bible. The interior is dominated by an 18 meter high altar mosaic and a 13 meter high bronze cross above. The capacity of the church is 1,000 people. At the site of today's church there had been a total of five previous buildings since 1584, most recently a stately wooden church, built between 1818 and 1820 according to plans by Salomon Köhlström, which burned down on September 29, 1956.
Furthermore, two villages in Kauhajokis have their own houses of worship: In Nummijärvi there is a small wooden church building from 1934 that can accommodate 300 people. The Kauhajärvi Church was consecrated in 1951 and can accommodate 150 people.
Also listed are the historic rows of houses Ikkelä and Ala-Mattila in the village of Aronkylä, the Hämes-Havunen manor from the early 19th century and the former session room of the Finnish Parliament during the Winter War.
Sons and daughters
- Jorma Panula (* 1930), conductor and composer
- Jouko Salomäki (* 1962), Olympic champion in wrestling
- Vesa Hietalahti (* 1969), biathlete
- Heli Koivula Kruger (* 1975), long and triple jumper
- Jani Haapamäki (* 1982), wrestler and European champion
- Katri Nokso-Koivisto (* 1982), football player
literature
- Liisa Ruismäki: Kauhajoen historia: Esihistoriasta vuoteen 1918 . Kauhajoen kunta ja seurakunta 1987, ISBN 951-99888-2-3 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Maanmittauslaitos (Finnish Land Surveyors): Suomen pinta-alat kunnittain January 1, 2010 . (PDF; 199 kB)
- ↑ Statistical Office Finland: Table 11ra - Key figures on population by region, 1990-2018
- ↑ Kauhajoen metsien ja soiden kirja ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 296 kB)
- ↑ Pekka Kemppainen, Suomen Sota
- ↑ Eduskunta evakossa - Exhibition of the Library of the Finnish Parliament
- ↑ Kauhajoen historia ( Memento of the original from September 26, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. - History of the Kauhajoki community
- ↑ News article on spiegel.de
- ^ Website of the city of Kauhajoki: Tietoa taskuun (Finnish)
- ↑ As of 2006, Finnish Statistics Center ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Finnish Ministry of Justice: Result of the 2007 general election
- ↑ Finnish Ministry of Justice: Result of the 2008 local elections
- ↑ kunnat.net Suomen kuntavaakunat : Aaltokorokatkoisen kilven sinisessä yläkentässä kaksi hopeista puhemiehen nuijaa ristikkäin, hopeisessa alakentässä kohti katsova musta karhunpää, jonka kieli punainen.
