Laughter (St. Gallen)

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Laugh
State : SwitzerlandSwitzerland Switzerland
Canton : Canton of St. GallenCanton of St. Gallen Canton of St. Gallen (SG)
Constituency : St. Gallen
Political community : St. Galleni2 w1
Postal code : 9000
former BFS no. : 3203035
Coordinates : 744 245  /  253 823 coordinates: 47 ° 25 '10 "  N , 9 ° 21' 1"  O ; CH1903:  744245  /  253,823
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Card of laughter
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Lachen is a district of the Swiss city ​​of St. Gallen .

Location and transport links

The Lachen district is located in the west of the city and is surrounded by the districts of Winkeln , Bruggen , Rosenberg and the city center. The quarter also borders the community of Gaiserwald . The quarter is on Zürcherstrasse, which was the main traffic axis from St. Gallen towards Zurich until the opening of the city ​​motorway with the Rosenberg tunnel in 1987. It is accessed by trolleybus routes 1, 2 and 151 . The highway access Kreuzbleiche the A1 highway at the eastern end of the quarter on the border with Rosenberg quarters . The districts of Stahl, Feldli, Sömmerli, Schönenwegen and Vonwil belong to the Lachen district.

Row of houses on the north side of Zürcherstrasse in the center of Lachen. At the far right edge the Federal Administrative Court

Demographics

The statistical district Vonwil-Lachen-Schoren had a population of 6,679 in 2014, whereby the age composition of 17% for 0-19 year olds was exactly the urban average. The proportion of people of working age between 20 and 64 was 68%, 2% above the average, and the proportion of people aged 65 and over was 15%, 2% below the average. The proportion of foreigners, at 38%, is 8 points above the urban average, with 14% Europeans from non-EU countries being the city's highest proportion. The high proportion of foreigners has led to the Lachen district being perceived as a “problem area”, although this is denied by local politicians.

Schools and public institutions

The commercial vocational and further training center St. Gallen, also called KV at Kreuzbleiche St. Gallen

The Lachenquartier has two primary schools (Feldli-Schoren and Schönenwegen) and an upper school center (Schönau). In addition, to the east of the quarter is the cantonal “Commercial Vocational and Further Education Center St. Gallen” (KBZ), which offers school lessons for commercial professions and further training in the commercial sector. The school is known locally under the name "KV" (from the Commercial Association) and is located on the site of the former weapons field of the St. Gallen barracks, which was demolished in 1980. The Federal Administrative Court , which moved into its headquarters in St. Gallen in the summer of 2012, is also at the eastern end of the quarter . At the south-western end of the district is the so-called Tröckneturm , a wooden tower built in 1828 from the heyday of the St. Gallen textile industry, which is also the landmark of the Lachen district association. The Tröckneturm and the approximately 9 hectare surrounding area (the largest contiguous green space in the city of St. Gallen) were bought by the city in 2019, with the aim of ecologically upgrading the area around the castle pond there and creating an inner-city recreational area accessible to the general public and to realize long-term construction projects in the peripheral area.

The Tröckneturm in the Lachen district, which was used to dry colored sheets of cloth in the 19th century.

On the border with the Rosenberg district is also the “Feldli” cemetery , which was laid out in 1874 far outside of the former settlement area and replaced the overcrowded cemeteries in the city. The establishment of a separate burial ground for Muslims was completed in 2014 after some discussions.

The city of St. Gallen's waste dump was also located in the quarter for many years. The valley of the Feldbach was filled in from 1903 to 1967 as a rubble and rubbish dump, the so-called 'Gallemescht' (St. Gallen dung) after it had drifted off. The landfill was then covered and the land thus gained was opened up. However, fermentation gases still escape from the former landfill. The seepage water from the approx. 1.8 million tons of waste must also be clarified.

Naming and history

The name 'Lachen' is sometimes traced back to 'Lache' (meaning a puddle), which could have been caused by the Feldbach, which used to flow openly through the area to the Sitter . However, the name Lachen was mentioned as early as 1340 and is explained in this context as "Grenzscheidland, Grenzkerbe on a tree, laugh, Läg". This assumption is at least as good, since the border between abbist and urban land ran on the eastern border of the Lachenquartier. This border later separated the urban area from the municipality of Straubenzell , to which the Lachen district belonged until 1918. Settlement of the Lachen area was still practically limited to two rows of houses along Zürcherstrasse until the 1880s (as can be seen, for example, from the Siegfried map , drawn up between 1878 and 1883). The development of this area, also known as Innerstraubenzell around 1900, began in the 1880s, but only continued afterwards

Feldli-Lachen in 1860: View towards the south to Waldegg Castle (center) and the Menzlen when the snow melts

The turn of the century really took off when two master builders, Anton Starkle and Andreas Osterwalder, built Billg apartments, apartment blocks and some stately buildings. The very dense and small-scale development can still be seen today north of Zürcherstrasse (e.g. Metallstrasse) and is unique in this form in St. Gallen. In addition to various commercial businesses, industrial companies also settled in the quarter: an embroidery factory and a soap factory were located in the middle of the densely built-up residential area, although industry had disappeared from the quarter in the mid-20th century. On July 1, 1918, the municipalities of Straubenzell and Tablat were merged with the city of St. Gallen as part of the city merger, so that Lachen, as a former part of Straubenzell, now belonged to St. Gallen.

Remarkable structures

Comparison Metallstrasse St. Gallen 2017 and 1920. The closely spaced rental houses still look practically the same as 100 years before.

Due to the rather late development of the area, there are only a few notable historical buildings. In addition to the aforementioned Tröckneturm, Waldegg Castle should be mentioned. The building was erected in 1475 by the merchants Stefan Grübel and Konrad Enggasser outside the city on the territory of the prince abbot. From 1505 it was in the hands of the prince and served as the seat of the state court master. When the prince abbey was abolished in the wake of the Napoleonic wars, the building was taken over by the canton of St. Gallen and sold in 1825 to the industrialist Jakob Täschler, who set up a red dye works and built the Tröckneturm for it. In 1901 the castle and factory burned down. The castle was rebuilt in 1902/3 by the well-known church architect August Hardegger and renovated in 1997/98.

The quarter is also characterized by the post office building at Zürcherstrasse 27, which was St. Gallen's first high-rise in 1956.

Celebrities from the neighborhood

The Swiss folk actor Walter Roderer grew up in the Lachen district. The former show jumper Monica Bachmann also comes from the neighborhood.

Web links

Commons : Lachen SG  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ QV laughter. In: www.qv-lachen.ch. Retrieved January 31, 2016 .
  2. ↑ Brief portraits of the 18 quarters of the city of St.Gallen. Office for Social Affairs , May 21, 2015, pp. 24-27 , accessed June 7, 2017 .
  3. ↑ St. Galler Tagblatt AG, Switzerland: Lachen-Quartier: More beautiful than in the ghetto . In: St. Galler Tagblatt Online . ( tagblatt.ch [accessed June 7, 2017]).
  4. ↑ KBZ
  5. ↑ St. Galler Tagblatt AG, Switzerland: canceled in a few days . In: St. Galler Tagblatt Online . ( tagblatt.ch [accessed June 7, 2017]).
  6. ↑ Tröckneturm
  7. ↑ Reto Voneschen, Reto Voneschen: The city of St.Gallen is buying a natural gem. Retrieved September 17, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Feldli Cemetery. Retrieved June 7, 2017 .
  9. ↑ St. Galler Nachrichten: A burial ground for Muslims. Retrieved June 7, 2017 .
  10. ↑ St. Galler Tagblatt AG, Switzerland: The "gall dung" is alive . In: St.Galler Tagblatt Online . ( tagblatt.ch [accessed June 8, 2017]).
  11. ↑ Martin Arnet:: The place and field names of the city of St. Gallen. Verlag St. Galler Namenbuch, St. Gallen 1990, ISBN 3-908048-15-X .
  12. ^ Paul Bächtiger: The structural development in the Feldli and Sömmerliquartier . In: Rummaged through old files - a chronicle about the Lachenquartier . St. Gallen 1997, p. 16 .
  13. ↑ Saint Gall Sankt Gallen: Waldegg Castle Le chateau de Waldegg. Retrieved June 8, 2017 .
  14. ↑ Zürcherstrasse at that time. Quartierverein Lachen, p. 17 , accessed on June 8, 2017 .