Langendorf SO

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
SO is the abbreviation for the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland and is used to avoid confusion with other entries in the name Langendorff .
Langendorf
Langendorf coat of arms
State : SwitzerlandSwitzerland Switzerland
Canton : Canton of SolothurnCanton of Solothurn Solothurn (SO)
District : Liversw
BFS no. : 2550i1 f3 f4
Postal code : 4513
Coordinates : 605 744  /  229992 coordinates: 47 ° 13 '15 "  N , 7 ° 30' 52"  O ; CH1903:  605,744  /  229992
Height : 496  m above sea level M.
Height range : 443-547 m above sea level M.
Area : 1.95  km²
Residents: 3782 (December 31, 2018)
Population density : 1939 inhabitants per km²
Website: www.langendorf-so.ch
View of Langendorf

View of Langendorf
Location of the municipality
Bellacher Weiher Kanton Bern Kanton Bern Kanton Bern Kanton Jura Bezirk Bucheggberg Bezirk Solothurn Bezirk Thal Bezirk Wasseramt Balm bei Günsberg Bellach Bettlach SO Feldbrunnen-St. Niklaus Flumenthal Grenchen Günsberg Hubersdorf Kammersrohr Langendorf SO Lommiswil Oberdorf SO Riedholz SO Rüttenen SelzachMap of Langendorf
About this picture
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Langendorf (in the local dialect Längedorf ) is a municipality in the Lebern district in the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland .

geography

Aerial photo (1958)

Langendorf is 496  m above sea level. M. and two kilometers northwest of Solothurn on the valley basin of the torrent , slightly elevated north of the Aare valley at the southern foot of the Jura .

The area of ​​the 1.9 km² municipal area comprises a small section of the lower southern Jura slope, which is made up of moraine material from the Rhone glacier . The main part of the area lies in the hollow through which the torrent , which rises on the Weissenstein, flows from north to south. This valley is flanked to the west by the Heimlisberg hilltop (up to 525  m above sea level ). Langendorf has a small section east of the Geissloch on the Busletenbach . In the east is the municipality border on Dürrbach ; in the south, the area of ​​the municipality almost reaches the lowland of the Aare. On the Fallerenhölzli, which is separated from the village by an agricultural area in the northeast, is the highest point of Langendorf at 545  m above sea level. M.

In 1997, 47% of the municipal area was accounted for by settlements, 11% for forests and woodlands and 42% for agriculture.

The village of Langendorf has developed from a lined street village on the way from Solothurn to Oberdorf and on the Weissenstein to a large suburb of Solothurn, which in the 20th century merged with the settlement area of ​​this city and Bellach .

The neighboring communities of Langendorf are Solothurn, Bellach, Oberdorf and Rüttenen .

One of the Langendorf schoolhouses

population

With 3782 inhabitants (as of December 31, 2018) Langendorf is one of the medium-sized communities in the canton of Solothurn. 92.2% of the residents speak German, 2.8% speak Italian and 0.9% speak French (as of 2000). The population of Langendorf was 354 inhabitants in 1850 and 1078 inhabitants in 1900. In the course of the 20th century the population increased continuously until 1970 (3019 inhabitants). Thereafter, the number of inhabitants remained relatively constant, before increasing again to exactly 3400 people (2000) from the 1990s and then to the above-mentioned level.

politics

Every four years, the population elects a 9-person council and a councilor. The local council after the 2017 election consists of four FDP , four SP and one SVP MP. The mayor is Hans-Peter Berger (SP).

The function of the legislature is taken over by the grassroots community assembly in Langendorf .

economy

Until the second half of the 19th century, Langendorf was predominantly an agricultural village. The water power of the torrent was previously used to operate mills. From 1873 to 1973 the watch industry was of great importance in Langendorf.

Today arable and fruit growing as well as cattle breeding have only a marginal role in the employment structure of the population. Numerous other jobs are available in the secondary sector and in the service sector. In Langendorf there are now mechanical engineering companies (the largest being Truninger Pumpenbau AG), metalworking, IT, the electrical industry, the construction industry, the transport industry and mechanical workshops. Langendorf is the location of a large Migros shopping center at the site of the former Lanco watch factory and the cantonal psychiatric clinic (since 2006 part of Solothurner Spitäler AG ) and has a district school. In the last few decades the village has developed into a residential community. Many workers are commuters who mainly work in Solothurn.

History of the Langendorf watch industry

Former Lanco watch factory, now a shopping center (skyscraper on the right demolished in 2011)
In 2008, when the former factory was rebuilt, the lettering was briefly visible again

The Kottmann family from Solothurn bought a property in Langendorf in 1842 in order to become industrially active. In 1873, the former building was converted to manufacture chicory , and the ébauche production began with around 70 to 80 jobs . This laid the foundation stone for watch production in Langendorf. The first time was economically difficult for the von Langendorf watch factory. In 1879 the company chose the name Uhrenfabrik Langendorf SA . In 1880 the ébauch production reached a threatening low, the number of employees fell, and the quality of the products hardly seems to have been sufficient. In order to improve the social situation of the employees, Karl Kottmann began building social housing and training local workers. When the company was on the verge of liquidation in the mid-1880s, Kottmann succeeded in reorganizing and modernizing the company with the help of watch specialists from western Switzerland. The success set in and the factory received large orders from companies in the canton of Neuchâtel . This made it possible to massively expand the company in Langendorf.

Karl Kottmann was seen as an employer with great social commitment, which was not common at the time. He participated in the financing of new school buildings and a hydrant system for the community of Langendorf, just as his successors later also participated in the introduction of electrical lighting in the community. In addition, Kottmann continued to promote residential construction, and he founded several village associations, some of which still exist today. The watch factory and the village were closely linked, which, in addition to the economic advantages, also brought certain disadvantages, for example the company's strong influence on community politics.

In 1887, the Unhrenfabrik also began to manufacture fournitures from blanks. This meant that the company was independent of suppliers. The watch factory continued to grow inexorably and was considered the largest watch factory in the world at the end of the 1880s (which can be seen from the fact that at that time the global watch industry was still largely concentrated in north-western Switzerland). When Karl Kottmann died in 1890, the then technical manager Lucien Tièche took over management of the factory. He got the board of directors through that the clock factory Langendorf could from now on produce its own clocks with the brand name Langendorf.

In 1902 Ernst Kottmann took over the management of the watch factory. In 1904 he switched the power drive of the machine tools from steam engines to electricity and shortly before the First World War he introduced the manufacture of turned parts as an additional branch of production. In 1909, in addition to its previous companies, “Uhrenfabrik Langendorf”, “Société d'Horlogerie de Langendorf” and “Langendorf Watch Co.” the name "Lonville Watch Co." a. The creation of the “ brand new” name Lonville in 1917 was criticized in the communications of the German-speaking Switzerland Association . This was subsequently one of the factory's watch brands alongside Lanco , but was not widely used beyond that. In the 2000s, the Lonville brand was revived, with the current manufacturer using this name referring to the tradition of the Langendorf watch industry, without having any connection to the former watch factory or the town of Langendorf.

In 1918 the company was badly affected by the general strike . Apparently the company also supplied Germany during World War II . According to contemporary witnesses, a so-called German "acceptance command" was to be found in the Langendorf watch factory around 1940, which was entrusted with the delivery of series of individual parts via Basel . The intended purpose of these individual parts remained unclear, although in Langendorf there was talk of time fuses . After the second mobilization in May 1940, the "acceptance squad" disappeared. More precise information can no longer be determined, as the company archive no longer exists for this period. When Ernst Kottmann resigned due to illness in 1942, his brother Rudolf Kottmann took over management of the company.

In 1964 there was a fateful turn in the company's management. After a fatal accident involving the then director Hans Kottmann, a college chaired by Guido Kottmann took over the management of the company for the first time. The watch factory Langendorf SA, which had been called Lanco (for "Langendorf Co.") for several years , had to join the "Allgemeine Schweizerischen Uhrenindustrie AG" ( ASUAG ) in 1965 due to the flagging business situation . In 1971 Lanco finally had to give up its independence and was merged with the Omega - Tissot Group. Exactly 100 years after Lanco was founded, in 1973, during the general Swiss watch crisis, production in Langendorf came to an end. Most of the workers lost their jobs. Some found new jobs in other companies that took over certain areas of production.

The Lanco building complex was taken over by the Migros cooperative, which opened the Ladedorf (or: Ladendorf ) shopping center in it in 1977 . The facility was rebuilt and expanded in 1996 and again from 2008 to 2010. A corresponding high-rise, which was characteristic of the townscape of Langendorf, was demolished in 2011.

traffic

The community is located off the main thoroughfares on a connecting road from Solothurn to Oberdorf and over the Weissenstein Pass to Gänsbrunnen . The next connection to the A5 motorway (Solothurn-Biel) is around 4 kilometers from the town center, southwest of Solothurn. On August 1, 1908, the railway line of the then Solothurn-Münster-Bahn (today: BLS AG ) from Solothurn to Moutier with a train station in Langendorf went into operation.

The BSU bus line provides the shuttle service in public transport on the route from Oberdorf to Solothurn and to Recherswil .

history

The first written mention of the place took place in 1304 under the name Lengendorf . Later the names Lengendorff (1555) and Langendorf (1592) appeared.

In the Middle Ages, Langendorf was subordinate to the Sankt-Ursen-Stift in Solothurn and in 1344 came to the city of Solothurn, which from then on exercised both lower and higher jurisdiction. A little later it was subordinated to the Vogtei Flumenthal and also belonged to the seat of the village court, the parish and the Oberdorf school. In 1375 the Guglers destroyed u. a. the village of Gurzelen; this was later incorporated into the southern part of the village of Langendorf, the Hüslerhof quarter.

After the collapse of the Ancien Régime ( 1798 ), the village belonged to the Solothurn administrative district during the Helvetic and from 1803 to the Lebern district. The Weissensteinstrasse, implicitly mentioned in the traffic section , was still called Lange Gasse at the time (also in the Solothurn area) . As in many other communities between Biel and Solothurn, the watch industry gained a foothold in Langendorf from around 1870 and led to a significant increase in the population.

Until 1953 Langendorf was part of the Roman Catholic parish of Oberdorf, since then the parish of Langendorf has had its own pastor or community leader and, together with Lommiswil and Oberdorf, forms the Roman Catholic parish of Oberdorf. Since 1955 the Reformed have had their own pastor (currently Pastor Sabine Palm) and together with Oberdorf they form the parish of Langendorf-Oberdorf of the Reformed parish of Solothurn.

Attractions

Ecumenical Church Center Langendorf

The ecumenical church center was built from 1969 to 1971 according to plans by the Zurich architect Manuel Pauli . It has a worship room for Catholics and a Reformed church as well as a common bell tower. In 1991 Ernst Brun's 16mm silent film about the church was set to music. This film was supplemented and made accessible by Christoph Knoch, Reformed pastor in Langendorf from 1986–2002, with interviews with contemporary witnesses.

In the far west, almost in the Bellach municipality, there is also the Staalenhof from the 16th century, a former estate of the Staal patrician family .

coat of arms

Blazon

White owl sitting in red on a yellow cannon barrel with a Swiss shield in its beak; on the cannon the motto “forward”.

Like many Swiss municipal coats of arms, the current coat of arms of the municipality of Langendorf was introduced in 1939 because all municipalities should be represented with their coat of arms at the Swiss National Exhibition . The introduction of the coat of arms was decided unanimously at the municipal meeting on June 26, 1939. It is reminiscent of the radical, liberal Chutzenschützen Society that actively participated in the free troop trains . During the second free troop march in 1845, they carried a cannon with them, which was named "Vorwärts" and which also bears it on the barrel. The "Vorwärts" cannon, which fell into the hands of Lucerne troops after the failed free march of the Lucerne troops, was recaptured in the Sonderbund War and is now on display in the Museum Altes Zeughaus Solothurn .

The original coat of arms of Langendorf shows a vertical saw blade with six teeth on a red and white cross-sectioned ground and is still used today by the community .

literature

  • Walter Brülisauer among others: Village chronicle Langendorf. Langendorf 2000

Web links

Commons : Langendorf SO  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

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. ^ Office for Finance (SO): Canton Solothurn in figures, 2014
  3. ↑ Solothurn: This is how the communities voted . In: SRF . SRF Swiss radio and television. May 21, 2017. Retrieved March 7, 2018.
  4. ↑ Solothurn, Lebern Bureau . In: Schweizerisches Handelsamtsblatt . tape 27 , issue 231, September 14, 1909, p. 1570 ( online at e-periodica ).
  5. ↑ Notices: Where's Lonville? In: Communications of the German-speaking Swiss language association . tape 1 , issue 1, 1917 ( online at e-periodica ).
  6. ↑ Adam Sofineti: Introducing Lonville Watch Company - a hidden gem ( English ) In: Watch Paper . June 14, 2016. Accessed March 9, 2018.
  7. ^ A b Werner Ledermann: "German acceptance command" . In: Village Chronicle Langendorf . Resident community Langendorf, Langendorf 2000, p. 97 .
  8. ↑ Loading village in Langendorf: Conversion finished (PDF) Migros Aare Cooperative . March 19, 2010. Retrieved April 2, 2010.
  9. ↑ Christof Ramser: After four months the landmark was gone . In: Solothurner Zeitung . August 19, 2011. Retrieved December 15, 2011.
  10. ↑ B. Amiet: Solothurnische Geschichte, Vol. 1, 1952
  11. ^ Altermatt map from 1822, in: Der Langendörfer Bürger
  12. ↑ a b Werner Ledermann: Coat of arms valid since 1939 . In: Village Chronicle Langendorf . Resident community Langendorf, Langendorf 2000, p. 42 .
  13. ↑ Werner Ledermann: The Chutzenschützen - a Langendörfer exclusivity . In: Village Chronicle Langendorf . Resident community Langendorf, Langendorf 2000, p. 44-46 .