Meisterschwanden

Meisterschwanden
State :	Switzerland
Canton :	Aargau (AG)
District :	Lenzburg
BFS no. :	4202
Postal code :	5616
UN / LOCODE :	CH MWA
Coordinates :	659 784  /  238523 coordinates: 47 ° 17 '42 "  N , 8 ° 13' 45"  O ; CH1903:  659,784  /  238523
Height :	505  m above sea level M.
Height range :	449-563 m above sea level M.
Area :	4.25  km²
Residents:	2959 (December 31, 2019)
Population density :	696 inhabitants per km²
Proportion of foreigners : (residents without citizenship )	15.5% (December 31, 2019)
Website:	www.meisterschwanden.ch
Meisterschwanden
Location of the municipality

Meisterschwanden ( Swiss German : ˈmæiʃtərʃˌʋɑndə ) is a municipality in the Swiss canton of Aargau . It belongs to the Lenzburg district and is located in the Seetal on the east bank of Lake Hallwil . The neighboring town of Tennwil was incorporated in 1900.

geography

The village is located on a slightly elevated terrace on the gently sloping, north-westerly foothills of the Lindenberg , just under half a kilometer from the east bank of Lake Hallwil. The terrain slopes steeply towards the largely unspoilt lakeshore. The municipality is drained towards the lake by the village stream, which partly runs in a ravine . The development has completely grown together with that of Fahrwangens . About one kilometer north of Meisterschwanden is Tennwil, a street village about two hundred meters from the lakeshore.

The area of ​​the municipality is 425 hectares , of which 81 hectares are covered with forest and 111 hectares are built over. The highest point is at 565 meters in the Fluerenwald northeast of the village center, the lowest at 449 meters on the shores of Lake Hallwil. Neighboring communities are Seengen in the north, Sarmenstorf in the east, Fahrwangen in the east and south, Beinwil am See in the south-west, Birrwil in the west and Boniswil in the north-west.

history

Lakeside settlement (pile dwellings) in Meisterschwanden – Erlenhölzli , underwater photo from 1996

The shores of Lake Hallwil in today's Meisterschwanden were already settled in the Neolithic Age (see Meisterschwanden – Erlenhölzli and Meisterschwanden – Seerose ).

The first written mention of Meistersvanc took place in 1173. In that year the sovereignty passed from the Counts of Lenzburg to the Counts of Kyburg . The place name comes from the Old High German Meistareswang , which means "slope of the master". Master could mean an educated monastery official living here. After the Kyburgs died out, the Habsburgs took over rule in 1273 . The lower jurisdiction belonged to the Lords of Meisterschwanden and in 1361 came to the Hallwyler . These added the village to the Lower Court Seengen .

In 1415 the confederates conquered Aargau. Meisterschwanden now belonged to the subject area of ​​the city of Bern , the so-called Bernese Aargau . The village was in the judicial district Seengen of the Lenzburg district . Tennwil, on the other hand, belonged to the Fahrwangen rulership and was largely beyond the influence of the Bernese well into the 18th century, as the Hallwylers also exercised blood jurisdiction here . In 1528 the Bernese introduced the Reformation . In March 1798 the French took Switzerland, ousted the «Gracious Lords» of Bern and proclaimed the Helvetic Republic . Since then, Meisterschwanden and Tennwil have belonged to the canton of Aargau.

Aerial view (1952)

Up until the second half of the 19th century, Meisterschwanden was dominated by agriculture. Then industrialization began ( cotton weaving and straw weaving ). Tennwil was an independent municipality until 1900, but was then incorporated on the instructions of the cantonal government. The Wohlen-Meisterschwanden Railway started operating on December 18, 1916, but the station was in the municipality of Fahrwangen . The initially planned continuation of the electric standard-gauge railway to Boniswil was never carried out. Rail traffic has been discontinued since 1997, and the route largely canceled.

The era of tourism began in 1888, when excursion traffic by ship began on Lake Hallwil. In 1936, a foundation in Tennwil opened the “Workers' Beach” in order to give the workers access to the lake and to withdraw part of the bank from speculation in the land. The population stagnated until the beginning of the 1960s, but then building activity began. The number of residents almost doubled and, thanks to its attractive location on the lake, Meisterschwanden developed into a residential community.

For the future drinking water supply , the municipal assembly unanimously approved the building loan for a lake water works in Hallwilersee in June 2019 .

Attractions

reformed Church

See also : List of cultural assets in Meisterschwanden

Meisterschwanden belonged to the Reformed parish of Seengen until 1817 and then formed its own parish together with Fahrwangen. For this reason, a late classicist church was built in 1819/20 , which largely corresponds to the church of Seengen, which was built in the same period, apart from its shorter length. The builder was Jost Kopp from Beromünster . The interior is oval, while the outer walls form an elongated octagon.

coat of arms

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms reads: "In the cloud section divided by blue and white." It is the coat of arms of the Lords of Meisterschwanden, which first appeared on a seal in 1362. Due to a misunderstanding, the community used a coat of arms until 1912, which was attributed to the Lords of Merenschwand in 1548 , although the existence of this gender is still not certain. The municipality of Buochs has a similar coat of arms, but with reversed colors.

regional customs

During the Second Villmerger War of 1712 Fahrwangen was the deployment area of ​​the Reformed troops. When the Catholics launched a counterattack, legend has it that they were expelled by the women from Fahrwangen and Meisterschwanden. The Bernese were so impressed by the courage to fight that they gave the women a day on which they could take over command. Since then, «Meitlisunntig» (girls' Sunday) has been celebrated on the second Sunday in January. Women from both villages walk through the streets with nets, catch the men and only release them after paying a “ransom” (mostly in the form of alcoholic beverages).

population

The population developed as follows (until 1850 without Tennwil) :

year	1764	1850	1900	1930	1950	1960	1970	1980	1990	2000	2010
Residents	308	1020	1113	1113	1089	1192	1512	1539	1758	2055	2654

On December 31, 2019, 2959 people lived in Meisterschwanden, the proportion of foreigners was 15.5%. In the 2015 census, 36.1% described themselves as Reformed and 28.9% as Roman Catholic ; 35.0% were non-denominational or of other faiths. In the 2000 census, 90.9% said their main language was German , 3.8% Italian , 1.6% Serbo-Croatian and 1.0% English .

Politics and law

The assembly of those entitled to vote, the municipal assembly , exercises legislative power. The executing authority is the five-member municipal council . He is elected by the people in the majority procedure, his term of office is four years. The parish council leads and represents the parish. To this end, it implements the resolutions of the municipal assembly and the tasks assigned to it by the canton. The District Court of Lenzburg is the first instance responsible for legal disputes . Meisterschwanden belongs to the Friedensrichterkreis XII (Seon).

economy

According to the company structure statistics (STATENT) collected in 2015, there are around 1,100 jobs in Meisterschwanden, of which 2% are in agriculture, 26% in industry and 72% in the service sector. Small and medium-sized companies from the metal industry, measurement and control technology, horticulture, the construction industry and the textile industry are represented. Tourism is also of certain importance, with hotels, restaurants, bathing beaches and campsites on the lake shore. Most of the employed are commuters and work outside of the country, for example in the Wohlen and Lenzburg regions .

traffic

The village is on Kantonsstrasse 291, which follows the eastern bank of Lake Hallwil. Here one branches off Kantonsstrasse 298 in the direction of Wohlen . Meisterschwanden is the end of a bus line from Limmat Bus to Wohlen station , which replaces the railway line. Another bus line operated by Regionalbus Lenzburg runs from Bettwil via Meisterschwanden and Seon to Lenzburg train station . On weekends there is a night bus from Lenzburg via Meisterschwanden to Sarmenstorf . At the Delphin and Seerose restaurants on the lakeshore there are landing stages for the Hallwilersee shipping company .

education

The Meisterschwanden schoolhouse

The community has two kindergartens and a school center where the primary school , the junior high school and the secondary school are taught. The district school can be attended in Fahrwangen . The closest grammar school is the Cantonal School in Wohlen .

Personalities

The best known resident of Meisterschwanden was the watch entrepreneur Nicolas Hayek (1928–2010), who received honorary citizenship together with his wife in November 2007. The historian Jean-Jacques Siegrist (1918–1992) lived in Meisterschwanden for many years and was also a councilor here, while the bank manager Marianne Wildi (* 1965) lives here. The dressage rider Gustav Fischer (1915–1990) and the politician Hans Fischer (1905–1942) were born in Meisterschwanden . The photographer Helene Fischer was born in Meisterschwanden in 1900.

literature

• Felix Müller: Meisterschwanden. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Michael Stettler , Emil Maurer : The art monuments of the canton of Aargau . Ed .: Society for Swiss Art History . Volume II: The districts of Lenzburg, Brugg. Wiese Verlag, Basel 1953, DNB  750561750 .

Web links

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

• Official website of the municipality of Meisterschwanden

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Cantonal population statistics 2019. Department of Finance and Resources, Statistics Aargau, March 30, 2020, accessed on April 2, 2019 . 
2. ↑ Cantonal population statistics 2019. Department of Finance and Resources, Statistics Aargau, March 30, 2020, accessed on April 2, 2019 . 
3. ^ National map of Switzerland, sheet 1110, Swisstopo.
4. ↑ Standard area statistics - municipalities according to 4 main areas. Federal Statistical Office , November 26, 2018, accessed on May 20, 2019 . 
5. ^ 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. 265-266 .
6. ↑ Anja Suter: Thanks to a lake waterworks, drinking water will soon be available fresh from Lake Hallwil. In: aargauerzeitung.ch . September 14, 2019, accessed September 16, 2019 . 
7. ^ 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. 209 .
8. ↑ Meitlisunntig. Meitlison Sunday associations Meisterschwanden and Fahrwangen, accessed on September 6, 2012 . 
9. ↑ 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 20, 2019 . 
10. ↑ Resident population by religious affiliation, 2015. (Excel) In: Population and Households, Community Tables 2015. Statistics Aargau, accessed on May 20, 2019 . 
11. ↑ 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 20, 2019 . 
12. ↑ circles of justice of the peace. Canton of Aargau, accessed on June 21, 2019 . 
13. ↑ Statistics of the corporate structure (STATENT). (Excel, 157 kB) Statistics Aargau, 2016, accessed on May 20, 2019 . 
14. ↑ Honorary Citizens Nicolas and Marianne Hayek. (PDF; 4.0 MB) In: Meisti-Zytig. Meisterschwanden community, December 2008, p. 3 , archived from the original on January 23, 2015 ; Retrieved September 29, 2012 .