Menziken

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Menziken
Menziken coat of arms
State : SwitzerlandSwitzerland Switzerland
Canton : Kanton AargauKanton Aargau Aargau (AG)
District : Kulmw
BFS no. : 4139i1 f3 f4
Postal code : 5737
UN / LOCODE : CH MZK
Coordinates : 656 701  /  232432 coordinates: 47 ° 14 '25 "  N , 8 ° 11' 15"  O ; CH1903:  656 701  /  232432
Height : 545  m above sea level M.
Height range : 535–872 m above sea level M.
Area : 6.38  km²
Residents: 6497 (December 31, 2019)
Population density : 1018 inhabitants per km²
Proportion of foreigners :
(residents without
citizenship )
39.3% (December 31, 2019)
Website: www.menziken.ch
Menziken

Menziken

Location of the municipality
Hallwilersee Baldeggersee Kanton Luzern Kanton Solothurn Bezirk Aarau Bezirk Bremgarten Bezirk Muri Bezirk Lenzburg Bezirk Zofingen Beinwil am See Birrwil Burg AG Dürrenäsch Gontenschwil Holziken Leimbach AG Leutwil Menziken Oberkulm Reinach AG Schlossrued Schmiedrued Schöftland Teufenthal Unterkulm ZetzwilMap of Menziken
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Menziken ( Swiss German : ˈmæntsikχə ) is a municipality in the Swiss canton of Aargau . It belongs to the Kulm district , is located in the upper Wynental and borders the canton of Lucerne .

geography

The village stretches across the width of the trough-shaped valley of the Wyna . The Ischlag ( 651  m above sea level ) forms the natural border to the Seetal in the east. To the west of the village is the municipality of Burg . This is almost completely enclosed by the municipality of Menzikens and is therefore almost an enclave . A strip of land almost 100 meters wide forms the connection to the western part of the municipality. Most of the area there is wooded and climbs up to Stierenberg ( 872  m above sea level ). The five villages of Menziken, Burg, Beinwil am See , Pfeffikon and Reinach have merged into a coherent agglomeration with around 20,000 inhabitants, the borders between the once separate settlements are hardly recognizable.

The area of ​​the municipality is 638 hectares , of which 155 hectares are forested and 197 hectares are built over. The highest point is at 872 meters on the summit of the Stierenberg, the lowest at 535 meters on the Wyna. Other neighboring communities in the canton of Aargau include Burg, Reinach in the north and Beinwil am See in the northeast. Neighboring communities in the canton of Lucerne are Rickenbach in the west and Beromünster in the south and east.

history

Isolated finds testify to a settlement of the upper Wynental during the Neolithic , the Bronze Age and the Hallstatt Age . A small estate existed here in Roman times . In the 7th century, a major Alemannic farmer built a farm. Manzinchouen was first mentioned in 1045 in a document from Count Ulrich von Lenzburg. The place name comes from the Old High German Manzinghofun and means "at the farms of the Manzo clan". In the Middle Ages the village was under the rule of the Counts of Lenzburg , from 1173 on that of the Counts of Kyburg . After these died out, the Habsburgs took over sovereignty and blood jurisdiction in 1273 . The lower jurisdiction was owned by the Lords of Reinach , who had their headquarters in Burg . The tithe had to be delivered to the Canons of Beromünster .

In 1415 the confederates conquered Aargau. Menziken now belonged to the subject area of ​​the city of Bern , the so-called Berner Aargau , and was part of the Reinach court in the Lenzburg district . In 1528 the Bernese introduced the Reformation . Menziken had been part of Reinach for a long time and was only raised to an independent community around 1580. In March 1798 the French took Switzerland, ousted the «Gracious Lords» of Bern and proclaimed the Helvetic Republic . Since then, Menziken has belonged to the canton of Aargau.

Aerial view (1964)

The industry held early Feeder: 1729 a cotton settled factory in the former farming village. Weaving, spinning and dyeing mills soon followed. The exports went to Alsace , Lombardy and Savoy . From 1838 onwards, the textile trade , which produced at home , was gradually displaced by the tobacco industry , when Samuel Weber founded the canton's first tobacco factory with the S. Weber tape and tobacco factory . His company was able to open up a new market as a manufacturer of pipe tobacco. With Gautschi & Hauri, Heinrich Hediger & Söhne, Burger Söhne , Eichenberger & Cie (today Eicifa Eichenberger & Cie.), Or Villiger and Säuberli, a cluster of Swiss cigar production with international significance emerged in Menziken and in the upper Wynental . In 1852 the «Bank in Menziken» was founded. At the turn of the 20th century, the construction of Herkules trucks and the processing of aluminum in Aluminum AG (later Alu Menziken Group , today Montana Tech Components ) were added. With the increasing spread of cigarettes, cigar production fell into a crisis that resulted in takeovers, mergers and closings. In the entire canton of Aargau, the number of employees in this division fell from 3247 in 69 companies in 1939 to 206 in six companies around 1995. Weber & Söhne had to stop operations in 1982.

In 1869, a Herrenhuter partnership was founded in Menziken , which dates back to the first contact with successors of the Czech reformer Jan Hus , who lived in Saxony , in 1785. The law firm's building on Spitalstrasse, the Brome , built in 1877 , was the first Protestant church building in the village, before the Reformed Church. This made Menziken the only rural municipality in Switzerland with a law firm and served the other municipalities in Zurich , Basel and Bern as well as in the western Swiss watchmaking towns of La-Chaux-de-Fonds and Le Locle as a retreat for youth camps. After decades of membership decline, the congregation was dissolved on June 17, 2017.

The economic boom in the village would not have been possible without the construction of new traffic routes. On May 1, 1904, the narrow-gauge Wynental Railway replaced the stagecoach traffic between Menziken and the canton capital Aarau . On October 1, 1906, the standard gauge railway line Menziken - Beromünster was opened, a branch of the Seetalbahn . In the course of the 20th century, the population more than doubled and Menziken has grown together with its neighboring villages. Menziken, Burg , Pfeffikon and Reinach work closely together in numerous areas.

Attractions

The Evangelical Reformed Church in Menziken
Community hall - in the background the Reformed Church

In 1801, a sawmill powered by a water wheel was built on the Wyna , which was in operation until 1969. The building was restored from 1982 to 1986 and has been a listed building since then. It is maintained by an association and is therefore still functional; Demonstrations take place regularly. The Reformed Church , a neo-Gothic style building, has existed since 1890. In 2000, the local Chrischona parish sold its chapel, which was built in 1922. The building has been renovated and converted into a museum dealing with the tobacco and cigar industry of the upper Wynental valley. The Catholic St. Anna Church from 1907 had to be rebuilt and expanded in 1973 due to the steadily growing number of believers.

coat of arms

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms reads: "In red on a green three-mountain warrior in white armor, his head turned to the left, in his right a white spear with a yellow shaft, in his left a five-pointed yellow star." The Menziker coat of arms has undergone numerous changes, a total of 13 different variants of the knight motif have survived. The version used today was introduced in 1956.

population

The population developed as follows:

year 1764 1803 1850 1900 1930 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
Residents 864 1222 1921 2333 2721 3377 4060 4587 4570 4752 5511 5589

On December 31, 2019, 6,497 people lived in Menziken, the proportion of foreigners was 39.3%. In the 2015 census, 28.3% described themselves as Roman Catholic and 27.0% as Reformed ; 44.7% were non-denominational or of other faiths. In the 2000 census, 81.3% named German as their main language, 5.0% Albanian , 4.1% Serbo-Croatian , 3.0% Italian , 2.8% Turkish and 1.3% Spanish .

Politics and law

Parish hall in Menziken

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 Kulm District Court is the first instance responsible for legal disputes . Menziken belongs to the Friedensrichterkreis IX (Unterkulm).

economy

According to the company structure statistics (STATENT) collected in 2015, there are around 2,000 jobs in Menziken, of which 1% in agriculture, 25% in industry and 74% in the service sector. Menziken, together with Reinach, forms the economic center of southern Aargau and therefore has a lot of commuters, also from the neighboring Lucerne areas. By far the largest company is the Alu Menziken Group , which has its headquarters here. The American Haworth, Inc. , the world's second largest office furniture company, has its Swiss branch in Menziken. Other branches of industry are the graphics industry, metal construction and the production of fruit juices.

traffic

railway station

Main road 23 runs through the middle of the village from Aarau via Beromünster to Sursee . Kantonsstrasse 336 leads via Burg to Rickenbach , Kantonsstrasse 337 to Schwarzenbach . Menziken is the southern terminus of the narrow-gauge Wynentalbahn to Aarau . Two post bus lines lead from Beinwil am See via Menziken to Beromünster and Sursee. Auto AG Group's line 50 connects Menziken with Lucerne train station . On weekends, Menziken is the terminus of two night bus routes that run here from Aarau and Lucerne.

The WSB originally operated as a tram in the middle of the busy main road , sometimes with oncoming traffic. There were often accidents with considerable property damage. When passenger traffic ended in 1991 on the parallel, standard-gauge SBB line Beinwil am See – Beromünster , the WSB line was relocated to the now vacant route. The re-gauging and adjustment work began in 1999 after the cessation of freight traffic. The new section Reinach Nord – Menziken was opened on December 15, 2002.

education

The community has three kindergartens and five school houses. In these all levels of compulsory elementary school are taught ( primary school , secondary school , secondary school and district school ). The closest canton school (grammar school) is the Beromünster canton school in Beromünster (canton Lucerne), five kilometers away . However, many students stay in the canton and go to the two canton schools in Aarau ( AKSA and NKSA ).

Personalities

literature

Web links

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

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. a b Beat Zehnder: The community names of the Canton of Aargau (=  Argovia . Volume 100 ). Verlag Sauerländer, Aarau 1991, ISBN 3-7941-3122-3 , p. 269-270 .
  4. ^ National map of Switzerland, sheets 1109 and 1110, Swisstopo.
  5. Standard area statistics - municipalities according to 4 main areas. Federal Statistical Office , November 26, 2018, accessed on May 25, 2019 .
  6. a b c d e f g h i j Virginia Nolan: Aargauer Pionier . In: Cigar - Switzerland's cigar magazine . No. 3/24 . Edition Salz & Pfeffer, 2019, ISSN  1420-0066 , p. 8th f . (Nolan quotes Andreas Steigmeier: Blauer Dunst - Cigars from Switzerland yesterday and today . Hier und Jetzt Verlag , Baden 2002, ISBN 978-3-906419-40-4 ).
  7. The Herrenhuter law firm Menziken (former law firms). Retrieved December 8, 2018 .
  8. Tobacco and Cigar Museum aargauSüd
  9. ^ 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. 212 .
  10. Population development in the communes of the Canton of Aargau since 1850. (Excel) (No longer available online.) In: Eidg. Volkszählung 2000. Statistics Aargau, 2001, archived from the original on October 8, 2018 ; accessed on May 25, 2019 .
  11. Resident population by religious affiliation, 2015. (Excel) In: Population and Households, Community Tables 2015. Statistics Aargau, accessed on May 25, 2019 .
  12. Swiss Federal Census 2000: Economic resident population by main language as well as by districts and municipalities. (Excel) (No longer available online.) Statistics Aargau, archived from the original on August 10, 2018 ; accessed on May 25, 2019 .
  13. ↑ circles of justice of the peace. Canton of Aargau, accessed on June 21, 2019 .
  14. Statistics of the corporate structure (STATENT). (Excel; 157 kB) Statistics Aargau, 2016, accessed on May 25, 2019 .