Wetzikon

Wetzikon
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Coat of arms
Wetzikon
Location of Wetzikon Sorry no file found, please edit the map section of the infobox with the correct map image file name.
Coordinates:
Country	Switzerland
Canton	Zurich
District	Hinwil
Government
• Executive	Gemeinderat with 7 members
• Mayor	Gemeindepräsident Urs Fischer FDP/PRD (as of March 2014)
• Parliament	Grosser Gemeinderat with 36 members
Area
• Total	16.75 km2 (6.47 sq mi)
Elevation	535 m (1,755 ft)
Population (Dec 2014)
• Total	23,887
• Density	1,400/km2 (3,700/sq mi)
Postal code	8620
SFOS number	0121
Localities	Ettenhausen, Kempten, Medikon, Oberwetzikon, Robenhausen, Unterwetzikon
Surrounded by	Bäretswil, Gossau, Hinwil, Mönchaltorf, Pfäffikon, Seegräben
Twin towns	Melnik (Czech Republic)
Website	www.wetzikon.ch SFSO statistics

Wetzikon is a small town in the Zurich Highlands (Zürcher Oberland) area of Switzerland, in the district of Hinwil in the canton of Zürich.

Geography

File:Wetzikon - Oberwetzikon - Bahnhofstrasse 2010-07-01 12-51-36 ShiftN.jpg

File:Pfäffikersee.JPG

Wetzikon as seen from Bachtel Tower. Pfäffikersee in the middle, Greifensee to the left.

The municipality Wetzikon has an area of 16.7 km² (6.4 sq mi). Of this area, 42.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while 17.6% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 27.9% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (12.1%) is non-productive (streams, lakes and non-productive vegetation). In 1996 housing and buildings made up 20% of the total area, while transportation infrastructure made up the rest (7.9%). Of the total unproductive area, water (streams and lakes) made up 3.3% of the area. As of 2007 30.5% of the total municipal area was undergoing some type of construction.

It is located near Lake Pfäffikon in the Zürcher Oberland, between Uster and Rapperswil-Jona.

The Robenhauser Ried wetland is a nature reserve of national importance and is situated between Seegräben, Kempten and Irgenhausen covering an area of about two square kilometers.

Demographics

Wetzikon has a population (as of 31 December 2014) of 23,887. As of 2007, 22.1% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. As of 2008 the gender distribution of the population was 49.2% male and 50.8% female. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 18.8%. Most of the population (as of 2000) speaks German (83.8%), with Italian being second most common ( 5.7%) and Albanian being third ( 1.9%).

Nationalities in Wetzikon	End of 2010	End of 2011
Switzerland	76,8 %	76,5 %
Italy	5,5 %	5,2 %
Germany	3,9 %	3,9 %
Portugal	2,4 %	2,6 %
Turkey	1,7 %	1,7 %
22px Serbia	1,8 %	1,7 %
Kosovo	1,2 %	1,4 %
Macedonia	1,1 %	1,1 %

In the 2007 election the most popular party was the SVP which received 37.6% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SPS (16.1%), the CSP (12.2%) and the Green Party (10.5%).

The age distribution of the population (as of 2000) is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 23.1% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 62% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 15%. There are 7929 households in Wetzikon.

File:Wetzikon - Reformierte Kirche 2012-04-19 15-03-36 (P7000) ShiftN.jpg

Protestant Church of Wetzikon

As of 2008 there were 6385 Catholics and 7772 Protestants in Wetzikon. In the 2000 census, religion was broken down into several smaller categories. From the 2000 census, 45% were some type of Protestant, with 40.3% belonging to the Swiss Reformed Church and 4.7% belonging to other Protestant churches. 31.3% of the population were Catholic. Of the rest of the population, 6.5% were Muslim, 8.7% belonged to another religion (not listed), 3.6% did not give a religion, and 10.6% were atheist or agnostic.

Economics and education

The Kantonschule Zürcher Oberland (KZO), or the "Kanti" as the gymnasium level learning institution is known in Swiss German, is based in Wetzikon due to its central location in the Zürich Oberland, as well as the Zürcher Oberländer newspaper and the annual ZOM trade fair.

The regional hospital, the Gesundheitsversorgung Zürcher Oberland is also located there.

Wetzikon has an unemployment rate of 2.9%. As of 2005, there were 134 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 41 businesses involved in this sector. 3486 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 255 businesses in this sector. 7054 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 838 businesses in this sector. As of 2007 43.8% of the working population were employed full-time, and 56.2% were employed part-time.

In Wetzikon about 69.4% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule).

World heritage site

The prehistoric settlement Wetzikon–Robenhausen at the Robenhausen wetland which was discovered and researched by Jakob Messikommer is part of the serial site Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps, an UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Transportation

There are two railway stations within the municipality. Wetzikon railway station is a node of the Zürich S-Bahn on the lines S3, S14, S15 and S5. Kempten railway station is on the S3 line only. The town is a 20-minute (S5) ride from Zürich Hauptbahnhof.

Gallery

• Seegräben - Pfäffikersee - Kempten - Bachtel IMG 3644.jpg

  Kempten, Bachtel in the background

• Seegräben - Wetzikon IMG 3626.jpg

  Apartments buildings in Oberwetzikon, Alps in the background

• Robenhauser Riet - Wetzikon - Pfäffikersee - Seegräben IMG 4877.JPG

  Robenhuserriet in Robenhausen

• Aabach (Wetzikon) IMG 4901.jpg

  Aabach in Wetzikon

• Pfäffikersee - Auslikon IMG 3464.jpg

  Auslikon and its Strandbad (lido) on Lake Pfäffikon shore

• Wetzikon - Schloss IMG 4922.jpg

  Schloss (castle) Wetzikon

• Wetzikon - Bahnhofstrasse IMG 8222 ShiftN.jpg

  Bahnhofstrasse between Oberwetzikon and Kempten

History

The oldest surviving document about the name Wetzikon is from the year 1044, where three nobles of "Wezzinchova" are mentioned; before that the village and castle were known by the name Ratpoldskilch. Older history is known from excavations of prehistoric pile dwellings in Robenhausen and a Roman villa rustica in Kempten.

Sights

• The local museum (Ortsmuseum) documents the cultural history from the Neolithic Age until the 21st century
• Robenhauser Riet
• Kemptner Tobel

Notable persons (chronological)

• Elisabeth of Wetzikon (*1235 †1298), imperial abbess of the Fraumünster abbey in Zurich from 1270 until 1298
• Johannes Schmidlin (*1722 †1772), pastor and composer
• Hans Georg Nägeli (*1773 †1836), composer and music publisher
• Heinrich Leuthold (*1827 †1879), poet and translator
• Jakob Messikommer (*1828 †1917), pioneer of wetland archaeology, researched the prehistoric settlement at Robenhausen
• Jakob Heusser (1862–1941), Swiss industrialist
• Hans Staub (*1894 †1990), photographer-journalist
• Hedi Lang (*1931 †2004), politician
• Jörg Schneider (1935), actor
• Ueli Maurer (1950), politician
• Andreas Schweizer (*1979), gymnast

External links

• Official website (German)
• Community website (German)