Winterthur

For other uses, see Winterthur (disambiguation).

Winterthur
Municipality
View of the old town
Coat of arms
Location of Winterthur
Country	Switzerland
Canton	Zurich
District	Winterthur
Government
• Mayor	Stadtpräsident (list) Michael Künzle CVP/PDC (as of 2012)
Area
• Total	68.07 km2 (26.28 sq mi)
Elevation	439 m (1,440 ft)
Highest elevation (Hulmen)	687 m (2,254 ft)
Lowest elevation (Kläranlage Hard)	393 m (1,289 ft)
Population  (31 December 2018)
• Total	111,840
• Density	1,600/km2 (4,300/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (Central European Time)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (Central European Summer Time)
Postal code(s)	8400
SFOS number	0230
ISO 3166 code	CH-ZH
Localities	Stadt (city), Mattenbach, Oberwinterthur, Seen, Töss, Veltheim and Wülflingen
Surrounded by	Brütten, Dinhard, Elsau, Hettlingen, Illnau-Effretikon, Kyburg, Lindau, Neftenbach, Oberembrach, Pfungen, Rickenbach, Schlatt, Seuzach, Wiesendangen, Zell
Twin towns	Hall in Tirol (Austria), La Chaux-de-Fonds (Switzerland), Pilsen (Czech Republic), Yverdon-les-Bains (Switzerland)
Website	www.stadt-winterthur.ch SFSO statistics

Winterthur (/ˈvɪntərtʊər/; German pronunciation: [ˈvɪntərtuːr]) is a city in the canton of Zurich in northern Switzerland. It has the country's sixth largest population with an estimate of more than 100,000 people. In the local dialect and by its inhabitants, it is usually abbreviated as Winti. Today Winterthur is a service and high tech industry centre, but many people make use of its proximity to Zürich, which lies approximately 30 kilometres (19 mi) to the south-west, and only 18 minutes by train.

Winterthur is connected to Germany and Italy by direct trains and enjoys links to Zurich Airport. It is also a regional transport hub: the A1 motorway from Geneva through to St. Margrethen connects in Winterthur with the A4 motorway heading north toward Schaffhausen and the A7 motorway heading close to the Swiss-German border at Kreuzlingen. There are also roads leading to other places such as Turbenthal. Winterthur Hauptbahnhof is one of the busiest railway stations in Switzerland.

History

During the Roman era, from 70 AD to around 400 AD, there was a Roman settlement in what would become Oberwinterthur. This settlement, known as Vitudurum, was initially a Vicus that later included a fort.

Winterthur in 1642

The first buildings, in what would become the old city of Winterthur, date to around 600–700. Around 1000, the town became the capitol of the counts of Kyburg. They built walls, a moat and towers around the town. In 1264 the Habsburg family inherited Winterthur when the last male of the counts of Kyburg died. In the same year Winterthur gained city rights from the new owners. From 1415 until 1442 Winterthur became reichsfrei or subject only to the Holy Roman Emperor. However, in the Old Zürich War they lost this freedom and came back under the control of the Austrian Habsburgs. Needing money, in 1467, the Habsburgs sold Winterthur to the city of Zurich.

In the time under the leadership of Zurich, Winterthur's economic freedom was restricted. They lost many of their market rights and the right to trade in some goods. This ended in 1798 when Napoleonic troops liberated the town.

Bird's-eye view in 1850

On 27 May 1799, it was the site of the Battle of Winterthur between elements of the French Army of the Danube and the elements of the Habsburg army, commanded by Friedrich, Baron von Hotze during the War of the Second Coalition, in the French Revolutionary Wars. Because Winterthur lies near Zurich and at the junction of seven cross-roads; the army that held the town held the access to most of Switzerland and points crossing the Rhine into southern Germany. Although the forces involved were small, the ability of the Austrians to sustain an 11-hour assault against the French line, on the plateau north of Zürich, resulted in the consolidation of three Austrian forces. This led to the French defeat a few days later.

In the 19th century, Winterthur became an industrial town when companies, like Sulzer, Rieter and SLM, built large industrial plants. The Great Depression, in the 1930s, hit Winterthur extremely hard. 60% of the total employees in town worked in the machine industry. Jobs became extremely hard to find. However, with the outbreak of World War II, industry grew again in the city.

In 2008, Winterthur reached 100,000 inhabitants in the city.

Geography

Topography

Aerial view of Winterthur

Winterthur is located at an elevation of 439 meters (1,440 ft). The city is located in a basin south and east of the Töss river. The Eulach, a little river, flows in the middle by the city, because of this the town is called "Eulach-City". Zurich lies about 30 km southwest of Winterthur.

Winterthur has an area of 68.1 km² (26.3 sq mi). Of this area, 27% is used for agricultural purposes, while 41.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 30.8% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (0.8%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains). In 1996 housing and buildings made up 21.9% of the total area, while transportation infrastructure made up the rest (9%). Of the total unproductive area, water (streams and lakes) made up 0.6% of the area. As of 2007, 27.6% of the total municipal area was undergoing some type of construction.

Demographics

Nationalities / Civil Rights	2011
Winterthur	25,22 %
Canton of Zurich	40,76 %
Switzerland	76,67 %
Germany	4,44 %
Italy	4,30 %
North Macedonia	1,87 %
Turkey	1,77 %
Serbia	1,72 %
Austria	0,68 %
Spain	0,58 %
Croatia	0,36 %
Bosnia and Herzegovina	0,35 %

As of July 2008 the population of Winterthur is 100,000. More recently (as of 31 December 2020) the population was 114,220. As of 2007 23.6% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. As of 2008 the gender distribution of the population was 48.6% male and 51.4% female. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 10.4%. Most of the population (as of 2000) speaks German (83.0%), with Italian being second most common (4.9%) and Albanian being third (2.0%).

The age distribution of the population (as of 2000) is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 20.9% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 62.6% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 16.5%. There are 42028 households in Winterthur.

As of 2008 there were 26,995 Catholics (26.7% of the population) and 37,327 Swiss Reformed Church members in Winterthur. Of the other Christian faiths, 326 (0.3%) were Lutheran, 203 (0.2%) were Christian Catholic, 3141 (3.1%) are some type of Christian Orthodox and 3,132 (3.1%) are another Christian faith. Of the rest of the population, 11,608 (11.5%) were Muslim, 108 (0.1%) were Jewish, 1,359 (1.3%) belonged to another non-Christian faith and 16,779 (16.6%) were atheist or agnostic or did not belong to any organized faith.

Politics

City hall, designed by architect Gottfried Semper

The "Stadtrat", the local executive council, has 7 members, elected by the citizens of Winterthur every four years. In the 2010-2014 Stadtrat, there are three Social Democratic Party (SP) members, two from the FDP, and one each from the Greens and the EVP. A coalition of SP and Greens has the majority in this session.

The legislative, "Grosser Gemeinderat" (large community council), has sixty members. In the 2010 elections, eleven parties made it into the council, with the SP (16 seats) and SVP (13 seats) forming the two largest groups.

In the 2007, federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 27.7% of the vote. The next two most popular parties were the SP (23.2%) and the Green Party (14.4%).

Economy

Street in the old town

Economically, Winterthur was one of the homes of Switzerland's rail industry and an industrial centre. The rail industry and other heavy industry have largely disappeared. Amongst the most significant companies was Sulzer Brothers, today's Sulzer Ltd., Sulzer AG, commonly abbreviated to Sulzer. Textile production declined even earlier on. Also the Rieter company comes from Winterthur.

Switzerland's largest bank, and one of the world's large banks, Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS), since 1998 UBS AG, was also founded in Winterthur.

Peraves, the manufacturer of the fully enclosed "cabin motorcycle" named the Monotracer, predated by an earlier model named the Ecomobile, has been manufacturing the unusual vehicles since the early 1980s. In 2010, Peraves won the Progressive Insurance Automotive X-Prize with an electric powered version of the Monotracer.

Among other commercial organizations, Winterthur was home to Switzerland's largest insurance business "Winterthur Insurance". Until 2006, the company was the largest in Switzerland and was in Europe's top 10. On 1 January 2007 the Winterthur company was officially acquired by the French AXA group and is now known as AXA Winterthur.

Winterthur has an unemployment rate of 3.13%. As of 2005, there were 594 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 97 businesses involved in this sector; 11603 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 717 businesses in this sector; 39982 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 3570 businesses in this sector. As of 2007 47.9% of the working population were employed full-time, and 52.1% were employed part-time.

Education

In Winterthur, about 70.7% of the population (between age 25–64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule).

The town is renowned for its institute of higher education Technikum, which is the largest school of technology in Switzerland. The institute has recently teamed up with schools from Zurich and is now known as Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften (ZHAW).

The headquarters of the Club Of Rome are located in Winterthur.

Transport

Winterthur Hauptbahnhof

Main article: Winterthur Hauptbahnhof

Winterthur Hauptbahnhof, the central station, is one of the busiest stations on the Swiss Railway Network with 122,000 passengers a day. As the town is close to Zurich, it is served by many trains on the local Zurich S-Bahn network. EuroCity services to Munich and regional trains to St. Gallen, Konstanz or Romanshorn also serve the station. As well as the Hauptbahnhof, there are nine more stations within the city, called Oberwinterthur, Seen, Grüze, Töss, Hegi, Reutlingen, Wülflingen, Wallrüti and Sennhof-Kyburg.

The local public transport is run by Stadtbus Winterthur with twelve town bus lines, including the Winterthur trolleybus system, and five regional bus lines.

Culture

Winterthur's chamber orchestra Orchester Musikkollegium Winterthur is the oldest orchestra in Switzerland, and also plays at the Zurich Opera. Between 1922 and 1950, the philanthropist Werner Reinhart and the conductor Hermann Scherchen played a leading role in shaping the musical life of Winterthur, with numerous premiere performances emphasizing contemporary music.

The city hall Stadthaus, in which the concerts of the Musikkollegium take place, was built by Gottfried Semper.

Musikfestwochen, in late August and early September, sees Winterthur’s Old Town taken over for live music of all kinds, in the street and bars as well as in concert venues.

The city church of Winterthur, a local landmark

The "Albanifest", the largest annual festival in a historic town in Switzerland, is named after St Alban, one of the city's four saints, is held here, over three days in late June every year. Although a recent creation, the festival celebrates the granting of a charter to the town in 1264 by Rudolf of Habsburgh on 22 June of that year, which happened to be the saint's day.

The church of St. Laurenz in the city centre dates from 1264, the town hall was built in 1781, the assembly hall in 1865.

In 1989, Winterthur received the Wakker Prize for the development and preservation of its architectural heritage.

The Swiss folk metal band Eluveitie was formed in Winterthur and the Punkabilly band The Peacocks comes from here.

Sport

FC Winterthur are the city's football club and currently play in the Swiss Challenge League. They play at the Stadion Schützenwiese.

In April 2011, the 2011 IIHF Women's World Championship top division were held at Deutweg rink and at Hallenstadion ice rink hockey arena (in Zurich).

Tourism

Winterthur is not known as a classic tourist hotspot, as other destinations in Switzerland. As a result Winterthur does not offer a wide range of hotels to choose from. Also, it's so easy to reach from Zurich that the tourists who do come to Winterthur are often simply staying in Zurich.

Nevertheless Winterthur is mentioned in most tourist guides for its numerous museums, many of which offer world class art. The most famous are:

1. Oskar Reinhart Collection 'Am Römerholz'
2. Oskar Reinhart Collection am Stadtgarten
3. Kunstmuseum Winterthur
4. Villa Flora
5. Fotomuseum Winterthur
6. Technorama (German Wikipedia)

The Winterthur Museum of Art

Technorama

External links

• Official Webpage of Winterthur
• Official Webpage Economic Development Region of Winterthur
• Tourismusbüro Winterthur
• Musikkollegium Winterthur
• Homepage of Winterthur's city Orchestra