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Küsnacht

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For the similarly named municipality in Canton Schwyz, see Küssnacht.
Küsnacht
Municipality
Coat of arms of Küsnacht
Coat of arms
Location of Küsnacht
Map
CountrySwitzerland
CantonZurich
DistrictMeilen
Government
 • MayorMax Baumgartner
Area
[1]
 • Total12.35 km2 (4.77 sq mi)
Elevation
413 m (1,355 ft)
Population
 (31 December 2018)[2]
 • Total14,387
 • Density1,200/km2 (3,000/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+01:00 (Central European Time)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+02:00 (Central European Summer Time)
Postal code(s)
8700
SFOS number0154
ISO 3166 codeCH-ZH
LocalitiesGoldbach, Heslibach, Itschnach, Küsnachter Berg, Schmalzgrueb, Limberg, Wiserholz, Hohrüti, Wangen, Chaltenstein (Kaltenstein), and Forch
Surrounded byErlenbach, Herrliberg, Kilchberg, Maur, Rüschlikon, Thalwil, Zollikon, Zumikon
Websitewww.kuesnacht.ch
SFSO statistics

Küsnacht is a municipality in the district of Meilen in the canton of Zurich in Switzerland.

History

Terlinden headquarter

Küsnacht is first mentioned in 1188 as de Cussenacho.[3]

Earliest findings of settlement date back to the stone age. There are also findings from the Bronze Age. During Roman times, a mansion was located on the commons. It was called fundus Cossiniacus which is probably the origin of the name of Küsnacht. In the 7th century the name was recorded as Chussenacho. The coat of arms shows a golden cushion on a red background. It is probably a derivate of the coat of arms of the aristocrats of Küssnacht am Rigi.

In the Middle Ages, the land was governed by the people of Regensberg who lived in the castle of Wulp in Küsnacht. After 1531 Küsnacht was governed by Zurich.

Like most other municipalities along Lake Zürich, Küsnacht started to become a suburb of the city of Zürich with the development of the railway link in 1896.

The psychiatrist Carl Jung had his clinic in Küsnacht, which attracted patients from all over the world. Thomas Mann lived in Küsnacht between 1933 and 1939, after he was forced to leave Germany by the Nazis. Among the most famous residents of the town is Tina Turner.

Geography

Küsnacht has an area of 12.3 km2 (4.7 sq mi). Of this area, 34.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while 32.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 32.8% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (0.5%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains).[4] In 1996 housing and buildings made up 25.6% of the total area, while transportation infrastructure made up the rest (7%).[5] Of the total unproductive area, water (streams and lakes) made up 0.4% of the area. As of 2007 33% of the total municipal area was undergoing some type of construction.[5]

It is located on the north-east bank (also known as Goldküste) of the Lake Zurich in the Pfannenstiel region.[6] The local dialect is called Züridütsch.

Demographics

Church and seminary in Küsnacht, by Rudolf Ringger (about 1865)
Church and seminary (2008)

Küsnacht has a population (as of 31 December 2020) of 14,811.[7] As of 2007, 19.7% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. As of 2008 the gender distribution of the population was 47.4% male and 52.6% female. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 6.6%. Most of the population (as of 2000) speaks German (86.1%), with English being second most common ( 3.6%) and Italian being third ( 2.5%).

In the 2007 election the most popular party was the SVP which received 32.8% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP (30.5%), the SPS (12.4%) and the CSP (8.9%).

The age distribution of the population (as of 2000) is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 17.7% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 59.1% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 23.2%. In Küsnacht about 84.6% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). There are 5843 households in Küsnacht.[5]

Küsnacht has an unemployment rate of 1.51%. As of 2005, there were 167 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 43 businesses involved in this sector. 849 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 91 businesses in this sector. 3794 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 664 businesses in this sector.[4] As of 2007 40% of the working population were employed full-time, and 60% were employed part-time.[5]

As of 2008 there were 3578 Catholics and 5417 Protestants in Küsnacht. In the 2000 census, religion was broken down into several smaller categories. From the census, 49.5% were some type of Protestant, with 48% belonging to the Swiss Reformed Church and 1.5% belonging to other Protestant churches. 26.6% of the population were Catholic. Of the rest of the population, 2% were Muslim, 4.4% belonged to another religion (not listed), 3.7% did not give a religion, and 15.2% were atheist or agnostic.[5]

The historical population is given in the following table:[3]

year population
1467 126 households
1634 1,064
1799 1,512
1850 2,486
1900 3,391
1950 8,920
2000 12,484

Weather

Küsnacht has an average of 136 days of rain per year and on average receives 1,171 mm (46.1 in) of precipitation. The wettest month is August during which time Küsnacht receives an average of 139 mm (5.5 in) of precipitation. During the wettest month, August, there is precipitation for an average of 12.3 days. The month with the most precipitation days is June, with an average of 13.3 days but with only 138 mm (5.4 in) of precipitation.[8]

Transportation

ZSG landing gate on Lake Zürich

The railway stations of Küsnacht ZH and Küsnacht Goldbach are both stops of the S-Bahn Zürich on the lines S6 and S16.

In the summer there are regular boats to Zurich as well as along the lake to Rapperswil, run by the Zürichsee-Schifffahrtsgesellschaft (ZSG).

Sites of interest

Apart from Lake Zurich, popular sites to visit include

  • C. G. Jung Institute
  • the Cistercian abby of Kappel am Albis
  • Küsnachter Tobel with hiking trails among glacial moraine with rare flora and fauna
  • Johanniterkomturei building (today housing the Kantonsschule)
  • Oberen Mühle, a mill that now houses the local museum
  • Seeclub Küsnacht boathouse dating from at least 1290
  • the church of St Georg dating from the 12th century
  • Ruine Wulp - Ruins of castle Wulp

Notable past and current residents

References

  1. ^ a b "Arealstatistik Standard - Gemeinden nach 4 Hauptbereichen". Federal Statistical Office. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
  2. ^ "Ständige Wohnbevölkerung nach Staatsangehörigkeitskategorie Geschlecht und Gemeinde; Provisorische Jahresergebnisse; 2018". Federal Statistical Office. 9 April 2019. Retrieved 11 April 2019.
  3. ^ a b Küsnacht in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.
  4. ^ a b Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 10-Aug-2009
  5. ^ a b c d e Statistics Zurich Template:De icon accessed 4 August 2009
  6. ^ Kanton Zürich, Statistisches Amt: Region Pfannenstiel Template:De icon
  7. ^ "Ständige und nichtständige Wohnbevölkerung nach institutionellen Gliederungen, Geburtsort und Staatsangehörigkeit". bfs.admin.ch (in German). Swiss Federal Statistical Office - STAT-TAB. 31 December 2020. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
  8. ^ "Temperature and Precipitation Average Values-Table, 1961-1990" (in German, French, and Italian). Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology - MeteoSwiss. Retrieved 8 May 2009., the weather station elevation is 412 meters above sea level.

Media related to Küsnacht ZH at Wikimedia Commons

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