Leibstadt
Encyclopedia
Leibstadt is a municipality
in the district of Zurzach
in the canton
of Aargau
in Switzerland
.
Leibstadt is first mentioned about 1240 as Leibesteit. In the 13th and 14th Centuries it was ruled by the Habsburgs. In 1323 two mills are mentioned in Leibstadt. After the 1415 conquest of the Aargau, the two parts of the village (Oberleibstadt and Unterleibstadt, separated by a creek) were ruled separately by various overlords. The former was part of the Austrian
district of Laufenburg, while the latter was part of the Swiss Confederation
's district of Leuggern in the County of Baden. The low courts
were given in the 13th Century by the lords of Bernau to the Knights Hospitaller
order house at Leuggern. However the exactly who held the rights to low justice in Unterleibstadt remained controversial. Between 1635-1798 the villages of Leibstadt and Schwaderloch formed the Roll'sche district of Bernau. Until 1816 Oberleibstadt belonged to the municipality of Leuggern and then formed its own political municipality (until 1832 it included Full-Reuenthal) within the Zurzach district. Unterleibstadt was an independent political municipality in the Laufenburg district. In 1866 the two municipalities merged to form Leibstadt and became part of the Zurzach district. The first school was founded in 1756 by the Knights order from Leuggern.
In 1880 Leibstadt resigned from the parish
of Leuggern and formed their own Catholic
parish (which included Schwaderloch betwee 1818-1953). The village chapel burned down in 1871 was replaced in 1879-80 with the present parish church
.
In 1892 the railway line Koblenz-Stein-Säckingen opened a station in Liebstadt, however this closed in 1993 and only a Postauto bus travels to the municipality now. Until the late 20th Century most of the income in Leibstadt was from agriculture. In 1973 the nuclear power
company, Leibstadt AG was founded to build a power plant in Leibstadt. The largest nuclear power plant in Switzerland, which cost about 4.8 billion CHF
, came online in 1984. It produced about 7.2 billion kWh of electricity per year and provided about three fifths of the jobs in the community.
Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 2.3% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 5.2% and transportation infrastructure made up 5.6%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 5.2% of the area Out of the forested land, 32.4% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.7% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 29.7% is used for growing crops and 11.6% is pastures, while 2.3% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.
The municipality is located in the Zurzach district, between the Wandfluh and Rhine rivers. It consists of the haufendorf village (an irregular, unplanned and quite closely packed village, built around a central square) of Leibstadt and the hamlet
of Bernau umfasst. In 1866 the municipality was created when the formerly independent villages of Oberleibstadt and Unterleibstadt merged.
of the municipal coat of arms
is Gules a Bend per bend Argent and Sable.
(84.7%), with Albanian
being second most common ( 8.8%) and Italian
being third ( 1.9%).
, the gender distribution of the population was 50.4% male and 49.6% female. The population was made up of 456 Swiss men (34.8% of the population), and 205 (15.6%) non-Swiss men. There were 483 Swiss women (36.8%), and 168 (12.8%) non-Swiss women. In there were 7 live births to Swiss citizens and 9 births to non-Swiss citizens, and in same time span there were 8 deaths of Swiss citizens and non-Swiss citizen deaths. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens decreased by 1 while the foreign population increased by 9. There were 17 non-Swiss men who emigrated from Switzerland to another country and 11 non-Swiss women who emigrated from Switzerland to another country. The total Swiss population change in 2008 was a decrease of 5 and the non-Swiss population change was an increase of 36 people. This represents a population growth rate of 2.4%.
The age distribution, , in Leibstadt is; 137 children or 10.3% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 176 teenagers or 13.3% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 193 people or 14.6% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 142 people or 10.7% are between 30 and 39, 212 people or 16.0% are between 40 and 49, and 198 people or 14.9% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 136 people or 10.3% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 70 people or 5.3% are between 70 and 79, there are 56 people or 4.2% who are between 80 and 89,and there are 5 people or 0.4% who are 90 and older.
the average number of residents per living room was 0.61 which is about equal to the cantonal average of 0.57 per room. In this case, a room is defined as space of a housing unit of at least 4 m² (43.1 sq ft) as normal bedrooms, dining rooms, living rooms, kitchens and habitable cellars and attics. About 56.7% of the total households were owner occupied, or in other words did not pay rent (though they may have a mortgage
or a rent-to-own agreement).
, there were 39 homes with 1 or 2 persons in the household, 220 homes with 3 or 4 persons in the household, and 203 homes with 5 or more persons in the household. , there were 475 private households (homes and apartments) in the municipality, and an average of 2.7 persons per household. there were 212 single family homes (or 39.2% of the total) out of a total of 541 homes and apartments. There were a total of 9 empty apartments for a 1.7% vacancy rate. , the construction rate of new housing units was 3.9 new units per 1000 residents.
In the 2007 federal election
the most popular party was the SVP
which received 62.66% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the CVP
(18.11%), the SP
(7.6%) and the FDP
(3.92%). In the federal election, a total of 419 votes were cast, and the voter turnout
was 52.9%.
The historical population is given in the following table:
. In 2003 a Greenpeace
activist was able to climb on top of the reactor dome before being noticed.
The Looreto Chapel in Bernau was built in 1672. It was originally the castle chapel for a former noble family.
. Of the rest of the population, there was 1 individual who belonged to the Christian Catholic
faith.
). Of the school age population , there are 96 students attending primary school, there are 115 students attending secondary school in the municipality.
Municipalities of Switzerland
Communes , also known as municipalities, are the smallest government division in Switzerland, numbering 2,596 . While many have a population of a few hundred citizens, the largest cities such as Zürich or Geneva also have the legal status of municipalities...
in the district of Zurzach
Zurzach (district)
Zurzach District is a district in the Swiss Canton of Aargau with the administrative capital of Zurzach. It covers the Studenlands and is located in the northeastern part of the canton. The district capital is Bad Zurzach. The main valleys are the Surb and the Aare. It has a population of ...
in the canton
Cantons of Switzerland
The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the member states of the federal state of Switzerland. Each canton was a fully sovereign state with its own borders, army and currency from the Treaty of Westphalia until the establishment of the Swiss federal state in 1848...
of Aargau
Aargau
Aargau is one of the more northerly cantons of Switzerland. It comprises the lower course of the river Aare, which is why the canton is called Aar-gau .-History:...
in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
.
History
Habsburg Monarchy
The Habsburg Monarchy covered the territories ruled by the junior Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg , and then by the successor House of Habsburg-Lorraine , between 1526 and 1867/1918. The Imperial capital was Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, when it was moved to Prague...
district of Laufenburg, while the latter was part of the Swiss Confederation
Old Swiss Confederacy
The Old Swiss Confederacy was the precursor of modern-day Switzerland....
's district of Leuggern in the County of Baden. The low courts
High, middle and low justice
High, middle and low justices are notions dating from Western feudalism to indicate descending degrees of judiciary power to administer justice by the maximal punishment the holders could inflict upon their subjects and other dependents....
were given in the 13th Century by the lords of Bernau to the Knights Hospitaller
Knights Hospitaller
The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta , also known as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta , Order of Malta or Knights of Malta, is a Roman Catholic lay religious order, traditionally of military, chivalrous, noble nature. It is the world's...
order house at Leuggern. However the exactly who held the rights to low justice in Unterleibstadt remained controversial. Between 1635-1798 the villages of Leibstadt and Schwaderloch formed the Roll'sche district of Bernau. Until 1816 Oberleibstadt belonged to the municipality of Leuggern and then formed its own political municipality (until 1832 it included Full-Reuenthal) within the Zurzach district. Unterleibstadt was an independent political municipality in the Laufenburg district. In 1866 the two municipalities merged to form Leibstadt and became part of the Zurzach district. The first school was founded in 1756 by the Knights order from Leuggern.
In 1880 Leibstadt resigned from the parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...
of Leuggern and formed their own Catholic
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
parish (which included Schwaderloch betwee 1818-1953). The village chapel burned down in 1871 was replaced in 1879-80 with the present parish church
Parish church
A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....
.
In 1892 the railway line Koblenz-Stein-Säckingen opened a station in Liebstadt, however this closed in 1993 and only a Postauto bus travels to the municipality now. Until the late 20th Century most of the income in Leibstadt was from agriculture. In 1973 the nuclear power
Nuclear power
Nuclear power is the use of sustained nuclear fission to generate heat and electricity. Nuclear power plants provide about 6% of the world's energy and 13–14% of the world's electricity, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for about 50% of nuclear generated electricity...
company, Leibstadt AG was founded to build a power plant in Leibstadt. The largest nuclear power plant in Switzerland, which cost about 4.8 billion CHF
Swiss franc
The franc is the currency and legal tender of Switzerland and Liechtenstein; it is also legal tender in the Italian exclave Campione d'Italia. Although not formally legal tender in the German exclave Büsingen , it is in wide daily use there...
, came online in 1984. It produced about 7.2 billion kWh of electricity per year and provided about three fifths of the jobs in the community.
Geography
Leibstadt has an area, , of 6.39 square kilometres (2.5 sq mi). Of this area, 2.79 km² (1.1 sq mi) or 43.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while 2.18 km² (0.841702705731726 sq mi) or 34.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.18 km² (0.455600547139191 sq mi) or 18.5% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.22 km² (0.0849424748903577 sq mi) or 3.4% is either rivers or lakes.Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 2.3% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 5.2% and transportation infrastructure made up 5.6%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 5.2% of the area Out of the forested land, 32.4% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.7% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 29.7% is used for growing crops and 11.6% is pastures, while 2.3% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.
The municipality is located in the Zurzach district, between the Wandfluh and Rhine rivers. It consists of the haufendorf village (an irregular, unplanned and quite closely packed village, built around a central square) of Leibstadt and the hamlet
Hamlet (place)
A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village...
of Bernau umfasst. In 1866 the municipality was created when the formerly independent villages of Oberleibstadt and Unterleibstadt merged.
Coat of arms
The blazonBlazon
In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct the appropriate image...
of the municipal coat of arms
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...
is Gules a Bend per bend Argent and Sable.
Demographics
Leibstadt has a population of , 36.6% of the population are foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of -2.4%. Most of the population speaks GermanGerman language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
(84.7%), with Albanian
Albanian language
Albanian is an Indo-European language spoken by approximately 7.6 million people, primarily in Albania and Kosovo but also in other areas of the Balkans in which there is an Albanian population, including western Macedonia, southern Montenegro, southern Serbia and northwestern Greece...
being second most common ( 8.8%) and Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
being third ( 1.9%).
, the gender distribution of the population was 50.4% male and 49.6% female. The population was made up of 456 Swiss men (34.8% of the population), and 205 (15.6%) non-Swiss men. There were 483 Swiss women (36.8%), and 168 (12.8%) non-Swiss women. In there were 7 live births to Swiss citizens and 9 births to non-Swiss citizens, and in same time span there were 8 deaths of Swiss citizens and non-Swiss citizen deaths. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens decreased by 1 while the foreign population increased by 9. There were 17 non-Swiss men who emigrated from Switzerland to another country and 11 non-Swiss women who emigrated from Switzerland to another country. The total Swiss population change in 2008 was a decrease of 5 and the non-Swiss population change was an increase of 36 people. This represents a population growth rate of 2.4%.
The age distribution, , in Leibstadt is; 137 children or 10.3% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 176 teenagers or 13.3% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 193 people or 14.6% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 142 people or 10.7% are between 30 and 39, 212 people or 16.0% are between 40 and 49, and 198 people or 14.9% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 136 people or 10.3% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 70 people or 5.3% are between 70 and 79, there are 56 people or 4.2% who are between 80 and 89,and there are 5 people or 0.4% who are 90 and older.
the average number of residents per living room was 0.61 which is about equal to the cantonal average of 0.57 per room. In this case, a room is defined as space of a housing unit of at least 4 m² (43.1 sq ft) as normal bedrooms, dining rooms, living rooms, kitchens and habitable cellars and attics. About 56.7% of the total households were owner occupied, or in other words did not pay rent (though they may have a mortgage
Mortgage loan
A mortgage loan is a loan secured by real property through the use of a mortgage note which evidences the existence of the loan and the encumbrance of that realty through the granting of a mortgage which secures the loan...
or a rent-to-own agreement).
, there were 39 homes with 1 or 2 persons in the household, 220 homes with 3 or 4 persons in the household, and 203 homes with 5 or more persons in the household. , there were 475 private households (homes and apartments) in the municipality, and an average of 2.7 persons per household. there were 212 single family homes (or 39.2% of the total) out of a total of 541 homes and apartments. There were a total of 9 empty apartments for a 1.7% vacancy rate. , the construction rate of new housing units was 3.9 new units per 1000 residents.
In the 2007 federal election
Swiss federal election, 2007
Elections to the Swiss Federal Assembly, the federal parliament of Switzerland, were held on Sunday, 21 October 2007. In a few cantons, a second round of the elections to the Council of States was held on 11 November, 18 November, and 25 November 2007...
the most popular party was the SVP
Swiss People's Party
The Swiss People's Party , also known as the Democratic Union of the Centre , is a conservative political party in Switzerland. Chaired by Toni Brunner, but spearheaded by Christoph Blocher, the party is the largest party in the Federal Assembly, with 58 members of the National Council and 6 of...
which received 62.66% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the CVP
Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland
The Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland is a Christian democratic political party in Switzerland. It is the fourth-largest party in the National Council, with 31 seats, and the largest in the Council of States, with 15 seats. It has one seat, that of Doris Leuthard, on the Swiss...
(18.11%), the SP
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....
(7.6%) and the FDP
Free Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Free Democratic Party was a classical liberal political party in Switzerland. It was one of the major parties in Switzerland until its merger with the smaller classical liberal Liberal Party, to form FDP.The Liberals on 1 January 2009....
(3.92%). In the federal election, a total of 419 votes were cast, and the voter turnout
Voter turnout
Voter turnout is the percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot in an election . After increasing for many decades, there has been a trend of decreasing voter turnout in most established democracies since the 1960s...
was 52.9%.
The historical population is given in the following table:
| year | population |
|---|---|
| 1850 | 911 |
| 1900 | 838 |
| 1950 | 772 |
| 1980 | 1,150 |
| 1990 | 1,225 |
| 2000 | 1,298 |
Sights
It is known for Leibstadt Nuclear Power PlantLeibstadt Nuclear Power Plant
The Nuclear power station Leibstadt, abbreviated KKL, is in the municipality Leibstadt on the Rhine River close of the Aare delta and the German border...
. In 2003 a Greenpeace
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...
activist was able to climb on top of the reactor dome before being noticed.
The Looreto Chapel in Bernau was built in 1672. It was originally the castle chapel for a former noble family.
Economy
, Leibstadt had an unemployment rate of 2.36%. , there were 74 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 24 businesses involved in this sector. 581 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 22 businesses in this sector. 267 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 32 businesses in this sector. there were 669 workers who lived in the municipality. Of these, 434 or about 64.9% of the residents worked outside Leibstadt while 479 people commuted into the municipality for work. There were a total of 714 jobs (of at least 6 hours per week) in the municipality. Of the working population, 12.3% used public transportation to get to work, and 48.8% used a private car.Religion
From the , 773 or 59.6% were Roman Catholic, while 198 or 15.3% belonged to the Swiss Reformed ChurchSwiss Reformed Church
The Reformed branch of Protestantism in Switzerland was started in Zürich by Huldrych Zwingli and spread within a few years to Basel , Bern , St...
. Of the rest of the population, there was 1 individual who belonged to the Christian Catholic
Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland
The Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland is the Swiss member church of the Union of Utrecht, also known as Old Catholic Church, originally founded by the jansenists, with a later influx of discontented Catholics following their disappointment with the First Vatican Council. It has 14,000...
faith.
Education
The entire Swiss population is generally well educated. In Leibstadt about 65.2% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either university or a FachhochschuleFachhochschule
A Fachhochschule or University of Applied Sciences is a German type of tertiary education institution, sometimes specialized in certain topical areas . Fachhochschulen were founded in Germany and later adopted by Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Greece...
). Of the school age population , there are 96 students attending primary school, there are 115 students attending secondary school in the municipality.