Seelisberg is a 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 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 Uri

Canton of Uri

Uri is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland and a founding member of the Swiss Confederation. It is located in Central Switzerland. The canton's territory covers the valley of the Reuss River between Lake Lucerne and the St. Gotthard Pass. German is the primary language spoken in Uri...

 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

The Rütli meadow

Rütli Meadow

Rütli is a mountain meadow on Lake Lucerne, in the Seelisberg municipality of the Swiss canton of Uri. Here the legendary oath of the Rütlischwur first occurred and is remembered as the turning-point in the pursuit of independence...

, according to legend the site of the original oath

Rütlischwur

The Rütlischwur is a legendary oath of the Old Swiss Confederacy, taken on the Rütli, a meadow above Lake Lucerne near Seelisberg. The oath is notably featured in the Wilhelm Tell drama of 1804 by Friedrich Schiller.-Early accounts:...

 foundational to the Old Swiss Confederacy

Old Swiss Confederacy

The Old Swiss Confederacy was the precursor of modern-day Switzerland....

, is situated in the territory of the municipality.

The Seelisberg Conference

Seelisberg Conference

The Seelisberg Conference was an international conference that took place in the small town of Seelisberg in Switzerland from 30 July to 5 August 1947 in order to study the causes of Christian antisemitism....

 against anti-Semitism

Anti-Semitism

Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...

 was held in this locality in 1947.

The global headquarters of the Transcendental Meditation movement

Transcendental Meditation movement

The Transcendental Meditation movement is a world-wide organization, sometimes characterised as a neo-Hindu new religious movement, founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in the 1950s...

 headed by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi , born Mahesh Prasad Varma , developed the Transcendental Meditation technique and was the leader and guru of the TM movement, characterised as a new religious movement and also as non-religious...

 was situated in a converted hotel in Seelisberg from 1968 to 1992.

Geography

Seelisberg has an area, , of 13.3 km² (5.1 sq mi). Of this area, 34.3% is used for agricultural purposes, while 48.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 4% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (13.1%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains). , 43.5% of the total land area was heavily forested, while 0.7% is covered in small trees and shrubbery. Of the agricultural land, 0.7% is used for farming or pastures, while 23.6% is used for orchards or vine crops and 10.0% is used for alpine pastures. Of the settled areas, 2.0% is covered with buildings, 0.5% is classed as special developments, 0.2% is listed as parks and greenbelts and 1.3% is transportation infrastructure. Of the unproductive areas, 1.9% is unproductive standing water (ponds or lakes), 0.2% is unproductive flowing water (rivers), 5.7% is too rocky for vegatation, and 5.3% is other unproductive land.

Demographics

Seelisberg has a population (as of ) of . , 11.1% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 4.2%. Most of the population speaks German (97.1%), with French being second most common (0.8%) and English being third ( 0.5%). the gender distribution of the population was 49.9% male and 50.1% female.

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 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....

 party received 93.4% of the vote.

In Seelisberg about 67.8% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule

Fachhochschule

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...

).

Seelisberg has an unemployment rate of 0.88%. , there were 72 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 31 businesses involved in this sector. 18 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 7 businesses in this sector. 151 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 29 businesses in this sector.

The historical population is given in the following table:

year	population
1970	550
1980	533
1990	569
2000	592
2005	607
2007	639