Spreitenbach
Encyclopedia
Spreitenbach is a municipality
in the district of Baden
in the canton
of Aargau
in Switzerland
, located in the Limmat Valley
(German: Limmattal).
It lies southeast of the district center directly on the border with the canton of Zurich
.
It is one of the smallest cities in Switzerland. In Switzerland a city need more or 10'000 to be considerated as a city.
The goalkeeper, Diego Benaglio, of the National Football Team of Switzerland spent his youth here.
and Zurich
on the south side of the Limmat
, located in the Limmat Valley (German: Limmattal). The settled area stretches along a plain between the Heitersberg and the waterfront. The old town center, through which the Spreitenbach stream flows, lies to the south and has preserved its original character well. North of that is the modern city, with wide apartment buildings, industrial areas, and shopping centers. To the far north, across the highway and railway, in a bend in the Limmat, is the expanded industrial zone Neuhard. The eastern part of the plain is dominated by the classification yard
Zurich-Limmattal.
The Franzosenweiher ("French pond") lies in the forested area south of Spreitenbach, near the municipal border with Dietikon
. The "Altes Bad" biotope is made up of a pool and a wetland with a great diversity of plants. The municipality has set aside this area and the neighboring forest as a protected natural zone. The name comes from the fact that Napoleon's troops camped at the pond, before crossing the Limmat at Kloster Fahr.
Around 2 km (1.2 mi) west of the town, at a height of 650 m (2,132.5 ft), lies Heitersberg, a hamlet set on a high plateau in the Heitersbergs. Not far from there is the highest point in the municipality (672 m (2,204.7 ft)). The lowest point, 385 m (1,263.1 ft), is the Limmat. Spreitenbach has an area, , of 8.6 square kilometres (3.3 sq mi). Of this area, 27.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while 35.3% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 35.5% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (1.4%) is non-productive (rivers or lakes).
between 1274 and 1287.
In 1415 the Old Swiss Confederacy
conquered Aargau and Spreitenbach was made part of the district of Dietikon in the County of Baden, a unit in the confederacy. In 1541 the Wettingen Abbey acquired low justice. Om 1670 and again in 1785, many of the houses in the town were destroyed in fires. In March 1798, France invaded Switzerland and declared the Helvetic Republic
. Spreitenbach became a municipality in the short-lived canton of Baden
; since 1803 the municipality has been in the canton of Aargau.
On August 9, 1847 the railway between Zurich and Baden was opened. The citizens of Spreitenbach lobbied for the path to go far to the side of the city; for this reason, the nearest station today is in the municipality of Killwangen
, although it has about seven times fewer residents. Industrialization began in 1862 with the opening of a cotton spinning works.
In the 1950s, Spreitenbach was still a quiet farming town with a small business community and a gliderport. However, a major construction boom followed. In the canton of Zurich, then forbidding concubinage
(i.e. unmarried cohabitation, banned until 1972), the demand rose for housing in the canton of Aargau, especially in Spreitenbach. This was in addition to the general housing demand, which rose due to the population growth of the Zurich area. A "New Spreitenbach" was planned and built. It was planned as a satellite city: a string of high-rise developments and designated commercial and industrial zones. In the middle of the 1960s, the planners anticipated a population of 35,000 and 20,000 jobs at the end of the construction. Because of the oil embargo
and the economic crisis of the 1970s, the vision changed to a more modest development. In 1981 a new construction zone plan was designated, which had a less dense settlement plan and turned away from high rises.
In 1970 the first American-style shopping mall
in Switzerland opened. In 1974, a second, larger one followed. Spreitenbach served as a negative example for urban sprawl
on the Swiss Plateau
. Between 1960 and today, the population has more than quintupled. No other municipality in the canton has registered such a large growth in recent times.
of the municipal coat of arms is: "Geviert von Blau mit gekröntem gelbem Leopardenkopf und von Rot mit sechsstrahligem weissem Stern" ("Quarterly, Azure
, a crowned leopard head Or
; Gules
, a six-pointed star Argent
"). On the coat of arms from the municipal seal from 1872, a linden
and a fir
were pictured. Today's coat of arms comes from a recommendation of the local historians and was adopted in 1930. It appears on a map of the canton of Zurich from 1667. The leopard head alludes to the Schönenwerd nobility, and the star to the Wettingen Abbey, the former judges.
Spreitenbach has a population (as of ) of . , 50.5% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 18.5%. Most of the population speaks German (72.1%), with Italian being second most common ( 7.0%) and Serbo-Croatian being third ( 6.1%).
In the 2000 census, 40.0% were Roman Catholic, 20.4% were Reformed
, 7.9% were Orthodox
, 14.7% Muslim
, and 1.3% of some other religion. As their principal language 72.1% spoke German
, 7.0% Italian
, 6.1% Serbo-Croatian
, 4.8% Albanian
, 2.3% Turkish
, 1.2% Spanish
, and 1.1% each French
and Portuguese
.
The age distribution, , in Spreitenbach is; 1,161 children or 11.0% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 1,204 teenagers or 11.4% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 1,768 people or 16.7% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 1,628 people or 15.4% are between 30 and 39, 1,685 people or 15.9% are between 40 and 49, and 1,435 people or 13.6% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 963 people or 9.1% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 502 people or 4.8% are between 70 and 79, there are 178 people or 1.7% who are between 80 and 89,and there are 44 people or 0.4% who are 90 and older.
the average number of residents per living room was 0.67 which is more people per room than 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 18% 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 715 homes with 1 or 2 persons in the household, 2,506 homes with 3 or 4 persons in the household, and 560 homes with 5 or more persons in the household. The average number of people per household was 2.36 individuals. there were 480 single family homes (or 10.7% of the total) out of a total of 4,472 homes and apartments. There were a total of 39 empty apartments for a 0.9% vacancy rate. , the construction rate of new housing units was 1.9 new units per 1000 residents.
The five members of the municipal council for the 2006-2009 term are:
Legal disputes are handled by the Baden court. Spreitenbach belongs to the judicial district of Wettingen
.
In the 2007 federal election
the most popular party was the SVP which received 42.8% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (19.6%), the CVP (13.8%) and the FDP (9.8%).
(the first store opened outside of Scandinavia, in 1973), form the backbone of the service economy. Several leading companies operate in Spreitenbach; the most notable are Zweifel Pomy-Chips (potato chips), Bridgestone
(car tires), Johnson & Johnson
(pharmacy/cosmetics), Nestlé
(foodstuffs), Miele
(household goods), and Globus
(retail trade).
there was a total of 5,192 workers who lived in the municipality. Of these, 3,709 or about 71.4% of the residents worked outside Spreitenbach while 4,327 people commuted into the municipality for work. There were a total of 5,810 jobs (of at least 6 hours per week) in the municipality.
The municipality lies on the frequently used Zurich-Baden highway. The Dietikon entrance to the A1
autobahn lies 2 km east of the town. Until 2008 Spreitenbach will have only an entrance in one direction (from and toward Bern). In Spreitenbach and its neighbor Dietikon, the largest classification yard of the region was built in 1978 (later expanded), the Rangierbahnhof-Limmattal (RBL).
Spreitenbach can be reached from several bus lines, which end there. The lines 2, 4, and 8 of the Regionale Verkehrsbetriebe Baden-Wettingen go in the direction of Killwangen, Neuenhof
, Wettingen, and Baden. A line of the ZVV
goes to Zurich via Dietikon, Urdorf, and Sclieren. The entrance on the S-Bahn Zürich lies in the nearby stations Killwangen-Spreitenbach and Dietikon (lines S3
and S12
). In the medium term, the new Stadtbahn Limmattal is being planned to include stops in Spreitenbach.
) is in Wettingen or Baden.
In Spreitenbach about 57.2% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule
). Of the school age population , there are 724 students attending primary school, there are 369 students attending secondary school, there are 186 students attending tertiary or university level schooling in the municipality.
grave site is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance
.
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 Baden
Baden (district, Aargau)
Baden District is a district in the canton of Aargau, Switzerland. The district capital is the town of Baden and the largest municipality is Wettingen, located in the Limmat Valley . The district has a total of 26 municipalities, an area of , and a population of about 129,000.-Geography:Baden...
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....
, located in the Limmat Valley
Limmat Valley
The Limmat Valley is a river valley and a region in the cantons of Zürich and Aargau in Switzerland.- Geography :Limmat is the name of a long river located in the cantons of Zürich and Aargau...
(German: Limmattal).
It lies southeast of the district center directly on the border with the canton of Zurich
Canton of Zürich
The Canton of Zurich has a population of . The canton is located in the northeast of Switzerland and the city of Zurich is its capital. The official language is German, but people speak the local Swiss German dialect called Züritüütsch...
.
It is one of the smallest cities in Switzerland. In Switzerland a city need more or 10'000 to be considerated as a city.
The goalkeeper, Diego Benaglio, of the National Football Team of Switzerland spent his youth here.
Geography
The town lies between BadenBaden, Switzerland
Baden is a municipality in the Swiss canton of Aargau, on the west bank of the river Limmat, located in the Limmat Valley , northwest of Zürich. It is the seat of the district of Baden...
and Zurich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
on the south side of the Limmat
Limmat
The Limmat is a river in Switzerland. It is the continuation of the Linth river, known as Limmat from the point of effluence from Lake Zurich, in the city of Zurich. From Zurich it flows in a northwesterly direction, after 35 km reaching the river Aare...
, located in the Limmat Valley (German: Limmattal). The settled area stretches along a plain between the Heitersberg and the waterfront. The old town center, through which the Spreitenbach stream flows, lies to the south and has preserved its original character well. North of that is the modern city, with wide apartment buildings, industrial areas, and shopping centers. To the far north, across the highway and railway, in a bend in the Limmat, is the expanded industrial zone Neuhard. The eastern part of the plain is dominated by the classification yard
Classification yard
A classification yard or marshalling yard is a railroad yard found at some freight train stations, used to separate railroad cars on to one of several tracks. First the cars are taken to a track, sometimes called a lead or a drill...
Zurich-Limmattal.
The Franzosenweiher ("French pond") lies in the forested area south of Spreitenbach, near the municipal border with Dietikon
Dietikon
Dietikon is the fifth biggest city of the canton of Zürich in Switzerland, after Zürich, Winterthur, Uster and Dübendorf. It is the capital of the same-named district of Dietikon and part of the Zürich metropolitan area.- Geography :...
. The "Altes Bad" biotope is made up of a pool and a wetland with a great diversity of plants. The municipality has set aside this area and the neighboring forest as a protected natural zone. The name comes from the fact that Napoleon's troops camped at the pond, before crossing the Limmat at Kloster Fahr.
Around 2 km (1.2 mi) west of the town, at a height of 650 m (2,132.5 ft), lies Heitersberg, a hamlet set on a high plateau in the Heitersbergs. Not far from there is the highest point in the municipality (672 m (2,204.7 ft)). The lowest point, 385 m (1,263.1 ft), is the Limmat. Spreitenbach has an area, , of 8.6 square kilometres (3.3 sq mi). Of this area, 27.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while 35.3% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 35.5% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (1.4%) is non-productive (rivers or lakes).
History
The first historical mention of Spreitenbach was in the year 1124. Along with many convents, the most distinguished landholders were the Knights of Schönenwerd (in Dietikon). They were forced to sell all of their farms to the Wettingen AbbeyWettingen Abbey
Wettingen Abbey was a Cistercian monastery in Wettingen in the Swiss canton of Aargau. It was founded in 1227 and dissolved during the secularisation of 1841, but re-founded at Mehrerau in Austria in 1854...
between 1274 and 1287.
In 1415 the Old Swiss Confederacy
Old Swiss Confederacy
The Old Swiss Confederacy was the precursor of modern-day Switzerland....
conquered Aargau and Spreitenbach was made part of the district of Dietikon in the County of Baden, a unit in the confederacy. In 1541 the Wettingen Abbey acquired low justice. Om 1670 and again in 1785, many of the houses in the town were destroyed in fires. In March 1798, France invaded Switzerland and declared the Helvetic Republic
Helvetic Republic
In Swiss history, the Helvetic Republic represented an early attempt to impose a central authority over Switzerland, which until then consisted mainly of self-governing cantons united by a loose military alliance, and conquered territories such as Vaud...
. Spreitenbach became a municipality in the short-lived canton of Baden
Canton of Baden
The Canton of Baden was a canton of the Helvetic Republic . Its capital was the town of Baden....
; since 1803 the municipality has been in the canton of Aargau.
On August 9, 1847 the railway between Zurich and Baden was opened. The citizens of Spreitenbach lobbied for the path to go far to the side of the city; for this reason, the nearest station today is in the municipality of Killwangen
Killwangen
Killwangen is a municipality in the district of Baden in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland.-History:The town was first known as Chullewangen as early as 1227. The name is alemannish in origin. For nearly 600 years, Killwangen was dependent on the monastery in nearby Wettingen. In 1798, Napoleon's...
, although it has about seven times fewer residents. Industrialization began in 1862 with the opening of a cotton spinning works.
In the 1950s, Spreitenbach was still a quiet farming town with a small business community and a gliderport. However, a major construction boom followed. In the canton of Zurich, then forbidding concubinage
Concubinage
Concubinage is the state of a woman or man in an ongoing, usually matrimonially oriented, relationship with somebody to whom they cannot be married, often because of a difference in social status or economic condition.-Concubinage:...
(i.e. unmarried cohabitation, banned until 1972), the demand rose for housing in the canton of Aargau, especially in Spreitenbach. This was in addition to the general housing demand, which rose due to the population growth of the Zurich area. A "New Spreitenbach" was planned and built. It was planned as a satellite city: a string of high-rise developments and designated commercial and industrial zones. In the middle of the 1960s, the planners anticipated a population of 35,000 and 20,000 jobs at the end of the construction. Because of the oil embargo
1973 oil crisis
The 1973 oil crisis started in October 1973, when the members of Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries or the OAPEC proclaimed an oil embargo. This was "in response to the U.S. decision to re-supply the Israeli military" during the Yom Kippur war. It lasted until March 1974. With the...
and the economic crisis of the 1970s, the vision changed to a more modest development. In 1981 a new construction zone plan was designated, which had a less dense settlement plan and turned away from high rises.
In 1970 the first American-style shopping mall
Shopping mall
A shopping mall, shopping centre, shopping arcade, shopping precinct or simply mall is one or more buildings forming a complex of shops representing merchandisers, with interconnecting walkways enabling visitors to easily walk from unit to unit, along with a parking area — a modern, indoor version...
in Switzerland opened. In 1974, a second, larger one followed. Spreitenbach served as a negative example for urban sprawl
Urban sprawl
Urban sprawl, also known as suburban sprawl, is a multifaceted concept, which includes the spreading outwards of a city and its suburbs to its outskirts to low-density and auto-dependent development on rural land, high segregation of uses Urban sprawl, also known as suburban sprawl, is a...
on the Swiss Plateau
Swiss plateau
The Swiss Plateau or Central Plateau constitutes one of the three major landscapes in Switzerland alongside the Jura mountains and the Swiss Alps. It covers about 30% of the Swiss surface...
. Between 1960 and today, the population has more than quintupled. No other municipality in the canton has registered such a large growth in recent times.
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 is: "Geviert von Blau mit gekröntem gelbem Leopardenkopf und von Rot mit sechsstrahligem weissem Stern" ("Quarterly, Azure
Azure
In heraldry, azure is the tincture with the colour blue, and belongs to the class of tinctures called "colours". In engraving, it is sometimes depicted as a region of horizontal lines or else marked with either az. or b. as an abbreviation....
, a crowned leopard head Or
Or (heraldry)
In heraldry, Or is the tincture of gold and, together with argent , belongs to the class of light tinctures called "metals". In engravings and line drawings, it may be represented using a field of evenly spaced dots...
; Gules
Gules
In heraldry, gules is the tincture with the colour red, and belongs to the class of dark tinctures called "colours". In engraving, it is sometimes depicted as a region of vertical lines or else marked with gu. as an abbreviation....
, a six-pointed star Argent
Argent
In heraldry, argent is the tincture of silver, and belongs to the class of light tinctures, called "metals". It is very frequently depicted as white and usually considered interchangeable with it...
"). On the coat of arms from the municipal seal from 1872, a linden
Tilia
Tilia is a genus of about 30 species of trees native throughout most of the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The greatest species diversity is found in Asia, and the genus also occurs in Europe and eastern North America, but not western North America...
and a fir
Fir
Firs are a genus of 48–55 species of evergreen conifers in the family Pinaceae. They are found through much of North and Central America, Europe, Asia, and North Africa, occurring in mountains over most of the range...
were pictured. Today's coat of arms comes from a recommendation of the local historians and was adopted in 1930. It appears on a map of the canton of Zurich from 1667. The leopard head alludes to the Schönenwerd nobility, and the star to the Wettingen Abbey, the former judges.
Demographics
| Historical population | |
|---|---|
| Year | Population |
| 1780 | 383 |
| 1850 | 669 |
| 1900 | 913 |
| 1930 | 1064 |
| 1950 | 1173 |
| 1960 | 1964 |
| 1970 | 5978 |
| 1980 | 7198 |
| 1990 | 8315 |
| 2000 | 9127 |
| 2007 | 10268 |
Spreitenbach has a population (as of ) of . , 50.5% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 18.5%. Most of the population speaks German (72.1%), with Italian being second most common ( 7.0%) and Serbo-Croatian being third ( 6.1%).
In the 2000 census, 40.0% were Roman Catholic, 20.4% were Reformed
Swiss 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...
, 7.9% were Orthodox
Eastern Orthodox Church
The Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,...
, 14.7% Muslim
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
, and 1.3% of some other religion. As their principal language 72.1% spoke German
German 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....
, 7.0% 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...
, 6.1% Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian or Serbo-Croat, less commonly Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian , is a South Slavic language with multiple standards and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro...
, 4.8% 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...
, 2.3% Turkish
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
, 1.2% Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, and 1.1% each French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
.
The age distribution, , in Spreitenbach is; 1,161 children or 11.0% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 1,204 teenagers or 11.4% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 1,768 people or 16.7% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 1,628 people or 15.4% are between 30 and 39, 1,685 people or 15.9% are between 40 and 49, and 1,435 people or 13.6% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 963 people or 9.1% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 502 people or 4.8% are between 70 and 79, there are 178 people or 1.7% who are between 80 and 89,and there are 44 people or 0.4% who are 90 and older.
the average number of residents per living room was 0.67 which is more people per room than 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 18% 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 715 homes with 1 or 2 persons in the household, 2,506 homes with 3 or 4 persons in the household, and 560 homes with 5 or more persons in the household. The average number of people per household was 2.36 individuals. there were 480 single family homes (or 10.7% of the total) out of a total of 4,472 homes and apartments. There were a total of 39 empty apartments for a 0.9% vacancy rate. , the construction rate of new housing units was 1.9 new units per 1000 residents.
Politics
The elected municipal assembly has legislative duties. The executive authority is the municipal council. Its members have a four-year term and are chosen by majority vote of the people. The council represents and leads the municipality, and for that purpose execute the resolutions of the assembly and the responsibilities assigned by the canton and the federation.The five members of the municipal council for the 2006-2009 term are:
- Joseph Bütler (FDPFree Democratic Party of SwitzerlandThe 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....
), Mayor - Peter Hautle (SVPSwiss People's PartyThe 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...
), Vice-mayor - Fredy Nüesch (SPSocial Democratic Party of SwitzerlandThe Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....
) - Monika Zeindler (not affiliated)
- Stefan Nipp (CVPChristian Democratic People's Party of SwitzerlandThe 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...
)
Legal disputes are handled by the Baden court. Spreitenbach belongs to the judicial district of Wettingen
Wettingen
Wettingen is a residential community in the district of Baden in the Swiss canton of Aargau. With a population about 20,000, Wettingen is the largest municipality in the canton.-Geography:...
.
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 which received 42.8% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (19.6%), the CVP (13.8%) and the FDP (9.8%).
Economy
Spreitenbach is a distinguished economic area, because of its protruding position in the west of the Zurich metropolitan area. Over 700 businesses employ about 6900 workers. Of these 1% are in the agricultural sector, 22% in the industrial sector, and 77% in the service sector. The two large shopping centers Shoppi and Tivoli as well as the furniture store IKEAIKEA
IKEA is a privately held, international home products company that designs and sells ready-to-assemble furniture such as beds and desks, appliances and home accessories. The company is the world's largest furniture retailer...
(the first store opened outside of Scandinavia, in 1973), form the backbone of the service economy. Several leading companies operate in Spreitenbach; the most notable are Zweifel Pomy-Chips (potato chips), Bridgestone
Bridgestone
The is a multinational rubber conglomerate founded in 1931 by in the city of Kurume, Fukuoka, Japan. The name Bridgestone comes from a calque translation and transposition of ishibashi, meaning "stone bridge" in Japanese....
(car tires), Johnson & Johnson
Johnson & Johnson
Johnson & Johnson is an American multinational pharmaceutical, medical devices and consumer packaged goods manufacturer founded in 1886. Its common stock is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the company is listed among the Fortune 500....
(pharmacy/cosmetics), Nestlé
Nestlé
Nestlé S.A. is the world's largest food and nutrition company. Founded and headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland, Nestlé originated in a 1905 merger of the Anglo-Swiss Milk Company, established in 1867 by brothers George Page and Charles Page, and Farine Lactée Henri Nestlé, founded in 1866 by Henri...
(foodstuffs), Miele
Miele
Miele is a manufacturer of high-end domestic appliances, commercial equipment and fitted kitchens, based in Gütersloh, Germany. Miele has always been a family-owned and -run company, founded in 1899 by Carl Miele and Reinhard Zinkann.-History:...
(household goods), and Globus
Globus (company)
Globus is a Swiss department store company, with 13 department stores in Switzerland. The group, which also includes the Herren Globus chain of menswear stores and the Office World chain of office supplies stores, it is owned by Switzerland's largest retailer, Migros.Globus was founded in 1907 in...
(retail trade).
there was a total of 5,192 workers who lived in the municipality. Of these, 3,709 or about 71.4% of the residents worked outside Spreitenbach while 4,327 people commuted into the municipality for work. There were a total of 5,810 jobs (of at least 6 hours per week) in the municipality.
Transportation
The municipality is located near the A3 motorway, and an on ramp is planned.The municipality lies on the frequently used Zurich-Baden highway. The Dietikon entrance to the A1
A1 (Switzerland)
The A1 is a motorway in Switzerland. It follows Switzerland's main east-west axis, from St. Margrethen in northeastern Switzerland's canton of St. Gallen through to Geneva in southwestern Switzerland...
autobahn lies 2 km east of the town. Until 2008 Spreitenbach will have only an entrance in one direction (from and toward Bern). In Spreitenbach and its neighbor Dietikon, the largest classification yard of the region was built in 1978 (later expanded), the Rangierbahnhof-Limmattal (RBL).
Spreitenbach can be reached from several bus lines, which end there. The lines 2, 4, and 8 of the Regionale Verkehrsbetriebe Baden-Wettingen go in the direction of Killwangen, Neuenhof
Neuenhof, Aargau
Neuenhof is a municipality in the district of Baden in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland, located in the Limmat Valley .-Geography:...
, Wettingen, and Baden. A line of the ZVV
ZVV
The ZVV is a public transportation network system, combining rail, bus, tram, trolleybus, lake boat and cable car services in the canton of Zürich as well as Rapperswil-Jona and Pfäffikon SZ.- History and network :Established in May 1990, it...
goes to Zurich via Dietikon, Urdorf, and Sclieren. The entrance on the S-Bahn Zürich lies in the nearby stations Killwangen-Spreitenbach and Dietikon (lines S3
S3 (ZVV)
The S3 is a regional railway line of the S-Bahn Zürich on the Zürcher Verkehrsverbund , Zürich transportation network, and is one of the network's lines connecting the cantons of Zürich and Aargau.- Route :...
and S12
S12 (ZVV)
The S12 is a regional railway line of the S-Bahn Zürich on the Zürcher Verkehrsverbund , Zürich transportation network, and is one of the network's lines connecting the cantons of Zürich and Aargau.- Route :...
). In the medium term, the new Stadtbahn Limmattal is being planned to include stops in Spreitenbach.
Education
In Spreitenbach all of the levels of obligatory primary schooling are taught. The nearest Kantonsschule (GymnasiumGymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
) is in Wettingen or Baden.
In Spreitenbach about 57.2% 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...
). Of the school age population , there are 724 students attending primary school, there are 369 students attending secondary school, there are 186 students attending tertiary or university level schooling in the municipality.
Heritage sites of national significance
The Moosweg, a neolithicNeolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...
grave site is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance
Swiss Inventory of Cultural Property of National and Regional Significance
The Swiss Inventory of Cultural Property of National and Regional Significance is a register of some 8,300 items of cultural property in Switzerland...
.