Baar, Switzerland
Encyclopedia
Baar is a village
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 Zug 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....

.

Geography

Baar has an area, , of 24.8 km² (9.6 sq mi). Of this area, 55% is used for agricultural purposes, while 24.5% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 19.9% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (0.6%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains).

The municipality is located in the northern portion of the flood plain of the Lorze
Lorze
Lorze is the main river of the Canton of Zug, Switzerland. It flows from Ägerisee through Lake Zug into the Reuss River....

 river. It was originally a linear village
Linear village
In geography, a linear village, or linear settlement, is a small to medium-sized settlement that is formed around a transport route, such as a road, river, or canal. Wraysbury, a village in Berkshire, is one of the longest villages in England....

 along the road between Lake Zug and Lake Zurich
Lake Zurich
Lake Zurich is a lake in Switzerland, extending southeast of the city of Zurich. It is also known as Lake Zürich and Lake of Zürich. It lies approximately at co-ordinates ....

. Since the 1960s it has grown rapidly. It consists of the village of Baar and the former hamlets
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 Allenwinden, Blickensdorf and Inwil, as well as the farm houses of Deinikon.

Demographics

Baar has a population (as of ) of . , 24.9% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years, the population has grown at a rate of 20.9%. Most of the population speaks German (83.1%), with Italian being second most common (3.6%) and Serbo-Croatian being third (3.1%).

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 31.2% 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...

 (22.9%), 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....

 (18.2%) and the Green Party
Green Party of Switzerland
The Green Party of Switzerland is the fifth-largest party in the National Council of Switzerland, and the largest party that is not represented on the Federal Council.-History:...

 (17.7%).

The historical population is given in the following table:
year population
1743 1,831
1850 2,346
1860 3,323
1900 4,484
1950 6,992
1960 9,114
1970 14,074
1990 16,147

Education

The entire Swiss population is generally well educated. In Baar about 72% 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...

).

Baar is home to the International School of Zug and Luzern
International School of Zug and Luzern
The International School of Zug and Luzern is an independent co-educational, non-profit day school, from Pre-School to Grade 12 serving the international community of Central Switzerland...

, or ISZL. The ISZL is an independent co-educational, non-profit day school, from Pre-School to Grade 12 serving the international community of Central Switzerland.

Industry

From 1980 to 2006, it was also home to Lego
Lego
Lego is a line of construction toys manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of colorful interlocking plastic bricks and an accompanying array of gears, minifigures and various other parts...

 Produktion AG, a toy manufacturing plant owned by the Lego Group
Lego Group
The LEGO Group is a family-owned company based in Billund, Denmark, and best known for the manufacture of Lego-brand toys.The company was founded in 1932 by Ole Kirk Christiansen...

 where some Lego parts, especially those for the Lego Technic
Lego Technic
Technic is a line of Lego interconnecting plastic rods and parts. The purpose of this series is to create more advanced models with more complex movable arms, such as machines with wheels, in addition to the simpler brick-building properties of normal Lego....

 building sets, were manufactured. In 2006, the Lego Group announced a restructuring of the current production setup including the outsourcing of some of the production work to Flextronics
Flextronics
Flextronics International Ltd. is an electronics manufacturing services provider that offers services to original equipment manufacturers . It also provides supporting supply chain services, including packaging and transportation throughout the world, as well as design and after-sales...

, a Singaporean
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

 electronics company. Lego Produktion AG in Baar was to be shut down and its operations moved to a plant now owned by Flextronics in Kladno
Kladno
Kladno is a city in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It is located 25 km northwest of Prague. Kladno is the largest city of the region and holds a population together with its adjacent suburban areas of more than 110,000 people...

, Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....

. Lego Technic parts would still be manufactured in the headquarters at Billund
Billund, Denmark
Billund is the second largest town in Billund Municipality, Region of Southern Denmark, Denmark with a population of 6,139 .-Overview:...

, Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

, which then had a workforce of 3,000.

Baar serves as the official headquarters of Glencore
Glencore
Glencore International plc is a multinational mining and commodities trading company headquartered in Baar, Switzerland and with its registered office in Saint Helier, Jersey...

, the global producer and trader of commodities, Sika AG
Sika AG
- Introduction :Sika AG is a company headquartered in Baar, Switzerland. The company operates in two business areas:*Construction and...

, a chemical company with products for construction and automotive.

Baar has an unemployment rate of 2.26%. , there were 333 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 94 businesses involved in this sector. 3,810 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 278 businesses in this sector. 9,335 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 1,415 businesses in this sector.

Baar is also home to the Typo3
TYPO3
TYPO3 is a free and open source web content management framework. It is released under the GNU General Public License. It can run on several web servers, such as Apache or IIS, on top of many operating systems, among them Linux, Microsoft Windows, FreeBSD, Mac OS X and OS/2.-History:TYPO3 was...

 Association, which moderates the free open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...

 content management system
Content management system
A content management system is a system providing a collection of procedures used to manage work flow in a collaborative environment. These procedures can be manual or computer-based...

 Typo3.

Transportation

Baar is a stop of the Zürich S-Bahn
Zürich S-Bahn
The Zurich S-Bahn system is a network of rapid transit rail lines that has been incrementally expanded to cover the ZVV area, which comprises the entire canton of Zurich and portions of neighboring cantons The Zurich S-Bahn system is a network of rapid transit rail lines that has been...

 on the so-called Nachtzug (SN9) of the S9 line, operating on weekends after midnight; it runs between Baar and Zürich Hauptbahnhof.
Its train station is a stop of the S-Bahn Zürich on the line S21
S21 (ZVV)
The S21 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 Zug.- Route :...

 between Zug
Zug
Zug , is a German-speaking city in Switzerland. The name ‘Zug’ originates from fishing vocabulary; in the Middle Ages it referred to the right to ‘pull up’ fishing nets and hence to the right to fish.The city of Zug is located in the Canton of Zug and is its capital...

 and Zürich Hauptbahnhof, too.

In the summermonths it is possible to rent free bikes to bike around Baar. This can be done near the Rathaus.

People

  • Brigitte McMahon
    Brigitte McMahon
    Brigitte McMahon-Huber is an athlete from Switzerland, who competed in triathlon.McMahon competed at the first Olympic triathlon at the 2000 Summer Olympics. She won the gold medal with a total time of 2:00:40.52, which until 2008 was the fastest time for a female in an Olympic triathlon...

     (born 1967), former triathlete, was born in Baar.
  • Kimi Räikkönen
    Kimi Räikkönen
    Kimi Matias Räikkönen , nicknamed Iceman, is a Finnish racing driver, who will drive in Formula One for Lotus in . After nine seasons racing in Formula One, in which he took the Formula One World Drivers' Championship, he competed in the World Rally Championship from 2009-2011.Räikkönen entered...

    , Former F1-, current WRC-driver, lives in Baar.
  • Sebastian Vettel
    Sebastian Vettel
    Sebastian Vettel is a German Formula One racing driver, currently driving for Red Bull Racing. He is the current World Champion, having won the championship in and ....

    , Formula-1 driver has a house in Baar and lives there.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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