Muttenz
Encyclopedia
Muttenz 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...

 with a population of approximately 17,000 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 Basel-Country
Basel-Country
Basel-Landschaft , is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland. The capital is Liestal...

 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....

. It is located in the district of Arlesheim
Arlesheim (district)
Arlesheim District is one of the five districts of the largely German-speaking canton of Basel-Country, Switzerland. Its capital is the town of Arlesheim. It has a population of .-Geography:...

 and next to the city of Basle.

History

Under the Roman
Switzerland in the Roman era
The history of Switzerland in the Roman era encompasses the roughly six centuries during which the territory of modern Switzerland was a part of the Roman Republic and Empire...

 Empire a hamlet called Montetum existed, which the Alamanni
Alamanni
The Alamanni, Allemanni, or Alemanni were originally an alliance of Germanic tribes located around the upper Rhine river . One of the earliest references to them is the cognomen Alamannicus assumed by Roman Emperor Caracalla, who ruled the Roman Empire from 211 to 217 and claimed thereby to be...

 invaders referred to as Mittenza since the 3rd century CE. At the beginning of the 9th century CE the settlement came into the possession of the bishopric of Strasbourg. In the following centuries various noble families were invested with the fief.

Muttenz is first mentioned around 1225-26 as Muttence. In 1277 it was mentioned as Muttenza.

In 1306 the village became the property of the Münch of Münchenstein
Münchenstein
Münchenstein is a municipality in the district of Arlesheim in the canton of Basel-Landschaft in Switzerland.-Historical records:Münchenstein is first mentioned in 1196 as Kekingen. In 1270 it was mentioned as Geckingen and in 1279 as Munchenstein.* 1259: The hamlet and the mill, between "Neue...

, who fortified the village church of St. Arbogast
Fortified Church of St. Arbogast
The Fortified Church of St. Arbogast in the Swiss municipality of Muttenz in Basel-Country is the only church in Switzerland that is surrounded by a defensive wall. It is an example of the fortified church type of construction, and is a Swiss heritage site of national significanceThe fortified...

 with a rampart at the beginning of the 15th century, after their fortresses on the nearby Wartenberg were partially destroyed in the devastating Basle earthquake of 1356. Having fallen on hard times the Münch sold the village and the Wartenberg to the city of Basel
Basel
Basel or Basle In the national languages of Switzerland the city is also known as Bâle , Basilea and Basilea is Switzerland's third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany...

 in 1517. Following the Protestant Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...

 in Basel by Johannes Oecolampadius
Johannes Oecolampadius
Johannes Œcolampadius was a German religious reformer. His real name was Hussgen or Heussgen .-Life:He was born in Weinsberg, then part of the Electoral Palatinate...

 the church of Muttenz was reformed in 1529. In 1628 one-seventh of the village population, 112 persons, died of the plague. Many of the villagers, still subjects of the city of Basel, were poor and when in the middle of the 18th century the opportunity arose to leave the village, many emigrated to the Americas. In 1790 only were the remaining peasants freed from serfdom by a decision of the Great Council of the city of Basel. Following the French Revolution tithes were abolished. After a short civil war between forces of the city and the countryside in 1833 the canton of Basel was divided into the two half-cantons of Basel-City and Basel-Country. Muttenz became part of Basel-Country and remained a peasant village until the beginning of the 20th century, when it began to grow into the small industrialized town it is today.

Geography

Muttenz has an area, , of 16.64 square kilometres (6.4 sq mi). Of this area, 2.67 km² (1 sq mi) or 16.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while 6.76 km² (2.6 sq mi) or 40.6% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 6.85 km² (2.6 sq mi) or 41.2% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.34 km² (0.131274733921462 sq mi) or 2.0% is either rivers or lakes and 0.01 km² (2.5 acre) or 0.1% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 8.1% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 14.2% and transportation infrastructure made up 15.0%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 1.7% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 2.2%. Out of the forested land, 38.9% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.7% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 5.6% is used for growing crops and 8.0% is pastures, while 2.5% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.

The municipality is located in the Arlesheim district, east of Basel. The old village center was between the Rütihard and Wartenberg hills. The modern housing and industrial section is along the Rhine.

Coat of arms

The blazon
Blazon
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 Azure, issuant a Castle with three Towers Gules windowed Sable from which a Semi-lion rampant issuant double-queued of the second.

Demographics

Muttenz has a population of . , 17.2% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of 2.5%.

Most of the population speaks 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....

 (14,642 or 87.9%), with Italian language
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 second most common (648 or 3.9%) and 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...

 being third (254 or 1.5%). There are 18 people who speak Romansh.

, the gender distribution of the population was 48.5% male and 51.5% female. The population was made up of 14,171 Swiss citizens (81.8% of the population), and 3,159 non-Swiss residents (18.2%) Of the population in the municipality 4,137 or about 24.8% were born in Muttenz and lived there in 2000. There were 2,333 or 14.0% who were born in the same canton, while 6,531 or 39.2% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 3,136 or 18.8% were born outside of Switzerland.

In there were 98 live births to Swiss citizens and 26 births to non-Swiss citizens, and in same time span there were 161 deaths of Swiss citizens and 11 non-Swiss citizen deaths. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens decreased by 63 while the foreign population increased by 15. There were 25 Swiss men and 11 Swiss women who emigrated from Switzerland. At the same time, there were 46 non-Swiss men and 49 non-Swiss women who immigrated from another country to Switzerland. The total Swiss population change in 2008 (from all sources, including moves across municipal borders) was an increase of 42 and the non-Swiss population change was an increase of 68 people. This represents a population growth rate of 0.6%.

The age distribution, , in Muttenz is; 995 children or 5.7% of the population are between 0 and 6 years old and 2,283 teenagers or 13.2% are between 7 and 19. Of the adult population, 2,030 people or 11.7% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 1,997 people or 11.5% are between 30 and 39, 2,756 people or 15.9% are between 40 and 49, and 3,506 people or 20.2% are between 50 and 64. The senior population distribution is 2,676 people or 15.4% of the population are between 65 and 79 years old and there are 1,087 people or 6.3% who are over 80.

, there were 6,189 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 8,470 married individuals, 1,099 widows or widowers and 896 individuals who are divorced.

the average number of residents per living room was 0.56 which is about equal to the cantonal average of 0.56 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 33.6% 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 7,340 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.2 persons per household. There were 2,440 households that consist of only one person and 360 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 7,440 households that answered this question, 32.8% were households made up of just one person and 42 were adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 2,368 married couples without children, 2,045 married couples with children There were 351 single parents with a child or children. There were 94 households that were made up unrelated people and 100 households that were made some sort of institution or another collective housing.

there were 2,364 single family homes (or 68.5% of the total) out of a total of 3,453 inhabited buildings. There were 676 multi-family buildings (19.6%), along with 257 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (7.4%) and 156 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (4.5%). Of the single family homes 105 were built before 1919, while 244 were built between 1990 and 2000. The greatest number of single family homes (658) were built between 1946 and 1960.

there were 7,768 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 3 rooms of which there were 2,395. There were 267 single room apartments and 2,041 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 7,219 apartments (92.9% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 378 apartments (4.9%) were seasonally occupied and 171 apartments (2.2%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 2.2 new units per 1000 residents. the average price to rent a two room apartment was about 800.00 CHF (US$640, £360, €510), a three room apartment was about 1028.00 CHF (US$820, £460, €660) and a four room apartment cost an average of 1217.00 CHF (US$970, £550, €780). The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.31%.

The historical population is given in the following chart:

Heritage sites of national significance

The Au-Hard (Part of the late-Roman era Rhine fortifications), the Friedhof (cemetery) settlement, the Rangierbahnhof (Train Station) and the 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...

 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...

 Fortified Church of St. Arbogast are listed as 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...

. The entire village of Muttenz and the cemetery with surrounding settlements are both listed in the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites
Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites
The Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites is part of a 1981 Ordinance of the Swiss Federal Council implementing the Federal Law on the Protection of Nature and Cultural Heritage.-Sites of national importance:-Types:...

.

Wartenberg

Built in the Middle Ages, the three fortresses built on the Wartenberg were heavily damaged in the earthquake of 1356, rebuilt in the following decades and later abandoned. They were partially restored in 1955/56.

St. Arbogast

The fortified church
Fortified church
Churches have often shown potential to be used for defensive purposes.Europe has a substantial legacy of fortified churches which were used for defensive purposes in time of war...

 of St. Arbogast, serving the local evangelical community, was built in the late Middle Ages
Late Middle Ages
The Late Middle Ages was the period of European history generally comprising the 14th to the 16th century . The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern era ....

. Its surrounding seven metre tall ramparts built in the 15th century are still intact. A charnal house was built adjoining the church in the 15th century. Wall paintings made in 1513 were painted over following the Protestant Reformation, but were restored during a complete renovation in the 1970s. Muttenz was awarded the Wakker Prize
Wakker Prize
The Wakker Prize is awarded annually by the Swiss Heritage Society to a Municipality of Switzerland for the development and preservation of its architectural heritage....

 for architectural preservation by the Swiss Heritage Society
Swiss Heritage Society
The Swiss Heritage Society is a non-profit organisation dedicated to the advancement of Switzerland’s architectural heritage. Its focus is on the preservation of important landmarks, the development of the structural environment, and the promotion of good architectural design.The SHS was founded...

 in 1983.

The church is listed as a heritage site of national significance, as is the medieval village core.

Freidorf

Freidorf is a communal housing estate with 150 buildings built in 1920 by Hannes Meyer
Hannes Meyer
Hans Emil "Hannes" Meyer was a Swiss architect and second director of the Bauhaus in Dessau from 1928 to 1930.-Early work:...

 (1889–1954), a Bauhaus
Bauhaus
', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...

-affiliated architect. It is also listed as a heritage site of national significance.

Politics

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 SP
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....

 which received 30.59% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were 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...

 (27.32%), the FDP
FDP.The Liberals
FDP.The Liberals is a classical liberal political party in Switzerland. It is the joint-largest party in the Federal Council, third-largest party in the National Council, and second-largest in the Council of States....

 (13.79%) 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:...

 (12.37%). In the federal election, a total of 5,850 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 49.0%.

Economy

, Muttenz had an unemployment rate of 2.04%. , there were 93 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 22 businesses involved in this sector. 5,170 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 191 businesses in this sector. 8,902 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 664 businesses in this sector. There were 8,261 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 43.7% of the workforce.

the total number of full-time equivalent jobs was 11,877. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 21, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 4,571, of which 3,617 or (79.1%) were in manufacturing, 71 or (1.6%) were in mining and 702 (15.4%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 7,285. In the tertiary sector; 1,777 or 24.4% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 1,536 or 21.1% were in the movement and storage of goods, 287 or 3.9% were in a hotel or restaurant, 133 or 1.8% were in the information industry, 340 or 4.7% were the insurance or financial industry, 1,061 or 14.6% were technical professionals or scientists, 718 or 9.9% were in education and 434 or 6.0% were in health care.

, there were 12,909 workers who commuted into the municipality and 5,640 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 2.3 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving. About 15.4% of the workforce coming into Muttenz are coming from outside Switzerland, while 0.3% of the locals commute out of Switzerland for work. Of the working population, 33.7% used public transportation to get to work, and 32.6% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 4,844 or 29.1% were Roman Catholic, while 7,126 or 42.8% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 135 members of an Orthodox church
Orthodox Christianity
The term Orthodox Christianity may refer to:* the Eastern Orthodox Church and its various geographical subdivisions...

 (or about 0.81% of the population), there were 44 individuals (or about 0.26% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church
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...

, and there were 709 individuals (or about 4.26% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 15 individuals (or about 0.09% of the population) who were Jewish
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...

, and 670 (or about 4.02% of the population) who were Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

ic. There were 72 individuals who were Buddhist
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...

, 123 individuals who were Hindu
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...

 and 18 individuals who belonged to another church. 2,405 (or about 14.44% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic
Agnosticism
Agnosticism is the view that the truth value of certain claims—especially claims about the existence or non-existence of any deity, but also other religious and metaphysical claims—is unknown or unknowable....

 or atheist
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...

, and 493 individuals (or about 2.96% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Muttenz about 7,027 or (42.2%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 2,305 or (13.8%) have completed 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 2,305 who completed tertiary schooling, 63.5% were Swiss men, 23.5% were Swiss women, 8.2% were non-Swiss men and 4.8% were non-Swiss women.

, there were 1,738 students in Muttenz who came from another municipality, while 448 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

Muttenz is home to 3 libraries. These libraries include; the Bibliothek zum Chutz, the Hochschule für Achitektur, Bau und Geomantik, STANDORT MUTTENZ and the Hochschule für Life Sciences, STANDORT MUTTENZ. There were a combined total of 51,675 books or other media in the libraries, and in the same year a total of 126,508 items were loaned out.

External links

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