Gächlingen is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the ...

in the

canton Canton may refer to: Administrative division terminology * Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries, notably Switzerland * Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French Arts and ente ...

Schaffhausen Schaffhausen (; gsw, Schafuuse; french: Schaffhouse; it, Sciaffusa; rm, Schaffusa; en, Shaffhouse) is a town with historic roots, a municipality in northern Switzerland, and the capital of the canton of the same name; it has an estimate ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

History

An area near Gächlingen was the site of the first settlement in Switzerland. This Linear Band Ceramic settlement dates to about 6000BC and is the first long-term, farming community in the borders of modern Switzerland.City of Gächlingen
. Retrieved 9 December 2009 Gächlingen is first mentioned in a 10th Century forgery as ''Câhtelinga''. In 1049 it was mentioned as ''Gehtelinga''.

Geography

Gächlingen has an area, , of . Of this area, 75.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while 17.6% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 7% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (0.3%) is non-productive (rivers or lakes). The municipality is located in the Oberklettgau district. It is a wine producing village on the south flank of the Randen mountain.

Heritage sites of national significance

The ''Goldäcker'', a

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several pa ...

settlement is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance. While the region that would become Switzerland had been occupied by nomadic

hunter-gatherer A traditional hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living an ancestrally derived lifestyle in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local sources, especially edible wild plants but also insects, fung ...

s the settlement at ''Goldäcker'' is the first long-term, farming settlement in Switzerland. About 6000 BC, a group of Linear Band Ceramic Culture farmers moved south over the

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...

river. They settled in a small

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

on the western border of modern Gächlingen. Their settlement included both houses and manufacturing buildings. Additionally, the entire village of Gächlingen is designated as part of the

Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites The Federal Inventory of Heritage Sites (ISOS) 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 The types are based on t ...

Coat of arms

The

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. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The ...

of the municipal

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its ...

is ''Gules a Sickle Argent ringed Or handled proper and a Ploughshare of the second.''Flags of the World.com
. Retrieved 9 December 2009

Demographics

Gächlingen has a population () of 764, of which 5.5% are foreign nationals. Of the foreign population, (), 36.4% are from

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

, 6.8% are from

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, 13.6% are from Macedonia, and 43.2% are from another country.Statistical Office of the Canton of Schaffhausen
. Retrieved 2 December 2009 Over the last 10 years the population has decreased at a rate of -5.5%. Most of the population () speaks German (96.1%), with Albanian being second most common ( 1.0%) and Italian being third ( 0.7%).
Retrieved 9 December 2009 The age distribution of the population () is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 18.8% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 61.5% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 19.6%. In the

2007 federal election This electoral calendar 2007 lists the national/federal direct elections held in 2007 in the de jure and de facto sovereign states and their dependent territories. Referendums are included, although they are not elections. By-elections are not ...

the most popular party was the SVP which received 47.4% of the vote. The next two most popular parties were the SP (29.6%), and the FDP (23.1%) . In Gächlingen about 74.6% of the population (between age 25–64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either university or a ''

Fachhochschule A ''Fachhochschule'' (; plural ''Fachhochschulen''), abbreviated FH, is a university of applied sciences (UAS), in other words a German tertiary education institution that provides professional education in many applied sciences and applied art ...

''). In Gächlingen, , 0.77% of the population attend

kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cen ...

or another pre-school, 7.35% attend a

Primary School A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

, 2.96% attend a lower level Secondary School, and 4.77% attend a higher level Secondary School. , 11.5% of the population belonged to the Roman

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

and 74.3% belonged to the

Swiss Reformed Church The Protestant Church in Switzerland (PCS), (EKS); french: Église évangélique réformée de Suisse (EERS); it, Chiesa evangelica riformata in Svizzera (CERiS); rm, Baselgia evangelica refurmada da la Svizra (BRRS) formerly named Federation o ...

. The historical population is given in the following table:

Economy

Gächlingen has an unemployment rate of 1.03%. , there were 84 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 30 businesses involved in this sector. 46 people are employed in the

secondary sector In macroeconomics, the secondary sector of the economy is an economic sector in the three-sector theory that describes the role of manufacturing. It encompasses industries that produce a finished, usable product or are involved in construc ...

and there are 10 businesses in this sector. 48 people are employed in the

tertiary sector The tertiary sector of the economy, generally known as the service sector, is the third of the three economic sectors in the three-sector model (also known as the economic cycle). The others are the primary sector (raw materials) and the second ...

, with 18 businesses in this sector. the mid year average unemployment rate was 0.5%. There were 35 non-agrarian businesses in the municipality and 49.5% of the (non-agrarian) population was involved in the secondary sector of the economy while 50.5% were involved in the third. At the same time, 67.3% of the working population was employed full-time, and 32.7% was employed part-time. There were 101 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 30.7% of the workforce. there were 129 residents who worked in the municipality, while 277 residents worked outside Gächlingen and 93 people commuted into the municipality for work. , there is 1 restaurant and the hospitality industry in Gächlingen employs 1 people.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gachlingen Municipalities of the canton of Schaffhausen Cultural property of national significance in the canton of Schaffhausen