Wald () is a village and a

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

in the district of

Hinwil Hinwil is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Hinwil (district), Hinwil in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Zurich (canton), Zürich in Switzerland. History The village Hinwil from which the later municipality ...

in the

canton of Zürich The canton of Zurich is an administrative unit (Swiss canton, canton) of Switzerland, situated in the northeastern part of the country. With a population of (as of ), it is the most populous canton of Switzerland. Zurich is the ''de facto'' Capi ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

History

Wald is mentioned for the first time in a document from 1217. In the year 1621 the municipality received market rights. Around 1820, the village of Wald, referred to as Dorfschaft or Marktflecken, consisted of about 60 to 70 houses.Friedrich Vogel: ''Die alten Chroniken oder Denkwürdigkeiten der Stadt und Landschaft Zürich von den ältesten Zeiten bis 1820.'' 1845 .

Industrialisation Industrialisation ( UK) or industrialization ( US) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial society. This involves an extensive reorganisation of an economy for th ...

in the 19th century turned Wald into an important business location with numerous spinning and weaving mills. Wald was the first rural municipality in the canton of Zurich to introduce weapons training for secondary school pupils in 1851.Gustav von Escher: '' Memorabilia Tigurina oder Chronik der Denkwürdigkeiten des Kantons Zürich 1850 bis 1860.'' Friedrich Schulthess, Zürich 1870, . This tradition survived in customs in the form of "boys' parades" (Umezug) with muzzle-loading shooting at carnival time.''Brauchtum. Knabenumezüge.''
Website der Gemeinde Wald. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, there were 16 factories in Wald, all of which made their money from textiles. At this time, Wald was also known as the "Manchester of the Canton of Zurich". In the 1860s, the Oberholzer family of factory owners promoted social welfare by establishing workers' housing and day nurseries. Mechanised industry originally owed its development in the pioneering days to the topographical conditions. Water-rich streams and rivers flow through the municipality and their water power was utilised from the middle of the 19th century: Mechanical spinning mills were the first to set up along Wald's waterways. With the construction of reservoirs, electricity could soon be produced and utilised. A large number of weaving mills were established, making Wald the textile metropolis of the Zurich Oberland.

Geography

Wald has an area of . Of this area, 53.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while 33.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 12% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (0.8%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains). housing and buildings made up 8% of the total area, while transportation infrastructure made up the rest (4.1%). Of the total unproductive area, water (streams and lakes) made up 0.2% of the area. 8.6% of the total municipal area was undergoing some type of construction.

Demographics

Wald has a population (as of ) of . , 23.5% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. the gender distribution of the population was 50% male and 50% female. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 6.9%. Most of the population () speaks German (83.9%), with Italian being second most common ( 5.2%) and Serbo-Croatian being third ( 2.8%). In the 2007 election the most popular party was the SVP which received 41.5% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SPS (15.3%), the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice. Green party platforms typically embrace Social democracy, social democratic economic policies and fo ...

(11.3%) and the FDP (9.7%). The age distribution of the population () is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 26.2% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 57.6% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 16.2%. In Wald about 65.2% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either university or a ''

Fachhochschule A (; plural ), abbreviated FH, is a university of applied sciences (UAS), in other words a Hochschule, German tertiary education institution that provides professional education in many applied sciences and applied arts, such as engineering, te ...

''). There are 3369 households in Wald. Wald has an unemployment rate of 2.46%. , there were 235 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 98 businesses involved in this sector. 959 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 constructi ...

and there are 113 businesses in this sector. 1806 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 ...

, with 269 businesses in this sector.Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 06-Aug-2009 45.5% of the working population were employed full-time, and 54.5% were employed part-time.
accessed 4 August 2009 there were 2779

Catholics The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

and 3377

Protestants Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

in Wald. In the , religion was broken down into several smaller categories. From the 2000 census, 43.9% were some type of Protestant, with 41.2% belonging to the

Swiss Reformed Church The Protestant Church in Switzerland (PCS), formerly named Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches until 31 December 2019, is a federation of 25 member churches – 24 cantonal churches and the Evangelical-Methodist Church of Switzerland. The P ...

and 2.7% belonging to other Protestant churches. 32.6% of the population were Catholic. Of the rest of the population, 0% were Muslim, 10.5% belonged to another religion (not listed), 4.2% did not give a religion, and 8.4% were atheist or agnostic.

Transportation

Wald railway station is a stop of the

Zürich S-Bahn The Zurich S-Bahn () system is a network of rail lines that has been incrementally expanded to cover the ZVV area, which comprises the entire canton of Zurich and portions of neighbouring cantons (Aargau, Glarus, Schaffhausen, Schwyz, ...

on the lines S26.

Gallery

File:Güntisberg (Wald) IMG 9483.JPG, Güntisberg File:Hiltisberg (Laupen) IMG 9478.JPG, Hiltisberg File:Laupen IMG 9464.JPG, ''Unterer Chapf'' towards Hiltisberg File:Laupen IMG 9460.JPG, Laupen File:Mettlen (Wald) IMG 9502.JPG, Mettlen File:Jonatal - Batzberg (Wald) IMG 4596.JPG, ''Jonatal'' i.e. Jona (river) valley File:Bachtel - Batzberg IMG 4613.JPG,

Bachtel Bachtel is a mountain of the Zurich Oberland, located between Hinwil and Wald in the canton of Zurich. It lies approximately halfway between the Schnebelhorn (the highest point of the canton) and Lake Zurich. On the summit is the Bachtel Tower ...

as seen from ''Batzberg''

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wald, Zurich Municipalities of the canton of Zürich