Braunau is 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 Münchwilen in the

canton Canton may refer to: Administrative divisions * Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries * Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French Arts and entertainment * Canton (band), an It ...

Thurgau Thurgau (; ; ; ), anglicized as Thurgovia, and formally as the Canton of Thurgau, is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of five districts. Its capital is Frauenfeld. Thurgau is part of Eastern Switzerland. I ...

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

Braunau is first mentioned in 762 as ''Pramacunauia'', when it was owned by the

Abbey of St. Gall The Abbey of Saint Gall () is a dissolved abbey (747–1805) in a Catholic religious complex in the city of St. Gallen in Switzerland. The Carolingian-era monastery existed from 719, founded by Saint Othmar on the spot where Saint Gall had er ...

. It was acquired when the Abbey acquired land in the

Toggenburg Toggenburg is a region of Switzerland. It corresponds to the upper valley of the River Thur (Switzerland), Thur and that of the Necker (river), Necker, one of its afluents. Since 1 January 2003, Toggenburg has been a constituency (''Wahlkreis ...

. Initially it was ruled as a

fief A fief (; ) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form of feudal alle ...

of the Abbey by the Heitnau family, until 1228 when it went to the

Knights Hospitaller The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), is a Catholic military order. It was founded in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century and had headquarters there ...

Commandry In the Middle Ages, a commandery (rarely commandry) was the smallest administrative division of the European landed properties of a military order. It was also the name of the house where the knights of the commandery lived.Anthony Luttrell and G ...

of Tobel. It was under their rule until 1798. Originally, it was part of the

Affeltrangen Affeltrangen is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Münchwilen (district), Münchwilen in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Thurgau in Switzerland. History Affeltrangen is first mentioned in 779 as ''Affaltrawan ...

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

, however, St. Michael's Chapel, belonged to the Märwil parish at sometime before 1228. In 1529, most of the population converted during the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the papacy and ...

. The remaining Catholics became part of the Tobel parish, while the Reformed members joined the Märwil parish. In 1806-07 a church was constructed, and in 1810 the village separated from Märwil. In 1861 it formed an independent parish. The regulations () of 1519 regulated the daily life in the village. Grain was grown in a

three-field system The three-field system is a regime of crop rotation in which a field is planted with one set of crops one year, a different set in the second year, and left fallow in the third year. A set of crops is ''rotated'' from one field to another. The tech ...

. Starting in the mid-19th Century, cattle and dairy farming with cheese production and fruit production became common. In the early 19th Century cotton and linen weaving entered the village as a cottage industry. Since about 1895 timber industry has been in the village with some carpentry and a sawmill. Until 1998 it was part of the municipality of Tobel.

Geography

Braunau has an area, , of . Of this area, or 68.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 25.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 6.2% is settled (buildings or roads) and or 0.2% is unproductive land.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010 Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 2.7% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 0.1% and transportation infrastructure made up 0.5%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 2.6%. Out of the forested land, 21.8% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 61.6% is used for growing crops, while 7.0% is used for orchards or vine crops. The municipality is located in the Münchwilen district. It consists of the village of Braunau and the

hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. This is often simply an informal description of a smaller settlement or possibly a subdivision or satellite entity to a larger settlement. Sometimes a hamlet is defined f ...

of Beckingen, Hittingen, Oberhausen and 17 other settlements.

Demographics

Braunau has a population () of , 6.7% of the population are foreign nationals.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Superweb database - Gemeinde Statistics 1981-2008
accessed 19 June 2010 Over the last 10 years (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of %. Most of the population () speaks

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

(98.0%), with

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

being second most common ( 0.5%) and

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

being third ( 0.3%).Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 29-September-2010 , the gender distribution of the population was 48.2% male and 51.8% female. The population was made up of 306 Swiss men (45.3% of the population), and 20 (3.0%) non-Swiss men. There were 325 Swiss women (48.1%), and 25 (3.7%) non-Swiss women. In there were 12 live births to Swiss citizens and births to non-Swiss citizens, and in same time span there were 5 deaths of Swiss citizens and 1 non-Swiss citizen death. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens increased by 7 while the foreign population decreased by 1. There were 3 Swiss men who emigrated from Switzerland to another country, 5 non-Swiss men who emigrated from Switzerland to another country and 3 non-Swiss women who emigrated from Switzerland to another country. The total Swiss population change in 2008 (from all sources) was a decrease of 10 and the non-Swiss population change was a decrease of 1 people. This represents a

population growth rate Population growth is the increase in the number of people in a population or dispersed group. The global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to 8.2 billion in 2025. Actual global human population growth amounts to around 70 million annu ...

of -1.6%. The age distribution, , in Braunau is; 89 children or 13.1% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 110 teenagers or 16.2% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 68 people or 10.0% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 92 people or 13.6% are between 30 and 39, 120 people or 17.7% are between 40 and 49, and 80 people or 11.8% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 71 people or 10.5% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 31 people or 4.6% are between 70 and 79, there are 16 people or 2.4% who are between 80 and 89. , there were 230 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.8 persons per household. there were 104 single family homes (or 88.9% of the total) out of a total of 117 inhabited buildings. There were 6 two family buildings (5.1%), 3 three family buildings (2.6%) and 4 multi-family buildings (or 3.4%). There were 123 (or 18.6%) persons who were part of a couple without children, and 439 (or 66.4%) who were part of a couple with children. There were 36 (or 5.4%) people who lived in single parent home, while there are 8 persons who were adult children living with one or both parents, 3 persons who lived in a household made up of relatives, 4 who lived in a household made up of unrelated persons, and 6 who are either institutionalized or live in another type of collective housing. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.38%. , the construction rate of new housing units was 10.2 new units per 1000 residents. there were 252 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was the 6 room apartment of which there were 75. There were 4 single room apartments and 75 apartments with six or more rooms.Statistical Office of Thurgau
, MS Excel document - ''Wohnungen nach Anzahl Zimmer und Gemeinden, Jahr 2000'' accessed 24 June 2010 In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 58.59% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were 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 ...

(10.18%), the CVP (10.11%) and the SP (6.23%). In the federal election, a total of 269 votes were cast, and the

voter turnout In political science, voter turnout is the participation rate (often defined as those who cast a ballot) of a given election. This is typically either the percentage of Voter registration, registered voters, Suffrage, eligible voters, or all Voti ...

was 57.2%. The historical population is given in the following table:

Economy

, Braunau had an unemployment rate of 2.16%. , there were 96 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 40 businesses involved in this sector. 33 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 11 businesses in this sector. 42 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 11 businesses in this sector. there were 459 workers who lived in the municipality. Of these, 214 or about 46.6% of the residents worked outside Braunau while 26 people commuted into the municipality for work. There were a total of 271 jobs (of at least 6 hours per week) in the municipality. Of the working population, 5.5% used public transportation to get to work, and 51% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 256 or 38.7% were

Roman Catholic 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 ...

, while 319 or 48.3% belonged 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 ...

. Of the rest of the population, there are 5 individuals (or about 0.76% of the population) who belong to the Orthodox Church, and there are 24 individuals (or about 3.63% of the population) who belong to another Christian church. There were xxx 39 (or about 5.90% of the population) belong to no church, are

agnostic Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, the divine, or the supernatural is either unknowable in principle or unknown in fact. (page 56 in 1967 edition) It can also mean an apathy towards such religious belief and refer to ...

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

, and 18 individuals (or about 2.72% of the population) did not answer the question.Statistical Office of Thurgau
, MS Excel document – ''Wohnbevölkerung Gemeinden nach religiöser Zugehörigkeit, Jahr 2000'' accessed 23 June 2010

Weather

Braunau has an average of 144 days of rain or snow per year and on average receives of

precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls from clouds due to gravitational pull. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, rain and snow mixed ("sleet" in Commonwe ...

. The wettest month is June during which time Braunau receives an average of of rain or snow. During this month there is precipitation for an average of 14 days. The month with the most days of precipitation is May, with an average of 14, but with only of rain or snow. The driest month of the year is February with an average of of precipitation over 14 days., the weather station elevation is 630 meters above sea level.

Education

The entire Swiss population is generally well educated. In Braunau about 80.2% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either non-mandatory

upper secondary education Secondary education is the education level following primary education and preceding tertiary education. Level 2 or ''lower secondary education'' (less commonly ''junior secondary education'') is considered the second and final phase of basic e ...

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 ...

'').

References

External links

* {{Authority control Municipalities of Thurgau