Gächlingen 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 canton of

Schaffhausen Schaffhausen (; ; ; ; ), historically known in English as Shaffhouse, is a list of towns in Switzerland, town with historic roots, a municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in northern Switzerland, and the capital of the canton of Schaffh ...

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

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 or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

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 hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living in a community, or according to an ancestrally derived Lifestyle, lifestyle, in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local naturally occurring sources, esp ...

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 ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...

river. They settled in a small

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

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 an accurate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The visual d ...

of the municipal

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

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 lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, 6.8% are from

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, 13.6% are from

Macedonia Macedonia (, , , ), most commonly refers to: * North Macedonia, a country in southeastern Europe, known until 2019 as the Republic of Macedonia * Macedonia (ancient kingdom), a kingdom in Greek antiquity * Macedonia (Greece), a former administr ...

, 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 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 (; 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 ...

''). 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, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

, 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 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

and 74.3% 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 ...

. 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 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 ...

, 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