Hofen was 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 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 ...

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 ...

. On 1 January 2009 Hofen merged with Altdorf, Bibern,

Opfertshofen Opfertshofen was a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Schaffhausen (canton), Schaffhausen in the north of Switzerland. On 1 January 2009 Opfershofen merged with Altdorf, Schaffhausen, Altdorf, Biber ...

and

Thayngen Thayngen () is a village and a municipality in the canton of Schaffhausen in Switzerland. The neighboring village Barzheim merged with Thayngen on 1 January 2004. On 1 January 2009 Altdorf, Bibern, Hofen and Opfertshofen merged into Thayngen.< ...

to form the municipality of Thayngen.Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz
published by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 23 September 2009

History

Hofen is first mentioned in 1258 as ''Hofen''.

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 Lion rampant Or langued of the first and armed Argent holding in dexter a Fleur-de-lis of the last.'' The coat of arms comes from the mayor of Schaffhausen and resident of Hofen, Tobias Holländer (24 February 1636 - 1711). His family came from

Holland Holland is a geographical regionG. Geerts & H. Heestermans, 1981, ''Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal. Deel I'', Van Dale Lexicografie, Utrecht, p 1105 and former provinces of the Netherlands, province on the western coast of the Netherland ...

(the origin of the last name) though he was born in

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

. He became mayor in 1683 and on 18 January 1684 bought land in Hofen and built his manor house, the Holländer's house. Holländer was ambitious and a follower of King

Louis XIV of France LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...

and he created a personal army in the model of Louis' army. His coat of arms represented his origin and ambition. The lion represents the lion of the

Dutch Republic The United Provinces of the Netherlands, commonly referred to in historiography as the Dutch Republic, was a confederation that existed from 1579 until the Batavian Revolution in 1795. It was a predecessor state of the present-day Netherlands ...

while the

fleur-de-lis The ''fleur-de-lis'', also spelled ''fleur-de-lys'' (plural ''fleurs-de-lis'' or ''fleurs-de-lys''), is a common heraldic charge in the (stylized) shape of a lily (in French, and mean and respectively). Most notably, the ''fleur-de-lis'' ...

represents Louis XIV. When he built barracks for his private army in Hofen, he decorated them with his personal coat of arms, which is still visible. His coat of arms became the village coat of arms.History of Hofen
accessed 15 December 2009

Geography

Hofen has an area, , of . Of this area, 73.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while 8.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 16.3% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (1.9%) is non-productive (rivers or lakes). The village is located in the Reiat district in the Biber valley. It is on the border with

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

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 ...

, and halfway between

, Switzerland and Büsslingen, Germany, on the Swiss Hauptstrasse from

to Büsslingen.

Demographics

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 52.2% of the vote. The next two most popular parties were the SP (25.4%), and the FDP (22.5%).Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 15-December-2009 The historical population is given in the following table:

References

External links

* {{Authority control Former municipalities of the canton of Schaffhausen Former municipalities of Switzerland