Rüschlikon 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
Horgen in the
canton of
Zürich
Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...
in
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 ...
. It is located on the
west
West is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some Romance langu ...
shore of
Lake Zürich
Lake Zurich (, ; ) is a lake in Switzerland, extending southeast of the city of Zurich. Depending on the context, Lake Zurich or can be used to describe the lake as a whole, or just that part of the lake downstream of the Hurden peninsula and ...
.
Coat of arms
Its
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 ...
features a white
shield
A shield is a piece of personal armour held in the hand, which may or may not be strapped to the wrist or forearm. Shields are used to intercept specific attacks, whether from close-ranged weaponry like spears or long ranged projectiles suc ...
showing a red
rose
A rose is either a woody perennial plant, perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred Rose species, species and Garden roses, tens of thousands of cultivar ...
with a yellow center and a green two-leaved
stem
Stem or STEM most commonly refers to:
* Plant stem, a structural axis of a vascular plant
* Stem group
* Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics
Stem or STEM can also refer to:
Language and writing
* Word stem, part of a word respon ...
.
History
Earliest archaeological findings are grave mounds from the early Iron Age
Hallstatt culture
The Hallstatt culture was the predominant Western Europe, Western and Central European archaeological culture of the Late Bronze Age Europe, Bronze Age (Hallstatt A, Hallstatt B) from the 12th to 8th centuries BC and Early Iron Age Europe (Hallst ...
(800-450BC) on the
Zimmerberg
The Zimmerberg (el. ) is a mountain and a region in the Horgen (district), district of Horgen in the canton of Zurich, Switzerland. Its name comes from the Old High German word ''zimbar'', meaning lumber.
Geography
Zimmerberg mountain is lo ...
mountain.
[ (German) retrieved 12 December 2013] The name of Rüschlikon is
Alemannic and first appears in documents around 1153 as ''Ruoslinchoven''.
[ In the early 1980s, Rüschlikon blocked off many of the smaller side streets from Thalwil so that traffic between Zürich and Thalwil would be unable to use them.
The ]Swiss Re
Swiss Re Ltd is a Swiss reinsurance company founded in 1863 and headquartered in Zürich, Switzerland. It is one of the world's largest reinsurers, as measured by gross premiums written. Swiss Re operates through around 80 offices in 29 countri ...
Centre for Global Dialogue is based in Rüschlikon. The centre is built in the grounds of the Villa Bodmer, which was owned by the Swiss industrialist Karl Martin Leonhard Bodmer.
The CEO of commodities company Glencore
Glencore plc is an Anglo-Swiss Multinational corporation, multinational commodity trading and mining company with headquarters in Baar, Switzerland, Baar, Switzerland. Glencore's oil and gas headquarters are in London, London, England as well a ...
, Ivan Glasenberg, is a resident of Rüschlikon. Glasenberg paid 360 million SFr (£240m) in taxes to Rüschlikon following Glencore's flotation on the London Stock Exchange
The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...
. The money enabled the residents to cut their taxation rate by 7%, which was approved by large majority after a public vote.[
The money attracted criticism from some Rüschlikon residents with regards to Glencore's alleged controversial business practices.][ The finance director of nearby ]Winterthur
Winterthur (; ) is a city in the canton of Zurich in northern Switzerland. With over 120,000 residents, it is the country's List of cities in Switzerland, sixth-largest city by population, as well as its ninth-largest agglomeration with about 14 ...
village council, which is due to receive a large proportion of the money via a system that diverts funds to the poorest villages said that "I am not really happy about this money. I can't ignore who is actually paying the price for this and I don't like the fact that a few commodity traders make billions while the people in the producing countries remain bitterly poor."[
]
Geography
Rüschlikon has an area of . Of this area, 20.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while 23.3% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 55.5% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (0.7%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains).[ housing and buildings made up 41.5% of the total area, while transportation infrastructure made up the rest (13.3%).][ Of the total unproductive area, water (streams and lakes) made up 1% of the area. 44.2% of the total municipal area was undergoing some type of construction.][
Rüschlikon is bordered on the north by Kilchberg, on the east by ]Lake Zürich
Lake Zurich (, ; ) is a lake in Switzerland, extending southeast of the city of Zurich. Depending on the context, Lake Zurich or can be used to describe the lake as a whole, or just that part of the lake downstream of the Hurden peninsula and ...
, on the south by Thalwil
Thalwil is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality and town in the district of Horgen (district), Horgen in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Zurich (canton), Zürich in Switzerland. The municipality includes two parts: Thalwil and Gatti ...
, and on the west by Adliswil
Adliswil is a town and a municipality in the district of Horgen in the canton of Zürich in Switzerland.
The official language of Adliswil is (the Swiss variety of Standard) German, but the main spoken language is the local variant of the A ...
and Langnau am Albis. A steep slope rises from lake Zürich towards the Zimmerberg
The Zimmerberg (el. ) is a mountain and a region in the Horgen (district), district of Horgen in the canton of Zurich, Switzerland. Its name comes from the Old High German word ''zimbar'', meaning lumber.
Geography
Zimmerberg mountain is lo ...
and, at its peak, the hill called Chopf, then slopes down towards the river Sihl
The Sihl is a Switzerland, Swiss river that rises near the Druesberg mountain in the canton of Schwyz, and eventually flows into the Limmat in the centre of the Zürich, city of Zürich, after crossing the Zürich–Winterthur railway at . It has ...
. Although mostly a dormitory town for Zürich, Rüschlikon has a very small but characteristic town center, parks by the lake and considerable wooded areas and farms, mostly in the hills. The farms include cattle, horses, sheep, and a few exotic animals, as well as areas under cultivation.
Politics
In the 2007 election the most popular party was the SVP which received 32.6% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP (26.8%), the SPS (13.5%) and the CVP (9.3%).
The president of the commune of Rüschlikon is Bernhard Elsener ( CVP).
Demographics
Rüschlikon has a population (as of ) of . , 22.5% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. the gender distribution of the population was 47.9% male and 52.1% female. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 10.4%. Most of the population () speaks German (85.1%), with English being the second most common language (3.9%) and Italian third (2.3%).
The age distribution of the population () is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 19% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 59.7% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 21.3%. In Rüschlikon about 85.9% 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 2243 households in Rüschlikon.[
Rüschlikon has an unemployment rate of 2.28%. , there were 27 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 5 businesses involved in this sector. 378 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 37 businesses in this sector. 1781 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 207 businesses in this sector.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office]
accessed 10-Aug-2009 60% of the working population were employed full-time, and 40% were employed part-time.
accessed 4 August 2009
there were 1475 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 1853 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 Rüschlikon. In the 2000 census, religion was broken down into several smaller categories. From the , 44.7% were some type of Protestant, with 43.3% 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 1.4% belonging to other Protestant churches. 28.6% of the population were Catholic. Of the rest of the population, 0% were Muslim, 5.7% belonged to another religion (not listed), 3.7% did not give a religion, and 16.6% were atheist or agnostic.[
The historical population is given in the following table:]
IBM Zürich research laboratory
Rüschlikon is home to the IBM Zurich Research Lab, part of IBM Research
IBM Research is the research and development division for IBM, an American Multinational corporation, multinational information technology company. IBM Research is headquartered at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York ...
, which has brought to Rüschlikon the Nobel Prize in Physics
The Nobel Prize in Physics () is an annual award given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for those who have made the most outstanding contributions to mankind in the field of physics. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the ...
awarded to Heinrich Rohrer
Heinrich Rohrer (6 June 1933 – 16 May 2013) was a Swiss physicist who shared half of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physics with Gerd Binnig for the design of the scanning tunneling microscope (STM). The other half of the Prize was awarded to Ernst R ...
and Gerd Binnig
Gerd Binnig (; born 20 July 1947) is a German physicist. He is most famous for having won the Nobel Prize in Physics jointly with Heinrich Rohrer in 1986 for the invention of the scanning tunneling microscope.
Early life and education
Binnig wa ...
in 1986 and to Karl Alexander Müller Karl may refer to:
People
* Karl (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name
* Karl der Große, commonly known in English as Charlemagne
* Karl of Austria, last Austrian Emperor
* Karl (footballer) (born 1993), Karl Cac ...
and Johannes Georg Bednorz
Johannes Georg Bednorz (; born 16 May 1950) is a German physicist who, together with K. Alex Müller, discovered high-temperature superconductivity in ceramics, for which they shared the 1987 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Life and work
Bednorz was bor ...
in 1987.
Park im Grüene
The "Dutti-Park" or Park im Grüene was donated by Adele Duttweiler, widow of Gottlieb Duttweiler
Gottlieb Duttweiler (15 August 1888 – 8 June 1962) was a Swiss businessman and politician, founder of both the Migros chain of grocery stores and the Alliance of Independents (''Landesring der Unabhängigen,'' LDU) party.
Life and work
Dutt ...
, the founder of the Migros
Migros () is Switzerland's largest retail company, its largest supermarket chain and largest employer. It is also one of the forty largest retailers in the world. It is structured in the form of a cooperative federation (the Federation of Migros ...
chain of grocery stores.
Transport
The town is served by frequent rail connections (4 an hour to Zürich in 2016) provided by the Swiss Federal Railways
Swiss Federal Railways (, SBB; , CFF; , FFS) is the national railway company of Switzerland.
The company was founded in 1902 and is headquartered in Bern. It used to be a State-owned enterprise, government institution, but since 1999 it has be ...
and S-Bahn Zürich
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 (Canton of Aargau, Aargau, Canton of Gla ...
, by bus service with the 165 bus to Zürich Bürkliplatz (2 an hour in 2016), and (in the summer) boat service to the other lakeside communities. Rüschlikon railway station is a stop of the S-Bahn Zürich
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 (Canton of Aargau, Aargau, Canton of Gla ...
on the S8 and S24 lines. Tourist boat trips, run by the Zürichsee-Schifffahrtsgesellschaft
The Lake Zurich Navigation Company (, ZSG) is a public Swiss company operating passenger ships and boats on Lake Zurich () and the river Limmat in Zurich.The company's services connect lake-side towns between Zurich and Rapperswil/ Schmerikon, i ...
, also sail from Zürich and Rapperswil
Rapperswil (Swiss German: or ;Andres Kristol, ''Rapperswil SG (See)'' in: ''Dictionnaire toponymique des communes suisses – Lexikon der schweizerischen Gemeindenamen – Dizionario toponomastico dei comuni svizzeri (DTS, LSG)'', Centre de dial ...
. The town is also well-linked by regular roads and the A3 highway.
References
External links
*
IBM Zurich Research Laboratory, Rüschlikon
Zürcher Verkehrsverbund (ZVV)
responsible for public transportation in Rüschlikon.
Gottlieb Duttweiler Institut
in Rüschlikon
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ruschlikon
Municipalities of the canton of Zürich
Populated places on Lake Zurich