Heiden is a village and a municipality in the canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden in Switzerland. Its Biedermeier village around the church square is listed as a heritage site of national significance.
History
thumb|left|upright|Henry Dunant memorial
Heiden is first mentioned in 1461 as guot genant Haiden.
Heiden, Lutzenberg, and Wolfhalden originally were parts of a single municipality named the Kurzenberg. Around 1650, Heiden and Wolfhalden could not agree about control over the local church. This led to the creation of a separate church in each village in 1652, making them independent. In 1658 the Kurzenberg was split into the three separate municipalities in defiance of the canton government. Their borders were officially established in 1666–67.
The founder of the Red Cross, Henry Dunant, spent his last years in Heiden. The former president of the ICRC, Jakob Kellenberger, was also born in Heiden.
Geography
thumb|left|Heiden village, 1900.
thumb|Aerial view from 300 m by [[Walter Mittelholzer (1922)]]
Heiden has an area, , of . Of this area, 52.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while 30.6% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 16.8% is settled (buildings or roads), and the remainder (0.3%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciersm or mountains). Over the previous 10 years, the population had decreased at a rate of -4.2%.
Most of the population () spoke German (88.7%), with Croatian being second most common (5.9%), and Italian being third most common (1.1%).
, the gender distribution of the population was 48.5% male, and 51.5% female.
In the 2007 federal election the FDP received 65% of the vote.