Küsnacht () is a municipality in the district of Meilen in the canton of Zürich, Switzerland.

History

left|thumb|Bank in Bellevue

Küsnacht is first mentioned in 1188 as de Cussenacho. The local dialect is called Züridütsch.

Demographics

upright|thumb|left|Church and seminary in Küsnacht, by Rudolf Ringger (about 1865)

thumb|Church and seminary

Küsnacht has a population (as of ) of . , 19.7% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. the gender distribution of the population was 47.4% male and 52.6% female. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 6.6%. Most of the population () speaks German (86.1%), with English being second most common (3.6%) and Italian being third (2.5%).

In the 2007 election the most popular party was the SVP which received 32.8% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP (30.5%), the SPS (12.4%) and the CSP (8.9%).

The age distribution of the population () is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 17.7% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 59.1% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 23.2%. In Küsnacht about 84.6% of the population (between age 25–64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). There are 5843 households in Küsnacht. 40% of the working population were employed full-time, and 60% were employed part-time.

there were 3578 Catholics and 5417 Protestants in Küsnacht. In the 2000 census, religion was broken down into several smaller categories. From the , 49.5% were some type of Protestant, with 48% belonging to the Swiss Reformed Church and 1.5% belonging to other Protestant churches. 26.6% of the population were Catholic. Of the rest of the population, 2% were Muslim, 4.4% belonged to another religion (not listed), 3.7% did not give a religion, and 15.2% were atheist or agnostic.

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! year

! population

|-

| 1467

| 126 households

|-

| 1634

| 1,064

|-

| 1799

| 1,512

|-

| 1850

| 2,486

|-

| 1900

| 3,391

|-

| 1950

| 8,920

|-

| 2000

| 12,484

|-

|}

Weather

Küsnacht has an average of 136 days of rain per year and on average receives of precipitation. The wettest month is August during which time Küsnacht receives of precipitation. During that month, there is precipitation for an average of 12.3 days. The month with the most precipitation days is June, with an average of 13.3 days, and of precipitation.

Transport

upright|thumb|[[Zürichsee-Schifffahrtsgesellschaft|ZSG landing gate on Lake Zürich]]

There are four railway stations within the municipality of Küsnacht. Küsnacht ZH and Küsnacht Goldbach stations are both on the Lake Zürich right-bank line, and are served by S-Bahn Zürich services S6 and S16. Neue Forch and Forch stations are on the inland Forchbahn line, and are served by service S18.

In the summer there are regular boats to Zürich as well as along the lake to Rapperswil, run by the Zürichsee-Schifffahrtsgesellschaft (ZSG).

Sports

The ZSC Lions' affiliates, the GCK Lions, play in the Swiss League (SL). Their home arena is the 2,200-seat Eishalle Küsnacht.

Sites of interest

Apart from Lake Zurich, popular sites to visit include

  • C. G. Jung Institute
  • the Cistercian abbey of Kappel am Albis
  • Küsnachter Tobel with hiking trails among glacial moraine with rare flora and fauna
  • Johanniterkomturei building (today housing the Kantonsschule)
  • Oberen Mühle, a mill that now houses the local museum
  • Seeclub Küsnacht boathouse dating from at least 1290
  • the dating from the 12th century
  • Ruins of Wulp Castle
  • Küsnachter Horn, a park close to the lake and the Küsnacht ship stop, run by the Zürichsee-Schifffahrtsgesellschaft (ZSG)

Notable people

140px|thumb|Carl Jung

140px|thumb|Tina Turner, 1985

19th century

  • Eugen Sutermeister (1862–1931), graveur and writer, founded the Sonos Society
  • Paul Sutermeister (1864–1905), theologian, pastor and editor
  • Meinrad Lienert (1865–1933), writer, poet and journalist; died here
  • Thomas Mann (1875–1955), writer, lived here 1933–1939
  • Carl Jung (1875–1961), psychiatrist and founder of Analytical psychology; lived and died here
  • Emma Jung (1882–1955), heiress, psychoanalyst and writer; lived and died here
  • Albin Zollinger (1895–1941), writer; educated here

20th century

  • Albert Frey-Wyssling (1900–1988), botanist
  • Bernard von Brentano (1901–1964), German writer, poet and playwright; lived here 1933–1949
  • Hermann Haller, (1914–2002) composer; taught here
  • Marie-Louise von Franz (1915–1998), Jungian psychologist and scholar; lived and died here
  • Tina Turner (1939–2023), American-born singer and entertainer, lived here from 1994 and died here
  • Ursula Biemann (born 1955), video artist, curator and art theorist
  • Rolf Dörig (born 1957), entrepreneur; lives here
  • Mario Fehr (born 1958), politician
  • Monisha Kaltenborn (born 1971), the former team principal of the Sauber Formula One team; lives here

Sports

  • Severino Minelli (1909–1994), footballer
  • Martin Studach (1944–2007), rower
  • Karl Grob (born 1946), footballer

References

  • Official page (German)