Kreuzlingen () is a municipality in the district of Kreuzlingen in the canton of Thurgau in north-eastern Switzerland. It is the seat of the district and is the second-largest city of the canton, after Frauenfeld, with a population of about 22,000. Together with the adjoining city of Konstanz just across the border in Germany, Kreuzlingen is part of the largest conurbation on Lake Constance with a population of almost 120,000.

History

thumb|left|Interior of St. Ulrich Church

The name of the municipality stems from the Augustinian monastery Crucelin, later Kreuzlingen Abbey.

Of the built-up area, industrial buildings made up 22.3% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 5.7% and transportation infrastructure made up 0.7%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 5.3% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 8.4%. Out of the forested land, 26.8% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 25.1% is used for growing crops, while 2.2% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is in lakes. Of the unproductive areas, 1.1% is unproductive vegetation and . Over the last 10 years (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of 2.2%. Most of the population () speaks German (79.7%), with Italian being second most common (5.2%) and Albanian being third (3.8%).

, the gender distribution of the population was 49.2% male and 50.8% female. The population was made up of 4,409 Swiss men (23.8% of the population), and 4,715 (25.5%) non-Swiss men. There were 5,208 Swiss women (28.1%), and 4,194 (22.6%) non-Swiss women.

, there were 7,643 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.1 persons per household. There were 4,031 (or 23.5%) persons who were part of a couple without children, and 7,659 (or 44.7%) who were part of a couple with children. There were 1,037 (or 6.1%) people who lived in a single-parent home, while there are 77 persons who were adult children living with one or both parents, 59 persons who lived in a household made up of relatives, 311 who lived in a household made up of unrelated persons, and 860 who are either institutionalized or live in another type of collective housing. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 1.06%.

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 35.92% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (17.41%), the CVP (16.13%) and the Green Party (12.99%). In the federal election, a total of 3,633 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 42.9%.

The historical population is given in the following table:

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! year

! population

|-

| 1831

| 661

|-

| 1870

| 1,471

|-

| 1880

| 2,426

|-

| 1920

| 5,740

|-

| 1930

| 8,615

|-

| 1950

| 10,045

|-

|}

: Population of Egelshofen

Heritage sites of national significance

The Former Augustinian Chorherrenstift of St Ulrich, the former granary and wine press at Seeburgscheune and Seeburg Castle are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance. The Untersee region is part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.

<gallery mode=packed>

File:StUlrich.JPG|St. Ulrich

File:SeemuseumKreuzlingen.JPG|Seemuseum

File:SeeburgKreuzlingen2.JPG|Seeburg Castle

</gallery>

Economy

Earlier, the majority of the inhabitants made a living in the wine industry. However, because of diseases and bad harvests, the last wine grapes were raised in Kreuzlingen in 1938. The local economy is largely commercial and manufacturing, with the largest employer being a clothing manufacturer.

, Kreuzlingen had an unemployment rate of 3.54%. , there were 92 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 20 businesses involved in this sector. 2,799 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 183 businesses in this sector. 6,042 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 821 businesses in this sector.

thumb|left|Swiss shoppers returning to their home country from Konstanz on weekends|alt=Vehicles backed up on a divided roadway seen from above. In the foreground is a traffic signal; there are blue signs in German further down the road as it narrows. In the rear is a developed hillside, partially obscured by bluish haze

In the late 2010s, Kreuzlingen's downtown began to experience a dearth of shoppers as many of them, including buses from elsewhere in Switzerland that pass through the city, started crossing the border to shop in Konstanz instead, due to lower prices for basic items in Germany, a favorable exchange rate between the euro and the franc and a German VAT refund that allows shoppers from non-European Union countries such as Switzerland to get back as much as a fifth of the price of the goods they buy. Elected officials from the city have asked the national government to negotiate a change in this policy with their German counterparts as they feel it is anti-competitive; at the same time some Konstanz residents, feeling displaced in their own hometown by the onslaught of Swiss on weekends, have opened businesses in Kreuzlingen that primarily cater to other Germans.

Kreuzlingen is the seat of General Dynamics European Land Systems- Mowag (GDELS), a defense technology company, formerly called MOWAG in the Unterseestrasse 65. In 2012, it had employed 900 highly skilled personnel at the facility and announced to cut 270 jobs.

Religion

thumb|upright|Egelshofen, Swiss Reformed Church

From the , 12,755 or 74.45% of the population were Christian. Of those 6,339 or 37.0% were Roman Catholic, while 5,313 or 31.0% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 13 Old Catholics (or about 0.08% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland there are 632 individuals (or about 3.69% of the population) who belong to the Orthodox Church, and there are 458 individuals (or about 2.68% of the population) who belong to another Christian church. There were 11 individuals (or about 0.06% of the population) who were Jewish, and 2,064 (or about 12.06% of the population) who are Islamic. There are 111 individuals (or about 0.65% of the population) who belong to another church (not listed on the census), 1,532 (or about 8.95% of the population) belong to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 645 individuals (or about 3.77% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

thumb|left|Primary School in Emmishofen

In Kreuzlingen about 63.2% of the population (between age 25–64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule).

The main library in Kreuzlingen is the Stadt- und Berufsschulbibliothek. The library has () 22,870 books or other media, and loaned out 120,211 items in the same year. It was open a total of 290 days with average of 30 hours per week during that year.

Transportation

Kreuzlingen is the northern terminus of the A7 motorway in Switzerland.

thumb|Kreuzlingen Station

There are four railway stations. , (harbour) and are all located on the Lake Line. is located on the Wil–Kreuzlingen railway. These stations are served by regional trains of St. Gallen S-Bahn. Kreuzlingen station is additionally served by an InterRegio service (IR75).

Between spring and autumn, the URh offers regular boat services on the High Rhine and Untersee between Kreuzlingen and Schaffhausen, via Konstanz.

Sport

FC Kreuzlingen is the municipality's football club. , they play in Promotion League, the third tier of football in Switzerland.

Kreuzlingen has traditionally been one of Switzerland's hubs in Water polo. The SC Kreuzlingen won the Swiss Championship a total of 9 times.

Notable people

thumb|150px|[[Claudio Imhof, 2015]]

  • August Gremli (1833–1899) physician and botanist
  • Enrique C. Rébsamen (1857-1904) Educator who set the foundations for elementary teachers college in Mexico
  • Ludwig Binswanger (1881–1966) psychiatrist and pioneer in the field of existential psychology.
  • Emil Staiger (1908–1987). a Swiss historian and writer.
  • Libero de Luca (1913–1998) tenor of Italian descent particularly associated with the French repertory
  • Armin Schibler (1920–1986) composer, professor of music at the Zurich Literary School from 1944
  • Cesar Lüthi (1930–2002) sports marketing businessman, formed his own company locally in 1972
  • Hans Binswanger-Mkhize (1943-2017), an economist focusing on agricultural economics
  • Timon Altwegg (born 1967) classical pianist, known for playing chamber music, lives locally since 1992

Sport

  • Erich Peters (1920–2012) Swedish gymnast who competed at the 1952 Summer Olympics
  • Daniel Lopar (born 1985), retired football goalkeeper, played about 350 games
  • Claudio Imhof (born 1990) track cyclist

Climate

References

  • https://web.archive.org/web/20200106185359/https://www.kreuzlingen.ch/