Riehen (; Swiss German: Rieche) is a municipality in the canton of Basel-Stadt in Switzerland. Together with the city of Basel and Bettingen, Riehen is one of three municipalities in the canton.

Riehen hosts the Fondation Beyeler (a privately owned art gallery) as well as a toy museum and several parks.

Riehen was the first municipality in Switzerland to elect a woman, Trudy Späth-Schweizer to political office, in 1958.

The mathematician Leonhard Euler and the tennis player Roger Federer lived in Riehen during their childhood years.

History

Riehen is first mentioned in 1157 as Rieheim.

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 28.0% and transportation infrastructure made up 7.7%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 11.3%. Out of the forested land, 23.8% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 14.2% is used for growing crops and 7.3% is pastures, while 4.1% is used for orchards or vine crops. Of the water in the municipality, 0.2% is in lakes and 1.9% is in rivers and streams.

Demographics

thumb|Neuer Wenkenhof

thumb|Bus in Riehen

Riehen has a population () of . , 18.3% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of -0.2%. It has changed at a rate of 4.9% due to migration and at a rate of -4.9% due to births and deaths.

Most of the population () speaks German (18,509 or 90.9%), with French being second most common (365 or 1.8%) and Italian being third (355 or 1.7%). There are 29 people who speak Romansh.

, there were 9,201 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.1 persons per household.

there were 9,740 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 3 rooms of which there were 2,998. There were 353 single-room apartments and 2,649 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 9,063 apartments (93.0% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 453 apartments (4.7%) were seasonally occupied and 224 apartments (2.3%) were empty.

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Heritage sites of national significance

The Beyeler Foundation, the Cemetery am Hörnli with crematorium, the New and Old Wenkenhof with Park, the Reformed Village Church of St Martin with Meierhof and ring wall, the Wettsteinhäuser (Toy Museum and Village Museum), the Colnaghi House, Huber House and Schaeffer-von Déchend House are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance. The entire town of Riehen is part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.

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File:Riehen_alter_Wenken.jpg|Old Wenkenhof

File:Riehen neuer Wenken Eingang.JPG|New Wenkenhof

File:Switzerland riehen fondation beyeler.jpg|Beyeler Foundation

File:RiehenSpielzeugmuseum.JPG|Toy Museum

File:Franziskuskirche, Riehen.jpg|Franziskus Church (1950, by Fritz Metzger)

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Politics

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SP which received 24.29% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (21.11%), the LPS Party (14.32%) and the FDP (13.19%). In the federal election, a total of 8,209 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 58.6%.

Economy

, Riehen had an unemployment rate of 2.1%. , there were 33 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 11 businesses involved in this sector. 552 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 88 businesses in this sector. 3,392 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 506 businesses in this sector.

, there were 3,207 workers who commuted into the municipality and 6,673 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 2.1 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 21.0% of the workforce coming into Riehen are coming from outside Switzerland, while 1.1% of the locals commute out of Switzerland for work. Of the working population, 41.7% used public transportation to get to work, and 31.4% used a private car.

Education

In Riehen about 8,191 or (40.2%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 4,205 or (20.6%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). Of the 4,205 who completed tertiary schooling, 53.5% were Swiss men, 29.0% were Swiss women, 10.2% were non-Swiss men and 7.3% were non-Swiss women.

Transport

The municipality has two railway stations, and , with frequent service to Basel. In addition, the Basel tram network runs through the municipality to the German border.

Notable people

230px|thumb|Rolf Zinkernagel, 2011

  • Leonhard Euler (1707–1783), mathematician, grew up in Riehen
  • Pauline Fatme (c1831–1855), East African Protestant missionary, buried at Riehen
  • Leopold Courvoisier (1873–1955), astronomer, chief observer at the Babelsberg observatory 1905–1938
  • Trudy Späth-Schweizer (1908–1990) in 1958 became the first woman to hold a political office in Switzerland
  • Albert Scherrer (1908–1986), a racing driver
  • Ernst Ehrlich (1921–2007), German-born Swiss Jewish religious philosopher
  • Josef Hügi (1930–1995), international footballer, 322 club caps and 34 for Switzerland
  • Marcel Kunz (1943–2017), a football goalkeeper
  • Rolf M. Zinkernagel (born 1944), Professor of Experimental Immunology at the University of Zurich, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1996
  • Bettina Skrzypczak (born 1962), a Polish composer, won the 2004 Cultural Prize of the City of Riehen
  • Gianna Hablützel-Bürki (born 1969), a female épée fencer
  • Roger Federer (born 1981), professional tennis player, lived in Riehen until the age of 10.
  • Beat Jans (born 1964), member of the federal council since 2023, grew up in Riehen

See also

  • Tüllinger Berg

References

  • Gemeinde Lexikon Riehen