Kreuzlingen

Kreuzlingen, town (1990 pop. 17,239), Thurgau canton, NE Switzerland, on the Lake of Konstanz. The town is contiguous with the German city of Konstanz. It is an industrial center with the oldest aluminum rolling mill in Switzerland. Foodstuffs, chemicals, and motor vehicles are also manufactured. The Augustinian monastery, founded in the 13th cent. and now a school, has a noted baroque church (1650).

Kreuzlingen is a municipality in the district of Kreuzlingen in the canton of Thurgau in Switzerland. It is the seat of the district.

It is the second largest city of the canton, after Frauenfeld, with a population of over 18,000.

In 1874, the municipality of Egelshofen was renamed Kreuzlingen. It reached its present size with the incorporation of Kurzrickenbach in 1927 and Emmishofen in 1928.

Geography

It is located on Lake Constance where it narrows to form the Untersee, bordering with Konstanz in Germany.

It is halfway between Schaffhausen and Rorschach on a slightly southward-dipping west-east axis.

History

The name of the municipality stems from the Augustinian monastery Crucelin, later Kreuzlingen Abbey. It was founded in 1125 by the Bishop of Constance Ulrich I. In the Swabian War and the 30 Years' War after the siege of Constance by Swedish troops, the Augustinian monastery was burned down by the people of Constance, who blamed the monks for having supported the enemy. In 1650, the monastery was rebuilt in its present location. With secularization in 1848, the buildings became a teachers' school. The chapel became a Catholic church

The area was already settled during the Bronze Age. Celtic and Roman coins and artifacts testify of continued settlement. Kurzrickenbach is first mentioned as Rihinbah in 830, Egelshofen as Eigolteshoven in 1125, and Emmishofen as Eminshoven in 1159. The territory of the municipality, except for the Augustinian monastery, belonged to the Bishop of Constance. When the Eidgenossen conquered Thurgau in 1460 and further with the Reformation, the ties to the neighboring city loosened.

Until the beginning of the 19th century, the present center of Kreuzlingen was still largely agricultural. The first steamboats began to operate on Lake Constance in 1824. The first train line to Romanshorn was finished in 1871, and the second to Etzwilen in 1875. This brought commerce and industry to the region. In 1874, Kreuzlingen became the capital of the district, instead of Gottlieben. However, until World War I, Kreuzlingen was a kind of suburb of Constance. Most of its industry was in the hands of German firms. The war made Kreuzlingen more independent.

The Sanatorium of Bellevue (1857-1980), which occupied part of the old monastery, played an important role in the history of Kreuzlingen. In 1842, Ignaz Vanotti from Constance bought a large tract of land and built a residential and commercial building in 1843 to house the emigrant press of Bellevue, which had previously been located in Römerburg. In 1857, Ludwig Binswanger, a psychiatrist from Münsterlingen acquired the property and opened a private sanatorium. The clinic was very modern and remained in the control of the Binswanger family for nearly 120 years. Important psychiatric advances, particularly under the founder's grandson, also called Ludwig Binswanger, especially in the development of existential psychotherapy, were made at the sanatorium. However, few of its buildings remain.

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.

Today, the local economy is largely commercial and manufacturing, with the largest employer being a clothing manufacturer.

Transportation

Kreuzlingen is a rail node, and also the northern terminus of the A7 motorway in Switzerland.

References

External links

• http://www.kreuzlingen.ch