Rothenthurm is a municipality

Municipalities of Switzerland

Communes , also known as municipalities, are the smallest government division in Switzerland, numbering 2,596 . While many have a population of a few hundred citizens, the largest cities such as Zürich or Geneva also have the legal status of municipalities...

 in Schwyz District in the canton of Schwyz

Canton of Schwyz

Schwyz is a canton in central Switzerland between the Alps in the south, Lake Lucerne in the east and Lake Zurich in the north, centered around and named after the town of Schwyz....

 in Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

.

History

The French invasion of Switzerland in 1798 brought about a swift end of the Ancien Régime

Early Modern Switzerland

The early modern history of the Old Swiss Confederacy , lasting from formal independence in 1648 to the French invasion of 1798 came to be referred as Ancien Régime retrospectively, in post-Napoleonic Switzerland.The early modern period was characterized by an increasingly...

. The French victories against the larger cities of the swiss plateau

Swiss plateau

The Swiss Plateau or Central Plateau constitutes one of the three major landscapes in Switzerland alongside the Jura mountains and the Swiss Alps. It covers about 30% of the Swiss surface...

 led to the creation of the French supported Helvetic Republic

Helvetic Republic

In Swiss history, the Helvetic Republic represented an early attempt to impose a central authority over Switzerland, which until then consisted mainly of self-governing cantons united by a loose military alliance, and conquered territories such as Vaud...

 on 12 April 1798. Following the declaration of the Republic, the Cantons of Uri

Canton of Uri

Uri is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland and a founding member of the Swiss Confederation. It is located in Central Switzerland. The canton's territory covers the valley of the Reuss River between Lake Lucerne and the St. Gotthard Pass. German is the primary language spoken in Uri...

, Schwyz and Nidwalden rejected it and raised an army to fight the French. Under Alois von Reding

Alois von Reding

Alois von Reding was a Swiss patriot, military officer and politician. He is best known for leading an early revolt against the Helvetic Republic....

 they were able to raise about 10,000 men. This army was deployed along the defensive line from Napf

Napf

Napf is a mountain on the border between the cantons of Berne and Lucerne. It is the summit of the Napfgebiet region, north of Bernese Alps.-Weather:...

 to Rapperswil

Rapperswil

Rapperswil-Jona is a municipality in the Wahlkreis of See-Gaster in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland.Besides Rapperswil and Jona, which were separate municipalities until 2006, the municipality includes Bollingen, Busskirch, Curtiberg, Kempraten-Lenggis, Wagen, and Wurmsbach.-Today:On...

. General Reding besieged French controlled Lucerne

Lucerne

Lucerne is a city in north-central Switzerland, in the German-speaking portion of that country. Lucerne is the capital of the Canton of Lucerne and the capital of the district of the same name. With a population of about 76,200 people, Lucerne is the most populous city in Central Switzerland, and...

 and marched across the Brünig pass

Brünig Pass

Brünig Pass connects the Bernese Oberland and central Switzerland, linking Meiringen in the canton of Bern and Lungern in the canton of Obwalden.Rail services are provided by the Zentralbahn between Luzern and Interlaken.-See also:...

 into the Berner Oberland to support the armies of Berne. At the same time, the French General Balthasar Alexis Henri Antoine of Schauenburg marched out of occupied Zürich

Zürich

Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...

 to attack Zug

Zug

Zug , is a German-speaking city in Switzerland. The name ‘Zug’ originates from fishing vocabulary; in the Middle Ages it referred to the right to ‘pull up’ fishing nets and hence to the right to fish.The city of Zug is located in the Canton of Zug and is its capital...

, Lucerne and the Sattel pass

Sattel Pass

Sattel Pass is a mountain pass in the canton of Schwyz in Switzerland.It connects Pfäffikon and Seewen.The pass was in use as early as the 13th century as an access route to the St. Gotthard Pass...

. Even though the Reding's army won victories at Rothenthurm and Morgarten, Schauenburg's victory near Sattel

Sattel, Switzerland

Sattel is a municipality in Schwyz District in the canton of Schwyz in Switzerland. Its name is the German word for saddle.-History:thumb|left|Battle of Morgarten Chapel...

 allowed him to threaten the town of Schwyz

Schwyz

The town of is the capital of the canton of Schwyz in Switzerland.The Federal Charter of 1291 or Bundesbrief, the charter that eventually led to the foundation of Switzerland, can be seen at the Bundesbriefmuseum.-History of the toponym:...

. On 4 May 1798, the town council of Schwyz surrendered.

Geography

Rothenthurm has an area, , of 22.8 km² (8.8 sq mi). Of this area, 44.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while 48.6% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 4.2% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (3.1%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains).

Demographics

Rothenthurm has a population (as of ) of . , 13.4% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 2.7%. Most of the population speaks German (89.8%), with Serbo-Croatian being second most common ( 2.6%) and Albanian being third ( 2.5%).

the gender distribution of the population was 51.2% male and 48.8% female. The age distribution, , in Rothenthurm is; 650 people or 31.1% of the population is between 0 and 19. 698 people or 33.4% are 20 to 39, and 544 people or 26.0% are 40 to 64. The senior population distribution is 116 people or 5.6% are 65 to 74. There are 64 people or 3.1% who are 70 to 79 and 17 people or 0.81% of the population who are over 80.

there are 723 households, of which 176 households (or about 24.3%) contain only a single individual. 77 or about 10.7% are large households, with at least five members.

In the 2007 election the most popular party was the SVP

Swiss People's Party

The Swiss People's Party , also known as the Democratic Union of the Centre , is a conservative political party in Switzerland. Chaired by Toni Brunner, but spearheaded by Christoph Blocher, the party is the largest party in the Federal Assembly, with 58 members of the National Council and 6 of...

 which received 61.4% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the CVP

Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland

The Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland is a Christian democratic political party in Switzerland. It is the fourth-largest party in the National Council, with 31 seats, and the largest in the Council of States, with 15 seats. It has one seat, that of Doris Leuthard, on the Swiss...

 (20.3%), the FDP

Free Democratic Party of Switzerland

The Free Democratic Party was a classical liberal political party in Switzerland. It was one of the major parties in Switzerland until its merger with the smaller classical liberal Liberal Party, to form FDP.The Liberals on 1 January 2009....

 (8.8%) and the SPS

Social Democratic Party of Switzerland

The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....

 (8%).

In Rothenthurm about 57.2% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule

Fachhochschule

A Fachhochschule or University of Applied Sciences is a German type of tertiary education institution, sometimes specialized in certain topical areas . Fachhochschulen were founded in Germany and later adopted by Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Greece...

).

Rothenthurm has an unemployment rate of 1.15%. , there were 121 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 42 businesses involved in this sector. 409 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 43 businesses in this sector. 212 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 55 businesses in this sector.

From the , 1,664 or 79.7% are Roman Catholic, while 140 or 6.7% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church

Swiss Reformed Church

The Reformed branch of Protestantism in Switzerland was started in Zürich by Huldrych Zwingli and spread within a few years to Basel , Bern , St...

. Of the rest of the population, there are 75 individuals (or about 3.59% of the population) who belong to the Orthodox Church, and there are less than 5 individuals who belong to another Christian church. There are 100 (or about 4.79% of the population) who are Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

ic. There are less than 5 individuals who belong to another church (not listed on the census), 39 (or about 1.87% of the population) belong to no church, are agnostic

Agnosticism

Agnosticism is the view that the truth value of certain claims—especially claims about the existence or non-existence of any deity, but also other religious and metaphysical claims—is unknown or unknowable....

 or atheist

Atheism

Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...

, and 66 individuals (or about 3.16% of the population) did not answer the question.

The historical population is given in the following table:

year	population
1950	970
1960	1,159
1970	1,282
1980	1,345
1985	1,436
1990	1,664
2000	2,063
2005	2,017
2007	2,081