1.
Greifensee
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Greifensee is a lake in the canton of Zürich in Switzerland. Greifensee is located 11 km to the east of the city of Zurich, as the second largest lake in the canton of Zurich, it is about 6 km long and 1.6 km at the widest point, with a maximum depth of 32 m. The Aabach is the main supplying river, while its outlet is the Glatt, a boat connects small towns along the edge of the lake, Maur, Niederuster, Fällanden, Mönchaltorf and the town Greifensee with its charming Altstadt and Greifensee castle. Greifensee is the scene of the Greifensee-Lauf, a semi-marathon around the lake every year. Greifensee is a recreation area for biking and inline skating on the paved recreation path around the lake. Easy hiking trails follow the water and pass Greifensee castle before entering a nature preserve, there are well maintained bicycle roads all around the lake as well as on the banks of Aabach. The lakeside is under UNESCO protection, and buildings are not allowed, resulting in reed bed, the nature reserves are important for the birds breeding there including more than 120 migratory species. This was adopted as the name of the lake by the 16th century, because the lake has grown in size over time, the original piles are now around 4 metres to 7 metres under the water level of 406 metres. Media related to Greifensee at Wikimedia Commons Greifensee in German, French, schifffahrts-Genossenschaft Greifensee, Boat schedules Waterlevels at Greifensee
2.
Uster
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Uster is a city and capital of the district Uster in the Swiss Canton of Zürich. It is the third largest city in the Canton of Zürich, with over 30,000 inhabitants, Uster is located next to lake Greifensee. The official language of Uster is German, but the spoken language is the local variant of the Alemannic Swiss German dialect. The city of Uster received the Wakker Prize in 2001, the village of Riedikon was first mentioned in year 741, while Uster was first mentioned in 775. In 1099 first mentioned, the donation of the St. Andreas Church was given by the House of Rapperswil as a spacious three-naved country church, the Burg Uster was first mentioned in 1267, in the possession of the Freiherr von Bonstetten. In 1438 the church rights were sold to the Rüti Abbey, the church was considered as a part of the so-called Laubishof estated thath possibly was located at the nearby plateau where the Uster Castle is situated. The town was captured after four weeks, on May 27, even in times of war, mass execution was widely considered a cruel and unjust deed. On May 29, the Castle of Greifensee and the city walls were broken, in 1473 the church comrades, based on an older Jahrzeitbuch which now is lost, created a new one which is among the best preserved of the Canton of Zürich. With the dissolution of the monastery Ruti during the Reformation in Zürich its rights fell on the government of the city of Zürich in 1525, in 1824 the new Reformed church was consecrated. On 22 November 1830 about 10,000 men of the Canton of Zurich gathered near Uster and this assembly, known as the Ustertag, together with other assemblies in Switzerland led to the Restoration and the creation of the Swiss Federal State. Uster has an area of 28.5 km2, of this area,44. 4% is used for agricultural purposes, while 27. 1% is forested. Of the rest of the land,26. 2% is settled, in 1996 housing and buildings made up 18. 4% of the total area, while transportation infrastructure made up the rest. Of the total area, water made up 0. 4% of the area. As of 200722. 2% of the municipal area was undergoing some type of construction. Uster has a population of 33,853, as of 2007,21. 6% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. As of 2008 the gender distribution of the population was 49. 6% male and 50. 4% female, over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 14. 2%. Most of the population speaks German, with Italian being second most common, in the 2007 election the most popular party was the SVP which received 31. 3% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SPS, the CSP and the Green Party, the age distribution of the population is children and teenagers make up 22. 2% of the population, while adults make up 65% and seniors make up 12. 8%
3.
Gadmen
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Gadmen is a former municipality in the Interlaken-Oberhasli administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. On 1 January 2014, the municipality of Gadmen merged into the municipality of Innertkirchen. The name Gadmen comes from the Old High German gadum, meaning barn or small house, the municipality is in a municipal partnership with Volketswil in the Canton of Zürich. Gadmen is first mentioned in 1382 as im Gadmen, during the Middle Ages, the Gadmen area was part of the Vogtei of Hasli and part of the Meiringen parish. In 1334 the entire Vogtei was acquired by Bern, during the Middle Ages a chapel was built in the village. In 1713 Gadmen became part of the parish of Innertkirchen and in 1722 the chapel expanded into a filial church, in 1816 the church became a parish church and Gadmen became an independent parish. The residents of the village lived on farming, seasonal alpine herding. During the 19th century, the farms became increasing mechanized and many residents were forced to emigrate to North America for jobs, the construction of the Susten Road in 1939-45 opened up the village to tourism and provided additional jobs. During construction and after its completion, the Oberhasli AG power plant became the largest employer in the municipality, before the merger, Gadmen had a total area of 116.6 km2. As of 2012, a total of 9.62 km2 or 8. 3% is used for agricultural purposes, while 19.48 km2 or 16. 7% is forested. The rest of the municipality is 0.75 km2 or 0. 6% is settled,1.52 km2 or 1. 3% is either rivers or lakes and 85.19 km2 or 73. 1% is unproductive land. During the same year, housing and buildings made up 0. 1%, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land,1. 7% is pasturage and 6. 5% is used for alpine pastures, of the water in the municipality,0. 4% is in lakes and 0. 9% is in rivers and streams. Of the unproductive areas,13. 3% is unproductive vegetation,33. 0% is too rocky for vegetation and 26. 8% of the land is covered by glaciers, on 31 December 2009, Amtsbezirk Oberhasli, the municipalitys former district, was dissolved. On the following day,1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Interlaken-Oberhasli, Gadmen lies in the Bernese Oberland, and the Susten Pass lies on the eastern border of the municipality. It lies in the Gadmer watershed, the municipal borders stretch from the valley floor, with an elevation of 850–1,250 m, up to the nearby mountain peaks at about 3,500 m. It is located on the border of the Canton of Bern with the Cantons of Obwalden, Nidwalden, Uri, the neighboring municipalities are Engelberg, Wassen, Göschenen, Guttannen, Innertkirchen and Kerns. There are three glaciers in Gadmen, the Stein Glacier, the Trift Glacier and the Wenden Glacier, beneath the Stein Glacier is Lake Stein
4.
Switzerland
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Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a federal republic in Europe. It consists of 26 cantons, and the city of Bern is the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in western-Central Europe, and is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland is a country geographically divided between the Alps, the Swiss Plateau and the Jura, spanning an area of 41,285 km2. The establishment of the Old Swiss Confederacy dates to the medieval period, resulting from a series of military successes against Austria. Swiss independence from the Holy Roman Empire was formally recognized in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The country has a history of armed neutrality going back to the Reformation, it has not been in a state of war internationally since 1815, nevertheless, it pursues an active foreign policy and is frequently involved in peace-building processes around the world. In addition to being the birthplace of the Red Cross, Switzerland is home to international organisations. On the European level, it is a member of the European Free Trade Association. However, it participates in the Schengen Area and the European Single Market through bilateral treaties, spanning the intersection of Germanic and Romance Europe, Switzerland comprises four main linguistic and cultural regions, German, French, Italian and Romansh. Due to its diversity, Switzerland is known by a variety of native names, Schweiz, Suisse, Svizzera. On coins and stamps, Latin is used instead of the four living languages, Switzerland is one of the most developed countries in the world, with the highest nominal wealth per adult and the eighth-highest per capita gross domestic product according to the IMF. Zürich and Geneva have each been ranked among the top cities in the world in terms of quality of life, with the former ranked second globally, according to Mercer. The English name Switzerland is a compound containing Switzer, a term for the Swiss. The English adjective Swiss is a loan from French Suisse, also in use since the 16th century. The name Switzer is from the Alemannic Schwiizer, in origin an inhabitant of Schwyz and its associated territory, the Swiss began to adopt the name for themselves after the Swabian War of 1499, used alongside the term for Confederates, Eidgenossen, used since the 14th century. The data code for Switzerland, CH, is derived from Latin Confoederatio Helvetica. The toponym Schwyz itself was first attested in 972, as Old High German Suittes, ultimately related to swedan ‘to burn’
5.
Tertiary sector of the economy
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The tertiary sector or service sector is the third of the three economic sectors of the three-sector theory. The others are the secondary sector, and the primary sector, the basic characteristic of this sector is the production of services instead of end products. Services include attention, advice, access, experience, and discussion, the production of information has long been regarded as a service, but some economists now attribute it to a fourth sector, the quaternary sector. The tertiary sector of industry involves the provision of services to businesses as well as final consumers. The goods may be transformed in the process of providing the service, however, the focus is on people interacting with people and serving the customer rather than transforming physical goods. It is sometimes hard to define whether a company is part of the secondary or tertiary sector. These governmental classification systems have a hierarchy that reflects whether the economic goods are tangible or intangible. Unlike governmental classification systems, the first level of market-based classification systems divides the economy into functionally related markets or industries, the second or third level of these hierarchies then reflects whether goods or services are produced. For the last 100 years, there has been a shift from the primary and secondary sectors to the tertiary sector in industrialised countries. The tertiary sector is now the largest sector of the economy in the Western world and these are not necessarily busboys and live-in maids. Many of them are in the professional category and they are earning as much as manufacturing workers, and often more. The first economy to follow path in the modern world was the United Kingdom. The speed at which other economies have made the transition to service-based economies has increased over time, historically, manufacturing tended to be more open to international trade and competition than services. Service providers face obstacles selling services that goods-sellers rarely face, services are intangible, making it difficult for potential customers to understand what they will receive and what value it will hold for them. Indeed, some, such as consultants and providers of investment services, since the quality of most services depends largely on the quality of the individuals providing the services, people costs are usually a high fraction of service costs. Whereas a manufacturer may use technology, simplification, and other techniques to lower the cost of goods sold, for example, how does one choose one investment adviser over another, since they are often seen to provide identical services. Charging a premium for services is usually an option only for the most established firms, who charge extra based upon brand recognition
6.
Reformation
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The period is usually considered to have begun with the publication of the Ninety-five Theses by Luther in 1517 to the Thirty Years War and ended with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The Protestant position, however, would come to incorporate doctrinal changes such as sola scriptura, the initial movement within Germany diversified, and other reform impulses arose independently of Luther. The spread of Gutenbergs printing press provided the means for the dissemination of religious materials in the vernacular. The largest groups were the Lutherans and Calvinists, Lutheran churches were founded mostly in Germany, the Baltics and Scandinavia, while the Reformed ones were founded in Switzerland, Hungary, France, the Netherlands and Scotland. The new movement influenced the Church of England decisively after 1547 under Edward VI and Elizabeth I, there were also reformation movements throughout continental Europe known as the Radical Reformation, which gave rise to the Anabaptist, Moravian and other Pietistic movements. The Roman Catholic Church responded with a Counter-Reformation initiated by the Council of Trent, much work in battling Protestantism was done by the well-organised new order of the Jesuits. In general, Northern Europe, with the exception of most of Ireland, southern Europe remained Roman Catholic, while Central Europe was a site of a fierce conflict, culminating in the Thirty Years War, which left it devastated. The oldest Protestant churches, such as the Unitas Fratrum and Moravian Church, the later Protestant Churches generally date their doctrinal separation from the Roman Catholic Church to the 16th century. The Reformation began as an attempt to reform the Roman Catholic Church, by priests who opposed what they perceived as false doctrines and ecclesiastic malpractice. They especially objected to the teaching and the sale of indulgences, and the abuses thereof, and to simony, the reformers saw these practices as evidence of the systemic corruption of the Churchs hierarchy, which included the pope. Unrest due to the Great Schism of Western Christianity excited wars between princes, uprisings among the peasants, and widespread concern over corruption in the Church, New perspectives came from John Wycliffe at Oxford University and from Jan Hus at the Charles University in Prague. Hus rejected indulgences and adopted a doctrine of justification by grace through faith alone, the Roman Catholic Church officially concluded this debate at the Council of Constance by condemning Hus, who was executed by burning despite a promise of safe-conduct. Wycliffe was posthumously condemned as a heretic and his corpse exhumed and burned in 1428, the Council of Constance confirmed and strengthened the traditional medieval conception of church and empire. The council did not address the national tensions or the theological tensions stirred up during the century and could not prevent schism. Pope Sixtus IV established the practice of selling indulgences to be applied to the dead, Pope Alexander VI was one of the most controversial of the Renaissance popes. He was the father of seven children, including Lucrezia and Cesare Borgia, in response to papal corruption, particularly the sale of indulgences, Luther wrote The Ninety-Five Theses. The Reformation was born of Luthers dual declaration – first, the discovering of Jesus and salvation by faith alone, the Protestant reformers were unanimous in agreement and this understanding of prophecy furnished importance to their deeds. It was the point and the battle cry that made the Reformation nearly unassailable
7.
Cantons of Switzerland
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The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the member states of the Swiss Confederation. The nucleus of the Swiss Confederacy in the form of the first three confederate allies used to be referred to as the Waldstätte, with the Napoleonic period of the Helvetic Republic the term canton/cantone/Kanton was fully established. From 1833, there were 25 cantons, which became 26 after the secession of the canton of Jura from Bern in 1979. The term canton, now used as English term for administrative subdivisions of other countries, originates in French usage in the late 15th century, from a word for edge. After 1490, canton was increasingly used in French and Italian documents to refer to the members of the Swiss Confederacy, English use of canton in reference to the Swiss Confederacy dates to the early 17th century. It was increasingly replaced by Stand after 1550, the French term canton was not adopted into German usage prior to 1648, and after that only in occasional use. The prominent usage of Ort and Stand only gradually disappeared in German-speaking Switzerland with the Helvetic Republic, only with the Act of Mediation of 1803 did German Kanton become an official designation, retained in the Swiss Constitution of 1848. The term Stand remains in usage and is reflected in the name of the upper chamber of the Swiss Parliament. Republic Some cantonal constitutions provide for a formal name of the state. Most of Romandys cantons and Ticino call themselves république/Repubblica officially, at least within their constitutions, for example, the canton of Geneva refers to itself formally as the République et canton de Genève. Though they were part of the Holy Roman Empire, they had become de facto independent when the Swiss defeated Emperor Maximillian in 1499 in Dornach. The old system was abandoned with the formation of the Helvetic Republic following the French invasion of Switzerland in 1798, the cantons of the Helvetic Republic had merely the status of an administrative subdivision with no sovereignty. The Helvetic Republic collapsed within five years, and cantonal sovereignty was restored with the Act of Mediation of 1803, the status of Switzerland as a federation of states was restored, at the time including 19 cantons. Three additional western cantons, Valais, Neuchâtel and Geneva, acceded in 1815, the process of Restoration, completed by 1830, returned most of the former feudal rights to the cantonal patriciates, leading to rebellions among the rural population. The Liberal Radical Party embodied these democratic forces calling for a new federal constitution and this tension, paired with religious issues escalated into armed conflict in the 1840s, with the brief Sonderbund War. The victory of the party resulted in the formation of Switzerland as a federal state in 1848. The cantons retained far-reaching sovereignty, but were no longer allowed to maintain standing armies or international relations. Each canton has its own constitution, legislature, government and courts, most of the cantons legislatures are unicameral parliaments, their size varying between 58 and 200 seats
