Maschwanden

Maschwanden is a village in the district of Affoltern in the canton of Zürich in Switzerland.

History
Maschwanden is first mentioned in 1189 as Maswondon. The Baron of Eschenbach owned a castle and the village, near the current municipality, at that time. However, in 1308 Walter von Eschenbach was present at the regicide of King Albert I of Germany near Windisch. In response to the murder, in 1309 the castle and village were both destroyed and never rebuilt. The ruins were located on a hill south-west of the modern village, which mostly consisted of gravel and was carried off during the 19th and 20th century.

Geography
Maschwanden has an area of 4.7 km2. Of this area, 61.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while 24.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 8.3% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (6%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains).

The municipality is located on the east banks of the Reuss River near the confluence of the Lorze River into the Reuss.

Demographics
Maschwanden has a population (as of ) of. , 4.5% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 12.8%. Most of the population speaks German  (97.8%), with Portuguese being second most common ( 0.7%) and Italian being third ( 0.5%).

In the 2007 election the most popular party was the SVP which received 45% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SPS (21.4%), the CSP (14.6%) and the Green Party (7.2%).

The age distribution of the population is children and teenagers 19 years and younger make up 27.5% of the population, while adults 20 to 64 years old make up 59.3% and seniors over 64 years old make up 13.2%. About 81.4% of the population (between ages 25 and 64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule).

Maschwanden has an unemployment rate of 0.36%. , there were 61 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 24 businesses involved in this sector. 12 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 4 businesses in this sector. 49 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 19 businesses in this sector. The historical population is given in the following table: