Blitzingen

Blitzingen is first mentioned in 1203 as Blicingen. ==Geography==

Blitzingen had an area, , of . Of this area, 36.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while 27.3% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.7% is settled (buildings or roads) and 34.3% is unproductive land. It consists of the village of Blitzingen and the hamlets of Ammere, Bodme, Wiler and Gadme. ==Coat of arms==

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Azure, issuant from a cliff Vert a flag per fess Gules and Argent two Crosses couped counterchanged staffed of the third and finialed Or, issuant from sinister a Thunderbolt Or, in Chief two Mullets Or. The lightning bolt () may be an example of canting arms. ==Demographics==

Blitzingen had a population () of 90. , 24.4% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of -24%. It has changed at a rate of -4.8% due to migration and at a rate of -14.4% due to births and deaths. Most of the population () speaks German (92 or 92.9%) as their first language with the rest speaking Serbo-Croatian Of the population in the municipality 44 or about 44.4% were born in Blitzingen and lived there in 2000. There were 21 or 21.2% who were born in the same canton, while 11 or 11.1% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 21 or 21.2% were born outside of Switzerland. , there were 42 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.3 persons per household. , a total of 42 apartments (21.5% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 140 apartments (71.8%) were seasonally occupied and 13 apartments (6.7%) were empty. Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width:960 height:210 PlotArea = height:150 left:100 bottom:50 right:100 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:210 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:40 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:8 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1850 from:start till:152 text:"152" bar:1860 from:start till:182 text:"182" bar:1870 from:start till:190 text:"190" bar:1880 from:start till:208 text:"208" bar:1888 from:start till:191 text:"191" bar:1900 from:start till:188 text:"188" bar:1910 from:start till:187 text:"187" bar:1920 from:start till:203 text:"203" bar:1930 from:start till:204 text:"204" bar:1941 from:start till:204 text:"204" bar:1950 from:start till:180 text:"180" bar:1960 from:start till:162 text:"162" bar:1970 from:start till:123 text:"123" bar:1980 from:start till:93 text:"93" bar:1990 from:start till:82 text:"82" bar:2000 from:start till:99 text:"99" ==Sights==

The entire hamlet of Ammere / Gadme /Wiler and the hamlet of Bodmen are designated as part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites. ==Politics==

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the CVP which received 59.26% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (21.69%), the SVP (10.05%) and the Green Party (4.23%). In the federal election, a total of 28 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 50.9%. In the 2009 Conseil d'État/Staatsrat election a total of 23 votes were cast, of which 5 or about 21.7% were invalid. The voter participation was 44.2%, which is much less than the cantonal average of 54.67%. In the 2007 Swiss Council of States election a total of 28 votes were cast, of which 2 or about 7.1% were invalid. The voter participation was 50.9%, which is much less than the cantonal average of 59.88%. ==Economy==

, Blitzingen had an unemployment rate of 0.7%. , there were 11 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 5 businesses involved in this sector. 4 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 2 businesses in this sector. 19 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 5 businesses in this sector. , there were 24 workers who commuted away from the municipality. Of the working population, 6.1% used public transportation to get to work, and 46.9% used a private car. ==Religion==

From the , 81 or 81.8% were Roman Catholic, while 2 or 2.0% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 9 members of an Orthodox church (or about 9.09% of the population). 4 (or about 4.04% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 3 individuals (or about 3.03% of the population) did not answer the question. ==Education==

In Blitzingen about 24 or (24.2%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 7 or (7.1%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). Of the 7 who completed tertiary schooling, 57.1% were Swiss men. , there were 13 students from Blitzingen who attended schools outside the municipality. ==Transport==

The village is served by Blitzingen railway station. ==References==