Endingen

Endingen lies in the Surb valley, in the district of Zurzach, in the canton of Aargau. The village's name — then Oberendingen — is first recorded in 798, as Entingas; Neolithic and Bronze Age finds show the region was settled long before that date. From the 13th century, the village belonged to Habsburg lands and fell under the bailiwick of Siggenthal, then, after 1415, that of Baden.

From the 17th century, the proximity of the fairs of Zurzach and Baden drew a substantial Jewish community. For historical reasons, Endingen has neither a Catholic nor a Reformed church: the synagogue, built in 1764 and rebuilt in 1852, remains the village's only religious building. In 1776, a federal law restricted Jewish settlement in Switzerland to the communes of Endingen and Lengnau alone. On 12 September 1802, the village was the scene of the Zwetschgenkrieg (Plum War), a pogrom against the Jewish population.

The recognition of freedom of settlement in 1866, and of freedom of worship in 1874, opened other communes to Swiss Jews: those of Endingen then progressively left the village, a movement that continued until 1920. What remains of that history are the synagogue and, on the border with Lengnau, a Jewish cemetery.

On 1 January 2014, Endingen absorbed its former neighbour, Unterendingen. Ruth Dreifuss, a federal councillor from 1993 to 2002 and President of the Confederation in 1999, was born in the village; novelist Charles Lewinsky, born in 1946, sets the first era of his novel Melnitz, a saga of a Swiss Jewish family between 1871 and 1937, here.

Why this place is remarkable

Between 1776 and the late 19th century, a federal law forbade Switzerland's Jews from settling anywhere but Endingen and Lengnau — the only two communes in the country where they then had the right to reside. For this reason the village has neither a Catholic nor a Reformed church — only the synagogue, built in 1764 and rebuilt in 1852, serves as a place of worship. Ruth Dreifuss, President of the Confederation in 1999, was born in Endingen.

History and origin

The name Oberendingen is first recorded in 798, as Entingas; Neolithic and Bronze Age finds show the region was inhabited long before that date. From the 13th century, the village belonged to Habsburg lands, administered by the bailiwick of Siggenthal and then, after 1415, that of Baden. The Jewish community that settled from the 17th century onward was targeted on 12 September 1802 by a pogrom, the Zwetschgenkrieg. After 1866 and 1874, the years in which freedom of settlement and then of worship were federally recognised for Jews, the community progressively left Endingen, until 1920. The neighbouring commune of Unterendingen was joined to it on 1 January 2014.