Hinwil

Hinwil
Coat of arms
Hinwil
Location of Hinwil
Coordinates: 47°18′N 8°51′E / 47.300°N 8.850°E / 47.300; 8.850Coordinates: 47°18′N 8°51′E / 47.300°N 8.850°E / 47.300; 8.850
Country	Switzerland
Canton	Zurich
District	Hinwil
Area
• Total	22.3 km2 (8.6 sq mi)
Elevation	565 m (1,854 ft)
Population (Dec 2015)
• Total	10,830
• Density	490/km2 (1,300/sq mi)
Postal code	8340
SFOS number	0117
Localities	Girenbad, Hadlikon, Ringwil, Unterbach, Unterholz, Wernetshausen, Bossikon, Erlosen
Surrounded by	Bäretswil, Bubikon, Dürnten, Fischenthal, Gossau, Wald, Wetzikon
Twin towns	Jablonne nad Orlici (Czech Republic)
Website	www.hinwil.ch SFSO statistics

Hinwil is a municipality in the district of Hinwil in the canton of Zürich in Switzerland.

The village Hinwil from which the later municipality took its name is first mentioned in 745 as Hunichinwilari, in a donation made by Beata and Landolt to the Abbey of Saint Gall. Hinwil was part of an Alamannic colony comprising also adjoining villages and settlements that were donated during the following century by descendants of Beata and Landolt or by other members of their clan to the same abbey, such as Hadaleihinchova (Hadlikon, donated in 775), Pozinhova (Bossikon, 829), Rimolteswilare (Ringwil, donated together with a church in 837) and Werinholveshusa (Wernetshausen, 867).

The Alamanni were actually preceded by Roman inhabitants, as attested by the foundation walls of a Roman Villa dating from the 1st century AC and detected under the medieval church of Hinwil which is first mentioned in the second half of the 8th century.

During the High Middle Ages, the village Hinwil was part of the Landvogtei of Grüningen and was then, after 1280, subordinated to the commandry of the Knights of St. John at Bubikon. In the process of the Reformation, the governance of Hinwil and other villages of the region was divided between Zürich and the Order of the Knights of St. John, with the influence of the latter being limited by an agreement to use only members of the Reformed Church of Zürich as their local governors.

The economy of Hinwil was originally based on agriculture and rural handcraft. During the second half of the 16th century regional production of linen was introduced, from the 17th century on livestock farming and especially the early modern workshop-system of cloth production came to be dominant and, together with tourism in the wake of the railroad connection established in 1876, provided a certain prosperity in the 19th century and the years before World War I. Industrial production used to play a comparably modest role, yet came to be more important with the local establishment of Bührer Traktorenwerke AG (tractor production, since 1939) and Ferag AG (materials handling namely for newspaper production, since 1957).