The name, mentioned in 1155 as Bazzelstorf and maybe yet in the early 11th century as Basselstorff, is a compoundconsisting ofdorf, a widespread constituent in alemannic placenames meaning ‚hamlet, farm, village, estate‘, and the genitive form of an anthroponym, probably OHG*Bazzilo. The Alemannic settlement dates to the 8th or 9th century. Due to its position halfway between the towns of Zürich and Winterthur, the village gained some importance as a relay during the 18th and 19th centuries. Under the Helvetic Republic, it was the district capital. In 2001, Crossair Flight 3597 crashed into the ground at Bassersdorf while on approach to land at Zurich Airport. Twenty-four of the thirty-three people on board were killed, including American singer Melanie Thornton and two of the three members of the German group Passion Fruit. The investigation concluded that the accident was a controlled flight into terrain caused by a series of pilot errors and navigation mistakes that led the plane off-course. This course deviation caused the plane to crash into a hilltop, short of and north of its assigned landing strip, runway 28.
Geography
Bassersdorf has an area of. Of this area, 42.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while 30.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 26.3% is settled and the remainder is non-productive. The municipality is located on the edge of the mid-Glatt Valley. Since 1931, the village of Baltenswil has been part of the municipality.
Demographics
Bassersdorf has a population of., 21.2% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 50.5%. Most of the population speaks German , with Italian being second most common and Serbo-Croatian being third. In the 2007 election the most popular party was the SVP which received 37.2% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SPS, the FDP and the CSP. The age distribution of the population is children and teenagers make up 23.4% of the population, while adults make up 65.2% and seniors make up 11.4%. In Bassersdorf about 75.5% of the population have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education. The historical population is given in the following table:
year
population
1420
39 Households
1634
310
1710
718
1836
825
1850
959
1900
1,092
1950
2,143
1970
5,590
2000
7,515
Economy
at one point operated its Switzerland offices in Bassersdorf. Bassersdorf has an unemployment rate of 3.46%. , there were 53 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 17 businesses involved in this sector. 617 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 67 businesses in this sector. 2380 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 267 businesses in this sector.
