SCHAFFHAUSEN, in area (111·7 square miles) and actual population (38,348) the 19th and in relative density of population the 7th of the cantons of Switzerland, forms the most northern angle of the Swiss territory, and lies on the right or German side of the Rhine, which separates it from the cantons of Thurgau and Zurich. It is divided into three distinct portions by spurs of the grand-duchy of Baden, which also possesses the small enclave of Büsingen on the Rhine. Geologically it belongs for the most part to the Swabian Jura, and directly or indirectly it all drains to the Rhine, which forms its famous falls in the neighbourhood of the chief town (see Rhine, vol. xx. p. 519). In the broad straths of the Klettgau vine-growing and agriculture go hand in hand (the wines of Hallau being in high repute); the more elevated districts of Rauden and Reyat (highest point 3040 feet above the sea) raise the grain-production of the canton above the home demand, and also provide large quantities of potatoes, hemp, and fruit. Under a careful regime the forests are recovering from a state of comparative exhaustion. The Schaffhausen cattle are partly Swabian and partly Swiss; Klettgau has a special breed of pigs of its own. Manufacturing industries have their best development at Schaffhausen-Neuhausen. The population, which increased from 35,300 in 1850 to 38,348 in 1880, is almost exclusively of German speech (230 individuals only using other languages). Protestants are to Roman Catholics as 8 to 1 (33,897 and 4154); the latter are attached to the bishopric of Basel. Schaffhausen has been a member of the Swiss confederation since 1501. By the new constitution of 1876 it became remarkably democratic. The great council consists of representatives of the people elected for four years ...at the rate of one for every five hundred inhabitants. On the petition of any thousand of the electors, a measure may be introduced to the chamber or submitted to the direct vote of the citizens. The five members of the administration are also popularly elected. Education is well endowed, primary education being compulsory. A reformatory for destitute children is maintained at Friedeck, near Buch.
SCHAFFHAUSEN, the capital of the above canton, is situated on the bank of the Rhine, 30 ½ miles by rail west of Constance and 60 east of Basel, and communicates by a bridge with the village of Feuerthalen (1000 inhabitants) in Zurich. It is a city of contrasts—mediaeval architecture of the true Swabian type and modern manufactures mingling curiously together. The cathedral, formerly the church of the abbey of All Saints (Allerheiligen), is a massive basilica founded in 1104 and completed in 1453; its great bell (1486) bears the inscription Vivos voco, mortuos plango, fulgura frango, which suggested Schiller’s “Song of the Bell” and the opening of Longfellow’s Golden Legend. On the Rebhügel above the town rises the castle of Munoth (1564-1590) with bomb-proof casemates, and a tower whose top is reached by a spiral ascent up which one can ride or drive. In Herrenacker Platz stands the Imthurneum, a building erected (1864) and presented to the town by a Swiss citizen, resident in London, for the “promotion of aesthetic and scientific culture”; it contains a theatre, concert-rooms, &c. The public library (28,000 volumes) possesses the printed and MS. collections of Johann von Müller, who was born at Schaffhausen in 1752, and his monument adorns the promenade of the Vesenstaub. In the museum is preserved the famous Keszlerloch “find.” Among the industrial establishments of the city and vicinity are ironworks, waggon and carriage factories, woollen and cotton factories, breweries, distilleries, and champagne factories. The population of the commune was 10,303 in 1870 and 11,795 in 1880.
Schaffhausen (Latinized as Scafusia or Graecized into Probatopolis) first appears in the 9th century, and had already attained the rank of an imperial city in 1264.
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