Degersheim (St. Gallen)

Geschichte

Degersheim is a municipality in the Wahlkreis (constituency) of Wil in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland.HistoryDegersheim is first mentioned in 837 as Tegarascai. It was known as Tegerschen until 1803, when Degersheim became the official name. The village of Wolfertswil is mentioned in 838 as Wolfrideswilare.GeographyDegersheim has an area, of 14.4km2. Of this area, 53.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while 36.5% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 10% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (0.1%) is non-productive (rivers or lakes).It consists of the village of Degersheim and the hamlets of Magdenau with the abbey, Wolfertswil, Hinterschwil, the exclave Obergampen and a number of scattered farm houses.Coat of armsThe blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Per pale sable an Ash tree eradicated Or and Or a Cross Lorraine Sable.DemographicsDegersheim has a population of., about 17.2% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Of the foreign population, 40 are from Germany, 147 are from Italy, 275 are from ex-Yugoslavia, 27 are from Austria, 34 are from Turkey, and 183 are from another country. Over the last 10 years the population has decreased at a rate of -1.5%. Most of the population speaks German (89.9%), with Italian being second most common ( 2.3%) and Spanish being third ( 1.8%). Of the Swiss national languages, 3,551 speak German, 8 people speak French, 91 people speak Italian, and 6 people speak Romansh.