SCHWEIZ / SUISSE / SVIZZERA / SVIZRA	SWITZERLAND
Thurgau / Thurgovie / Turgovia / Turgovia

map →

Tägerwilen (formerly also spelled Taegerweilen or Tägerweilen) is situated at an elevation of 420 m in the district Kreuzlingen of Switzerland's canton of Thurgau. The municipality has a population of about 3,650 (2006).

The earliest inhabitants of the area, members of Alemannic tribes, settled here in the 7th or 8th century. The oldest document mentioning Tegirwilare dates from AD 990. The history of Tägerwilen is intimately connected to the history of the nearby city of Konstanz. Bailiffs of the bishops of Konstanz often lived in Tägerwilen. These founded the castle of Tägerwilen and, later on, the old castle Castell next to it. During the Reformation period both Konstanz and Tägerwilen introduced the Protestant faith. At the beginning of the 20th century, Tägerwilen was still a predominantly agricultural community; today, the town is a predominantly commercial municipality. A constitutional curiosity is the fact that Tägerwilen also administers Tägermoos, an area of about 1.5 km², which although being part of the canton Thurgau at the same time by treaty is a property of the German city of Konstanz.

The castle Castell [left, no. 2353: main picture] was built in 1725 in place of an older construction of 1585 which itself had replaced an earlier structure. The castle obtained its present appearance between 1778 and 1794 by the then owners of the castle, the Scherer family. The castle is situated opposite the ruins of the old castle Castell of the 12th century, which had been built by the bishops of Konstanz for their bailiffs, the Schenk of Castell. The old castle had perished in 1499 during the Swabian War between the Old Swiss Confederacy and Habsburg Austria. Three members of the Schenk von Castell family became prince bishops of Eichstätt. Since 1681 the Schenks had the status of Imperial counts (counts immediate to the Emperor and the Imperial Diet). Another well-known member of the family was Imperial Count Franz Ludwig Schenk von Castell (1736–1821), popularly known as 'Malefizschenk' or 'Henkersgraf' because of his preoccupation as prosecutor of crimes in Upper Swabia.

The two small inserts in the picture on glass no. 2353 show the school building [above] and the railroad station [below].

The most famous native of Tägerwilen is the botanist and oenologist Hermann Müller (1850–1927), better known under his chosen name, Hermann Müller-Thurgau. He is best known for the grape variety Rivaner (known today as Müller-Thurgau), which he presented in 1882 as a hybrid of Riesling and Sylvaner. An analysis in 1998, however, showed that the grapes are actually a hybrid of Riesling (mother) and Madeleine Royale (father). With a world-wide acreage of about 42,000 hectares, Müller-Thurgau is the most successful new grape variety.