Thank you a lot, Hans, for taking your time for this video! Let me start with the first question: Since when do you live in Steinmaur and since when do you own this farm?

I am living in Steinmaur since I was born in 1965. I have been raised here in the countryside, completely idyllical. My family is owning the farm since 1881 and so I am the fifth generation now.

How are your childhood memories about this farm?

The farm was significally smaller than it is today. In that times you also needed less area since the price of products was higher and so you could earn enough to live on it. It was an average business with 12 to 13 cows, a tying stall for actually all animals and we also had two goats. As children we must and wanted to assist in the farm. I have two brothers. However, we also had a lot of freedom. For example, we were building barracks out of bales of straw and even labyrinths to half of our class joined. And I remember well that when we were kids, we always ran down to the street, called ‘Kantonsstrasse’ with way less cars than today, as soon as we heard a signal horn, doesn’t matter if it was the ambulance or the police. It happened maybe every second week that we could hear the sound, so it was really special and for that you ran down to the street – it was action for us. I remember us always running down. Nowadays, the signal horn passes twice a day. This is a simple event but it just came to my mind.

Generally, you were on the move with your bicycle. Down the street there was the waste disposal facility where you could bring your garbage. We always searched through these containers and took parts back home. We assembled bicycles and once even a go-cart. When I was even younger, there were open hollows and I remember that we always went to one on the field over there. This was super interesting as there were sometimes even half cars. Today this would be classified as environmental pollution if people threw stuff in a hollow like that. I think today people got smarter concerning environmental pollution.

Another thing I can remember is a raft we had on the Müliweiher, which consisted of four barrels from used oil production, planks on the top and a flag – not a pirate flag but we were still thinking we were pirates. Today this is protected and kids would not be allowed to build rafts there. However, in those days this was still possible and also searching through the hollows was allowed.

We also went by bike to Fisibach because there were many polliwogs in a clay pit which we took to the farm to keep them in a basin. Yeah, that was a completely different world.

So would you say that nowadays people are way more restricted in their daily life?

Yes, of course I agree, people are more restricted but this is because the whole way of life has changed. In general, people spent more time outside – farmers’ kids anyway – and the free space was bigger as the total nature protection, like not being allowed to enter certain places at all didn’t exist yet – which often were the most interesting spots.

However, there were also not that many sport fields and even sports at all – it was different and it also has changed but I wouldn’t value that. Nowadays you also can go out into nature but I think this is not comparable as it was just another time. However, for sure it was a beautiful time.

Due to the farm you are in direct contact with the population, do you realize a more impersonal and faster contact with each other or don’t you see any difference at all?

Society as such has changed, of course. Due to media consumption and the mobile phone the society has changed. You can see that already by just taking the train that 99% of all people are staring at their mobile phone – Certainly, I am including myself.

Socrates, a Greek philosopher, complained once – I heard this in a debate of the canton council and I will never forget that – how lazy the youth was, that they are just laying around and drinking without having any manners. These are statements which you hear today in the exact same way. This is showing that not that much has changed. I am also asserting that people won’t have changed much after the lockdown which is going on right now. People are forgetting very fast and also daily life is returning fast. Of course, there will be some economical consequences but generally I can say that there are very diverse people: there are different types of clients. There are clients who are looking for a personal contact which we can surely give since we are interested in that and therefore we are taking time for this. There are also people who want to buy something of good quality quickly without looking for any personal talks. As well we have also clients who like to be advised and who want to know everything in detail by also questioning much, that I think is fine. Yes, society has changed but I wouldn’t claim it as improved or deteriorated.

Can you somehow measure up how the village will develop in the future, for example will it continue growing or will it stabilize in size?

There is the initiative of cultivated land which has been accepted by the population in 2014, which said no more construction ground should be released. That is also valid for Steinmaur –construction ground is defined and despite some exceptions that has already been used up. This effects the land prices – most people have this land as financial investment or they are keeping it for their children since they are not in need of selling it – for this land you need to pay nowadays 1200 CHF per m2. When building that house over there 30 years ago they paid 400 CHF for it. So price for building land has risen massively.

Talking about the development, surely there is going to happen more agglomeration. That expensive building land means that if you need less area you can live a bit cheaper. There is also the aspect that a house is also a capital investment and if you are allowed to create more living space on a given area size then this is an investment which pays off economically. This is also the political will that we are living more compactly. This seems logical since the population is growing.

When I was going to school with 15 years, 40 years ago, we had six million of people, today we have 8.5 million. Half of this population is living in the canton of Zurich – maybe not half of it but a lot. This also has an effect of the municipality of Steinmaur – when I went to school there were 2’500 inhabitants here and nowadays there are 3’500 or even 3’700 but also with a bigger area of living. The initiative of cultivated land is also showing that the living space per person has also increased.

What is also interesting is that the number of pupils in the primary school in Steinmaur stayed the same – around 200 children – since there are more inhabitants but with fewer children. However, the school building has doubled its size – there are now special educational rooms, a larger sports hall, an auditorium, a larger teachers’ room and a larger library – more area was needed in general.

At one moment the growth of a village is limited, true, but generally I think that in this area also 5000 people can live.

Did the public transport adapt to this increase in population in Steinmaur, e.g. by a higher frequency?

Yes there was a school bus to the high school set up 10 years ago. This didn’t exist when I was going to school and the children who went to high school these days were all going by bicycle. Today hardly anyone is going by bicycle to Bülach. Today, you also have a train going to Zurich every 30 minutes instead of only every hour. Before, only the bus line from Bachs existed so they had a connection to the train, and we didn’t have a bus neither to Oberglatt nor to Dielsdorf. Today we also have a bus to Bülach and I also think this is a good development. It is totally clear that the public transport needs less area per person to transport them and if we want to live more ecological and if we want to decrease our ecological footprint the support of the public transport is a right method.

Comparing to years ago, what kind of activities and hobbies did you do in this village?

This has already changed with respect to our children that are now around 25 years old. We started to screw together our bicycle in the third class since bicycles for children haven’t exist yet. I remember well that starting in the fifth class you went for swimming classes to Dielsdorf and not every kid had a bicycle – I neither had a roadworthy bike – and then the teacher took these children with him. I spent a lot of time on the farm or I went by bicycle to the hallows of waste. I went to Zurich only once a year to go to the dentist in Oerlikon – I remember this well. But except that people didn’t go to Bülach nor to Zurich nor to any other place. This maybe started when I got my moped with 14, so I went sometimes to Bülach to go to the Inter Discount in the ‘Sonnenhof’ shopping center, which still exists but doesn’t give good returns anymore. So all in all I was moving around in a small area and another reason for this was that we didn’t have a family car. So everything was really local.

So you would say that nowadays everything is more spreaded in Switzerland – like travelling and hobbies?

Yes, the whole society is more mobile and also the farmers. Generally, I am still moving around in the village by bicycle since I also have my working place where I am living. A point is increased mobility, as already said, there are now 7’000 cars passing by the farm every day.

You know from studies that employees are ready to accept one hour of commuting – I know people driving to Basel every day to go to work – or also to Bern for work. Years ago we had worse train connections: you had to change the train in Oberglatt to the Bülach-train and also in Oerlikon to go to Zurich central station. So it took you more than an hour to reach Zurich – for example my neighbor was working in Zurich but no one was working in Basel – in this case you were moving there. That is different since you have a better highway and public transport network these days which are very rapid. You have to think about this – also many parties said you should question that and there were also plans to not deduct your costs of commute anymore from taxes. The admitted costs were lowered – years ago costs to 8’000-9’000 CHF. This was accepted without any problem and I know people who could deduct 20’000 CHF since they said that they have to fly somewhere as a business trip. Today, this has been reduced to 3’000 CHF maximum. This is also a step to show from the political and cantonal side that people can’t be rewarded in taxes for having a longer commute. So it would be economically good to have a working place close to your living place. This is useful and a change in the societys’ way of thinking according to this would be appropriate and also correct.

So I thank you a lot for this interview since I could ask all my questions

Thank you, too!

Thank you!