Hirzel

Hirzel along with Schoenenberg and Huetten, were to become known as the "hill communities" and came under the jurisdiction of the Bezirk of Horgen (similar to an American county), as did the small towns by the lake, which by contrast are referred to as the "lakeside communities". For hundreds of years Hirzel was little more than a remote appendage of land bordering between two large Bezirks, those of Horgen and Waedenswil. On widely dispersed individual farms, its farmers operated cattle breeding and dairy businesses. Even today almost one fifth of the population remains active in agriculture, and with the well known products of the HIRZ Dairy being marketed daily throughout the nation the dairy industry continues to be a prosperous one.

Around 1200 and the opening of the St. Gotthard Pass the settlement of what was to become Hirzel began. Sadly, its location between Zurich and central Switzerland often brought the pain of war to its residents. The Battle of the Hirzeler Letzi in the Old Zurich War led several hundred Zurichers to their death. In the Kappeller War, just as in the Villmerger War and finally the Sonderbund War, the countryside was perforated with trenches constructed to seal off the mountain pass between Sihlbrugg and Horgen.

After the Reformation, Hirzel became a center for the Anabaptists (believers in adult baptism and that the Reformation had been incomplete ), and their secret gatherings defying the government and its persecution were held there. Accordingly, the construction of a Zwinglian church in Hirzel in 1617 was an important step opposing their presence. In 1660 these former members of the Horgen Guard were provided their first small schoolhouse, and in 1773 the region achieved its independence. To adorn their shields the symbol of a "leaping stag" was chosen. As time passed, the "leaping stag" or "Hirzel" became much more than a symbol on a shield; it became the name of their community, and in less than a hundred years, when portions of Waedenswil were ceded to it, Hirzel expanded to its current size.