Schleitheim is a municipality in the canton of Schaffhausen in Switzerland, located directly at the border to Germany. It is known as the location where the seven articles of the Schleitheim Confession were written. Geography Schleitheim has an area, , of . Of this area, 58.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while 34.9% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 6.2% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (0.3%) is non-productive (rivers or lakes). History The area of today's Schleitheim was already settled in Roman times. A vicus at that time bore the name . In In 995 the German name is attested for the first time as . This name stems from Old High German (English: 'gently sloping, inclined') and Old High German (English: 'house, residence'), meaning "settlement on a gentle slope on the inclined plain." Schleitheim gained historical significance as the birthplace of the Schleitheim Confession of 1527, the oldest creed of Anabaptism, written under the direction of Michael Sattler. In 1530 the villages Schleitheim and Beggingen became part of the territory of the city of Schaffhausen, in exchange for Grafenhausen and Birkendorf which became part of the landgraviate Stühlingen. Coat of arms The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Gules, an ox head sable lined white. Demographics Schleitheim has a population () of 1,663, of which 12.0% are foreign nationals. Of the foreign population, (), 45.3% are from Germany, 10.3% are from Italy, 2% are from Croatia, 25.6% are from Serbia, 1.5% are from Macedonia, and 15.3% are from another country. Over the last 10 years the population has decreased at a rate of -4.4%. Most of the population () speaks German (93.9%), with Albanian being second most common ( 2.5%) and Italian being third ( 1.1%). The age distribution of the population () is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 21.5% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 55.6% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 22.9%. In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 50.9% of the vote. The next two most popular parties were the FDP (25.3%), and the SP (23.8%) . In Schleitheim about 74.9% of the population (between age 25–64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). In Schleitheim, , 1.66% of the population attend kindergarten or