History
There are traces of neolithic, Hallstatt, Roman and Alamanni settlements in or near Beinwil. However, Beinwil am See is first mentioned in 1036 as Beinwile. In 1045 it was mentioned as Peinuuilare. The noble von Beinwil family is first mentioned in 1153. This family was, in succession, vassels to the Lenzburg, Kyburg and Habsburgs before becoming extinct in the mid-14th Century. The family castle has disappeared. The power of Zwing und Bann (Manor rights as well as low justice) over the village, were inherited in about 1300 by the Stewards of Wolhusen, then donated in 1501 to Beromünster, and sold in 1520 to Bern. The Counts of Hallwyl owned land on the lake (Dingstätte) to safeguard their maritime rights, which were first stipulated in 1419.
Starting with the conquest of the Aargau in 1415 by Bern, until the French conquest and creation of the Helvetic Republic in 1798, the rights to high and low justice were held by the bailiff in Lenzburg. Following the collapse of the Helvetic Republic and the creation of the Canton of Aargau in the 1803 Act of Mediation, Beinwil came to the newly formed Canton.
Religiously it originally belonging to the Pfeffikon parish, though it had a chapel that predates written records. This chapel was demolished in 1852. In 1528 the Reformation entered the village and it joined the Reformed parish of Reinach. It has been a separate parish since 1932, and in 1935 the local parish church was consecrated. In 1964 the Roman Catholic Church of St. Martin was built in the municipality to service the growing diaspora community of Menziken-Reinach.
Economically, the decline in the 18th Century of imported cotton processing was mitigated by the increasingly dominant tobacco industry (first factory in 1841). Today, the industrial focus of the municipality is the manufacture of cigars, candy, glass and mirrors, electric motors, electronics and technology for testing construction materials. In 1990 the secondary sector provided 42% of jobs, while the tertiary sector provided 53%. About 55% of the work force commuted into the municipality while 59% of the work force commuted away. Beinwil is a station on the Seetalbahn which runs from Lenzburg to Lucerne and also the Beinwil-Beromünster bus route.
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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—Karl Marx (1818–1883)