47.5606° N, 7.5906° E

BASEL

Most Famous People Born in Basel, Switzerland

Notable people
1,646
Peak decade
1950s
Median birth year
1922
Most distinctive
Art Historian 8.0×

A Rhine city whose distinctive professions are art historians, philologists, theologians, historians, and mathematicians — the trades of a humanist university town that published Erasmus, Holbein, and the first printed Greek New Testament. Euler was born here, so were both Bernoulli brothers, and Jacob Burckhardt more or less invented art history at the university. The 15th- and 16th-century bench is one of the heaviest in Switzerland, and Roger Federer is the most recent addition.

Through the Centuries

One face per century — the most globally famous figure born in Basel during each.

What Basel Is Known For

Click any row to filter the list of people below.

Politician is Basel's biggest profession — 10% of all notables (157).

Basel over-indexes on art historian8.0× the global rate.

Basel under-produces football — only 0.4× the global rate.

  1. Politician157
  2. Actor100
  3. Painter83
  4. Football70
  5. Writer70
  6. Historian69
  7. Author46
  8. Academic42
  1. Art Historian258.0×
  2. Philologist167.4×
  3. Theologian274.5×
  4. Historian694.0×
  5. Mathematician293.5×
  6. Author463.2×
  7. Entrepreneur162.9×
  8. Botanist172.6×
  1. Football700.4×
  2. Singer210.6×

Profession Mix Over Time

Each band shows a profession family's share of Basel's notable births by decade. Hover the chart for the breakdown at any decade.

1500155016001650170017501800185019001950
  • Writing
  • Science
  • Politics & Law
  • Art & Design
  • Film & TV
  • Sports
  • Other
All1,646
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Showing 9 of 1,646 notable people

0447 THEOLOGIAN

Friedrich Seyler

1642 - 1708

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0473 THEOLOGIAN

Johannes Jakob Buxtorf

1645 - 1705

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0620 SURGEON

Johannes Fatio

1649 - 1691

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0854 KURFÜRST

Emanuel Froben

1640 - 1675

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1081 MATHEMATICIAN

Georg Friedrich Meyer (Geodät)

1645 - 1693

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1214 MERCHANT

Rudolf Emanuel Passavant

1641 - 1718

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1247 REVOLUTIONARY

Hans Konrad Mosis

1645 - 1691

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1455 ENTREPRENEUR

Emanuel Hoffmann-Müller

1643 - 1702

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1465 WAHLEN

Salome Burckhardt-Schönauer

1640 - 1691

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