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

0013 POET

Johann Peter Hebel

1760 - 1826

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0463 ASTRONOMER

Daniel Huber

1768 - 1829

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0499 GUNSMITH

Durs Egg

1766 - 1831

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1080 BANK

Johann Jakob Geymüller

1760 - 1834

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1186 POLITICIAN

Wilhelm Haas-Decker

1766 - 1838

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1246 HISTORIAN

Emanuel Linder (Philologe)

1768 - 1843

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1390 JUDGE

Johann Rudolf Schnell

1767 - 1829

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1420 PRINTMAKER

Theodor Falkeisen (Kupferstecher)

1768 - 1814

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1461 SCULPTOR

Philipp Jakob Treu

1761 - 1825

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