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.
One face per century — the most globally famous figure born in Basel during each.
Notable Births by Decade
Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1950s with 150 notable births.
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 historian — 8.0× the global rate.
Basel under-produces football — only 0.4× the global rate.
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.
- Writing
- Science
- Politics & Law
- Art & Design
- Film & TV
- Sports
- Other
- Filtered to 1890s Clear ×
Carl Jacob Burckhardt
1891 - 1974
Adolf Portmann
1897 - 1982
Julius Lippert
1895 - 1956
Wunibald Kamm
1893 - 1966
Ernst Levy
1895 - 1981
Maurice-Yves Sandoz
1892 - 1958
Alfred Rittmann
1893 - 1980
Ruth Wenger
1897 - 1994
Alphonse Gemuseus
1898 - 1981
Hans Jenny (pedologist)
1899 - 1992
Theo Eble
1899 - 1974
Aron Pollitz
1896 - 1977
Albert Müller
1897 - 1926
Paul Aellen
1896 - 1973
Heinrich Barth (Philosoph)
1890 - 1965
Niklaus Stoecklin
1896 - 1982
Hermann Baur
1894 - 1980
Hans Schmidt (Architekt)
1893 - 1972
Paul Schmiedlin
1897 - 1981
Hugo Marti
1893 - 1937
Ernst Thommen
1899 - 1967
Paul Moor (Pädagoge)
1899 - 1977
Hans Wittwer
1894 - 1952
Wilhelm Vischer (botanist)
1890 - 1960
Alexander Zschokke
1894 - 1981
Rudolf Bolo Maeglin
1898 - 1973
William Rowan (biologist)
1891 - 1957
Alfred Schlageter
1896 - 1981
Richard Bär
1892 - 1940
Walter Frey (Pianist)
1898 - 1985
Otto Staiger
1894 - 1967
Charles Hindenlang
1894 - 1960
Alfred Becherer
1897 - 1977
Paul Artaria
1892 - 1959
Christoph Bernoulli (Kunsthändler)
1897 - 1981
Oskar Wälterlin
1895 - 1961
Paul Kirn
1890 - 1965
Georg Schmidt (Kunsthistoriker)
1896 - 1965
Rudolf Schleicher
1897 - 1989
Cäsar von Arx
1895 - 1949
Maja Sacher
1896 - 1989
Franziska Stoecklin
1894 - 1931
John Friedrich Vuilleumier
1893 - 1976
Hans Stocker (Maler)
1896 - 1983
Albert Moeschinger
1897 - 1985
Emanuel Hoffmann (Unternehmer)
1896 - 1932
Fritz Spannagel
1891 - 1957
Alfred Glaus
1891 - 1970
Walter Lang (Musiker, 1896)
1896 - 1966
Anny Klawa-Morf
1894 - 1993
Robert Strübin
1897 - 1965
Hans Friedrich Rohner
1898 - 1972
Hans Georg Wackernagel
1895 - 1967
Fritz Karl Zbinden
1896 - 1968
Walter Müller von Kulm
1899 - 1967
Alice Eckenstein
1890 - 1984
Alfred Graber
1897 - 1987
Paul Roth (Historiker)
1896 - 1961
Rut Keiser
1897 - 1968
Julius Schwabe (Semiotiker)
1892 - 1980
Charles Jenny
Born 1898
Franz Merke
1893 - 1975
Rudolf Maeglin (Künstler)
1892 - 1971
Eduard Liechtenhan
1891 - 1965
August Burckhardt-Brandenberg
1896 - 1987
Henri Brunner (Komponist)
1897 - 1956
Eduard Feer
1894 - 1983
John E. Staehelin
1891 - 1969
Fritz Brechbühl
1897 - 1963
Siegfried Streicher
1893 - 1966
Fritz Gottlieb Pfister
1891 - 1984
Walter Mörikofer
1892 - 1976
Carl Miville senior
1891 - 1981
Hans Eduard Ryhiner
1891 - 1944
Friedrich Ebrard
1891 - 1975
Hermann Gallinger
1899 - 1962
Alfred Flückiger
1898 - 1983
Gustav Adolf Bohny
1898 - 1977
Marie-Rose Zingg
1897 - 1975
Edouard Probst
1898 - 1974
Hans Liniger
Born 1892
Friedrich Meyer (Aluminiumfabrikant)
1893 - 1974
Heinric Heim
Born 1893
Eugen Gottstein
1897 - 1978