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
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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
- Field: Historian Clear ×
Carl Jacob Burckhardt
1891 - 1974
Jean-Jacques Hofmann
1635 - 1706
Karl Rudolf Hagenbach
1801 - 1874
Johann Jakob Herzog
1805 - 1882
Basilius Amerbach the Younger
1533 - 1591
Eduard Fueter senior
1876 - 1928
Herbert Lüthy
1918 - 2002
Heinrich Pantaleon
1522 - 1595
Philipp Sarasin
Born 1956
Peter Haber (Historiker)
1964 - 2013
Johann Jacob Grasser
1579 - 1627
Francine-Dominique Liechtenhan
Born 1956
Moritz Roth
1839 - 1914
Thomas D Meier
Born 1958
Felix Stähelin
1873 - 1952
Rudolf Wackernagel
1855 - 1925
Rudolf Wsewolodowitsch Wjatkin
1910 - 1995
Paul Stauffer
1930 - 2008
Georg Kreis
Born 1943
René Teuteberg
1914 - 2006
Fritz Barth (Theologe)
1856 - 1912
Wilhelm Vischer (Historiker)
1833 - 1886
Rudolf Braun (Historiker)
1930 - 2012
Eckart Olshausen
Born 1938
Susanna Woodtli
1920 - 2019
Bernard Degen
Born 1952
Paul Burckhardt
1873 - 1956
Johann Jacob Spreng
1699 - 1768
Jacques Picard (Historiker)
Born 1952
Christian Simon (Historiker)
Born 1951
Julia Richers
Born 1975
Lukas Thommen
Born 1958
Adolf Faller
1913 - 1989
Guy P. Marchal
1938 - 2020
Markus Mattmüller
1928 - 2003
Max Burckhardt
1910 - 1993
Martin Schaffner (Historiker)
Born 1940
Emil Fellmann
1927 - 2012
Carl Christoph Burckhardt
1862 - 1915
Karl Gauss
1867 - 1938
Ernst Staehelin
1889 - 1980
Jakob Christoph Beck
1711 - 1785
Felician Geß
1861 - 1938
Hans-Rudolf Hagemann
1927 - 2018
Hans Georg Wackernagel
1895 - 1967
Adam Henricpetri
1543 - 1586
Gustav Steiner
1878 - 1967
Hans Bauer (Wirtschaftshistoriker)
1901 - 1995
Heinrich Christoph Gottlieb Stier
1825 - 1896
Christian Windler
Born 1960
Andreas Heusler (Jurist, 1802)
1802 - 1868
Johann Ludwig Frey
1682 - 1759
Daniel Bruckner
1707 - 1781
Rut Keiser
1897 - 1968
Paul Koelner
1878 - 1960
Kurt Wehrle (Historiker)
1938 - 1994
Albert Burckhardt
1854 - 1911
Daniel Albert Fechter
1805 - 1876
Alfred Stoecklin
1907 - 2002
Nicole Bettlé
Born 1969
Rudolf Stähelin-Stockmeyer
1841 - 1900
Emanuel Linder (Philologe)
1768 - 1843
Johann Karl Lichtenhahn
1805 - 1860
Traugott Geering
1859 - 1932
Marc Sieber (Historiker)
1927 - 2010
Friedrich Ebrard
1891 - 1975
Ferdinand Holzach (Historiker)
1869 - 1942
Johann Heinrich Gernler (Historiker)
1727 - 1764
Henri Vuilleumier
1846 - 1925