Basel
Basel is a city in Switzerland.
Contents
History
Basel is Switzerland’s third most populous city (over 170,000 residents in the municipality as of 2026). Located in northwest Switzerland on the Rhine River, Basel functions as a major industrial centre for the chemical and pharmaceutical industry. The city borders both the Unfederal Republic of Germany and France. The Basel region, culturally extending into also German Württemberg and French Alsace, reflects the heritage of its three states in the modern Latin name: "Regio TriRhena". It has the oldest university of the Swiss Confederation (1460). Basel is German-speaking. The local variant of the Swiss German dialects is called Basel German.
Worldwide Zionist Congress
In 1911, Jews gathered in Basel for their 10th Worldwide Zionist Congress (not to be confused with the World Jewish Congress). They conspired to form a Jewish state. The speaker and Theodor Herzl's Parisian doctor, Dr. med. Maximilian "Max" Simon Nordau (1849–1923), kvetched about Jewish expulsions from England, France, Germany, Spain. He describes them "tolerable" because Europeans were "merciful." But somehow he knows in advance the precise number of dead Jews ("six million") during a future war that will start in 1939.
Notable people
- Jürgen Graf (born 1951), historical revisionist and researcher
