Individual mobility is a much-discussed topic today, but it is all too easy to forget how it actually came about and what phases it went through.
On the occasion of the special exhibition at the Pantheon, which illustrated Basel's transport history from 1833 to 2022 under the title "Unterwegs auf eigenen Rädern" (On the road on your own wheels), so much material and so many beautiful stories were collected that the usual exhibition catalog did not offer enough space to publish this acquired knowledge. As a result, a book was created, a whopping 350 pages thick and wide, to report not only on cars, but also on their predecessors and alternatives.
From a look back to a look into the future
This book was written by the trio of authors Stephan Musfeld, Ilse Rollé Ditzler and Christoph Ditzler, but also includes many contributions from other authors who each report from their own specialist field.
It begins with a "look in the rear-view mirror", which shows the history of urban mobilization. This is followed by a look back at the age of carriages, the first motorists and many other aspects of individual mobility. The book concludes with a look at the world of the day after tomorrow.
Topics relating to the automobile
The automobile is, of course, omnipresent throughout the 350 pages. Whether it's about the first motorists, car races around Basel, a plastic car made of Araldite or 200 years of traffic regulation, the car is always a mainstay as a means of transportation. And it doesn't shy away from questions such as "are cars art" or "women at the wheel". Diversity is the trump card.
The topics are mostly related to Basel, but the range is often broader.
Beyond the automobile
However, the authors are not satisfied with four-wheeled vehicles; two-wheelers in the form of bicycles and motorcycles also provide plenty to talk about on over 35 pages.
And peripheral topics such as the various road surfaces used in Basel and petrol stations of the time are also covered.
Frank M. Rinderknecht (Rinspeed AG) can present his CitySnap concept, and of course the Basel Fasnacht will also be on the agenda. And traffic concepts that have been implemented or rejected, such as the Basel City-Metro or the Rosshof car silo, are also recalled.
It is these stories that make the book so exciting. And it is the many pictures that bring back even more memories.
Not a picture book, but ...
The book is designed as a collection of topics. It is not intended to provide definitive answers as to what the future might look like, nor is it a complete collection of sources for historians. In many places it is rightly mentioned that more research work needs to be invested, but at least a start has been made. And because the book brings together a wide variety of narrative styles and formats, it never gets boring.
But it is not least the pictures that make the book even more valuable. The more than 400 photos are mostly from the past and they conjure up moods from back then, experiences from the past and things long forgotten. It is a real pleasure to leaf through the book and follow the development of transportation from the horse-drawn carriage of Mr. Emanuel Paravicini-Bachofen (1883), to the garage Ed. Contelly garage (1920), the first Pic-Pic ambulance in the city of Basel (1920), the Schlotterbeck Grosgarage (1930), the three cab categories of the cab center (1955), the first freeway service station near Kölliken (1967), the first radar cabin on the emergency footbridge of the new Johanniterbrücke bridge (1967), the Gartenstrasse parking lot in Riehen (1979), which was filled with colorful cars, and the traffic situation at the Heuwaage today (2020). It would have been nice to see some of the pictures much larger, but this was not the aim of the authors, who see the photos more as a supplement to the text.
A reading book
Like a book of short stories, this work invites you to enjoy the individual contributions. You don't have to read the book in one go, you can take your time and return to it again and again. And you don't have to be from Basel to find this book interesting, because developments similar to those in Basel have also occurred in many other cities and parallels are easy to draw.
In any case, you will be able to read a lot of interesting things, gain many new insights and remember some old stories. The book is actually a perfect vacation read, but you shouldn't take a bike with you, because the two kilograms would seriously affect the power-to-weight ratio.
Bibliographical details
- Title: On the road on your own wheels - Basel's transport history (histories) 1833-2022
- Authors: Stephan Musfeld, Christoph Ditzler, Ilse Rollé Ditzler
- Publisher: Stephan Musfeld, Pantheon Basel
- Language: German
- Format: Hardcover with dust jacket, 23.5 x 31 cm
- Size: 352 pages, over 400 illustrations
- ISBN: 978-3-7245-2549-3
- Price: CHF 49.00 (plus CHF 7.00 shipping costs in Switzerland, free delivery for two or more books)
- Buy/order: Online on the Pantheon website or by post (address: Pantheon Basel Museum AG, Gellertstrasse 224, 4020 Basel)
