Greetings,

My name is Francesca. I also go by my initials, FBK. I'm so excited I found this forum! I am writing a novel that takes place around WWII, and has scenes in both Basel and Zurich. I have been to Zurich (many years ago and not for very long), but have never been to Basel, so I need to do some research to figure out where the characters will work, live, how they would get home (walk, streetcar), and what they might see on the way. I will post some specific questions, but I any help anyone can lend will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
FBK

Welcome to EF... and fire away

Welcome FBK to the forum as well as soon to Willy Tell's own country!
Basel seems to attract writers, it's been only a few months ago that I met a German guy who does the same - investigating and writing. Good luck, though!

By the way: If you bring a laptop, there are several free hot spots down town, the best however is at "Unternehmen Mitte" where you can watch people, sit for hours downloading whatever your heart desires and even don't have to buy drinks.

I'm not actually moving to Basel. Just trying to learn enough about the city to set part of my novel there. But thanks for the welcome.

FBK

Welcome to the Forum.
Quite honestly, although there's the advantage of EFers understanding your questions, I'm not sure if we are the right place for you to get the right answers. I would be quite surprised if anyone on the Forum lived in Basel around the time you mention. Basel has changed quite a bit since I lived there and that was long after WWII!

Maybe you'll strike lucky though. One never knows.

I didn't think anyone here would have lived in Basel during that period. If you look at my specific question that ended up in Other/General folder, I'm just looking for a residential neighborhood where the housing dates back to WWII. I would think people who live in the neighborhood would know how old the houses are.

FBK

I envy you FBK - for being able to write a novel. Despite being an avid reader I don't think I could attempt one but would love to. I'm kind of surprised you would set your story in Basel and not even visit the place. Don't you think your novel would lack authenticity and who knows - you might even get some inspiration if you visit?

I myself have had doubts about my abilities to write an entire novel. It's not an easy endeavor. It's mostly a matter of taking it one step at a time and not being panicked by the enormity of the effort.

As for setting it in Basel without being there, many excellent novelists do research on their settings instead of visiting the location. My novel is set in many locations: Basel, Zurich, Vienna, England, Germany, New York. Some of those locations are dictated by the plot of the story. (Basel because it is the headquarters of the Bank for International Settlements.) I can't afford go to all of those places, and even those I've been to often require additional research to refresh my memories of the place or identify something about the location that I didn't notice when there.

I wonder if this may be of a little help to you. Pictures from Switzerland at the beginning of the war.

This is fantastic! Thank you so much. Obviously, I am in the right place

FBK

Keep in mind the BIS is not located now where it was then.

You should consider coming here if you can at all afford it, you'd understand the geography here better. For example, in my (postwar) apartment, I can walk to the French border in about 15 minutes, and drive to the German border in about 10. There are a few prewar buildings in the area, but not so many.

Not specifically Basel, but this DVD is a collection of newsreels from during the war. It is very interesting to see what people thought and also some of it is pure government propaganda which is also telling in itself.

http://www.swissdvdshop.ch/documenta...c283e3581778ed

My dad lived in Basel during part of WW2. I will try to retrieve the address.
He was a Jewish refugee so if you are interested feel free to PM me.
ps: I have a lot of family pictures from that era.

I love old photos like these - especially of people in places you can identify with. Just ordinary people. Wonder what they'd make of Basel and Zurich today. I liked the one of the bicycle infantry soldiers. There was a big military exercise around us on the Vaud/Valais border a couple of weekends ago and I passed a long column of soldiers on push bikes with their rifles slung over their shoulders. Their bikes looked just like those in the old picture. You'd think they'd give the poor bug*ers mountain bikes.

Those pictures are fantastic! Thanks for sharing

Don't forget to use Google Street View to get an idea of the layout and style of the buildings.

To give you an impression of said building (nowaday's version, of course)

That is not the building that was in use during the time period the OP was looking at.

Here's info about it from the 1930s and 1940s

Info about the buildings

Thank you for taking the time to research the BIS and its location. Some scenes in my novel take place in Basel because the BIS is there. The main character runs into a shady character who works at BIS (there were rumors of the BIS being involved in spying during the war), but the BIS doesn't play a large role in the story. The main character works at the headquarters of a private bank, not the BIS, so although the photos are interesting from the point of view of seeing office buildings in Basel during the time period, I can't use them specifically in the story.

fbk, don't worry about what you can use or not! Maybe a few forumer's are already writing their own stories in their heads.