The origins of the Basel Student Union
In 1918, a mandatory membership union for all students was formed at the University of Basel. Nevertheless, there were notable predecessors that expressed the structural divide between those who “wore the colors” of the student fraternities and the “wildcats,” as those who declined to join were called. During the earnest, albeit subdued celebration of the association’s anniversary in the notorious summer of 1968, no one realized that the provisional end of the Student Union was imminent. In 1974, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court declared that the compulsory student membership and its associated fees, which had been unquestioned for more than fifty years, were illegal. Following an interim period of approximately twenty years with a Student Assembly Authority (Studentische Urversammlungs-Behörde, or Stub), the first statute (Section 27) of the now autonomous university in 1996 reestablished the “Student Body of the University of Basel” as a “representative body under public law,” thus reinstating mandatory membership.
The first significant date in the modern history of student self-organization is 8 May 1868. Although statutes were drafted, no significant activities came about since membership was not compulsory for students. In 1884, a second attempt, again with new statutes, was slightly more successful. The goal was for an assembly of paying members (one franc per semester) to send three representatives to a student committee. These representatives, together with representatives from the color-wearing fraternities, would form a body that would in turn create a three-person board, called the “Commission.” The president, or Präses, was to be a wildcat, while the secretary and treasurer were to be fraternity members.
Dominance of fraternity members? or of wildcats?
In 1898, with the involvement of the Senate, a third attempt was made with a model favoring the color-wearing fraternities, approved by a three-vote majority of the third of students who cared about the issue. In response to the dominance of the fraternity members, a “free student movement” emerged, aiming to create a mandatory Student Union with a majority of “wildcats” in a fourth attempt. It failed in 1910, however, due to resistance from the Senate. In the early war years, the Delegate Convention (DC) of the fraternity members largely dominated with a free hand, provoking dissatisfaction among the unorganized students and leading to the convention’s dissolution by the Senate. The replacement created in 1918 was the organization that lasted fifty-six years, until 1974. The founding benefited from a period when there was more understanding for collective problem-solving because of the general emergency caused by the war.
Mandatory membership and equality
The statutes of the Student Union from 14 June 1918 mandated membership and equality of all students and set forth a broad purpose for the representation body. Articles 39 and 40 even foresaw university authorities consulting the Student Union, organized in a general student council and faculty councils, on all matters concerning students. The Senate and university oversight committee, the Kuratel, approved these statutes but did not feel bound by them. Previously, the wildcats were represented by one person in the Delegate Convention (DC), but now the situation was reversed: they had one representative as DC-X on the board of the “civilian” Student Union. The status of foreign students was notable: in the overall organization, they had equal rights, but in “national questions,” their voting rights could be revoked, and at least two-thirds of student faculty bodies had to be Swiss. Dr. iur. Felix Staehelin, the Student Union president in 1932, noted that in his time, only the self-co-opting board existed, with no general assembly, and it had no independent legal personality. The fraternity members still dominated the general Student Union. In 1935, a wildcat was elected president for the first time – Hans-Peter Tschudi, who would later serve as a Swiss federal councillor for the Socialist Party.
A complaint from the first vice president Peter Zschokke (Faculty of Law) – later a member of the Grand Council and, as head of the Department of Education, a supervisor of the university – has been preserved. This complaint would become a recurring theme throughout all the years and decades of student politics: too much individualism and self-interest, too little “empathy for fellow members and willingness to help each other.”
Another voice was that of Rudolf Kaufmann (Faculty of Philosophy and History), who was president of the Student Union twice (1923/24 and 1928/29) and later became president of the National Commission for Heritage Protection. Kaufmann recalled no disputes with the university authorities but frequent disagreements among the students. He listed important areas of activity: maintaining the student newspaper reading room, organizing lectures, and securing book discounts. Additionally, there were issues regarding the cafeteria and scholarships, as well as support for the university sports field planned by the Academic Sports and Gymnastics Association. The nationwide sanatorium in Leysin for students suffering from tuberculosis was also supported. Later, a travel service and ultimately unsuccessful efforts for a discount with the BVB (Basel Public Transport) were added.
In 1931, a special working group of the Student Union developed a lecture and discussion forum where pressing contemporary issues could be discussed. Adolf Portmann, then a young lecturer in zoology, also participated. The circle saw itself as a “site for the movement of opposing forces” and adopted the Yin-Yang symbol, expressing creative polarity, as its signet. This was then adopted by the entire Student Union and remained so until the 1970s. When the fiftieth anniversary was celebrated in 1968, the Student Union even used this signet as a postmark on letters.
Rebuffing the right-wing
In 1931, a debate arose about whether to impose an additional franc fee alongside the sports franc to support “labor colonies,” where students could earn money during semester breaks by working on projects such as road construction in mountain areas, as the economic crisis had left no other earning opportunities. The Marxist Student Group saw this as unwanted competition against the unemployed and opposed the project. Their spokesman was the future Social Democratic Council of States member and high school principal Willy Wenk. Peter Böhringer, president from 1931 to 1933, recalled that there were both far-right and far-left groups. The latter were fewer in number but, in his opinion, more intelligent. Hans Peter Tschudi described it as extraordinary that the newly established General Assembly of the Student Union in 1935 entrusted him, a leftist, with the presidency by a significant majority. Later, however, the presidency reverted to fraternity members. In 1962, it was said that Hans Rudolf Strasser was the first wildcat in a long time to take office.
Political sympathies at Swiss universities generally leaned to the right. In Basel, however, the liberal and humanistic spirit prevailed even in difficult times. The Basel Student Union successfully ensured in 1936 that Swiss students did not send a delegation to the Olympics in Berlin.
In 1932, the Student Union adopted new statutes. They demanded the right to submit proposals to the Senate on all academic matters; the Senate even accepted it, but nothing of the sort was included in the University Act of 1937. The students, accompanied by the rector, were granted an audience with the Social Democratic director of education Fritz Hauser but were “quite decisively” dismissed. According to Tschudi, the Student Union also made “some requests” during the consultation on the University Act, but they were so insignificant that they were not detailed in the annual report.
In 1940, the Student Union was confronted with the issue of what kinds of political activity should be permissible. The board became involved in the committee for the introduction of mandatory premilitary training (paramilitary sports courses) before the vote on 1 December 1940. The proposal, deemed centralist, was decisively rejected by a majority of Swiss voters, motivated by federalist instincts. However, the canton of Basel-Stadt accepted it with 64.2 percent. The student opponents of the proposal accused the board of violating the statutes, which forbade partisan political engagements. The supporters justified their stance by saying it was a national issue and a proposal concerning the students.
Sympathy and solidarity demonstration with Oslo, 6 December 1943
“What do these events tell us? What lesson must we draw from them? To us as students, the bravery of the Norwegian comrades has shown how inseparably science and true humanity are linked. We realize from such an event that the freedom of intellectual creativity is the essential foundation for all pursuits of knowledge. How else could science be able to seek the truth? Let us ask ourselves the question of conscience: would we be strong enough to take the same stance? Like in Oslo, we – the students of the University of Basel – also have the duty, as fighters on the front line, to fully commit ourselves always and everywhere to the ideal of humanity and freedom. This should foster our love for our country and strengthen our will to defend it. To inspire this in our fellow citizens is one of the noblest and most honorable tasks for academics in the current time, and it is also our best response to the news that has brought us together here.”
After the unanimous adoption of a resolution, the participants reportedly dispersed quietly and composedly, inwardly “charged.” A collection conducted at the exit with a Swiss flag yielded so much money that the heavy coins were difficult to carry. A large stone thrown into the German consulate at that time was likely of student origin.
During the Cold War
Karl Heusler, Faculty of Philosophy and Natural Sciences, president of the Student Union in 1946/47 and later the last president of the Kuratel (until the end of 1995), highlighted in his report the contacts with foreign countries that were reestablished out of strong postwar solidarity. These included connections with the sponsor university Utrecht, the reopened University of Strasbourg, and students in Hungary. Significant obstacles had to be overcome to obtain travel permits and foreign currency. To travel to Holland, four visas were required: from France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and Holland. Heusler’s successor Kurt Jenny, Faculty of Law, later president of the Church Council, member of the Grand Council, honorary lecturer at the Faculty of Law, and in the 1990s president of the Board of Trustees of the Europe Institute, highlighted another dimension of foreign contacts in his 1954/55 report: the student majority ensured that no relations were established with the Communist-oriented International Union of Students (IUS) based in Prague. “We Basel students,” he wrote, “had to prevent the activities of amateur student diplomats and advocate for a clear foreign policy committed to the values of freedom, democracy, peace, and neutrality.”
Close ties to distant countries
The Student Union was provided with its own rooms in the basement of the Wildt’sches Haus, inaugurated in 1955. They used these for official welcomes of newly enrolled students and hoped to establish a student center where “students of different nations” could hold discussion evenings. Equally important were the regular dance evenings held at that time. In the 1960s, this led to the creation of the Bal des Nations, prominently featuring the entire consular corps as honored guests. Contacts with foreign students, many from former colonies, became increasingly important during that decade. In 1963, the Student Union organized a Basel weekend for around 300 federal scholarship recipients from across Switzerland. The students sought family accommodations, and three prominent professors, Karl Barth, Max Imboden, and Adolf Portmann, lectured on the issue of development aid from theological, legal, and scientific perspectives.
The Hungarian uprising in October 1956 hit the Basel student body like a meteor. According to contemporaries, the shocking event pulled students out of their university “isolation” and “united” them with the general public. On 25 October, they organized their first torchlight procession, with wide public participation. Later, a special student organization, Immediate Aid Switzerland-Hungary, worked on providing concrete support, organizing transports to the country, including products from the Basel chemical industry, and helping incoming refugees from the East continue their studies. The student officials were proud to have free access to a telex connection and to receive information about events in Hungary faster than the Swiss News Agency. The Student Union’s efforts led to a significant increase in prestige among the public. Adolf Hasler, Faculty of Law, president from 1959/60: “In general, we had the impression that the authorities were showing more understanding for our problems.”
kolibri
Two developments from 1957/58 stand out. In 1958, the student magazine kolibri was first published, continuing almost uninterrupted until 1995 (University Library call number: Un 1491). Also in 1958, the student Jubilee Commission was established in preparation for the 500th anniversary of the university. During the general assembly, Martin Staehelin (Faculty of Philosophy and History) was elected early as president for 1960 to enable thoroughgoing preparations for the event. He planned to use his official appearance in the anniversary program to both praise the good study conditions and accuse the students he represented of complacency, laziness, and disinterest.
Starting preparations so “early” in 1958 aligned with the University’s overall early timeline for the event. In 1957, the Student Union had sent a two-person delegation to the 500th anniversary celebrations of the University of Freiburg “to get an idea of the expected tasks and responsibilities.” Preparations for 1960 thus consumed a large part of the Student Union’s attention over the next two years. A heated debate arose over what the Student Union should gift to their alma mater. The board came up with the glorious idea of giving a liqueur set to complement the coffee set already present in the rector’s office. The project met with resistance partly on ethical and principled grounds, and partly from practical and economic motives. Nonetheless, the board prevailed. Peter Saladin (Faculty of Law), president in 1958/59, wrote: “The guests of the numerous rectors have taken care of the hand-cut glasses, and so they can still be seen today in the rector’s treasury.”
An especially noteworthy fact in the Student Union history is that in 1962 it elected Dora-Ursina Wiesmann as the first female vice president. As a list of Student Union presidents from 1950 to 1975 clearly shows, three distinct phases can be observed in the presidencies: in the first phase, the traditional fraternity members dominated, followed by a phase of wildcats without any relevant origin, and in a third phase, as new color-wearing students – the (red) representatives of the Progressive Student Body.