Talk about the Landschaftspark Wiese

Silvan Aemisegger, Project Manager at the Department of Public Works and Transport in Basel-Stadt, came to Centrepoint on 25^th March to give a talk on the Landschaftspark Wiese, an area of natural beauty straddling the Swiss-German border that many of us know and love.

Among his 57 slides were views of the park in sunshine and snow, photos of the park’s wildlife and most iconic trees, and several early maps and plans. His graphic reconstruction of settlement development in the Basel region between 1840 and 2020 was especially striking: the darker the slide became as small villages like Bottmingen and Birsfelden merged into one large conurbation, the more the Landschaftspark stood out as an island of green. Why was it left untouched? Because that’s where our water comes from!

I appreciated learning: how the Wiese River and the Rhine River influenced each other’s pathways over the centuries, resulting in the Rhine’s S-shaped bend in Basel; how humans were actively engaged in managing the path of the Wiese in the Middle Ages to support agriculture (both crops and livestock); and how the Wiese supported the rise of the timber, paper, and textile industries. – Roxane B.

I was surprised to learn that the Rhine was straight thousands of years ago and that it was the Wiese, with glacial sediments, that created the now famous “knee” of the Rhine. – Doreen P.

I can only echo Doreen. It was a good presentation with many new and surprising facts. A big thank you to Silvan. – Jutta S.

You never know what you’re going to learn at a Centrepoint talk. I learnt a new word: palimpsest! A palimpsest is a manuscript page from which the original text has been scraped or washed off so that it can be reused. Silvan described the Landschaftspark Wiese as a palimpsest, meaning that the area has been continually reshaped over thousands of years, partly by nature and partly by human activity. I thought it was a very apt use of the word. – Maryann B.

The passion with which Silvan described the Landschaftspark Wiese greatly increased my appreciation of having this protected green space so close to our city. His talk has inspired me to return and look more closely for features I had previously overlooked or not fully understood: the 1764 boundary stones, the buttress roots of the fluttering elms, the “water mushrooms,” and last, but not least, the abundant hare population (though, fortunately, I did spot a hare there last year!). – Steve B.

I enjoyed the presentation, which I found very informative. Though I’ve been to the park many times, I was not fully aware of its diverse nature and purposes, or of how effectively and creatively the Swiss and German managers have worked together. – Wayne B.

Text: Bronwen Saunders