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Basel Historical Museum

For schools

Basel Historical Museum has a wide range of tours and events for schools, vocational schools, universities and other educational institutions.

Tours and events for schools

Description of the offer

Basel Historical Museum has a wide range of events for schools, universities and other educational institutions, whether on its exhibitions or its collection presentations.

Please click on the museum to find out more:

We also offer tours and events tailored specifically to teachers, university students and groups with special needs. We look forward to receiving your inquiries by +41 61 205 86 00 or vermittlung.hmb(at)bs.ch.

Our tours and events

  • are tailored to the children’s age and year/grade
  • actively involve the children taking part
  • bring history to life for children and young people
  • bridge the gap between past and present
  • are a great way of enhancing classroom work
  • are interesting and informative but also entertaining

Duration

The tours last 90 minutes as a rule. Please understand that we have capacity for only one class per time slot and exhibition. Bookings are possible within the regular opening hours.

Costs

  • classes within the Tarifverbund Nordwestschweiz (TNW):
    free of Charge
  • University of Basel: CHF 250.–
  • others: CHF 180.– + admission (Barfüsserkirche CHF 8.–, Musikmuseum or Haus zum Kirschgarten each CHF 5.– per person, max. CHF 90.– each class), children under 13 years and teaching person: Admission free of charge
  • max. 2 accompanying persons

Bookings

Please book your visit at least two weeks in advance. Guided tours in the Barfüsserkirche take place from Tuesday to Friday, guided tours in the Haus zum Kirschgarten and the Musikmuseum from Wednesday to Friday.

We look forward to receiving your inquiries by +41 61 205 86 70 or by form:

Tours and Events at the Barfüsserkirche

Leaps in Time – A Brief History of Basel
We do history for school groups of all ages

Our offers for all school levels at a glance

Leaps in Time, the new exhibition on the history of Basel, is self-explanatory and can of course be visited without a guided tour. But why go without? You bring the questions and the curiosity – we supply the answers and have some interesting stories to tell. Our guided tour is more than just a stimulating crash course in 100,000 years of Basel history. For example, we use our plentiful supply of historical views and maps to pilot you through the centuries of Basel’s urban development. Or we focus on one particular theme and watch it unfold through the ages – water and sanitation, for example, or power and politics, major disasters and their aftermath, accomplishments and their consequences, or migration and its impact on the city.

Leaps in Time – A Brief History of Basel
My Basel, your Basel, our Basel!

(primary and intermediate)

Basel is changing all the time, both architecturally and socially. Until just recently it took pride in its international airport; but no one boasts about flying any more. For centuries, no building was allowed to be taller than the cathedral; but these days, the cathedral look tiny in comparison to the skyscrapers nearby. To make sense of these changes, we will view them as part of Basel’s development through the ages. Splitting into small groups and using the richly documented exhibition as a basis, participants will discover both the changes and the continuity, whether over time – the Middle Ages, the Modern Age and the present – or with regard to one particular aspect, such as Basel’s architectural, social or cultural identity. The outcome could well be a vision or prediction of the changes of the future.

Leaps in Time – A Brief History of Basel
Time travel

(primary and intermediate)

Fifty fascinating objects from 100,000 years of history and with them an invitation to time travel! Our new exhibition on Basel’s history is a distillation of our past from the Neanderthals to yesterday. After a brief introduction (with a long rope!) participants will select the object or event that interests them most. Supported by various media stations they will then have a chance to learn more about it and its larger historical context. Having become “experts”, they will then take their classmates on a journey through time and try to sell them the period they have just discovered. Will they succeed? Was everything really better back then? Or should we consider ourselves lucky to be living in the present age?

Leaps in Time – A Brief History of Basel
Who makes history?

(seniors, aged 16 and over)

History goes back a long way; yet it starts yesterday and will continue today. This exhibition shows six interpretations of some of the burning issues of the recent past, which still have the power to arouse passions even today:

Separated but connected – The relationship between Basel-Stadt and Basel-Land
Space and scope – The Alte Stadtgärtnerei
Prosperity and dependency – Basel and the life sciences
Arriving and staying – Migration and integration
Disaster and turning point – The Schweizerhalle chemical spill
A passion for red-blue – FC Basel

Participants will form groups and engage with the different interpretations presented. They will then discuss their impressions and what they have learned. What is history? Who makes history? Who writes history? And which events in our own lifetime will Basel Historical Museum want to exhibit 50 or 100 years from now?

Dance into the Beyond
Stories of Disease and Death

(from year 9/grade 8)

For many centuries, diseases and epidemics posed a far greater risk than they do today. This tour centres on the Basel Dance of Death. Taking this famous cycle of paintings as a starting point, the children will examine how people in times past coped with death and the mental images they formed of death. They will look discerningly at the paintings and consider the possible interpretations. Working in small groups, they will identify the many different messages of the Dance of Death.

Thunderbolts and Shark’s Teeth
Finds from Old Treasure Chests
(preschool to year 5/grade 4

Collecting helps us make sense of the world. Things that are valuable or important are kept in treasure chests. Things that are curious or weird fire the imagination. How did people used to collect? And why did they collect? And what do their collections tell us about what they knew of the world? On this tour, there will be stories about unicorns and the children will get to see fossils, coins, bone fragments and much else besides. There will also be some very special treasure chests and some truly exceptional collectibles to admire. The children are invited to bring along one or two items from their own collections.

Unicorns, Dragons, Gods
Fantasy Worlds of the Past

(years 5–9/grades 4–8)

Medieval tapestries are teeming with “Wild People” and other fantasy creatures. Giants, dwarves and dragons have always captured people’s imagination. Even famous scientists have been known to study them! But such curious and precious things were not only studied, they were also collected and preserved. Live lizards were used as models for casts, statuettes of ancient gods were copied and mythical creatures were depicted in paintings and sculptures. All these things helped people to understand the world. On this tour, the children will explore how the people of the past pictured the world and how their images changed over the centuries.

Discovering and Exploring the World
The History of Science

(from year 8/grade 7)

How did the people of the past imagine the world to look? Since when have we known that the earth revolves around the sun? How did the stargazers of times past use an astrolabe or an armillary sphere? The sciences also have a history. The continents had to be discovered, the size of the universe calculated, the laws of physics understood and the human body explored. The objects preserved in historical cabinets of curiosity attest to our forebears’ thirst for knowledge. On this tour, the children will examine globes, measuring instruments and other curiosities and so embark on a journey of discovery to the discoverers of the past.

The Celtic City and Roman Period
Basel’s First Settlers

(years 3–6/grades 2–5)

Buried in the ground beneath our feet are several thousand years of Basel history. The Celts built two important settlements on the bend in the River Rhine now occupied by Basel and then the Romans conquered the hill where the cathedral now stands and made it part of their empire. Jewellery, pots, tools and eating implements tell us about the everyday lives led by those early settlers. The museum’s two models of those first settlements give us a vivid impression of just how developed the cultures were. The children will take a closer look at selected objects and by learning what they are made of and what their purpose was will discover the history of the Celts and Romans in Basel.

Celts, Romans, Alemanni
An Archaeological Mystery Tour in Basel

(years 6–8/grades 5–7)

The more thoroughly the archaeological remains still buried in the ground are studied, the more complex the past becomes. The Celts had built two major settlements before the Romans conquered the hill where the cathedral now stands. Their arrival led to the development of a hybrid Celtic-Roman culture. In later centuries, the Alemanni and Franks brought some important innovations of their own. What do archaeological finds tell us about these highly developed cultures? On this tour, the children will learn all about the early history of Basel and how it was settled. Taking selected objects as examples, they will be able to reconstruct the changes introduced by each new culture, specifically the Celts, Romans, Alemanni and Franks.

Tours and Events at the Haus zum Kirschgarten

Clock Time
Measuring Time Yesterday and Today
(years 3–5/grades 2–4)

How did clocks used to look and how did they work? And what other methods of dividing up the day and measuring time did people have? What is a Midday Cannon? How does a sundial work? What were hourglasses used for? In the course of this tour of the watch and clock collection, the children will learn how telling the time has changed over the centuries. They will discover different timepieces, solve riddles, give clocks names, paint their favourite clock and try things out for themselves, using sun, sand, fire, water and oil to understand elementary chronometry.

Why do We Decorate Christmas Trees?
Stories about Christmas
(years 2–5/grades 1–4)

This event is available only in December.
Christmas is coming and several Christmas trees decorated with historical decorations are on display in the period rooms of the Haus zum Kirschgarten. The trees demonstrate how Christmas tree decorations have changed over the years; because they used not to be festooned with fairy-lights, glass balls and tinsel as they are today. Hanging on the twigs next to the candles were rather nuts, apples and little gifts. This year we are once again offering our popular Christmas event “Why do We Decorate Christmas Trees? Stories about Christmas” in which the children learn all about Christmas customs past and present.

Fifty Rooms for One Family
Life in the Haus zum Kirschgarten
(years 3–7/grades 2–6)

This tour is a chance to explore the huge house that 240 years ago was home to the silk-ribbon manufacturer, Johann Rudolf Burckhardt, and his family. The children will first be sent on a quest to help them gain an impression of the place. Next they will work in groups to find out more about the rooms and objects they have seen. They will learn how the wealthy owners used to live, what their children played with and what the servants had to do.

Bourgeois Living Spaces of the 18th Century
A Hunt for Clues in the Haus zum Kirschgarten
(from year 7/grade 6)

This visit to the Haus zum Kirschgarten built by the manufacturer Johann Rudolf Burckhardt around 1780 will include a hunt for clues in an interior once inhabited by the haute bourgeoisie of the Ancien Régime. The tour will focus on various themes which, working in groups, the children will examine from the point of view of the master’s family and that of the servants. The results of this group work will then be presented in the course of a tour through the house. By engaging with the house and its contents from radically different angles, the children will be able to piece together a mosaic of bourgeois life in the late 18th century.

Tours and Events at the Musikmuseum

Instrumentissimo The History, Function and Playing Methods of Musical Instruments

(years 5–10/grades 4–9)

Using eyes and ears, the children will explore the differences in sound and build between familiar and unfamiliar, old and new instruments. In the process, they learn about different ways of producing sound, which are still valid today when instruments are divided into categories. An essential part of the tour is also the opportunity to try out selected musical instruments, which is not an everyday fun for young and old.

Sound Pictures
Musical Treasures from 16th-Century Basel

(for all age groups)

Music was essential to the cultural life of Basel in the Renaissance. Famous Basel Renaissance men like Felix Platter, Andreas Ryff, Bonifacius and Basilius Amerbach studied music theory, played music themselves and collected musical instruments. After an introduction to the show, the schoolchildren will be piloted to the most interesting exhibits. They will discover Renaissance music and the instruments it was played on, some of which they will be able to try out for themselves. They will have fun with a curious system of musical notation in which the notes are represented as pears, apples or drinking vessels, they deal with the craft of printing and become writers with pen and ink themselves.

Sound Worlds
(for children and young people with disabilities)

The participants in this event will discover music as a means of communication and expression. They will experience the wide range of musical sounds that can be produced by various instruments. Through individual and collective experimentation with many different instruments they will be able to savour all sorts of noises, sounds and rhythms. This interactive tour is aimed at the visually impaired and at individuals with a mental or physical disability of all age groups. The visit will be planned in advance and the tour adapted to the specific needs and wishes of those taking part.

Parties of schoolchildren without a guided tour

Description of the offer

Parties of schoolchildren are welcome to visit even without a guided tour. To ensure everything goes smoothly, we would be grateful if you would bear in mind that

  • parties of schoolchildren without a guided tour can visit only during regular opening times
  • must be accompanied by at least one teacher
  • must not exceed 25 children or young people per group
  • cannot visit an exhibition or part of an exhibition if another school class is already there.

Costs

  • classes within the Tarifverbund Nordwestschweiz (TNW): free of charge
  • others: Barfüsserkirche CHF 8.–, Musikmuseum or Haus zum Kirschgarten each CHF 5.– per person,
    max. CHF 90.– each class, children under 13 years and teaching person: free of charge
  • max. 2 accompanying persons

Bookings

You must book your visit at least two weeks in advance.

We look forward to receiving your inquiries by +41 61 205 86 70 or by form:

Educational Materials

Offers

«Guilds and Societies in Basel» (years 6–13/grades 5–12 and vocational schools classes). Dossier in German with materials

«Borderlines – Basel 1933–1945» (secondary levels I and II and vocational school classes). Dossier in German with materials

Animalistic! The Sound of Animals (primary level incl. nursery school, secondary levels I and II as well as vocational school classes). Dossier in German with materials

 
Contact

Basel Historical Museum
Management & administration
Steinenberg 4
PO box
CH – 4001 Basel

Reception: +41 61 205 86 00
historisches.museum(at)bs.ch

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Wednesday to Sunday 11 AM to 5 PM
Wednesday to Sunday 11 AM to 5 PM