A Special Day for the Verein Elsass-Freunde Basel in Ungersheim

30 September 2025

Alsace, Baden, and the Basel and Northwestern Switzerland region have maintained close economic, social, cultural, and political ties for centuries. This history has been covered in various previous articles.

Despite national borders, various cross-border organisations and projects have emerged since 1945. It is no exaggeration to say that this Upper Rhine region even serves as a model for pragmatic European cooperation.

Remarkably, the Basel region has played a pioneering role in the emergence of this cooperation. One of these organisations is the cultural association Les Amis de l’Alsace Bâle, founded 40 years ago in Ungersheim

Ungersheim

The occasion was symbolic of the common heritage: to make the Écomusée d’Alsace, which was opened in 1984, known in Basel and its surroundings. The initiator of the Écomusée d’Alsace, architect Mard Grodwohl, and his colleague, Basel architect Jürg-Peter Lienhard, took the initiative. The cultural association Elsass-Freunde Basel/l’Association culturelle Les Amis de l’Alsace Bâle was founded on April 25, 1985, in Ungersheim, near the Écomusée.

For this reason, forty years later, residents from Basel and Alsace still speak the local German-Alemannic dialect in Ungersheim! The flourishing association symbolises not only centuries-old connections but, above all, the future: cooperation and exchange at the regional level.

To confirm this friendship and connection, Vivienne Gaskell, president of the association, and Jean-Claude Mensch, mayor of Ungersheim, planted a linden tree on the grounds of the “Maison des Natures et Cultures” in Ungersheim. Planting trees, especially at this time, is looking to the future, and the heart-shaped leaf of the linden corresponds to the association’s logo.

The event at the “Maison des Natures et Cultures” was already a journey of discovery through nature, organic farming, and the local population’s commitment. The Écomusée now enjoys a reputation that extends far beyond Basel. The association now also plays a role in promoting the “Maison des Natures et Cultures,” which is special in many ways.

La Maison des Natures et Cultures in Ungersheim

The day ended in style: with a concert by the Orchestre d’harmonie Vogésia under the direction of Valerie Seiler. Not only the Basel March by Willy Haag, Alsatian Accents by Benoît Bilger, Europe by Santana, and Happy Birthday to You by Stevie Wonder, but even an Alsatian Alphorn Melancholy by Lothar Pelz was performed, among other arrangements.

The Alphorn

Valerie Seiler was born in 1969 in Mulhouse and has a close musical and artistic connection to this tri-country region, having even completed her studies in orchestral conducting in Basel. Perhaps the centuries-old status of ally/Zugewandter Ort (until 1798) of the Confederation still plays an unconscious role.