A Basel cloister shelters a little-known Schweizerhalle memorial

A memorial to the 1986 Schweizerhalle chemical disaster is tucked away in the cloister of Basel Minster, where few people encounter it, SRF reports. Sculptor Bettina Eichin created it after Sandoz withdrew a commission for a work marking the company’s centenary.

Sandoz had commissioned Eichin to make a fountain and two bronze market tables as a gift to the city of Basel in 1986. One table was to display fruit and vegetables; the other, paper, files and scrolls. A model of the work had already been presented to the city.

Then, on the night of 1 November 1986, a Sandoz warehouse in Schweizerhalle caught fire. Firefighting water contaminated with chemicals flowed into the Rhine, killing hundreds of thousands of fish and contaminating drinking water for millions of people.

“The fire and its consequences were a huge shock for Basel,” Eichin said. She decided the work had to acknowledge the disaster. She left one table empty and added a poem by Johann Peter Hebel about transience, along with the date of the fire.

Sandoz representatives were unhappy with the work, Eichin said. The company later withdrew the commission and opposed displaying the tables anywhere in Basel. It said employees should not have to be constantly reminded of the date, according to Eichin.

After a lengthy dispute, the tables found a home in the small cloister of Basel Minster, a church. Eichin said she was pleased they were there, away from the glare of public attention. Minster pastor Lukas Kundert also considers the cloister an appropriate place for a memorial. He said some members of the congregation had worked for Sandoz and were suddenly seen as “the bad guys in the city.”