Basel time

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Sundial as a Basel clock at Basel Minster (south-east). The normally vertical midday shadow falls on a 1, not, as usual, on a 12.

The Basler Zeit or Basler Uhr was a special feature in counting the 24 hours of the day and the time of day indicated by them. It was not the hour that had elapsed, but the last hour that was started and still running that was stated. The Basel clock was based on the medieval Horen (prayers of the hours), whose designations with numerals also related to the beginning of each hour. The Basel count z. B. Noon and midnight not as the twelfth (elapsed hour), but as the first (or 13th, dawning hour). In Basel, for example, B. the church clock at noon is not twelve (past hour / s), but one (or thirteen, beginning hour).

The Basel clock was used for over 400 years and showed a number of hours that was one higher than that of the surrounding country.

Legends about the origins of the Basel period

There are two common legends:

The city of Basel was surrounded and besieged by enemies, and some of the city's discontented wanted to support a conquest. Therefore, a plan was forged to take the city by surprise in the dark of night, which should be triggered by the strike of the clock at midnight. When the tower attendant found out about this shortly before midnight and there was too little time to silently alert the guard, he put the clock forward by an hour, thus preventing the attack signal. The conspirators became unsettled and everyone believed they had missed the appointed hour. In the meantime, the tower attendant managed to warn the city commandant and call for reinforcements. Now the traitors had no choice but to sneak back into their houses, and the besiegers abandoned their plan.

During the time of the Council of Basel (1431 to 1449), the council participants put the clock on the cathedral forward by one hour in order to shorten the long sessions and get to lunch more quickly.

abolition

Clocks on Basel Minster (south-west); Display comparison (beginning of November): The shadow of the sundial with Basel time is at a little more than ½ 2 o'clock, the hour hand of the mechanical clock showed a little less than ½ 1 o'clock after the Basel clock was abolished due to the observed equation of time . Today's display is CET .

This special hour counting was in effect in the city for over 400 years. In 1779 the city council decided to align Basel with the usual hour counting and issued a decree . The majority of the population, however, did not adhere to them, and there was great confusion. The attempt was abandoned after only three weeks.

It was not until 1798, with the end of the Old Confederation and the establishment of the Helvetic Republic , that the last hour of Basel struck . This was abolished on February 1, 1798. The transition took place smoothly by setting the hands back ten minutes a day over unchanged dials in the last days of January.

The sundial on the cathedral

The sundial on Basel Minster still shows the old Basel hour. Since a mechanical clock shows the CET right below , the two hour counters can be compared directly.

In Basel museums there are other sundials and clocks with the 1 at the current position of 12.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cf. Jakob Messerli: Uniform, fast on time , s. Lit., p. 34.
  2. ↑ The Basel clock was perceived as abnormal in the Basel area, but the principle on which it is based on counting the days to indicate the date was taken as a matter of course. We are used to the latter even today. If we were to adapt our date specification to our system of hour specification, z. B. October 13th will become October 12th, because our October 13th only ended at the beginning of our October 14th. In between it would be October 12 and z. B. half a day , but only with the time with z. B. 12 o'clock and ½ hour is common.
  3. ↑ Cf. Jakob Messerli: Even, punctual, fast , s. Lit., p. 33