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Huge tank farms, logistics companies, wholesalers, freight railways as far as the eye can see – the Birsfeld Rheinhafen is a strange and unromantic hodgepodge. Semi-trailers puff past, a diesel locomotive lazily dragging some tank cars to a bottling plant. A large part of Swiss oil imports is handled in Birsfelden. There is a smell of gasoline in the air. But just a few meters away, it smells nicer: Delica, a subsidiary of Migros, and Bertschi roast their coffee here.
Only the name of Sternenfeldstrasse recalls the times when people in this area craned their necks upwards; not the stars, but airplanes, those crazy flying machines that caused a stir back then. On September 12, 1920, a hundred years ago today, the grand opening air show was held for the inauguration of the airfield. Aviation pioneer Eugen Dietschi recalls in his book “From Ballon to Jet”: “Olten’s first lieutenant, Max Cartier, landed on the star field on Sunday morning. He had invited me, his schoolmate, to accompany him to this premiere. (…) In just under half an hour we flew from Dübendorf to Basel, took a long tour over the city on the Rhine and then started to land. (…) The star field has been christened for landing. “
A couple of flight fanatics founded the Basel Aviatik association, and after just three years Handley Page Aircraft Company (later Imperial Airways) operated regular services from Croydon Airport in London. The Belgian Sabena flew from Amsterdam via Brussels to Basel. This was followed by the Badisch-Pfälzische Luftverkehrsgesellschaft, which operated the Frankfurt – Mannheim – Karlsruhe – Freiburg – Basel route.
Connected with all the cities of the world, rivalry with Zurich
In the following years, money was also raised through flight meetings and lotteries to be able to finance the airport infrastructure. Since 1924 the operator of the starfield was the mixed-economy airfield cooperative Aviatik both in Basel.
The star field wrote the history of Swiss aviation. In 1925, Balair was founded, taking off with five F-III Fokker aircraft purchased from KLM. Later, what was then the first Balair merged with Zurich Airline Ad Astra Aero to form Swissair. The demand was there and it was increasing rapidly. In 1926, seven airlines landed on the grass runways and the airfield soon turned out to be too small. In 1927 a new station building and a larger hangar were built.
Air traffic increased steadily and, in 1939, the Starfield was the second largest airfield in Switzerland with a market share of about a third of Swiss air traffic. “Basel had reached a position that it could never reach again later,” writes Peter F. Peyer in his history of the airport, “From the starfield to Euro-Airport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg.” At that time, the network of lines stretched from Marseille in the south to London in the north and Vienna in the east. Until the outbreak of World War I, the starfield served 13 line destinations.
But Zurich had better cards. With the planning of the intercontinental airport near Kloten in 1944, the fate of the starfield was sealed. Development opportunities in Birsfelden were limited: in the north the Rhine, in the west the forest, in the east the town and city. The new Rhine port of Birsfeld was also in the planning phase. Shortly after World War II, local politicians considered building an alternate airfield. The most discussed variants were:
Birsfelder Hard: The project would have been geographically closer to the star field. But it would have required the practically complete cleaning of the Hardwald. Even then, most saw it as absurd and had no political chance.
Neuallschwil-Burgfelden: The airfield would have been built directly on the state border, too close to the city.
Bruderholz: This project would have required extensive leveling work. There was also a high risk of embankment accidents. A project on the Binninger Höhe called Paradieshof would have raised similar problems.
Blotzheim won the race in France. The opening ceremony took place on March 8, 1946. Aviation said goodbye to the star field in August 1950. From then on, Zurich set the pace. Balair, who was forcibly merged with Ad Astra, had disappeared from Basel. Zurich was chosen as the headquarters of the new company, Swissair. The second Balair felt the same. It was launched in 1948 by the Basel Aero Club section and was initially more of a service provider (driving, training, taxi, tourist flights, and photography). It was not until 1957 that it entered the charter business. In 1959 Swissair acquired a 40 percent stake in Balair. In 1993 it merged with CTA, Swissair’s second charter company.
The Lucky Strike hangar is now in Alsace
A reminiscent of the times of the star field survived one by one: the so-called Lucky Strike hangar. It was dismantled in Birsfelden and rebuilt at the Blotzheim airfield. You can still see the cool cigarette ads from the 1950s.
The Birsfelder Museum at Schulstrasse 29 is planning a larger exhibition on the star field next year. It should be an exciting journey back in time.
