90 years ago today: the Graf at Basel’s first airport
On 12 October 1930 LZ 127, the most successful airship in the history of aviation, which transported more than 100 t of cargo on 1.7 million km between 1928 and 1937, landed at Basel's Sternenfeld airport, which had been inaugurated exactly one year and one month earlier, on 12 September 1920.
By 1939, the location in Birsfelden had gained a market share of more than 30% in the Swiss aviation sector and handled around 448 t of freight and 241 t of mail in 1938.
Plans to build the intercontinental airport near Kloten sealed Birsfelden's fate in 1944, to the benefit of Zurich. From 1946, the current Euroairport was created on French territory, while the Birsfelden Rhine Port on the former Sternenfeld site now processes the lion's share of Switzerland's oil imports.
Peter F. Peyer has portrayed the history of Basel's airports in his book «Vom Sternenfeld zum Euro-Airport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg». The Birsfelder Museum is planning to hold a major exhibition at Sternenfeld from 7 May to 20 June 2021. (ah)