The Sarasin family is a Swissbourgeois family from Basel that has been prominent since the early modern period in commerce, textile manufacturing, and banking. Of Huguenot and Lorraine origin, the family has no relationship to the bourgeois Sarasin family of Geneva despite sharing the same name. The family distinguished itself from the 19th century onwards particularly in the banking sector and has been active in numerous religious, scientific, and cultural institutions.[1]
Gédéon's son Peter Sarasin (1608–1662) married into the Burckhardt family, establishing a pattern of matrimonial alliances with prominent Basel bourgeois families that continued for generations. These alliances included connections with the Heusler, Werthemann, Stehlin, Vischer, Christ, and Hoffmann families. Historical funeral orations suggest that women in the family were largely confined to the private sphere, reflecting the social norms of the time.[1]
Political prominence
The family's political ascension began when Peter Sarasin (1640–1719), Gédéon's grandson, entered the Small Council in 1687, marking the Sarasins' rise among Basel's counselor families. His grandson Hans Bernhard Sarasin became the family's first mayor of Basel, serving from 1803 to 1812. At the federal level, family members distinguished themselves as delegates to the Diet, including Hans Bernhard, Felix Sarasin the Elder, and Felix Sarasin the Younger.[1]
The Sarasins arrived in Basel as established merchants and initially engaged in the linen trade. From the 17th century, they expanded into silkribbon manufacturing within the Verlagssystem. By 1680–1690, Hans Franz Sarasin (1649–1719) operated a manufactory in the city. Felix Sarasin the Elder joined the firm Sarasin und Heusler, which traded in colonial goods, indigo, and cotton, while also focusing on ribbon production.[1]
In 1837, Karl Sarasin founded the silk ribbon factory Sarasin & Cie, which he managed from 1855 with his brother Rudolf Sarasin. They rapidly expanded commercial relationships to French Atlantic ports, as well as Amsterdam, Riga, New York, and Rio de Janeiro. Additional manufactories were established in Basel's Sankt Alban district, Lörrach in Baden, and Sissach. Karl Sarasin, demonstrating paternalistic concern for workers, served as president of a commission on factory workers' conditions mandated by the Swiss Society for Public Utility and promoted worker housing construction and other corporate social policies. He also contributed to modernizing Basel's infrastructure and represented Switzerland at the 1851 Great Exhibition in London.[1]
Karl's granddaughter Gertrud Oeri-Sarasin (1891–1975) was among the few family women to speak publicly. After an early divorce, she dedicated herself to family life before becoming involved from 1941 in the Basel Women's Associations Liaison Center.[1]
Banking enterprise
The renowned Banque Sarasin, a private bank, traces its origins to the firm Riggenbach & Cie, which Alfred Sarasin took over in 1893. The company became A. Sarasin & Cie in 1900, then Banque Sarasin & Cie in 1987. Family representatives remained in management positions until the early 21st century. Alfred E. Sarasin, partner and director, served as president of the Swiss Bankers Association from 1965 to 1986. The bank was transformed into a joint-stock company in 2002 and has been majority-owned since 2011 by the Brazilian Safra Group under the name Banque J. Safra Sarasin.[1]
Scientific contributions
At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, cousins Paul Sarasin and Fritz Sarasin, both zoologists, devoted themselves to natural history and ethnology. They undertook joint scientific expeditions to the British and Dutch colonies of Ceylon and the Celebes. Numerous Southeast Asian objects from their research and collecting activities are housed at the Museum der Kulturen Basel. They also brought the first elephant to the Zoo Basel from their expeditions. Paul Sarasin was co-founder and first president of the Swiss Commission for Nature Protection and instigator of the Swiss National Park, while Fritz Sarasin served as central president of the Swiss Natural Sciences Society.[1]
Geographic dispersion and colonial connections
Most family branches resided in Basel before dispersing during the 20th century. Growing postcolonial research has highlighted, beyond the Sarasins' major role in Basel's history, their international commercial relationships and the cultural and scientific aspects of their global connections. Particularly notable are connections with French colonies in America, India, and Africa (Senegal), as well as imports of coffee, sugar, and cocoa from Guadeloupe and Martinique, raising questions about possible family participation in the Atlantic slave trade.[1]
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Hermann Wichers (22 July 2024). "Sarasin (BS)". Historical Dictionary of Switzerland. Translated by Elena Vuille-Mondada, Laurence Margairaz. Retrieved 2 August 2025.
Bibliography
Koechlin, Carl: Rudolf Sarasin. 1831-1905, in: Basler Jahrbuch, 1907, pp. 1-34.
Almanach généalogique suisse, vol. 3, 1910, pp. 378-385.
Sarasin, Karl Friedrich: Geschichte der Familie Sarasin in Basel, 2 vol., 1914.
Joneli, Hans: Gedeon Sarasin und seine Nachkommen, 1928.
Sarasin-von Geymüller, Hans Franz: Neue Erkenntnisse zur Geschichte der Familie Sarasin, 1978.
Sarasin, Philipp: La ville des bourgeois. Elites et société urbaine à Bâle dans la deuxième moitié du XIXe siècle, 1998 (German 1990).
Röthlin, Niklaus: "Sarasin", in: Neue Deutsche Biographie, vol. 22, 2005, pp. 436-437.
Schär, Bernhard C.: Tropenliebe. Schweizer Naturforscher und niederländischer Imperialismus in Südostasien um 1900, 2015.
Simon, Christian: Reisen, Sammeln und Forschen. Die Basler Naturhistoriker Paul und Fritz Sarasin, 2015.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
Switzerland 