![Drummers from the Alti Stainlemer clique in 1933 as “the Swiss swastika procession”.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/Basler-Fasnacht-Titel-300x225.jpg)
Basel Carnival in the 1930s: don’t upset the Nazis
At Basel Carnival, anyone and anything is fair game. But from 1933 things got tricky.
![The themes addressed at Basel Carnival in 1933 didn’t go down at all well with the local NSDAP chapter in Basel.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/Fasnachtssujet-1933-226x300.jpg)
![Provocative appearance by the Alte Stainlemer at Basel Carnival in 1933.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/umzug-eiserner-besen-300x223.jpg)
![“Wanted: foreign weeds … cruciferous plants preferred” (the German term contains the word for swastika (Hakenkreuz). Excerpt from the Fasnachtszeedel (flyer) distributed by the Alti Stainlemer clique in 1933.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/fasnacht-1933-bild-3-1-300x147.jpg)
A police department on edge
![From 1934, “insulting” the National Socialists was prohibited. The Rätz-Clique ironized this rule with a stamp saying “Genehmigt Polizeimister” (approved, officer) on its lantern …](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/genehmigung-polizei-300x273.jpg)
![… on the street this has been painted over, on whose orders we don’t know. The references to Nazi Germany remained subtle: the plucked imperial eagle has feet shaped like swastikas, while the piccolo players are “Aryan Gretchens” with spiked helmets.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/raetz-clique-umzug-300x177.jpg)
![The local chapters abroad, for example in Basel, were supposed to establish an indestructible bond to their fellow Germans in the homeland.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/nsdap-ortsgruppe-basel-216x300.jpg)
![](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/schnitzelbank-183x300.jpg)
At Basel Carnival, anyone and anything is fair game. But from 1933 things got tricky.