Haus Zum Wolf

Spalenberg 22, 4051 Basel

By Joanna Rother

Colonial goods store: What can be read out of a façade painting

If you raise your eyes while walking through Basel‘s old town, you might notice the façade of the Haus Zum Wolf, which reminds us of a time in which everyday consumer goods such as coffee, tea, cocoa, or even sugar could only be purchased in stores for colonial goods and were traded as luxury goods.

The Fischer family, who run such a store in the Haus Zum Wolf commissioned the paintings as a way to call attention to their business. Emil Fischer opened his Spezereihandlung here in 1877, which is the former name for a merchant business for delicacies. Under his son, Emil Fischer junior, the company grew to five sales outlets in 1914 and Emil Fischer Junior specialized in colonial goods. In the period 1915-1918 the façade was designed in sgraffito technique by the commercial artist Burkhard Mangold. While the upper part with a gold-colored image of a wolf is a tribute to the name of the house, which it already bore in the 14th century, the lower part is a romanticized depiction of the extraction of the goods formerly offered for sale here. On the barral in the picture we can find the initials EFzW, presumably for Emil Fischer zum Wolf. Maybe the last letter is a B for Basel. The date 1861 above the golden wolf is a reference to the opening of Emil Fischer Senior‘s first store.

Figure 1 Facade of the House Zum Wolf. Photo by Joanna Rother 10.10.2022

Figure 2 Detail of facade showing the EFzW barrel. Photo by Joanna Rother 10.10.2022

Figure 3 Detail of a Turkish man drinking coffee. Photo by Joanna Rother 10.10.2022

The closer one looks at the picture, the more disturbing details come forward. The people depicted are reduced to mere stereotypes of their countries of origin and are shown with the typical products of the country, which they extract (or, in the case of coffee, consume, see Figure 3) in a peaceful to submissive manner.

Figure 4 Detail of a Chinese women harvesting tea. Photo by Joanna Rother 10.10.2022

Figure 5 Detail of a native American carrying tobacco leaves. Photo by Joanna Rother 10.10.2022

Figure 6 Detail of an African woman with bananas and a man with cacao beans. Photo by Joanna Rother 10.10.2022

Figure 7 A European looking woman holds a package. Photo by Joanna Rother 10.10.2022

Presumably the order of the depictions is deliberately chosen, as the people from the outer to the inner part of the picture bear less and less resemblance to the white Europeans and also wear less clothing, thus were “less civilized” according to the understanding of the time. The images in the background of stacks of barrels and a crane for loading goods, as well as a train, sailing ship, and steamboat shows the material infrastructure that was essential to the transport of the colonial goods. Showing off technical progress is a common theme in the discourse on Western superiority.

Figure 8 A steam train, a crane, a container and a stack of barrels in the background. Photo by Joanna Rother 10.10.2022

Figure 9 A steamboat in the background. Photo by Joanna Rother 10.10.2022

These references to infrastructure and technical progress are what connects the European continent to the peoples depicted in the images. They are the conditions that make this highly unequal relationship possible. While a classical argument to justify colonialism is that it developed so called primitive societies, these developments were mostly in support of the export towards Western countries.

The images, without doubt artfully executed, are problematic in that they continue to serve a narrative of romanticizing and glorifying colonial trade, reducing and exoticizing people of origins other than European to stereotypes, and are not questioned by the people who pass them by. The depictions are perceived as beautiful, as an aesthetic change in the classical cityscape, without considering the historical context and the actual circumstances of the extraction of colonial goods. They convey the impression of harmonious coexistence between colonial powers and oppressed indigenous populations, an image that is imprinted and not conducive to dealing with the oppression involved in colonialism.

Therefore, it is precisely the beauty and artistry of the images that is problematic in this context: thus, aesthetics is foregrounded and stand in the way of a historically critical view. In this context, there is a need to raise awareness of the impact of such images that we encounter in everyday life and their immense power and potential to shape our view of the world.

References

Basel-Stadt. (2021). Online Archivkatalog des Staatsarchivs Basel-Stadt. https://query.staatsarchiv.bs.ch/query/detail.aspx?ID=1515785

Keller, B. (2014). Die Lebensmittelversorgung im Basler Stadtbild. NIKE Bulletin. https://www.nike-kulturerbe.ch/fileadmin/user_upload/Bulletin/2014/1-2_2014/Bulletin_1-2_14_Basel.pdf