Basel in the news (sort of)

So I'm browsing yesterday's Washington Post and stumble across this article about the mathematician Leonhard Euler. Of course, I don't know the first thing about math, but the name sounded familiar because there's a well-known hotel in Basel called the Euler (which, incidentally, I've heard is old and shabby and no one recommends staying there despite being 5-star...but I digress). Anyway, sure enough it turns out Euler was originally from Basel.

But what really caught my eye was this statement in the article: "He never returned to Switzerland, possibly because he was offended that his Dutch-born wife would not qualify for citizenship."

One of the perpetual hot-button issues in Switzerland seems to be immigration and citizenship (during our time there, it seemed like every election featured something aimed at controlling immigration...which is not to say it's not topical here as well). And of course Baby was not eligible for Swiss citizenship despite being born there (although personally, I think citizenship in an EU member country would be far more valuable than Swiss citizenship because of the wider employment opportunities). Anyway, it sort of made us laugh that even 300 years ago citizenship restrictions seem to have chased away one of Switzerland's favorite sons...