Kleinbasel neighborhood is probably one of the crucial haunted locations in Basel, Switzerland. In an unassuming home at Rebgasse 38, the well-known exorcist Johann Jakob von Brunn visited twice to banish the ghosts lingering in it.
Within the winding alleys of Kleinbasel, the place centuries-old buildings lean towards each other and twilight appears to collect early, there as soon as stood a home that nobody of their proper thoughts dared strategy. On the home that seemingly was additionally used as a rectory, a married couple who lived there from 1888 to 1907 reported about ghostly occurrences from earlier tenants. It additionally appears that it was haunted lengthy earlier than they moved in.
Learn Extra: Take a look at all ghost tales from Switzerland
There are a variety of ghost tales across the Kleinbasel district in Basel. At Rebgasse 38, there have been supposedly two ghosts haunting this explicit constructing. First the useless spouse of a person who remarried after her loss of life, and a girl named Grethi Beck was stated to own the Evil Eye.

A Home the Shadows Would Not Depart
The home at Rebgasse 38, also referred to as the Haus zur alten Trotte (Home of the Previous Wine Press) had lengthy been shrouded in ominous whispers. Locals spoke of unseen presences, shadows that moved on their very own, and the chilling sound of phantom footsteps when nobody else was close to.
Some claimed it was the work of the “Gray Man”, a spectral determine of indeterminate origin recognized to hang-out sure houses in Basel and this explicit working class district..
Learn Extra: The Grey Ghost of Claraplatz: Kleinbasel’s Neighborhood Spirit
Margrethe (Grethi) Beck was stated to have been the maid when Pastor Johann Jakob Übelin (1793-1873) lived there. He was a Swiss Protestant theologian , deacon , chronicler , draftsman , botanist and writer. He then labored in Basel for 27 years as a deacon for St. Theodor’s Church and, from 1845 to 1867, as a building clerk. In 1818, Übelin married Margaretha, née Brenner (1798–1840), with whom he had eight kids.
It’s stated that she stole cash from the pastor, and when she died, she appeared to him and the later tenants as a ghost. Folks have been satisfied that she prompted unhealthy issues to occur to the folks of Kleinbasel. And the best way folks discuss in regards to the case, it appears prefer it was additionally when she was alive. There’s not a lot data about how she died, but additionally in loss of life, she scared her neighbors. She was stated to be sitting on the steps on the stairwell, and regardless that Johann Jakob Übelin obtained one other clergyman to exorcise her, her haunting appeared to persist.
An Exorcism In opposition to the Darkness
The federal government and the clergy made each effort to counter the superstition and the tales associated to it. On Sundays the clergymen would problem warnings from the pulpit in opposition to fortune-telling and satan worship and would advise folks to not imagine in them. It’s unknown whether or not the haunting occurred when Johann Jakob Übelin nonetheless lived in the home, or it was after.
Ultimately, the town turned to its most famous non secular defender: Pastor Johann Jakob von Brunn, a cleric famed for his boldness in confronting the supernatural and was supposedly a well-known ghost hunter in Basel. He had allegedly confronted so-called witches, expelled demons from livestock barns, and purified cursed wells — and now he was summoned to confront the menace at Rebgasse 38.
It’s stated that von Brunn entered the house armed with holy water, relics, and an arsenal of historic prayers, undeterred by the suffocating dread that clung to the partitions. It’s stated he banished the ghost of the previous housekeeper to a nook of a room on the primary flooring of the home.
And for a time, peace returned to Rebgasse, though the household canine would howl in the direction of the exact same nook of the room as if it sensed a presence there. And later tenants would nonetheless see her, sitting on the steps of the steps.
The Scandal of Johann Jakob Übelin Waking a Ghost

As talked about, it wasn’t the one ghost stated to hang-out the home, and the opposite one, was the useless spouse of Johann Jakob Übelin. Margaretha died in childbirth round 1839 and would later come again as a ghost. In November 1845, Johann Jakob Übelin prompted a scandal when it got here to gentle that he had an affair together with his prepare dinner, Henriette Rosine Trautwein.
Due to this he needed to resign his place and married Henriette in 1846 as she was now pregnant. Collectively, they’d a son and he lived out his working life till 1867 as a building clerk. He died in 1873.
After the entire scandal it was stated that the ghost of Margaretha got here again to hang-out them due to her husband’s infidelity, though she was useless. Who is aware of when it actually began. It was stated she haunted the rectory till she too was banished by the ghost hunter Johann Jakob von Brunn.
A Shadow That By no means Fairly Light
Although the hauntings ceased, the home was by no means actually freed from its repute after the ghost of Grethi Beck and the useless spouse of Johann Jakob Übelin. Some declare that, on sure nights, you possibly can nonetheless sense a chilly, baleful gaze from the higher window, although nobody lives there.
At present, the spot the place Rebgasse 38 as soon as stood bears little hint of its haunted historical past. On the handle that used to belong to the constructing that was haunted there may be now a kindergarten listed. However the outdated tales persist in whispered retellings amongst native ghostwalk guides, a reminder that in locations like Kleinbasel, some shadows depart their mark perpetually so long as somebody remembers.
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References:
Spuk und Geister im alten Basel
Tour Description «Stroll of legends» Place 1: Claraplatz and Rebgasse
Johann Jakob Übelin – Wikipedia