The Basler artist Rudolf Maeglin (1892 – 1971) opted to be a painter, thus acting against the upper middle class tradition of his family. In 1933 he was one of the founder-members of the antifascist Gruppe 33. He has lived in the workers’ quarter of Basel, Klybeck, since 1947, has worked in factories and on building sites, painting what he experienced during the day at night. Through his paintings of building sites he advanced to become a documentarist of the rapid changes in his hometown.