I found a solution:
Using
imshow
within Basemap includes an png into the plot as background image. To obtain the right background image, I used the export feature of OSM with boundaries taken from the Basemap constructor:
m = Basemap(llcrnrlon=7.4319, urcrnrlat=52.0632, urcrnrlon=7.848, llcrnrlat=51.8495, resolution='h', projection='merc') im = plt.imread('background.png') m.imshow(im, interpolation='lanczos', origin='upper')
http://earthdata.nasa.gov/wiki/main/index.php/GIBS_Supported_Clients#Script-level_access_to_imagery
import subprocess
import matplotlib.pyplot
import mpl_toolkits.basemap
l,u,r,d=(7.4319,52.0632,7.848,51.8495)
subprocess.call ('gdal_translate -of GTiff -outsize 400 400 -projwin {l} {u} {r} {d} TERRA.xml Background.tif'.format(l=l,u=u,r=r,d=d),shell=True )
im=matplotlib.pyplot.imread('Background.tif')
m = mpl_toolkits.basemap.Basemap(llcrnrlon=l, urcrnrlat=u, urcrnrlon=r, llcrnrlat=d,
resolution='h', projection='merc')
m.imshow(im, interpolation='lanczos', origin='upper')
matplotlib.pyplot.show()