The ‘Paxmal’ by Karl Bickel – a peace memorial
by Gabrielle Ege
There are different ways to reach the “Paxmal”1. There is a daily bus service to the Walenstadtberg rehabilitation clinic. On foot, always uphill, the destination can be reached in about an hour. Alternatively, you can drive from Walenstadt to the Schrina Hochrugg car park. From there it is about a 10-minute walk to Paxmal. If you prefer the athletic version, want to be more athletic, you can climb up directly from Walenstadt.
I had always wanted to visit this extraordinary monument to art. It was also tempting to combine it with a hike. On the ascent from the Walenstadt clinic, you can enjoy the marvellous landscape, with views down into the valley to Lake Walen and up to the proud peaks of the Churfirsten. When you reach your destination, you are in for a big surprise. The size and the view of the monument are overwhelming. The closer you get and the closer you look, the clearer the intention of the artist Karl Bickel becomes. The Paxmal, the peace monument in Walenstadtberg, is a unique work of art dedicated to humanism. It is a great creative achievement.
The artist created this monument as a symbol of peace. “The Paxmal is based on the fundamental idea of peace for everyone. It is not a place of worship, but a quiet, peaceful place for inner reflection, contemplation and meditation. Of meditation on ourselves and our forms of society, for the purpose of reformation and new insights into how we can give meaning to existence as useful members of our community.”2
The Paxmal is situated high above the deep blue waters of Lake Walen and below the steep cliffs of the Churfirsten, that reach into the sky. Karl Bickel succeeded in uniting his place of peace with the magnificent landscape.
Background and biography
But what led to the erection of a peace monument on Schrina Hochrugg (1289 metres above sea level) in Walenstadtberg? In 1912, the young graphic artist from Zurich travelled to Italy, where he was deeply impressed by Michelangelo’s monumental sculptures in Florence. Shortly afterwards (1913), Karl Bickel fell seriously ill with tuberculosis. The disease was so advanced that there was little hope for recovery. As a result, he had to spend thirteen months in the tuberculosis sanatorium in Walenstadtberg.
Not only the immediate threat to his own life, but also the outbreak of the First World War had a lasting impact on Karl Bickel. Also, the workers’ uprising in Zurich in 1918 made him change his heart. He promised to erect a monument of peace if he would be cured of his serious illness, in order to give his life a meaning. It was a miracle that he survived. In gratitude for his recovery, he worked on his vision of creating a “temple of peace, a place of peace for all people”. Whilst still on his sickbed, with the help of medical textbooks, he drew some sketches for the pictures on the left wall of the monument. Bickel was a dedicated philanthropist, a conviction which is reflected in his work.
For 25 years, between 1924 and 1949, he lived on the Schrina Hochrugg. During the summer months, he worked on his Paxmal under material and societal hardship, almost without help from outside and with great self-discipline. During this time, he lived with his family in the attic of the monument and in the at the time glazed basement, which he used as a studio.
While working on the Paxmal, Bickel meticulously created marvellous, oversized human figures in relief using the mosaic technique. His idea was to capture and depict the essence of man. His central concern was the question of an ideal society, the human life cycle, the development of the individual person and its contribution to society.
His work as a graphic artist and engraver enabled him to build the Paxmal. Above all, the monument amazes visitors today who still know Karl Bickel only as a master of small formats. He was one of the most important post stamp designers in Switzerland.
Outdoor area and hall of the Paxmal
The outside area of the temple is enclosed by two 16-metre-long side wing walls. In between is a large, square water basin in which the landscape is reflected. Here too, Bickel’s vision of the unity of man with nature, the elements of life and the manifold reflections of his environment is expressed in a meaningful harmony. If you are situated in front of the temple building, a staircase leads directly to the centre of the portico. Depictions of animals and plants are engraved on the pillars. On the roof gable, the tympanum, the word ‘Pax’, which means peace in Latin, is carved in large stone letters. On one of the six pillars is the homage to: “The complete and good man”.
In six mosaic pictures on the left-hand side wall, Karl Bickel depicts earthbound, physical life with larger-than-life human figures: “The principle of becoming human. This is life – man and woman – that takes place in the same way all over the world”, as Karl Bickel expressed it in a television program from 1966. The pictures show “man and woman – encounter – the couple – conception – the expectants – the child”. In the extension of the left-hand side wall, “The family” and “The small community” are depicted in the hall as a continuation of emerging.
The right-hand side wall is dedicated to spiritual life. Bickel expresses it as follows: “Now comes the second principle, which is more difficult to realise, the principle of preservation of humanity, and the great event concerns everyone (preservation and procreation), to place it in a significant framework, to incorporate it into nature.” The pictures show: “the Awakening – the Struggling – the Expecting – the Receiving – the Seeing – the Rising”. The right-hand side wall ends with its extension into the hall with the words “The Great Community”, “The Working Community”, “Law”. In the bottom left-hand corner, a seated figure – a self-representation – can be seen holding a board with the words “Community, Labour, Law” written on it. Not only is the artist himself depicted in the hall, but there also have to be real people: his later wife, his son, his parents, Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, Carl Spitteler, Ferdinand Hodler and others.
The centre picture in the hall depicts “Old Age as Completion”, the peaceful evening of life, life fulfilment and community building. It depicts a seated, elderly couple, probably Karl Bickel and his wife.
In his human figures, Karl Bickel has successfully succeeded in a lively and large way to depict the physicality, facial expression and emotional state of a person in small, tinted mosaic tiles. These mosaic figures cannot deny their role models, Michelangelo and Hodler. Karl Bickel’s work of art became a message for all people and a lasting monument to peace. Especially in times of war, the subject of people and peace was very much on his mind.•
1 The Paxmal is a Peace Monument, whose basic idea is peace for all.
2 It is worth watching a few short films by Swiss television, including (1966), 10 vor 10 (1982) and Der Briefmarkenstecher (2002). All the quotations are from the Antenne short film by Swiss television DRS, which was broadcast in 1966.
Sources:
Material from the Karl Bickel Foundation
Museum: www.museumbickel.ch
Patrons’ association
Karl Bickel 1886–1982
ge. Karl Bickel was a well-known Swiss artist, graphic designer, stamp engraver and one of the most important stamp designers in Switzerland. Of the five hundred and fifty designs that he submitted to his largest employer, the then Swiss PTT (Postal, Telephone and Telegraph services), he himself realised one hundred, carving the motifs into the steel printing templates under a microscope – millimetre by millimetre, line by line. In his more than forty years as a stamp engraver, he had a decisive influence on the appearance of Swiss stamps, portrait stamps, Pro Juventute stamps and the peace stamp at the end of the Second World War. Pestalozzi was his favourite stamp. They made him famous at home and abroad. They made him world famous. Karl Bickel was not only a well-known steel engraver, but also created numerous other works of art. In 1966, he was awarded the Sargans Culture Prize.
His poster art can also be counted among the pioneering and brilliant achievements of Swiss commercial art. In the 1910s and 1920s, heyday of Swiss posters, he created numerous lithographed artist’s posters for the booming economic sectors such as fashion, tourism and the chocolate industry. In addition to his stamp work, he left numerous works, drawings, oil paintings and sculptures. He was a multi-talented artist.
He died at the age of 96 in the place where he was given his second life. He also had plans to establish a museum near the Paxmal. In 2002, twenty years after his death, the museum was opened in the centre of the Swiss town Walenstadt. Two exhibitions are held there each year. “The procreation and preservation of the procreated is everyone’s business […]. It should be freely accessible to everyone. The work serves everyone, just as stamps serve everyone.” This is what he said in the Swiss television programme (short film from 1966 in the series) when he celebrated his eightieth birthday. He handed his work of art, the Paxmal, over to the PTT of the Swiss Confederation as a gift. In 2016, Postimmobilien AG left the Paxmal to the Karl Bickel Foundation.
