Alex Walter DIGGELMANN

Alex Diggelmann was an orienteerist, balloonist, cross-bowman and one of Switzerland’s best-known graphic and poster artists. After three years as a primary teacher he began the training as a drawing teacher. He attended the vocational school in Bern, the Académie Julian in Paris and the Academy of Book Art and Graphic Art in Leipzig. Back in Switzerland, Diggelmann worked as a free-lance graphic artist in Zürich and since 1938 as a teacher at the cantonal high school. In World War II, he became famous for his Red Cross posters. For the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, he designed the official poster and two of the four official Olympic stamps. After World War II, he designed the UEFA Cup for the European Football Union, and also the medals for the World Ski Championships that are still awarded in his design. Mostly on his trips to various Western and Southern European countries he painted landscape watercolors. He also produced murals and book illustrations.

Diggelmann is one of only two artists to win three medals at the Olympic Art Competitions. The other one was author Josef Petersen who won three silver medals.