Alex Walter Diggelmann

Biographical information

RolesCompeted in Olympic Games
SexMale
Full nameAlex Walter•Diggelmann
Used nameAlex Walter•Diggelmann
Born20 August 1902 in Unterseen, Bern (SUI)
Died21 November 1987 in Zürich, Zürich (SUI)
NOC Switzerland
Medals OG
Gold 1
Silver 1
Bronze 1
Total 3

Biography

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 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 Zürich, Diggelmann worked as a free-lance graphic artist and, from 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. In 1936 Diggelmann won gold for the poster Arosa I. This poster is confirmed by illustrations. Posters Pontresina, Ice hockey, Female Figure Skater, Racing days, Einsiedeln, Arosa II and Chateau d’Oex could be identified with a high degree of certainty. For Gstaad I and Gstaad II, five posters from the period since 1931 are options.

In 1948, a total of 11 works by Diggelmann are listed in the catalog. Of these, five were classified as Applied Arts. Apart from the medal-winning Poster, World Championship for Cycling and World Championship for Ice Hockey, the Poster for National Skiing Courses could be identified with great certainty. Probably all posters were color lithographs. Unlike the other works, World Championships for Cyclists is not explicitly labeled as a poster. Diggelmann also submitted the Roller Hockey Player, a painted round glass window.

His Aviation Picture Book and Studies for Same refers to the book The Conquest of the Sea of Air. The History of Aviation from the Beginnings to the Present by Walter Dollfus (text) and Diggelmann (illustrations). It was published in Zürich in 1948 and comprises 128 pages with 60 tipped-in pictures in the format 21.5 x 30 cm. And last, but not least, there is Football Player, an unidentified oil painting.

No photo is available from the work Icarus, a bas-relief made of plaster. Well-known on this subject, however, is his graphic Icarus falls from the sky as the sun melts its wings. A picture of Diggelmann’s Medal for the Swiss Roller Skating Championships on colored glass is published in a Swiss book about the 1948 Olympics.

Results

Games Discipline (Sport) / Event NOC / Team Pos Medal As
1936 Summer Olympics Art Competitions SUI Alex Walter Diggelmann
Painting, Applied Arts, Open (Olympic) 1 Gold
Painting, Applied Arts, Open (Olympic) AC
Painting, Applied Arts, Open (Olympic) AC
Painting, Applied Arts, Open (Olympic) AC
Painting, Applied Arts, Open (Olympic) AC
Painting, Applied Arts, Open (Olympic) AC
Painting, Applied Arts, Open (Olympic) AC
Painting, Applied Arts, Open (Olympic) AC
Painting, Applied Arts, Open (Olympic) AC
Painting, Applied Arts, Open (Olympic) AC
1948 Summer Olympics Art Competitions SUI Alex Walter Diggelmann
Painting, Graphic Arts, Open (Olympic) AC
Painting, Paintings, Open (Olympic) AC
Painting, Applied Arts, Open (Olympic) 2 Silver
Painting, Applied Arts, Open (Olympic) 3 Bronze
Painting, Applied Arts, Open (Olympic) AC
Painting, Applied Arts, Open (Olympic) AC
Painting, Applied Arts, Open (Olympic) AC
Sculpturing, Medals And Plaques, Open (Olympic) HM
Sculpturing, Medals And Plaques, Open (Olympic) AC
Sculpturing, Medals And Plaques, Open (Olympic) AC
Sculpturing, Reliefs, Open (Olympic) AC