Karl Bickel

Karl Bickel (1886–1982 ) was a Swiss engraver and graphic designer also known for the construction of the Paxmal memorial above Walenstadt. During his career he designed one hundred Swiss stamps but also others for the countries Luxemburg, Portugal and Liechtenstein. He followed up on his studies and attended evening courses in drawing and graphic at the Zurich University of the Arts. In 1912 he trained as a sculpture in Carrara, Italy. where he contracted the pulmonary disease Tuberculosis and entered a sanatorium in Walenstadtberg in 1913 and 1914. onwards he would be an engraver for the Swiss postal services. He was responsible for several sets of Swiss stamps, including the first airmail stamp of the Swiss Postal Telegraph and Telephone services (PTT) in 1923. He also designed some engravings for the portrait stamps for the Pro Patria and Pro Juventute. He quit from the PTT in 1965. It is located in Schrina Hochrugg above Walenstadt. It was inaugurated in 2002. It is located in a disestablished textiles factory. The philatelist Heinrich Moser is said to have assembled a collection of all his stamps.

Personal life In 1924 he moved from Zurich to Schriina Hochrugg above Walenstadtberg where he built a house which would later become the Paxmal.