The Construction Worker

History of the work

On the north side of the town hall, where the building meets the State Chancellery, a larger-than-life sandstone figure stands at the corner of the building. The art guide of the Society for the History of Swiss Art identifies it as the figure of a construction worker by Karl Schenk; Wikimedia Commons dates it to 1942.

The figure belongs to the 1940–1942 rebuilding of the town hall by Martin Risch, during which the articulation of the north facade was also redesigned; according to the art guide, only the nine mullioned windows of the ground floor survive there from the original building. The client was the canton, whose head of building was the Social Democrat Robert Grimm. According to Wikipedia, Grimm's socialist ideas, combined with the 'spiritual national defence' of the time, can be read in the sculptures made then. A worker as a facade figure fits a second work in the building: in the cantonal parliament chamber, Karl Walser's 1942 mural 'Aufbau' (Building Up) shows, according to Wikipedia, the construction of the city of Bern.

Karl Schenk (1905–1973) was born in Bern, the son of an art metalworker. Under pressure from his father he trained as a gravestone carver, but at the same time began to draw and paint. In 1934 he went to Paris on a grant, where he met the sculptors Édouard-Marcel Sandoz and Arnold Huggler. Back in Bern he worked as a freelance sculptor and painter; SIKART highlights his portrait busts of senior politicians and military men. For the town hall he also drew designs in 1941 for murals in the reception hall, which survive. In the last twenty years of his life he devoted himself mainly to painting, often of children and animals.

The figure is best seen from Rathausgasse, where the corner with the State Chancellery projects into the street.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · GSK-Kunstführer im KGS-Inventar: Rathaus Bern (KGS 645) · Wikipedia (de): Rathaus (Bern) · Wikipedia (de): Karl Schenk (Künstler) · SIKART: Karl Schenk · Wikimedia Commons: Bern, Rathaus mit Sandsteinstatue Bauarbeiter (Karl Schenk 1942)