From the basement to the St. Moritz Design Gallery: Hugo Wetzel's Poster Collection

„I have some old posters from our printing shop in my basement, do you want them?“ This question was posed by Hugo Wetzel, owner of the eponymous printing press, to the St. Moritz Documentation Library in a phone call.

These „old posters“ are more than that: what came to light is a wonderful discovery. Thirty rolls with around 2,000 posters from the years 1930 to 1985, collected by the Wetzel printing company, neatly sorted by years. Experts restored the posters with great effort and, as much as possible, returned them to their original condition.

In addition to artistic subjects, the collection largely comprises purely typographic posters that provided brief information about events such as balls and offers. After the event, the posters usually disappeared without a trace, were torn up and thrown away. Fortunately, the Wetzel family stored some copies in the darkness of their basement. For today, they unveil a lost history of long-past events.

31 posters are currently displayed at the St. Moritz Design Gallery.