COURSE
MATERIAL INVESTIGATIONS
CONCRETE IN SWITZERLAND
University of Basel, Urban Studies, MA Critical Urbanisms, Fall 2023
Guest Lecturer: Prof. Sarah Nichols, EPFL
POLLUX'S SPEARS
THE POWER
CEMENT’S POWER IN SWITZERLAND
Cement is the binding agent of concrete. It is a homogeneous cast material and a constant feature in reinforced concrete. However, the tree graphics published in 1946 depict it as a different type of binder—one that glues the construction materials industry into a power structure. In these graphics, cement is shown as a range of construction materials surrounded by a network of companies that produce it.
These three graphics form the centerpiece of a statement titled Cement and Building Materials Foundation, published under the pseudonym Pollux, which aims to unmask corporate and political power structures. The true identity of the author was unknown at the time of publication. The Swiss conservative press heavily criticized Pollux's work. Finally, in 1953, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung revealed Pollux’s identity and exposed that the author had social democratic communist sympathies. However, by that point, he had already been taken to East Germany.
Behind Pollux was Georges Baehler, a hydroelectric engineer who had worked in Switzerland, France, and Morocco for eighteen years before turning to his own form of research. These three graphics were created by an engineer with firsthand knowledge of the materiality of construction, aiming to disrupt the cartels that structured his professional life.
POLITICAL CONTEXT OF POWER RELATIONS
HUNGRY CEMENT INDUSTRY
This article first considers the graphics in their biographical and political context and then within the broader history of organizational and anti-imperialist drawings. Although Pollux was unmasked, Baehler’s obsessive archive of work and half-finished research projects was never fully explored.
In the mid-1930s, Baehler transitioned from what he called building systems to questioning them. Just before this, he worked on the construction of a dam in Morocco. Baehler described this experience as both his most significant achievement as an engineer and his first encounter with colonialism and the repression of European finance in the country. He later moved from Morocco to Paris, where he worked for the French Communist Party. With a group of collaborators, he published works under the name Pierre Lenoir, criticizing the power of global finance, including an investigation into the French cement industry.
THE BATTLE
REAL WAR CRIMINALS
The outbreak of war forced Baehler to return to engineering. While managing a hydroelectric power plant in Corrèze, he was arrested by the Vichy regime for his activities and sent back to Zurich. There, he found a job at Elektrobank, a company that finances and plans hydroelectric projects around the world. Baehler also continued to write articles and founded a publishing house that produced antitrust manifestos on topics such as the electrical and insurance industries, as well as the complicity of German companies supporting the Nazi regime. During his time in both France and East Germany, Baehler's research was published in the journals and newspapers of left-wing governments.
Common themes in Baehler's work include the concentration of power in the hands of a small group and the transfer of this power through family ties. His work also addresses the tendency toward monopolization in various industrial sectors and the oligarchic overlap of corporate and political power. Baehler aimed to expose the intertwining of sectors through finance and the power that arises from these relationships. He saw that capitalism was no longer a free-market system; the state had become an economic instrument, and the world economy had become an interconnected network of capitalist states, each experiencing varying degrees of monopoly.
HIDDEN LINES
FAMILY CONNECTIONS
Three cement industry plates represent different views of the Swiss building material industry in the mid-century. Financial institutions are placed at the top, reflecting their importance. The main figures or institutions are listed below, with affiliated businesses from other sectors on the sides, and foreign supporters located at the bottom. Boxed text indicates organizations of all types, while circles represent powerful individuals. Arrows leading from a circle to a box indicate board membership. Arrows between two boxes show joint board members, and pointed lines indicate that the organization at the far end is supplementary. A dashed line indicates that the person, relationship, or connection no longer exists. Pollux traces family connections and close personal relationships using thin lines. The plates show only the connections, that is, parts of the network that confirm interpenetration.
While wood was still processed locally, stone was carried in independent areas, steel was produced in only a few local zones, and cement was organized nationally. Pollux's graphics also show the vertical integration of the cement industry. The arrows connect the land to companies, factories, and empires, revealing how cement production sought new markets, new resources, and fuel to process them.
THE OCTOPUS
DIRTY NETWORK
Pollux's maps evoke the great icon of expansionism: the octopus. A 1904 cartoon depicts the Standard Oil Company as an octopus with an oil tank head, its arms pressing on Congress, the steel and copper industries, and one arm aimed at the White House. Pollux replicates this motif in his graphics with a crossed network.
THE COSTS OF ARCHITECTURE
NEVER ENDING DEVELOPMENT
Pollux's criticism of the cement industry is directly aimed at power and profit. As the post-war economy grew rapidly in Switzerland, the country's cement consumption also increased, becoming one of the highest in the world. Pollux's graphics, which trace the flow of power and information, make visible both the management network and the material effects of monopolies. This flow of information was maintained through the hands of a limited number of powerful individuals, while the bitter smell of mining areas and transforming cities reflected this influence.
The cement and building materials industry, in general, extracts, produces, and normalizes; searches for energy sources; organizes logistics networks; and activates infrastructure. As the cement industry's own history states, cement use represents the development of a country on a global scale, and this development is never complete.
''It is possible to make the anatomy of imperialism understandable only by revealing the concentration and interconnections using the graphic method.’’ Sarah Nichols
POLLUX'S SPEARS
Nichols, Sarah. “Pollux Spears,” in Grey Room 71 (Spring 2018), pp. 141-155
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