H. U. Steger (1923–2016)

H. U. Steger was born in Zurich in 1923. He attended the city’s school of art and design, where he would later spend twenty years training fashion and handicrafts teachers. Early in his career, he became known for his caricatures in the Swiss magazine Nebelspalter and his satirical drawings for the Weltwoche, Tages-Anzeiger and other newspapers. Steger later went on to write and illustrate two marvellous children’s books, ‘Reise nach Tripiti’ (‘Travelling to Tripiti’, 1967) and ‘Wenn Kubaki kommt’ (‘When Kubaki comes’, 1976).

In 1973, he won the top prize in the inaugural competition for souvenirs, organised by the Federal Department of Home Affairs and the Schweizer Heimatwerk. The year 1997 marked the end of his regular work as a political caricaturist. On the occasion of his 80th birthday, a large exhibition of his works was held at Zurich city hall. In 2006, Steger donated his portraits of politicians and journalists, along with his political cartoons from 1945 to 2000 to the Archives of Contemporary History at ETH Zurich. He has given our organisation selected works of commercial graphic art and an interesting collection of satirical drawings.