26 Facts About Heinz Gaugel

Heinz Gaugel created multiple installations in the US and Canada, the most well-known of which is the Behalt cyclorama at the Amish and Mennonite Heritage Center in Holmes County, Ohio.

Heinz Gaugel was born August 25,1927, in Eybach in the Black Forest region of Germany, where he grew up speaking Swabish, a dialect similar to the Pennsylvania Dutch spoken by most Amish.

Heinz Gaugel began painting at the age of twelve and was self-taught.

Heinz Gaugel was wounded, captured by the American forces, and taken to a field hospital.

Heinz Gaugel worked as an accountant, then in 1953 started painting professionally, painting multiple murals in northern Ontario.

Heinz Gaugel moved to the Niagara Falls area and created a 44'x66' mural consisting of glazed bricks in Fonthill, Ontario, which required him to travel to Columbus in 1962 to acquire the glazed bricks.

Heinz Gaugel had been working on a large glazed-brick mural in Fonthill, Ontario, and when he had completed it he and his family moved to the Holmes County area in 1972, where they took up residence on an Amish-owned farm.

Heinz Gaugel studied the history of the Amish and, according to AMCH executive director Marcus Yoder, was "particularly impacted" by their stance against joining the military because of his own history of having been drafted and his traumatic wartime experiences, which impacted his views of war.

Heinz Gaugel became a pacifist and felt an affinity with the nonresistant Anabaptists because of this.

Heinz Gaugel felt a second connection to the Anabaptists and their persecutions when he learned that some of the executions of early Anabaptists had taken place near the village where he'd grown up; he could not recall having learned about them or the Anabaptist movement in Germany.

Heinz Gaugel decided to create the Behalt cyclorama to explain Anabaptist history to visitors.

Heinz Gaugel painted "hundreds" of murals, according to The Budget.

Heinz Gaugel created a 16'x80' window of slablass at St Mary's Church in Richmond Hill, Ontario, as well as a 14' tall statue of the Virgin Mary.

Heinz Gaugel created a 17'x72' mural depicting the history of the Welland Canal for a Sears department store in Welland, Ontario.

Heinz Gaugel created an 18'x44' mosaic of Byzantine glass at St Hyacinth Church in Dunkirk, New York.

Heinz Gaugel created a 20'x80' sgraffito at St John Vianney Church in Orchard Park, New York.

Heinz Gaugel began painting it in the Dunkard Brethren Church in Bunker Hill, Ohio, which at the time held the Mennonite Information Center, where he had set up a studio.

Heinz Gaugel had originally planned it to be 180' long, but realized there was too much content to cover and expanded it to 265'; even then he referred to the content as "being squeezed into" that length.

Heinz Gaugel completed the painting in 1992, but continued to work in his studio at the center until shortly before his death in 2000.

Heinz Gaugel completed a 22'x34' sgraffito, Immigration, on the exterior of the building that houses the cyclorama.

The piece is one of several large-scale sgraffito works by Heinz Gaugel, who was known for his attention to historical detail and ability to depict human effort in monumental form.

Heinz Gaugel worked in fresco, Byzantine mosaic, glazed brick, sgraffito, polyurethane enamel, and oil on canvas.

Heinz Gaugel taught at the Centre for the Arts in Fonthill, Ontario, and had a studio there.

Heinz Gaugel moved back to Ontario in October of 2000.

Heinz Gaugel experienced health issues which affected his ability to work.

Heinz Gaugel died December 28,2000, at his home in Fonthill, Ontario at the age of 73.