World Peace Cross

"Throughout  life - making the sign of the cross, vertically and horizontally." was Gotthilf Fischer's motto. The crossing motion gave rise to his collection of crosses and the idea of erecting peace crosses all over the world - in North America, Brazil, Israel, Switzerland, Germany and Austria. A close bond with the cross eventually led to a Swabian-Tyrolean friendship and to the realisation of joint ideas between the trio Gotthilf Fischer (ⴕ Dez 2020), Hans Guggenberger and Martin Reiter.

One day, during a philosophical discussion between the "threesome", Gotthilf said: "Hans, you absolutely have to erect a World Peace Cross at your unique museum cemetery!"

It didn't take long for Hans Guggenberger to draw a first draft, in which he included the materials that accompanied him throughout his life as a blacksmith and stonemason: Hagau marble and iron.

During a visit to the Fischer Choirs' 2006 Christmas concert in Stuttgart, Gotthilf was given a small globe. This gave rise to the idea of placing the World Peace Cross on a globe, a symbol for the cross that stands the whole world over. But that was not enough. By chance, Martin Reiter found a set of organ pipes at an internet auction. They became the core of the matter: the pipes of the queen of instruments, many of which Gotthilf let produce sound, were to adorn the cross beams: music as the path to peace.

This is how the seven-metre-high World Peace Cross came to be. The cross is particularly impressive due to its unusual and sophisticated design.

Wrought iron blacksmith, Hans Guggenberger designed, financed and made the work of art in his workshop at the Sagzahnschmiede.

A huge globe, transparently displayed, connected only by the longitudes and latitudes rests on a platform made from Hagau marble. The continents, which are artistically embossed out of sheet copper float on the globe. The crosses' trunk contains rock crystal and rose quartz in its foundation. Rock crystal is the "magician" amongst all stones. Rose quartz - the absolute comfort stone - unfolds great healing power for bitterness and grief.

The crossbars consist of a total of 42 organ pipes. They are reminiscent of the "Queen of Instruments". The two outermost organ pipes come from Gotthilf Fischer's baptismal church in Deizisau. A semicircular fence with steel stelae, the larger of which in turn symbolise the five continents, surrounds the overall work of art. The hollow stelae each charcterised by coloured glass represent the colours of the continents. Visitors can throw a stone from their country into these stelae, thus a collection of stones blocking the path to world peace are collected! The quantity and diversity of the stones stand for the hope of the people for a peaceful future. The initiators hope their work will contribute to finally bring us peace.

As a symbol of the obstacles that life has thrown in our path, visitors to the World Peace Cross can take a stone from their country and place it in the respective pillar. The pillars behind the World Peace Cross represent the five 5 symbolic colours of the continents.

• Europe: blue pillar
• Asia: yellow pillar
• Africa: black pillar
• America: red pillar
• Australia: green pillar