[1] The first monument to the Battle of St. Jacob at the Birs was designed by Marquard Wocher on a small hill[2] at the fork in the road to St. Jakob and Münchenstein.

The memorial was a neo-gothic[3] 12 meter high tower sculptured out of red sandstone and had the coat of arms of the involved cantons depicted on its sides.

[1] In 1859 a commission to elect a new memorial was formed,[1] which included the Swiss historian Jakob Burckhardt[1][4] and the architect Amadeus Merian [de].

[3] 18 artworks were taken into consideration by the commission[3] of which the models of Arnold Böcklin, Ernst Stückelberg, Franz Heinrich Baldinger and Ferdinand Schlöth were exhibited to the public.

[6] The election committee chose the model of Baldinger as the one to be realized but Government of Basel hesitated in its pledge in view of the considerable costs on 100'000 Swiss francs.

[10] The surrounding figures mainly gained the approval from the public[11] but again, Schlöth received a list of deficiencies of what did not meet the expectations for the sculpture and he made adaptions to the Helvetia, which was the most criticized.

[11] Initially a sculpture in bronze was planned by the electoral commission for which a budget of 90'000 Swiss francs was provided,[11] but by August 1866 the memorial was to be sculpted in stone.

[15] After the electoral committee chose the limestone of Solothurn without a discussion with Schlöth, the sculptor reacted rather furiously, as he deemed the stone of much less quality than others as its nature is said to be at times a bit porous which was not to be seen at the raw product.