Look who’s missing from Walhalla
NewsWalhalla is a national hall of fame, built east of Regensburg in Bavaria and designed to honour giants of German history – ‘politicians, sovereigns, scientists and artists of the German tongue’.
So where are Mendelssohn and Mahler?
Not to mention the Schumanns, Clara and Robert.
It’s a very odd collection that includes Max Reger but omits Franz Kafka.
See here.
Maybe because Kafka was actually Czech, not German?
No: Walhalla is memorial of the ”German language”.
There are many non-Germans there who contributed to the German language (even Swedes and Dutch)
read above: ‘politicians, sovereigns, scientists and artists of the German tongue’. note language, not nationality…
Kafka was by no stretch of the imagination Czech. He was born as a German-speaking Austrian citizen from then-Austrian Bohemia – neither German nor Czech.
Besides, there is this little detail (from the Wikipedia page linked above):
“Additions since 1945 are proposed by private individuals or private foundations, who will also pay for the production of the new bust.”
So why haven’t they thought of Robert and Clara?
This is a total non-story. Of course it’s an odd selection. So are the people interred in the Pantheon in Paris or the plaques in Westminster Abbey. Mahler and Kafka aren’t there, but Brahms and Einstein are. Big deal. Do you think people aren’t going to listen to Mahler or read Kafka because they don’t have a bust in Regensburg?
It rather begs the question, were any removed or simply disappeared post-WW2? Heydrich was going to be included and Rommel too but fortunately the War ended.
You may have noticed that Kafka is from Prague and Mahler from Bohemia. Neither of them is German. There are quite a few Austrians at Walhalla, but none of them from the 20th century.
Can’t argue with Mendelssohn and Schmann, though. But the list contains 132 busts, and it is not a hall of fame for music. Almost half of the busts are for people who made their mark in politics or in the military. After all, the whole thing was built in 1842.
I counted 13 composers. Given the fact that all arts and sciences as well as political figures are represented at Walhalla, 13 musicians (about 10%) doesn’t sound too bad to me. The selection is definitely highbrow; there is not a single popular musician or sports personality here!
At least Crown Prince Ludwig had the idea to include composers (starting with Haydn) from the inception of the project. At the time, it was a sore point that Vienna had no public monuments to its composers, as Friedrich Rochlitz pointed out in 1800. Two decades later, the music publisher Steiner solicited funds to erect a public monument to Haydn and Mozart “to save us from the humiliation” that no such honor existed compared to other European capitals. The enterprise failed despite official support (Emperor Franz I pledged 1,000 florins).
It is not for you to decide.
Obviously random collection of people are added based on their idiosyncratic tastes. Imagine; Max Planck one of the the greatest if not the greatest German scientist of the past 100 years was only added in 2022 !! It is not that MAx Planck is unknown in Germany; he is sufficiently celebrated in his land that the major scientific organization in Germany, the Max Planck Gesellschaft is named after him. So I guess Wallhalla just depends on the nominations of random people. Highly un German if you ask me
So what does it cost to get someone installed there?
A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is $55,000.