Walhalla (memorial)

The Walhalla, Hall of Fame and Honor is a hall of fame located on the Danube River 10 km from Regensburg, in Bavaria, Germany.

It was the idea of 20 year old crown prince Ludwig I of Bavaria in 1807, at a time when German states were defeated and occupied by Napoleon. It should provide a place for the commemoration of great figures and events from Ethnic German history, covering (then) 1800 years, with the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in the year 9 marking the beginning.

Even though the Valhalla of Norse mythology is the home for those slain gloriously in battle, the Walhalla was intended not only for warriors but also for scientists, writers, clerics, and expressedly for females also.

Decades before the German Empire was founded in 1871, 'German' was taken in the sense of Germanic, since Gothic, Langobardic, Anglo-Saxon and Swiss German figures are included, as well as persons who gained their fame mainly in other countries or for non-German governments.

For the coronation of king Ludwig I of Bavaria in 1825, already 60 busts were finished. In 1826 he commissioned the temple above the Danube near Regensburg, modelled after the Parthenon in Athens. On the Walhalla's inauguration on 18 October 1842, there were 96 busts, plus 64 plaques for those persons or events of which no portrait was available to model a sculpture after. As of German tongue was the main criterion for the original 160 persons representing 1800 years, the king included persons from modern-day Sweden, Austria, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Russia, Switzerland and the Baltic States in his selection.

As successor to the King, the government of Bavaria decides on additions. Proposals can be made by anybody, but only persons who are dead for at least 20 years are eligible. Only 31 busts were added since on an irregular basis, for a total of 191 of which 12 are female. The most recent additions were:

The bust of Sophie Scholl was introduced on 22 February 2003, the 60th anniversary of her execution. It is also intended as a representation of all members of Widerstand (German Resistance against Nazi Germany) which were honored with an additional placque.

Future additions were confirmed in 2006:

In Munich, an additional Hall of Fame for Bavarians was established in 1853, the Ruhmeshalle München. As nine of the Bavarian enshrinees have been made Walhalla enshrinees since, their busts which were destroyed at the Ruhmeshalle during WWII in 1944 have not been restored. Instead, only a placque with their names tells about the move. In addition, king Ludwig I, who had also commissioned the Befreiungshalle and other monuments, is enshrined both in the Walhalla and Ruhmeshalle.

Busts

Ludwig van Beethoven
*Tondichter* (*Composer*)

The rows of busts are placed chronologically, starting with Henry the Fowler (born 876).

Konrad Adenauer – first Chancellor of West Germany
Amalie Elisabeth – Countess of Hesse-Kassel during the Thirty Years' War
August II the Strong – Elector of Saxony and King of Poland
Johann Sebastian Bach – composer
Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly – Russian Field Marshal
Ludwig van Beethoven – composer
Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar – general in the Thirty Years' War
Otto von Bismarck – Chancellor of North German Confederation and then of the German Empire
Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher – Prussian Generalfeldmarschall
Herman Boerhaave – Dutch humanist and physician
Johannes Brahms - Composer
Anton Bruckner – Austrian composer
Gottfried August Bürger – poet
Christoph of Württemberg – Duke of Württemberg
Johann von Dalberg – Bishop of Worms
Hans Karl von Diebitsch – Russian field marshal, born in Silesia
Albrecht Dürer – printmaker and painter
Anthony van Dyck – Flemish painter and etcher
Eberhard I. of Württemberg – Duke of Württemberg
Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn – Bishop of Würzburg
Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff – poet
Albert Einstein – physicist
Erasmus of Rotterdam – humanist
Ernst I – Duke of Saxe-Gotha and Saxe-Altenburg during the Thirty Years' War
Jan van Eyck – Flemish painter
Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg – Prussian Generalfeldmarschall
Frederick I, Palatinate – the Victorious, Elector of Palatinate
Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor - Barbarossa
Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor – Stupor mundi
Frederick II of Prussia – Frederick the Great
Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg – the Great Elector
Georg von Frundsberg – Knight and leader of Landsknechts
Jakob Fugger – the Rich, merchant in Augsburg
Johannes Gutenberg – inventor of printing
Karolina Gerhardinger – founder of the School Sisters of Notre Dame
Ernst Gideon Freiherr von Laudon – Austrian field marshal from Livonia
Christoph Willibald Gluck – composer
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe – poet and polymath
Johann Joseph von Görres – writer
Hugo Grotius – Dutch jurist
Otto von Guericke – German scientist and inventor
Albrecht von Haller – Swiss anatomist and physiologist
Hans von Hallwyl – Swiss commander at the Battle of Morat
Georg Friedrich Händel – German baroque composer
Joseph Haydn – Austrian composer from the classical period
Henry the Lion – Duke of Saxony and Bavaria
Henry the Fowler – Duke of Saxony and King of the Germans
Johann Jakob Wilhelm Heinse - German author
Berthold von Henneberg – Elector and Archbishop of Mainz
Johann Gottfried Herder – German poet, critic, and theologian
Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel – German astronomer and composer
Hans Holbein the Younger – German painter
Ulrich von Hutten – German knight and Humanist
Friedrich Ludwig Jahn – German patriot and father of gymnastics
Immanuel Kant – German philosopher
Archduke Charles of Austria – Austrian military commander
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V, Duke of Lorraine
Charles X Gustav of Sweden – King of Sweden
Catherine II of Russia, Catherine the Great – Tsarina of Russia
Johannes Kepler – German mathematician and astronomer
Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock – German poet
Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor
Nicolaus Copernicus – Prussian astronomer
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz – German philosopher
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing – German poet from the age of enlightenment
Justus Freiherr von Liebig – German chemist
Paris Graf von Lodron – Archbishop of Salzburg
Ludwig Wilhelm von Baden - Türkenlouis, Imperial commander
Ludwig I – King of Bavaria
Martin Luther – Leader of the protestant reformation, translator of the bible into German
Maria Theresia – Archduchess of Austria and Queen of Hungary and Bohemia
Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor
Maximilian I. – Prince-elector of Bavaria
Hans Memling – Flemish painter
Gregor Joh. Mendel – Austrian Augustinian monk and naturalist
Raphael Mengs – Painter
Graf Helmuth von Moltke – German jurist and resistance fighter against the Nazis
Maurice of Orange – captain-general of the army of the Dutch Republic
Maurice of Saxony – German commander and military strategist
Justus Möser – German historian
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Austrian composer
Johannes Müller (Regiomontanus) – German astronomer and mathematician
Johannes von Müller – Swiss historian
Burkhard Christoph Graf von Münnich – German field marshall in Russian service
August Graf Neidhardt von Gneisenau – Prussian field marshall
Nicholas of Flue – Swiss hermit, ascetic and mystic
Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor
Theophrast von Hohenheim Paracelsus – 17th century Swiss physician and alchemist
Jean Paul – German humorist
Max von Pettenkofer – German chemist and hygienist
Wolter von Plettenberg – German Master of the Livonian Brothers of the Sword
Josef Wenzel Graf Radetzky von Radetz – Austrian military leader
Max Reger – German composer and organist of the late romantic period
Johannes von Reuchlin – German philosopher and humanist
Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen – German physicist
Peter Paul Rubens – Flemish painter
Rudolf I of Habsburg – German king
Michiel Adriaenszoon de Ruyter – Dutch admiral
Gerhard von Scharnhorst – Prussian general
Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling – German philosopher
Friedrich von Schiller - German poet and exponent of Sturm und Drang
Sophie Scholl - German resistance fighter against the Nazi regime
Johann Philipp von Schönborn – Archbishop and Prince-elector of Mainz
Franz Peter Schubert – Austrian Romantic composer
Karl Philipp Fürst zu Schwarzenberg – Austrian field marshall
Franz von Sickingen – leader of the knighthood in Rhineland and Swabia
Frans Snyders - Flemish painter
Karl vom und zum Stein – Prussian politician
Erwin von Steinbach – German architect of the Straßburger Münster
Adalbert Stifter – Austrian author
Richard Strauss – German composer
Johannes Aventinus (Johann Georg Turmair) – Bavarian scholar and historian
Maximilian von und zu Trauttmansdorff – Austrian diplomat that negotiated the Peace of Westphalia
Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp – Admiral in the Dutch navy.
Aegidius Tschudi – Swiss Historian
Peter Vischer the elder – German Sculptor
Richard Wagner – German composer of operas
Albrecht von Wallenstein – Duke and General in the Thirty Years' War
Carl Maria von Weber – German composer
Christoph Martin Wieland – German Poet
Wilhelm Graf zu Schaumburg-Lippe – Commander of his army in the Seven Years' War and for Portugal
Wilhelm I. – German Emperor
William I of Orange – Dutch leader of the Eighty Years' War for independence from Spain.
Wilhelm III. of Orange – King of England, Scotland, and Ireland
Johann Joachim Winckelmann – German archeologist and art writer
Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf – German religious and social reformer, bishop of the Moravian Church

Commemorative plaques

Plaques were made for persons (or acts) of which no portraits or descriptions were available to model sculptures after. The timeline spans from Hermann der Cherusker (born 16 BC) to watchmaker Peter Henlein who died in 1542, yet a placque also commemorates known and unknown German Resistance fighters against Nazi Germany until 1945.