Walter Horn
Walter William Horn | |
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medievalist |
Walter William Horn (18 January 1908 - 26 December 1995) was a German-American medievalist scholar noted for his work on the timber vernacular architecture of the Middle Ages.
Horn was born in
Additions: for recovery of Imperial Regalia, see Sidney Kirkpatrick, Hitler’s Holy Relics, Simon and Schuster, 2010. Horn was present as a guest of Austria at the reopening of the rooms dedicated to the Reglia at the Hofburg Museum in 1987.
Early life
Horn was born in the town of
World War II era
Horn fled Germany in opposition to the Nazi regime. He continued his studies from 1934 to 1937 as a research associate at the German Institute for the History of Art in
Horn became a
In 1945, Horn succeeded in recovering the Imperial Regalia of Charlemagne, the crown, sceptre, and jewels of the Holy Roman Empire. These had been kept hidden by Germans who hoped to return to power even after their defeat by the Allies. [4] The incident has been elaborated, sometimes with inaccuracies, by writers who take particular interest in the Holy Lance, the spear supposed to have pierced the side of Jesus during his crucifixion. This artifact is sometimes called the Spear of Destiny and identified with the Vienna Lance, one of the components of the regalia. Horn appears in narratives about the lance's retrieval from the possession of Adolf Hitler in works by occultists and conspiracy theorists. Usually identified as "Lt. Walter William Horn," he is purported to have retrieved the lance at the behest of Patton on the day of Hitler's death, 30 April 1945.[5][6]
The McCarthy era
Returning from the war, Horn married Alberta West Parker, a
Horn's fellow
Being thus confronted a second time with a disruption of my academic career, and feeling unable to expose my wife and my son to the consequences of being denied continuance of my civilian occupation upon return from military duty, it is with profound regret that I find myself compelled to yield to the pressure which the Regents saw fit to exercise in order to extort from me a declaration concerning my political beliefs. I am enclosing the requested statement, signed. I should like to make known that, in doing so, I am acting against the better precepts of my
Freedomswhich I have been denied in my professional life at home.
Kantorowicz noted that Horn's letter "illustrates the grave conflict of conscience and savage
Academic career and scholarship
Horn's early position as research associate in Florence gave him firsthand knowledge of the city's
In 1958, Horn published what is considered his most important article,
The 1958 article was significant also in that it marked Horn's first collaboration with
Plan of St. Gall
The plan of Saint Gall had engaged Horn's imagination and curiosity since he was introduced to it by his mentor Erwin Panofsky.[15] In 1957, Horn had participated in an international congress on the plan, and his interest in its guest and service buildings led to his survey of medieval structures in France and England. In 1965, Horn and Born contributed to the creation of a scale model of the 40 buildings rendered on the plan. The model was displayed at the international exhibit Karl der Grosse held at Aachen. Their two decades of collaboration culminated in a work of 1,056 pages with an estimated 1,200 illustrations.[citation needed]
The Plan of St. Gall was praised by French historian
The most controversial aspect of the work was Horn's major thesis: that the plan was a copy of a lost master plan dating to 816 or 817 that would have been part of documents pertaining to the official monastic reform movement under Louis the Pious at Aachen. The dominant strand of criticism to the contrary holds that the plan was intended to represent an ideal and was never meant to be carried out at a particular site. Horn's last article on the plan, "The Medieval Monastery as a Setting for the Production of Manuscripts,"[18] was a response to this criticism.[14]
The Plan of St. Gall earned twelve major awards for its scholarship, bookmaking, and typography, including a prize from France's Académie d'architecture and a 1982 medal from the American Institute of Architects.[19]
Later work
In 1974, Horn retired to
Honors and administrative achievements
Horn worked with
Death
Horn died at home of
Selected bibliography
Standard biographical and publishing data on Horn not otherwise cited comes from two or more of the following sources.
- W. Eugene Kleinbauer, James Marrow and Ruth Mellinkoff. "Memoirs of Fellows and Corresponding Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America: Walter W. Horn," Speculum 71 (1996) 800-802.
- University of California (System) Academic Senate, "1996, University of California: In Memoriam," "Walter Horn, History of Art: Berkeley"
- Dictionary of Art Historians: A Biographical Dictionary of Historic Scholars, Museum Professionals and Academic Historians of Art, "Horn, Walter W(illiam)."
- William Grimes, "Walter Horn, 87, a Historian Of Medieval Cloisters and Barns," New York Times 29 December 1995, obituary
- "Walter Horn," San Francisco Chronicle, 30 December 1995, obituary
- "Walter Horn; Specialist in Medieval Architecture," Los Angeles Times, 31 December 1995, obituary
- Rihoko Ueno, A Finding Aid to the Walter Horn Papers, 1908-1992, bulk 1943-1950, in the Archives of American Art, Washington, DC 2012.
- Brown, Hillary, Finding Aid for the Walter Horn Papers, 1917-1989, at the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles.
References
- ^ W. Eugene Kleinbauer, James Marrow and Ruth Mellinkoff, "Memoirs of Fellows and Corresponding Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America: Walter W. Horn," Speculum 71 (1996), p. 800 ("his most important piece of detective work led to the recovery of the coronation regalia of the Holy Roman Empire"); "Walter Horn," San Francisco Chronicle, 30 December 1995, obituary; University of California (System) Academic Senate, "1996, University of California: In Memoriam," "Walter Horn, History of Art: Berkeley" ("his most spectacular feat was the recovery of Charlemagne's ceremonial regalia").
- ^ UC In Memoriam, p. 87.
- S2CID 222451667.
- ^ a b c "University of California: In Memoriam, 1996". content.cdlib.org.
- ^ See Trevor Ravenscroft, The Spear of Destiny: The Occult Power behind the Spear Which Pierced the Side of Christ (Red Wheel, 1982). Ravenscroft reproduces a portion of Horn's report on the recovery of the regalia (called there "insignia"), p. 348.
- ^ See E. Randall Floyd, 100 of the World's Greatest Mysteries (Harbor House, 2000), pp. 262–263; Lionel Fanthorpe and Patricia Fanthorpe, Mysteries and Secrets of the Templars: The Story behind the Da Vinci Code (Dundurn Press Ltd., 2005), p. 57.
- ^ San Francisco Chronicle, March 31, 2012, Alberta Horn, obituary
- ^ Along with a number of other employees.
- ^ The University Loyalty Oath.
- ^ Horn's letter appears following two letters by Kantorowicz at The University Loyalty Oath: A 50th Anniversary Retrospective, "The Fundamental Issue."
- ^ Kleinhauer et al., "Memoir," p. 801. See, for example, Walter Horn, "The Potential and Limitations of Radiocarbon Dating in the Middle Ages," in Scientific Methods in Medieval Archaeology, edited by Rainer Berger (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1970), pp. 23-87.
- ^ Kleinhauer et al., "Memoir," p. 800.
- ^ Kleinhauer et al., "Memoir," p. 800; "Walter Horn, History of Art: Berkeley"; Dictionary of Art Historians.
- ^ a b Kleinhauer et al., "Memoir," p. 801.
- ^ Kleinhauer et al., "Memoir," p. 800.
- ^ New York Times 29 December 1995, obituary
- ^ See Charles W. Jones for more on this collaboration.
- ^ Co-authored with Born in the Journal of the Walters Art Gallery 44 (1986) 16–47.
- ^ Kleinhauer et al., "Memoir," p. 801; Grimes, NYT obituary.
- ^ San Francisco Chronicle, 30 December 1995, obituary "Walter Horn."
- ^ "Walter Horn, History of Art: Berkeley," Calisphere.
- ^ Kleinhauer et al., "Memoir," pp. 801–802.