Habilitation

FROM THE PANTHEON TO THE HALL OF FAME is an art historical and cultural historical study of honorary monuments to groups of outstanding personalities that, by analysing selected examples and by disseminating its conclusions, will contribute to the current research on collective memory and enhance our understanding of how, throughout history, classical antiquity has cast its spell.

My study assumes that the term Pantheon, apart from generally naming a temple or sacred space dedicated to all the gods in Greek and Roman antiquity, first refers to the Roman building that was conceived under Emperor Hadrian after 118 AD. From the 17th century onwards, Pantheon also became the descriptive term for various treatises on ancient gods, while as a consequence of the Grand-Tour, it was also applied to any building resembling to the Hadrianic monument in Rome, such as James Wyatt's edifice in London's Oxford Street that was used for popular entertainment. Naming places and monuments that honour and deify groups of outstanding individuals with the term Pantheon started in 1791 with the proposal of Voltaire's friend Marquis de Villette to call Sainte-Geneviève the Panthéon Français. Ever since, it became widely used for monuments that are a sort of collecting points to persons of merit. Meanwhile, in the late 19th century, the term Hall of Fame appeared in the United States. While emulating European Ideas, it lead to the Hall of Fame of Great Americans by Stanford White on Fordham Heights, New York, which was the first monument launching Americans into the orbit of universal immortality. to all the gods in Greek and Roman antiquity, first refers to the Roman building that was conceived under Emperor Hadrian after 118 AD. From the 17th century onwards, Pantheon also became the descriptive term for various treatises on ancient gods, while as a consequence of the Grand-Tour, it was also applied to any building resembling to the Hadrianic monument in Rome, such as James Wyatt's edifice in London's Oxford Street that was used for popular entertainment. Naming places and monuments that honour and deify groups of outstanding individuals with the term Pantheon started in 1791 with the proposal of Voltaire's friend Marquis de Villette to call Sainte-Geneviève the Panthéon Français. Ever since, it became widely used for monuments that are a sort of collecting points to persons of merit. Meanwhile, in the late 19th century, the term Hall of Fame appeared in the United States. While emulating European Ideas, it lead to the Hall of Fame of Great Americans by Stanford White on Fordham Heights, New York, which was the first monument launching Americans into the orbit of universal immortality.

Panthea and Halls of Fame are material manifestoes for distinguishing, honouring, even deifying individuals within society and of keeping them in memory for posterity. Furthermore, they are the direct descendants of the ancient heroa and honorary monuments dedicated to outstanding men and women in Greek and Roman antiquity, therefore offering an exciting field for demonstrating the persistence of antiquity. Collective honorary monuments were and are means to gain control over collective memory, memorable individuals and spaces, as those ignored and neglected become invisible. Thus, they form a material framework of the past that was or is meant to continue into the future, and therefore provide a pattern of remembrance. Yet, one must not forget that memories are fugitive, not static forces, because they change and get changed, manipulated, impaired and falsified. Memories may also compete and overlap, eradicate and, over time, even loose their significance, because people forget and - those who remember - eventually die. In order to overcome the fugitive nature of remembrance people created honorary monuments to individuals and groups believing that these could transfer their own memory into posterity.

My study applies to current topics in the humanities dealing with collective memory. It is therefore part of an interdisciplinary search for the knowledge of human behaviour and value systems that can only be gained by a critical application of various methods from archaeology, anthropology, the history of religion and history of art. As the goal of my research is the understanding of how classical ideas perpetuate in Panthea and Halls of Fame, it will mainly deal with issues such as the veneration of individuals and concepts of heroism, greatness and immortality as well as hierarchy as means of authority, ideology and power. In addition, an extensive, critical methodological approach will enable us to understand the functioning and transformation of ideal concepts raining in the western societies since classical antiquity. Thus, my study will offer a new understanding of the ancient and enduring human need for role models, idols, and heroes, cultic actions, and their sacred places, while demonstrating the persistence of antiquity.

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