Wilhelm von Humboldt - founding father of the Museum Island
Press release from 06/22/2017
Ceremony at the family seat Schloss Tegel / Parzinger: educational reformer and founding father of the Museum Island
To mark the 250th anniversary of Wilhelm von Humboldt's birth, the Governing Mayor of Berlin Michael Müller, the President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and Founding Director of the Humboldt Forum Hermann Parzinger and the von Heinz family organised a ceremony at Tegel Palace today. Following the wreath-laying ceremony at the family gravesite and the words of welcome from the organisers, Neil MacGregor, Director of the Humboldt Forum's Founding Directorate, gave the keynote speech "A very modern past". The musical programme was provided by the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin.
Hermann Parzinger said: "Wilhelm von Humboldt is still a role model for us today and has also played a decisive role for the National Museums. In his humanistic concept of education, aesthetic education through art played a central role, supported by the museum as a place of free self-education. And so Wilhelm von Humboldt became not only the founder of Berlin University, but also a founding father of the Museum Island."
The members of the von Heinz family are the direct descendants of Wilhelm von Humboldt and live in and maintain Tegel Palace, Wilhelm von Humboldt's former residence. Tegel Palace, the burial site and the publicly accessible park form an ensemble whose significance as an intellectual-historical document of the life and work of the Humboldt brothers can hardly be overestimated.