Walhalla began as King Ludwig I's plan for a public hall of fame. The idea took shape in 1807, when Ludwig was still crown prince and the Napoleonic wars had unsettled older political identities across the German-speaking world.
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The monument was intended to honor people from politics, science, literature, art, religion, and military history. For Ludwig, language and cultural memory mattered more than modern national borders. The result is a nineteenth-century view of who should be remembered.
The name Walhalla came from the mythic hall of the honored dead. It was suggested in Ludwig's circle by the historian Johannes von Müller. Ludwig first collected and commissioned busts, then waited until he could realize the larger building as king.