Württemberg, a separate geopolitical entity until combined with Baden in 1952, may be less well-known than former Prussia, Saxony, or Bavaria for spawning figures of great accomplishment, but it was by no means an unlikely cultural environment to produce and nurture individuals of renown. Celebrated scientists, philosophers, and poets hail from the state. Johannes Kepler (Weil Der Stadt), Albert Einstein (Ulm), Georg W. F. Hegel (Stuttgart), Friedrich Schiller (Marbach/Neckar), Friedrich W. J. Schelling (Leonberg), Eduard Mörike (Ludwigsburg), Friedrich Hölderlin (Lauffen/Neckar), Ludwig Uhland (Tübingen), and Hermann Hesse (Calw) grew up in towns and cities all but one of which (Ulm) lie within thirty miles of Stuttgart—once called the Leipzig of the south. Absent from the list are names of equally familiar, celebrated musicians. Not that the region lacked musical culture. On the contrary, Heidelberg, Mannheim, and Karlsruhe, all in former Baden, were prominent eighteenth-century musical centers. In the nineteenth century Stuttgart enjoyed the services of composer-conductor Peter Josef von Lindpaintner (1791–1856) as Hofkapellmeister (1819–56); later, composer-conductor Johann Joseph Abert (1832–1915) held that post (1867–88); and in the early twentieth century composer-conductor Max von Schillings (1868–1933) worked at the Hoftheater (1908–18). However, no widely known early twentieth-century musical figure associated with Württemberg through birth or long-term career residence comes to mind.

Music professionals today, especially native Württembergians who know the writings, music, and pedagogical legacy of August Otto Halm, find that condition regrettable.