Harry August Wahl (17 July 1869 – 31 July 1940) was a

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

businessman,

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

collector, and

sailor A sailor, seaman, mariner, or seafarer is a person who works aboard a watercraft as part of its crew, and may work in any one of a number of different fields that are related to the operation and maintenance of a ship. The profession of the s ...

who competed in the

1912 Summer Olympics The 1912 Summer Olympics ( sv, Olympiska sommarspelen 1912), officially known as the Games of the V Olympiad ( sv, Den V olympiadens spel) and commonly known as Stockholm 1912, were an international multi-sport event held in Stockholm, Sweden, be ...

. He was a crew member of the Finnish boat Nina, which won the silver medal in the 10 metre class. Harry Wahl was the grandson of

Vyborg Vyborg (; rus, Вы́борг, links=1, r=Výborg, p=ˈvɨbərk; fi, Viipuri ; sv, Viborg ; german: Wiborg ) is a town in, and the administrative center of, Vyborgsky District in Leningrad Oblast, Russia. It lies on the Karelian Isthmus ne ...

-based industrialist Paul von Wahl (1797–1872). The Wahl family had made its fortune by various businesses, many of which were connected to the construction of the

Saimaa Canal The Saimaa Canal ( fi, Saimaan kanava; sv, Saima kanal; russian: Сайменский канал) is a transportation canal that connects lake Saimaa with the Gulf of Finland near Vyborg, Russia. The canal was built from 1845 to 1856 and opened ...

around the 1850s.

Collector of string instruments

In the 1930s, Harry Wahl owned one of the most significant collections of violins and other string instruments in Europe, including several made by

Antonio Stradivari Antonio Stradivari (, also , ; – 18 December 1737) was an Italian luthier and a craftsman of string instruments such as violins, cellos, guitars, violas and harps. The Latinized form of his surname, ''Stradivarius'', as well as the colloq ...

(seven violins),

Guarneri The Guarneri (, , ), often referred to in the Latinized form Guarnerius, is the family name of a group of distinguished luthiers from Cremona in Italy in the 17th and 18th centuries, whose standing is considered comparable to those of the Amati an ...

(six violins) and

Amati Amati (, ) is the last name of a family of Italian violin makers who lived at Cremona from about 1538 to 1740. Their importance is considered equal to those of the Bergonzi, Guarneri, and Stradivari families. Today, violins created by Nicolò A ...

(five violins). When the Russians bombed Vyborg in 1940, violinist Onni Suhonen was worried about the violin collection which was stored in Wahl's empty Vyborg home. Only two outsiders, Onni Suhonen and Yrjö Suomalainen, both well known Finnish violinists, had keys and access to Harry Wahl's home safe in Vyborg. Mr Suhonen knew thoroughly Wahl's instrument collection being a frequent visitor to Wahl's home where Suhonen used to play the valuable violins. As the Russian army was heavily bombing Vyborg, Onni Suhonen managed to get a vehicle from the Finnish army to which he loaded violins to be transported to safety from the war zone. Thus the Wahl family secured altogether 32 of the best instruments in their possession while the rest were left with the Russians. Mr Suhonen was given one or two violins from the collection as a reward for the rather dangerous rescue operation. It was publicly known he had one Amati. But some people close to him claim Mr Suhonen also had a precious early 17th century Guarneri (built 1619, according to one violin student of Mr Suhonen). This may well be true as financial wealth was heavily taxed in Finland during post war years. After World War II Onni Suhonen told his students in Helsinki that he had to leave behind him between 40 and 60 instruments in Wahl's house because the car he used for evacuation of the instruments was only a normal less spacious sedan. He said he took with him well over twenty violins and four cellos. Mr Suhonen later became professor at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. Testamentti vei sodassa kadonneiden arvosoitinten jäljille
Yle Kulttuuri 10.3.2008. Viitattu 1.9.2014. Harry Wahl died the same year 1940, and most of his wealth, real estate in the Vyborg area, had to be left behind as his family evacuated to Finland. There, they had to sell the instruments at low prices to start new lives, and the collection was spread around the world. One of the violins, a 1702 Stradivarius called ''the Irish'', was auctioned in Japan in 1986 and purchased by the Finnish Pohjola Bank Art Foundation, and is now the only violin in Harry Wahl’s original collection located in Finland.Valtonen, Veikko
Stradivarius ei paljasta salaisuuttaan
, Turun Sanomat 25.8.2009. Viitattu 1.9.2014.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wahl, Harry 1869 births 1940 deaths Finnish male sailors (sport) Sailors at the 1912 Summer Olympics – 10 Metre Olympic sailors for Finland Olympic silver medalists for Finland Olympic medalists in sailing Medalists at the 1912 Summer Olympics People from the Grand Duchy of Finland

Collector of string instruments

References

Further reading

External links