In memoriam - Walter Wagner

Walter was born in Stuttgart, Germany, on 7 December 1950. His childhood and youth were difficult but he felt there was always a protecting hand over him.

In 1970 he graduated as a landscape gardener, and later became a qualified engineer of landscape architecture and environmental preservation.

At the office where he was employed in Munich there was a photo of the Nebula (an earlier design by Roger Anger, which later became the Galaxy) attached to a cupboard. Walter was always attracted by it. He had been introduced to the Integral Yoga early through his spiritual friend and guide Heinz Kappes (1893 - 1988), a priest who, after retiring, lived in the Ashram for one and a half years.

He worked on a farm in Egypt between 1983 - 1985 and there was a German on the farm who had lived in Auroville for some time. Walter became curious. In 1986 he came to stay in Auroville for several months, falling in love with the Matrimandir and the idea of a garden design based on the Mother's Symbol. He came back for good in 1987 and jumped full-heartedly into participation in the design of the Matrimandir gardens and the park.

He had a love for perfection and Mahalakshmi, the Mother’s aspect of Harmony and Beauty, became his inner aspiration. Walter had an intense inner life with lots of beautiful spiritual experiences.

In 2023 he had an accident from which he didn’t fully recover. On 17 April in the early evening the Mother took him into Her arms while he was walking. His partner, Mechtild, received a last message from him on the same day.

“Our dear friend Heinz has made it clear to me that I will never be able to give back what good deeds other people do or did to me. I can only say ‘thank you’.”

A silent gathering for Walter took place at the Matrimandir Banyan Tree on 21 April.

Walter’s remains were buried on 22 April at the Auroville Burial Ground.