The Keszthely born Károly Goldmark (1830–1915) grew up in Németkeresztúr. After moving to Vienna, at the height of his career, his Violin Concerto and the First Symphony also known as 'Village Wedding'. However, Goldmark never betrayed his Hungarian origins – as he put it in his memoirs he wrote at the age of 80.

I have lived in Vienna for sixty-seven years, I trained myself on German cultural resources both in science and art, and in this sense I reckon myself as German as well. I love this second home of my ripening and development to which I owe everything that I am and what I have become. But all this did not to extinguish my deep-rooted emotions towards my native land; It has to be a parched, ossified heart for which the clot on which his cradle once stood is not a sweet and happy childhood memory. In this sense, I kept my loyalty to my country of birth.

It is also due to composer's strong bind to Hungary that exactly 100 years after his death his legacy was purchased by the Hungarian State and is held by the National Széchenyi Library Music Collection. As for Goldmark's compositions, the most valuable part of the collection is the composer's original notes from his almost complete oeuvre, which did not only preserve the most authentic items for us, but at the same time (together with his sketchbook) they shed light on Goldmark's working methods as well. However, the heritage includes many other types of documents:, family photos, a variety of official documents (school certificates and other certificates), tributes to older composer, letters written to or by Goldmark, and also some bills especially important for him.

Our exhibition presents the most exciting documents, using his memories published after his death as a guideline, entitled 'Flashbacks of my Life' (which is also included among the original manuscripts. Goldmark used the aforementioned document when writing his memoirs, many f which he actually quoted. Therefore we do not only show the author's heritage but provide a comprehensive picture of Goldmark's life and most important compositions, especially those works related to Hungary. In addition to commemorating Károly Goldmark, we also commemorate the former manager of the Music Collection Dr. István Kecskeméti (1920–1999) who personally carried out the processing of Goldmark's heritage, and based on the original manuscript,, in 1980 he himself translated the memoirs of the composer into Hungarian.