Ludwig II of Bavaria

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Ludwig Friedrich Wilhelm II, King of Bavaria (August 25, 1845 – June 13, 1886) was king of Bavaria from 1864 until shortly before his death. His nicknames include "der Märchenkönig" ("the Fairy tale King") in German and the "Swan King" in English, but Ludwig is perhaps best known today as the "Mad King".

Ludwig's eccentric nature and the mysterious circumstances of his death have attracted the interest of modern history buffs and conspiracy fans. Ludwig's sanity, or lack thereof, was a hotly disputed issue near the end of his life, and continues to be a subject of speculation among historians.^[1] Ludwig's legacy is also intertwined with the history of art and architecture, as he was the patron of the composer Richard Wagner and personally commissioned the construction of several extravagant fantasy castles (the most famous being Neuschwanstein).

Contents 1 Life 1.1 Childhood and adolescent years 1.2 King of Bavaria 1.3 Deposition and death 2 His legacy 2.1 Ludwig and the arts 2.2 His buildings 3 Ludwig in popular culture 3.1 Literature, stage and film 3.2 Video and computer games 3.3 Music 4 Ancestors 5 Notes 6 Books 7 External links 8 References

Life

Childhood and adolescent years

Ludwig was born in Nymphenburg castle (today located in suburban Munich), the eldest son of Crown Prince Maximilian and his wife, Princess Marie of Prussia. When Ludwig was two and a half years old his grandfather, King Ludwig I, was deposed. Prince Maximilian became King Maximilian II of Bavaria, and Ludwig became the Crown Prince.

In an age when kings were responsible for the governance of most of Europe, young Ludwig was continually reminded of his royal status. He was extremely indulged, and yet severely controlled, by his tutors and subjected to a strict regimen of study and exercise, to be prepared for future responsibilties. His odd behavior in adulthood may have been caused (at least partly) by this stress of growing up in a royal family. Ludwig did not have a very close relationship with either of his parents. He was closer to his paternal grandfather, the former King Ludwig I.

Ludwig's childhood years did have happy moments. He lived for much of the time at Hohenschwangau, a fantasy castle his father had built near the Swan Lake near Füssen. It was decorated in the neo-gothic style with countless frescoes of the walls of heroic German sagas. He also visited Lake Starnberg with his family. As an adolescent, Ludwig's best friend was his aide de camp, the handsome Prince Paul of Bavaria's wealthy Thurn and Taxis family. Ludwig ended their friendship over Paul's interest in a young woman.

During his youth Ludwig also initiated a lifelong friendship with his older cousin, Elizabeth, Duchess in Bavaria, later Elisabeth, Empress of Austria.

King of Bavaria

Ludwig ascended to the Bavarian throne at 18, following his father's early death. His youth and brooding good looks made him wildly popular in Bavaria and abroad. One of the first acts of his reign was to summon Richard Wagner to his court in Munich. He had admired Wagner since first seeing Lohengrin, the opera based on the Nordic medieval saga of the swan knight. Wagner's operas appealed to the king's fantasy-filled imagination. Wagner had a notorious reputation as a revolutionary and was constantly on the run from debt collectors. Ludwig was the saviour of Wagner. Without Ludwig, it is to be doubted that Wagner's subsequent operas would have been composed. Ludwig called Wagner 'the friend', or 'the Master'. Wagner's extravagant and notorious behaviour in Munich unsettled the conservative people of Bavaria and he was finally asked to leave by order of the King.

The greatest stresses of Ludwig's early reign were pressure to produce an heir, and relations with militant Prussia. Both issues came to the forefront in 1867. Ludwig became engaged to Duchess Sophie in Bavaria, his cousin and the younger sister of Empress Elisabeth. Their engagement was announced on January 22, 1867. Ludwig repeatedly postponed their wedding date, and finally canceled the engagement in October. Sophie later married Ferdinand Philippe Marie, duc d'Alençon (1844–1910), son of Louis Charles Philippe Raphael, duc de Nemours. She died years later in an horrific fire which destroyed the Paris Charity Bazaar. Ludwig remained a lifelong bachelor.

Throughout his reign, Ludwig had a succession of infatuations with handsome men, including his chief equerry and Master of the Horse, Richard Hornig, Hungarian theatre actor Josef Kainz, and courtier Alfons Weber. In 1869, he began keeping a diary in which he recorded his private thoughts and his attempts to suppress his sexual desires and remain true to his Roman Catholic faith. Ludwig's original diaries ^[2] were lost during World War II, and all that remains today are copies of entries made before the war. These copies, along with private letters and other surviving personal documents, suggest that Ludwig struggled with homosexuality throughout his life. ^{[3] [4]}

Though Ludwig had sided with Austria against Prussia in the Seven Weeks' War, his army was defeated. Peace conditions forced him to accepted a mutual defence treaty with Prussia in 1867. Under the terms of this treaty, Bavaria joined with Prussia against France in the Franco-Prussian War. On the request of the Prussian Minister President, Bismarck, Ludwig wrote a letter in December 1870 calling for King Wilhelm I of Prussia to be declared German Emperor or Kaiser at the creation of the German Empire. He received financial concessions in return for his support. Ludwig really did not have any choice in the matter. The creation of the German Empire relegated Bavaria to a secondary position within the Empire. The days of Bavaria as an independent kingdom were over.

Owing to the loss of Bavarian independence, Ludwig became increasingly withdrawn from the royal court and government. In the 1880s, Ludwig spent much of his time in seclusion in the Bavarian Alps. There he built several expensive fairytale castles with the assistance of stage designer Christian Jank. Neuschwanstein Castle was built high above the Pollat Gorge, near his childhood home, Hohenschwangau Castle (built by his father King Maximillian II), as a tribute to the Nordic sagas of Lohengrin, Tristan and Isolde and Der Ring des Nibelungen (Ring of the Nibelungen) series. Neuschwanstein was never completed. Linderhof Castle, located in the Grswang valley, was built in the style of the time of King Louis XIV of France. It is the only one of his three castles that was ever completed. His father, King Maximillian II, had already built a hunting lodge in the vicinity. His other castle, Herrenchiemsee was located on the Herren Island in Lake Chiemsee. It is a copy of the central section of the Palace of Versailles in France. Like Neuschwanstein, it was never completed. With the reduction of his royal kingship to that of a mere vassal constitutional monarch within the new German Empire, Ludwig longed for the time of absolutism, when kings had real power, under the rule of King Louis XIV of France.

Deposition and death

On June 10, 1886, Ludwig was officially declared incapable of executing his governmental powers due to insanity. He was officially deposed by the Bavarian government. His father's younger brother Prince Luitpold was complicit in the action and was declared regent. The psychiatrist Professor Bernhard von Gudden, despite never having examined Ludwig, headed the psychiatric team that declared Ludwig to be suffering from paranoia (comparable to a modern diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia). Their chief "evidence" were stories of Ludwig's odd behavior, collected from palace servants and his political enemies. The vast majority of these stories were mere hearsay and may have been obtained with bribery or threats, so their reliability is highly questionable. Many historians believe that Ludwig was indeed sane, an innocent victim of political intrigue. ^[5] Ludwig suffered from chronic toothaches during his life, and some believe that his alleged odd behavior was due to the effects of chloroform and other drugs used to control his pain. Empress Elisabeth held that "The King was not mad; he was just an eccentric living in a world of dreams. They might have treated him more gently, and thus perhaps spared him so terrible an end."

Ludwig was taken into custody in secret after repeated attempts to detain him. The events proved as unusual as any in his life. An eccentric but loyal baroness arrived at the gates of Neuschwanstein castle to wave her umbrella menacingly and to harangue the first Commission of men who came to imprison Ludwig. The king himself ordered all kinds of punishments against his treasonous ministers. The most extreme punishments were never carried out. The commission was, however, locked up in the castle. They were later released. A huge force of loyal citizens swarmed from the village below Neuschwanstein to protect their King. They were willing to escort Ludwig under guard across the border to save him, but Ludwig refused. The battalion of soldiers at nearby Kempten had been summoned to Neuschwanstein, but it was detained by the government.

Ludwig attempted to issue the following proclamation to the public:

The Prince Luitpold intends, against my will, to ascend to the Regency of my land, and my erstwhile ministry has, through false allegations regarding the state of my health, deceived my beloved people, and is preparing to commit acts of high treason. [...] I call upon every loyal Bavarian to rally around my loyal supporters to thwart the planned treason against the King and the fatherland.

This was printed by a Bamberg newspaper on June 11 1886, but the copies were seized by the government fearful of the consequences of their distribution. Most of Ludwig's telegrams to the newspapers and his friends were intercepted. Ludwig did receive a message from Bismarck advising him to go to Munich and show himself to the people, but Ludwig felt unable to do so and therefore sealed his fate by refusing to leave Neuschwanstein and rally his people. On the morning of the twelfth, a second Commission reached the castle. The King was placed under arrest at 4:00 a.m. and transported to Castle Berg on the shores of Lake Starnberg, south of Munich.

Mystery surrounds Ludwig's death on Lake Starnberg (then called Lake Würm). On June 13, at 6:30 p.m., Ludwig asked to take a walk with Professor Gudden. Gudden agreed, and told the guards not to follow them. The two men never returned. King Ludwig and Professor Gudden were found dead floating in the water near the shore of Lake Starnberg at 11:30 p.m..

After his death, a small memorial chapel was later built overlooking the site. A remembrance ceremony is held there each year on June 13.

Ludwig's death was officially ruled a suicide by drowning but doubts have been raised. Ludwig was known to be a strong swimmer, the water was less than waist-deep where his body was found, and the official autopsy report indicated that no water was found in his lungs. This suggests that Ludwig was dead before his body hit the water, although the lack of water in his lungs could also be explained by the dry drowning phenomenon.

Some hold that Ludwig was murdered by his political enemies while attempting to escape from Berg, perhaps shot. Another theory holds that Ludwig, who was overweight and out of shape at the time of his death, died of natural causes (such as a heart attack or stroke) during an escape attempt. There are those who believe it would be easier to explain his cause of death by exhuming his remains.

After lying in state and an elaborate funeral. Ludwig's remains were interred in the crypt of the Michaelskirche in Munich. His heart, however, does not lie with the rest of his body. Bavarian tradition called for the heart of the king to be placed in a silver urn and sent to the Gnadenkapelle (Chapel of the Miraculous Image) in Altötting. Ludwig's urn sits beside those of his father and grandfather inside the chapel. Today many visitors pay tribute to the late King by visiting his grave as well as his many castles.

His legacy

Ludwig II is remembered as one of the most unusual rulers in Bavarian history. He was quite popular among his subjects, for three major reasons. First, he attempted to avoid wars, giving Bavaria some years of peace. Whether this was due to a belief in pacifism or a lack of interest in politics is debatable. Ludwig always believed Bavaria was closer to Austria than Prussia. Second, Ludwig funded the construction of his famous castles with his personal income, not from the state budget. This gave many people employment and brought a considerable flow of money to the regions involved. Third, his public eccentricities could be quite charming. He hated crowds and formal affairs, but did not consider himself above socializing with his subjects. He enjoyed traveling in the Bavarian countryside and chatting with farmers and labourers he met along the way. Ludwig also delighted in rewarding those who were hospitable to him during his travels with lavish gifts. Ludwig lived mainly away from the court in his castles in the Bavarian countryside. He is still remembered in Bavaria as "Unser Kini" which means "our darling king" in the Bavarian dialect of German.

Although the construction of his castles very nearly bankrupted Bavaria's Wittelsbach royal family, they were never built with funds from the Bavarian treasury. It is the ultimate irony that the very castles that were claimed, incorrectly, to be ruining Bavaria financially, the reason for his deposition, have today become extremely profitable tourist attractions for the Bavarian state. The palaces have paid for themselves many times over and attract millions of tourists from all over the world to Germany each year.

Ludwig and the arts

Ludwig was a major patron of composer Richard Wagner, and he funded the construction of the Bayreuth Festspielhaus. Without Ludwig's support, it is almost certain that Wagner would have been unable to complete his opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen or to write his final opera, Parsifal. Ludwig also sponsored the premieres of Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and, through his financial support of the Bayreuth Festival, those of Der Ring des Nibelungen and Parsifal.

His buildings

It is not surprising that Ludwig II had a great interest in building. His paternal grandfather, King Ludwig I, had largely rebuilt Munich. It was known as the 'Athens on the Isar'. His father, King Maximillian II had also continued with more construction in Munich as well as the construction of Hohenschwangau Castle, the childhood home of Ludwig II, near the future Neuschwanstein Castle of Ludwig II. Ludwig II had planned to build a large opera house on the banks of the Isar river in Munich. This plan was vetoed by the Bavarian government. ^[6] Using similar plans, a festival theatre was built later in his reign from Ludwig's personal finances at Bayreuth.

Ludwig II left behind a large collection of plans and designs for other castles that were never built, as well as plans for further rooms in his completed buildings. Many of these designs are housed today in the King Ludwig II Museum at Herrenchiemsee Castle. These building designs date from the latter part of the King's reign, beginning around 1883. As money was starting to run out, the artists knew that their designs would never be executed. The designs became more extravagant and numerous as the artists realized that there was no need to concern themselves with economy or practicality.

• Winter Garden - Residenz Palace, Munich- an elaborate winter garden was constructed on the roof of the Residenz Palace in Munich. It featured an ornamental lake with gardens and painted frescos. It was roofed over using a metal and glass construction. After the death of Ludwig II, it was dismantled due to water leaking from the ornamental lake through the ceiling of the rooms below. Photographs and sketches still record this incredible creation. ^[7]

• Neuschwanstein Castle—or "New Swan Stone", a dramatic Romanesque fortress with Byzantine, Romanesque and Gothic interiors, which was built high above his father's castle: Hohenschwangau. Numerous wall paintings depict scenes from Wagner's operas. Christian glory and chaste love figure predominantly in the iconography, and may have been intended to help Ludwig live up to his religious ideals. The castle was not finished at Ludwig's death. The residence quarters of the king can be visited along with the servant's rooms, kitchens as well as the monumental throne room. Unfortunately the throne was never completed although sketches show how it might have looked on completion. ^[8] It is by far the best known (to non-Germans) landmark in Germany today. Neuschwanstein Castle would be used by Walt Disney in the twentieth century as the inspiration for the Sleeping Beauty Castles at Disneylands around the world.

• Linderhof Castle—an ornate palace in neo-French Rococo style, with handsome formal gardens. The grounds contain a Venus grotto where opera singers performed while Ludwig was rowed in a shell-like boat on an underground lake lit with electricity, a novelty at that time. The lighting can change from red to blue. In the grounds a romantic woodsman's hut was also built around an artificial tree. Inside the palace, iconography reflects Ludwig's fascination with the absolutist government of Ancien Régime France. Ludwig saw himself as the "Moon King", a romantic shadow of the earlier "Sun King", Louis XIV of France. From Linderhof, Ludwig enjoyed moonlit sleigh rides in an elaborate eighteenth century sleigh, complete with footmen in eighteenth-century livery. He was known to stop and visit with rural peasants while on rides, adding to his legend and popularity. The sleigh can today be viewed with other royal carriages at the Carriage Museum at Castle Nymphenburg in Munich. There is also a Moorish Pavilion in the ground of Linderhof Castle.

• Herrenchiemsee—a replica of the central section of the palace at Versailles, France, which was meant to outdo its predecessor in scale and opulence. It is located on the Herren Island in the middle of the Chiemsee Lake. Most of the palace was never completed once the king ran out of money, and Ludwig lived there for only the 10 days before his mysterious death. It is interesting to note that tourists come from France to view the recreation of the famous Ambassador's staircase. The original Ambassador's staircase Versailles in France was demolished in 1752. ^[9]

• Ludwig also outfitted Schachen king's house with an overwhelmingly decorative Arabian style interior, including a replica of the famous Peacock Throne. There are allegations of luxurious parties with the king sometimes reclining in the role of Turkish sultan while the most handsome soldiers and stable boys served him as scantily clad dancers.

• Falkenstein— a planned, but never executed "robber baron's castle" in the Gothic style. A painting by Christian Jank shows the proposed building as an even more fairytale version of Neuschwanstein, perched on a rocky cliff high above Castle Neuschwanstein.

• Ludwig also had plans for several other buildings that were never constructed, such as a Chinese summer palace and Byzantine palace.^[10]

Template:Ludwig's buildings

Ludwig in popular culture

Literature, stage and film

The 1972 movie Ludwig, directed by Luchino Visconti was based on his life. It traces the life of Ludwig II from his accession to death, and stars Helmut Berger as Ludwig II and Romy Schneider as the Austrian Empress Elisabeth. An earlier film, directed by Helmut Kautner, entitled Ludwig II (1955), starred O. W. Fischer in the role of Ludwig II and Ruth Leuwerik in the role of Empress Elizabeth. An epic film, Wagner (1983), directed by Tony Palmer for the London Cultural Trust, on the life of Richard Wagner, starring Richard Burton in the role of Wagner, also features Laszlo Galffi in the substantial role of King Ludwig.

The early 21st century play Valhalla by playwright Paul Rudnick prominently features Ludwig as the play unfolds in 19th century Bavaria and 1940s Texas.

There is also a three-volume manga published by Kadokawa Shoten called Ludwig II (ルートヴィヒⅡ世, Ruutovihi II sei) by the artist Higuri You (氷栗優), a highly fictionalized account of Ludwig's love life. The Busch Gardens Europe ride Curse of DarKastle features Ludwig as a king whose parents, and later, party guests "mysteriously disappeared", and who now haunts his old castle terrorizing guests riding golden sleighs. As with Gabriel Knight: The Beast Within, werewolves figure in the ride.

Video and computer games

The computer game Gabriel Knight: The Beast Within features several Ludwig II-related locations and includes extensive discussion of his life, although numerous fictional elements (including werewolves and a lost Wagner opera entitled Der Fluch des Engelhart ("The Curse of Engelhart") are added to fit in with the supernatural mystery plot of the game.

Music

A number of musicals based on the life of Ludwig II have been staged. One was called, Ludwig: The Musical by Rolf Rettburg and another, Ludwig II: Longing For Paradise with music by Franz Hummel and lyrics by Stephen Barbarino. A special theatre was constructed on the shores of the lake at Füssen, not far from Castles Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein, specifically for the musical performances.

The Clean's spoken-word song Ludwig is about him.

The electronic duo Matmos recorded a song entitled "Banquet for King Ludwig II of Bavaria" on their 2006 album The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of a Beast.

In 1978 German synthesizer wizard Klaus Schulze, an admirer of Richard Wagner, named a piece after Ludwig II on his 1978 album, "X" (subtitled "Six Musical Biographies"). The piece is nearly 29 minutes long.

Ancestors

Frederick Michael of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld

Maximilian I of Bavaria

Maria Franziska of Sulzbach

Ludwig I of Bavaria

Georg Wilhelm of Hesse-Darmstadt

Wilhelmine of Hesse-Darmstadt

Princess Luise of Leiningen-Heidesheim

Maximilian II of Bavaria

Ernest Frederick III, Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen

Frederick, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg

Ernestine of Saxe-Weimar

Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen

Charles II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz

Charlotte Georgine of Mecklenburg-Strelitz

Friederike Caroline Luise of Hesse-Darmstadt

Ludwig II of Bavaria

Prince Augustus William of Prussia

Frederick William II of Prussia

Louise Amalie of Brunswick-Lüneburg

Wilhelm of Prussia

Louis IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt

Frederika Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt

Karoline of Zweibrücken

Marie of Prussia

Friedrich IV, Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg

Frederick V, Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg

Ulrike Luise of Solms-Braunfels

Marie Anna of Hesse-Homburg

Louis IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt

Caroline of Hesse-Darmstadt

Karoline of Zweibrücken

Notes

1. ^ Wahnsinn oder Verrat - war König Ludwig II. von Bayern geisteskrank? by Julius Desing
2. ^ Edir Grein, Tagebuchaufzeichnungen von Ludig II., Schaan (Liechtenstein): Quaderer-V., 1925
3. ^ McIntosh, pp 155–158.
4. ^ Bernd-Ulrich Hergemöller, Man for Man, p 478
5. ^ Wahnsinn oder Verrat - war König Ludwig II. von Bayern geisteskrank? by Julius Desing
6. ^ Ludwig II. und seine Schloesser by Michael Petzet and Werner Neumeister, p.24
7. ^ Past and present Castles of Bavaria by Paolo Calore, pp.164-165
8. ^ ibid, p.89
9. ^ Past and present Castles of Bavaria by Paolo Calore, p.60
10. ^ Koenig Ludwig II Museum Herrenchiemsee

Books

English-language biographies and related information on Ludwig II:

• Blunt, Wilfred and Michael Petzet. The Dream King: Ludwig II of Bavaria. 1970. ISBN 0-241-11293-1, ISBN 0-14-003606-7.
• Calore, Paola. Past and Present Castles of Bavaria. 1998. ISBN 1-84056-019-3
• Chapman-Huston, Desmond. Bavarian Fantasy: The Story of Ludwig II. 1955.
• King, Greg. The Mad King: The Life and Times of Ludwig II of Bavaria. 1996. ISBN 1-55972-362-9
• McIntosh, Christopher. The Swan King: Ludwig II of Bavaria. 1982. ISBN 1-86064-892-4
• Richter, Werner. The Mad Monarch: The Life and Times of Ludwig II of Bavaria. 1954.

German-language biographies and related information on Ludwig II:

• Botzenhart, Christof : Die Regierungstätigkeit König Ludwig II. von Bayern - "ein Schattenkönig ohne Macht will ich nicht sein" , München , Verlag Beck , 2004 , 234 S., ISBN 3-406-10737-0
• Desing, Julius : Wahnsinn oder Verrat - war König Ludwig II. von Bayern geisteskrank? , Lechbruck , Verlag Kienberger , 1996
• Reichold, Klaus : König Ludwig II. von Bayern - zwischen Mythos und Wirklichkeit, Märchen und Alptraum ; Stationen eines schlaflosen Lebens ; München , Süddt. Verl., 1996
• Richter, Werner : Ludwig II., König von Bayern , 14.Aufl. ; München ,Stiebner , 2001 , 335 S., ISBN 3-8307-1021-6
• Schäffler Anita, Borkowsky Sandra, Adami, Erich : König Ludwig II. von Bayern und seine Reisen in die Schweiz - 20. Oktober - 2. November 1865, 22. Mai - 24. Mai 1866, 27. Juni - 14. Juli 1881 ; eine Dokumentation , Füssen , 2005
• Wolf, Georg Jacob : Koenig Ludwig II Und Seine Welt, Muenchen, Franz Hanfstaengl, 1922
• Hojer, Gerhard : Koenig Ludwig II. - Museum Herrenchiemsee, Muenchen, Hirmer Verlag, 1986. ISBN 3-7774-4160-0
• Petzet, Michael : Koenig Ludwig. Und Die Kunst, Prestel Verlag, Muenchen, 1968
• Petzet, Michael & Neumeister, Werner : Ludwig II. Und Seine Schloesser: Die Welt des Bayerischen Maerchenkoenigs, Prestel Verlag, Muenchen, 1995. ISBN 3-7913-1471-8

External links

• Mysterious death of King Ludwig: http://schwangau.de/646.0.html
• English website about "Mad" King Ludwig

Ludwig II of Bavaria House of Wittelsbach Born: 25 August 1845 Died: 13 June 1886
Regnal titles
Preceded by Maximilian II	King of Bavaria 1864-1886	Succeeded by Otto I

References

• Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "Ludwig II of Bavaria" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_II_of_Bavaria January 5, 2004, updated from Wikipedia October 28, 2007 released under the GNU Free Documentation License