While a tourist in Bavaria, I developed a considerable interest in Ludwig II, or Mad King Ludwig.  When I came back home, I read a biography of him and made a speech on Ludwig in speech class.        

Ludwig Wittelsbach was born at Castle Nymphenberg in 1845.  He was born on his grandfather’s birthday, and he was named after him.  Ludwig had a difficult childhood.  His father, King Maximilian, paid little attention to either Ludwig or his brother Otto.  Ludwig once had a pet turtle, but King Max took it away because he thought his son was too fond of it [I thought I read that Max killed the turtle].  Ludwig’s mother had no imagination and didn’t understand the boy.  Thus the two brothers grew up bashful and high-strung.           

In 1864, King Maximilian died of severe rheumatism and worry; therefore, Ludwig became king at the age of nineteen.  Ludwig was not interested in government matters, but at the beginning of his reign he did deal with it.  He preferred dreaming and listening to the music of Richard Wagner. Ludwig found it difficult to cope with such things as the Prussian War.           

As I mentioned before, Ludwig was fascinated by the music of Richard Wagner.  He sent his Cabinet Secretary, Pfistermeister, to fetch Wagner, and Pfistermeister did just that.  Thus Ludwig and Wagner became friends; Ludwig gave the composer an incredible amount of money for the production of several of Wagner’s operas.  However, the friends had to part due to the excessive disapproval of Ludwig’s family and the society of Munich.           

Mad King Ludwig never married, and he wasn’t particularly interested in women.  In 1866, he became betrothed to his cousin Sophie; the engagement lasted for eighteen months and came to an end because Ludwig did not love Sophie [not to mention he was gay and Sophie’s mother was nuts].  After breaking the engagement, Ludwig withdrew to Castle Berg, where he researched on Louis VI, the Sun King of France, whom he greatly admired.           

In the late 1860s, Ludwig began building castles.  From a practical point of view, such things were quite useless in the nineteenth century.  But Ludwig built them to hide from the outside world and he built them for his dreams.             

Ludwig’s life was eventually in the reclusion of his castles in the Alps.  He rarely saw anyone, and he eventually completely ignored government matters.  He slept in the mornings and rode in a carriage or sleigh in the night.  Due to these nocturnal rides in the night, Ludwig seemed quite a romantic figure.             

The king ignored government and supposedly drained the treasury away; in fact he used his own money on his luxurious castles.  In 1886 some of his cabinet ministers conspired against him. Actually, another motivation for their conspiracy was simply their own greed and ambition and lack of compassion toward Ludwig.  A psychiatrist, Doktor Gudden, made a medical report claiming that he King was insane and therefore unfit to rule.  Later, Ludwig was captured at Castle Neuschwanstein and imprisoned at Castle Berg.  On the third night of his imprisonment, the King went for a walk with a doctor named Gudden…but they never came back.  On the following day, their bodies were found in Starnberger See. 

 

Ludwig on the Web

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_II_of_Bavaria

 

http://www.castles.org/castles/Europe/Central_Europe/Germany/germany7.htm

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/murder-mystery-of-mad-king-ludwig-399742.html

 

 

Recommended Reading

Bertram, Werner.  A Royal Recluse.  Martin Perhich & Sons:  Munich, 1936.

 

Blunt, Wilfrid.  The Dream King.  Viking Press:  New York, 1970.

 

Cable, Mary.  Dream Castles.  Viking Press:  New York, 1966.

 

Channon, Henry.  The Ludwigs of Bavaria.  E. P. Dutton and Company:  New York, 1933.

 

Chapman-Huston, Desmond.  Ludwig II: the Mad King of Bavaria.  Dorset Press:  New York, 1990.

 

King, Greg.  The Mad King: a Biography of Ludwig II of Bavaria.  Carol Publishing Group, Secaucus, NJ:  1996.

 

McInTosh, Christopher.  Ludwig II of Bavaria: the Swan King.  Barnes & Noble Books, NY:  1982.

 

Sailer, Anton.  Castles, Mystery, and Music:  the Legend of Ludwig II.  Verlag F. Bruckman KG, Muenchen:  1983.

 

Steinberger, Hans.  Ludwig II of Bavaria.  Franz, Speiser, Chiemsee:  Munich, no date available.

 

Tierney, John.  “Land of Ludwig.”  National Geographic Traveler.  Sept/Oct 1989.  pp. 50-62.

 

Von Burg, Katerina.  Ludwig II of Bavaria:  the Man and the Mystery.  Graham Harcourt Printers, Ltd., Swansea, Germany:  1989.