ETCFamily: Mad King Ludwig of Bavaria

Last June for our anniversary Eric and I took a short trip to visit all of the castles of Mad King Ludwig. The most famous one is Neuschwanstein Castle, the one the Disney castle is modelled on. We didn't go there this time because we go there any time anyone comes to visit. Here's the story of Mad King Ludwig and his castles.

Bavaria has been an entity for a long, long time; but our story begins in 1180 when the family of Wittelsbach became the Dukes of Bavaria. They ruled Bavaria as Dukes, then electors in the Holy Roman Empire and then as Kings until the end of World War I in 1918. Then it all went weird with the rise of Hitler, etc. Now Bavaria is the largest state in Germany, out of 16 states, with Munich as it's capital. (It was when we moved here that I found out that BMW stands for Bavarian Motor Works and not British Motor Works, like I had always thought.) There are still Wittelsbachs around in Munich.

Ludwig was one of the last kings in Bavaria, living from 1845 to 1886. He was actually Ludwig the II.

He didn't really like the business of ruling; he was more of an art and music fan. He's sometimes been called the Fairy-tale King. Others describe him as living in a fantasy land. He loved the operas of Richard Wagner and became his patron. He withdrew more and more from public life and started planning and building castles. He built additions to the three already existing castles of his father: Nymphenberg, Munich Residenz and Hohenschwangau, built three more of his own: Neuschwanstein, Linderhof and Herrenchiemsee and planned but never started three more. He used his own money for the castles and went into millions of marks of debt. Then he asked his ministers to borrow money from the rulers of other countries and that's when they decided to do something about him.

The only way they could figure out to get rid of him was to declare him mentally incompentent to rule. They got four doctors who had never examined him to write up a huge document of evidence (much taken from servants complaints) and declare him incompetent. They took him into custody and the next day they found him dead in 4 feet of water along with the main doctor who had written the report. His uncle took over as regent. His death has been a mystery ever since. I asked a guide, who was telling this story, if the Germans liked the uncle as a ruler. He said "Not the Germans, the Bavarians, and yes, they did". (Bavarians are very proud and independent.)

So that's how he came to be known as Mad King Ludwig. He was popular with the people during his life and he's popular with everyone now because his castles bring in millions of visitors and many millions of dollars, I mean euros. Here he is a couple more times.

And here are his castles. This one is Linderhof. The only one fully completed in his lifetime. It's small but super sumptious and very private. He even had a dining table for one that could be lowered to the kitchen in the basement to be set with food, raised up to his dining room so he could eat alone, and then sent back down again to be cleared. He also made a cave with a little lake in it and a seashell boat so he could listen to Wagner operas sitting in a boat.