Ludwig II of Bavaria
Ludwig II (Ludwig Otto Friedrich Wilhelm; 25 August 1845 – 13 June 1886),[1] also called the Swan King or the Fairy Tale King (der Märchenkönig), was King of Bavaria from 1864 until his death in 1886. He also held the titles of Count Palatine of the Rhine, Duke of Bavaria, Duke of Franconia, and Duke in Swabia.[2] Outside Germany, he is at times called "the Mad King" or Mad King Ludwig.[3]
"Ludwig II" redirects here. For other uses, see Ludwig II (disambiguation).Ludwig II
10 March 1864 – 13 June 1886
25 August 1845
Nymphenburg Palace, Munich, Bavaria, Germany
13 June 1886 (aged 40)
Lake Starnberg, Bavaria, Germany
Ludwig ascended to the throne in 1864 at the age of 18 but increasingly withdrew from day-to-day affairs of state in favour of extravagant artistic and architectural projects. He commissioned the construction of lavish palaces: Neuschwanstein Castle, Linderhof Palace, and Herrenchiemsee. He was also a devoted patron of the composer Richard Wagner. Ludwig spent all his own private royal revenues (although not state funds as is commonly thought) on these projects, borrowed extensively, and defied all attempts by his ministers to restrain him. This extravagance was used against him to declare him insane, an accusation that has since come under scrutiny.[3]
Ludwig was taken into custody and effectively deposed on 12 June 1886, and he and his doctor were found dead on the following day. His death was ruled to be a suicide, a decision that has since been disputed.[4] Today, his architectural and artistic legacy includes many of Bavaria's most important tourist attractions.
Austro-Prussian and Franco-Prussian Wars[edit]
Unification with Prussia took center stage from 1866. In the Austro-Prussian War, which began in August, Ludwig supported the Austrian Empire against Prussia.[7] Austria and Bavaria were defeated, and the Kingdom of Bavaria was forced to sign a mutual defense treaty with Prussia. When the Franco-Prussian War broke out in 1870, Bavaria was required to fight alongside Prussia. After the Prussian victory over the Second French Empire, Chancellor Otto von Bismarck moved to complete the unification of Germany.
In November 1870, Bavaria joined the North German Confederation, thus losing its status as an independent kingdom; however, the Bavarian delegation under Minister President, Count Otto von Bray-Steinburg, secured privilleged status for Bavaria within the empire (Reservatrechte). Bavaria retained its own diplomatic corps and the Bavarian Army, which would come under Prussian command only in times of war.
In December 1870, Bismarck used financial concessions to induce Ludwig, with the support of the king's equerry, Maximilian Count von Holnstein, to write the Kaiserbrief, a letter endorsing the creation of the German Empire with King Wilhelm I of Prussia as Emperor. Nevertheless, Ludwig regretted Bavaria's loss of independence and refused to attend Wilhelm's 18 January proclamation as German Emperor in the Palace of Versailles.[11] Ludwig's brother Prince Otto and his uncle Luitpold went instead.[12]
In the Constitution of the German Empire, Bavaria was able to secure for itself extensive rights, in particular regarding military sovereignty. Not only did the Royal Bavarian Army retain, like the kingdoms of Saxony and Württemberg, its own troops, war ministry, and military justice system but was excluded from the empire-wide regimental renumbering of the army regiments and would only come under imperial control in times of war. Bavaria also kept its light-blue infantry uniforms, the Raupenhelm (until 1886), the light cavalry, and some other peculiarities. The officers and men of the Bavarian Army continued to swear their oaths to the King of Bavaria and not the German Emperor. Nevertheless, the uniform cut, equipment, and training was standardised to the Prussian model. When field-grey uniforms were introduced, only the cockade and a blue-and-white lozenge edging to the collar distinguished Bavarian units.
Controversy and struggle for power[edit]
Although Ludwig had paid for his pet projects out of his own funds and not the state coffers, that did not necessarily spare Bavaria from financial fallout.[36] By 1885, he was 14 million marks in debt and had borrowed heavily from his family. Rather than economizing, as his financial ministers advised him, he planned further opulent designs without pause. He demanded that loans be sought from all of Europe's royalty and remained aloof from matters of state. Feeling harassed and irritated by his ministers, he considered dismissing the entire cabinet and replacing them with fresh faces. The cabinet decided to act first.
Seeking a cause to depose Ludwig by constitutional means, the rebelling ministers decided on the rationale that he was mentally ill and unable to rule. They asked Ludwig's uncle, Prince Luitpold, to step into the royal vacancy once Ludwig was deposed. Luitpold agreed on condition the conspirators produced reliable proof that the king was in fact helplessly insane. Between January and March 1886, the conspirators assembled the Ärztliches Gutachten (Medical Report), on Ludwig's fitness to rule. Most of the details in the report were compiled by Count Maximilian von Holnstein, who was disillusioned with Ludwig and actively sought his downfall. Holnstein used bribery and his high rank to extract a long list of complaints, accounts, and gossip about Ludwig from among the king's servants. The litany of supposed bizarre behavior included his pathological shyness, his avoidance of state business, his complex and expensive flights of fancy, dining outdoors in cold weather and wearing heavy overcoats in summer, sloppy and childish table manners, dispatching servants on lengthy and expensive voyages to research architectural details in foreign lands, and violent threats of abuse to his servants.
The degree to which these accusations were accurate may never be known. The conspirators approached Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, who doubted the report's veracity, calling it "rakings from the King's wastepaper-basket and cupboards".[37] Bismarck commented after reading the report that "the Ministers wish to sacrifice the King, otherwise they have no chance of saving themselves". He suggested that the matter be brought before the Bavarian Diet and discussed there but did not stop the ministers from carrying out their plan.[38]
In early June, the report was finalized and signed by a panel of four psychiatrists: Bernhard von Gudden, chief of the Munich Asylum; Hubert von Grashey (who was Gudden's son-in-law); and their colleagues, Friedrich Wilhelm Hagen and Max Hubrich. The report declared in its final sentences that the king suffered from paranoia and concluded, "Suffering from such a disorder, freedom of action can no longer be allowed and Your Majesty is declared incapable of ruling, which incapacity will be not only for a year's duration, but for the length of Your Majesty's life." The men had never met the king, except for Gudden, only once, 12 years earlier, and none had ever examined him.[7] Questions about the lack of medical diagnosis make the legality of the deposition controversial. Adding to the controversy are the mysterious circumstances under which King Ludwig died. Today, the claim of paranoia is not considered correct; Ludwig's behavior is rather interpreted as a schizotypal personality disorder, and he may also have suffered from Pick's disease during his last years, an assumption supported by a frontotemporal lobar degeneration mentioned in the autopsy report.[39]
Ludwig's only younger brother and successor, Otto, was considered insane,[40] providing a convenient basis for the claim of hereditary insanity.