bavarikon4ULegend
Perception of Ludwig II over the course of time
Ludwig’s myth begins with his death. The ruler, who was often perceived negatively during his lifetime, became a figure for a wide variety of people to identify with, mainly seeing what they wanted in him. This was initially disseminated through literary adaptations, soon also through theatre, film and countless products from the kitsch industry.
When Ludwig II is spoken about, it is usually as a surface to project one’s own wishes onto, which bears little relation to the historical figure. Three narratives dominate: isolation and misunderstanding of the beautiful young monarch, the construction of the castles as fairytale "counter worlds" and finally his mysterious death. As a "roi maudit", Ludwig becomes the crown witness for his own dreams. Even during Ludwig’s lifetime he was viewed differently, as his role in the founding of the empire shows. While on the one hand he was "the birthplace of the German Empire" and "Ludwig the German", others saw him as a traitor to Bavarian freedom. After Ludwig’s death he was revered as a hero, especially among the rural population of Upper Bavaria. Here he was glorified as a popular ruler and defender of Bavarian sovereignty. During the Weimar Republic there was a positive reassessment of Ludwig’s buildings, while his personality had mostly negative connotations until 1945.
After the Second World War, Ludwig was reassessed in the Federal Republic of Germany. The population loved the idea of a peace-loving king escaping a Prussian military reality. The successful film by Helmut Käutner (1955) underlined this, and a veritable "Neuschwanstein fever" ensued. The American LIFE magazine titled a special issue "Germany, a giant awakened". The cover page is dominated by the Bavarian king’s "fairytale castle" Neuschwanstein. Luchino Visconti’s epic film "Ludwig II" (1973) with Helmut Berger did its bit to get the modern myth of the fairytale king, who is broken by his world, out into the world.
Friedrich Röhrer-Ertl
Commemoration of King Ludwig II
The commemoration of a deceased ruler often manifests itself in publicly erected monuments. This is no different with Ludwig II, but with the peculiarity that a large number of new monuments were not erected for other monarchs until well into the 21st century. Shortly after his death, private initiatives in Upper Bavaria and in Munich sought to honour the king in this way. The reason for this was probably the rapid onset of Ludwig’s glorification, which can be explained above all by the mysterious circumstances of his death and the government’s actions, which were dubious to the public. His withdrawal from the Munich court and his very frequent stays in the foothills of the Alps and in the mountains, often criticised during Ludwig’s lifetime, were now interpreted by parts of the Bavarian population as a special bond with his people and homeland. Once several monuments had been privately financed and erected by 1895, the royal family then also participated in their promotion. One special place of remembrance is the votive chapel near Berg Castle on Lake Starnberg; the Wittelsbach family and royal loyalists gather there every year to pray on the anniversary of Ludwig II’s death.
Matthias Bader
International interpretations
Fairytale King, Mad King, Re del suo sogno, Roi Lune, Swan King – there are as many nicknames for Ludwig as there are views of him, especially outside Bavaria and Germany. During his lifetime, international authors usually still emphasised the king’s "madness", for example Mark Twain (A Tramp Abroad, 1880). With Ludwig’s death, the predominant interpretation of the king was as a man of the arts and patron of Richard Wagner, who was broken by his environment and the Prussian-German empire, which was perceived as hostile to the arts. Paul Verlaine sang about him in this way in the year of his death: "You have been [...] the only king of this age in which kings mean so little".
After World War I and especially since World War II, this view of Ludwig II has been joined by one that sees him as a king of peace, an alternative to the Prussian-German militarism of Bismarck and Wilhelm I, which had led to the world wars. The internationally successful film biographies of Ludwig II by Helmut Käutner (1955) and Lucchino Visconti (1973) in particular serve this image and successfully link it to the image of an unhappy love affair with Elisabeth of Austria.
Most recently, Ludwig has also been discovered as a gay icon who is the hero in a 1996 Boys Love manga by Japanese cartoonist Higuri You, for example.
The increasing commercialisation of Ludwig can already be observed in all this in the late 19th century, which goes hand in hand with the depoliticisation, even derealisation of the man and king. The ever-young, dreaming King Ludwig becomes a figure for all sorts of people to identify with, while the image of the chubby, unhappy Ludwig in later years is faded out.
Friedrich Röhrer-Ertl
