Strict upbringing

On 1 May 1854, Count Theodor von Basselet de la Rosée (1801-1864), a royal Bavarian major general and adjutant to the king, was appointed as Crown Prince Ludwig’s educator. He was supported by Baron Emil von Wulffen (1828-1876) and later Major Carl von Orff (1828-1876). In 1856 Ludwig began his grammar school education in the humanities, and was taught eight hours a day by Franz Steininger (1808-1878), a classical philologist and grammar school professor at Maximiliansgymnasium in Munich.

Christian virtues such as love of God and love of one’s neighbour, but also values such as honesty, diligence, frugality and self-respect were to be crucial for the upbringing of the heir to the throne. Father Maximilian II of Bavaria (1811-1864) explicitly referred to the paternal warnings in "Monita paterna" by Elector Maximilian of Bavaria (1638-1705). The ideal at that time was a strict upbringing to renunciation and rigour. The crown prince was required to keep a diary. Ludwig was to explore his conscience and learn to control himself with the help of this self-reflection.

When he started school, the crown prince received 90 kreuzer pocket money per month by express order of his father, which was increased during the course of the year. Ludwig II also had to give detailed account of the use of this pocket money in the form of personal expenditure lists. This was to educate him in thrift and humility. He was to sign off the expenditure slips meticulously. Surpluses recorded in the lists at the end of the year show that the crown prince managed his savings well. There is a deviation in the year 1862 when the crown prince used up the year’s savings for numerous Christmas presents. The personally kept expenditure lists came to an end after Ludwig II ascended the throne in 1864.