Mad King Ludwig

Mad king? More like sad king. This episode explores the life of Mad King Ludwig, who ruled Bavaria for over two decades in the late 19th century. Strange, weird, bizarre, or just plain misunderstood? You decide.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

This is So Bizarre, a podcast where we find the weirdest stories from history and share them with you. Hosted by Bianca Bafitis and Nicole Mercedes.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Well, this is the story of Mad King Ludwig, aka the Swan Prince, aka the Fairy Tale King. Have you heard of Mad King Ludwig?

SPEAKER_00 0:38

No, but it sounds magical. It's Fairy Tale King. Can that be my nickname? First please refer to me as Fairy Tale King.

SPEAKER_01 0:47

That is the first thing on the first merch. For sure, for sure, for sure. Um, yeah, okay, I'm gonna jump right into it. Let's go. Even as a child, Ludwig showed signs of extreme romanticism. He idolized myth, legends, and heroes from history, and this obsession would shape his entire life. So let's talk about his reign a little bit. At just 18, Ludwig became king in 1864, but there was one problem. He had absolutely no interests in politics. He said no to the family business. He said, I wanna I wanna think of myths, I wanna chill, I wanna just do pretty things. Honestly, this is the scary part. The more I read about Ludwig, the more I was finding myself into whatever he was trying to do. Um while Bavaria was navigating complex relationships with Prussia and Austria, Ludwig preferred to immerse himself in art, music, and grand dreams of medieval Europe. He appointed ministers to handle governance, but his lack of engagement frustrated them. He would ignore state matters and disappear into the mountains or his castles.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

So you think that would be ideal for people ruling around him? It's like they can make all the decisions. They don't have to deal with this with this person, and they get they get what they want.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

You're not wrong, but there was a catch with all of this with Ludwig. And we'll get into it more, but he wasn't just disappearing and minding his own business, he was disappearing and spending cash. A lot of cash. Okay. So even his personal life, he was a bit of an enigma. He was, and I feel like this is best case scenario for the royal family, engaged to his cousin, Duchess Sophie. I'm sorry, Duchess Sophie, but broke off the engagement last minute. Some say due to his deep disinterest in women. Gay. We're gonna say gay. Others say because he was too lost in his own fantasy world. Also gay, yeah. Super gay. Ludwig became increasingly eccentric as he aged. He hated public appearances and often avoided meeting his ministers entirely. He also began to live a nocturnal life, sleeping during the day and staying awake all night, wandering his castles by candlelight. He was known to have imaginary conversations with historical figures, fictional characters, and people long dead. He once ordered servants to act, okay, and this is my favorite thing because I feel like this is something that everyone can relate to. If you were 18 and like forced to become king, and you were kind of like, you know, doing your own thing anyways. This is this is stuff that I would do. He once ordered servants to act as medieval courtiers, forcing them to dress in period costumes and treat him as if he were a legendary king of old.

SPEAKER_00 4:11

So he does want to rule just on his own weird little inside terms.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

No, he wants to play dress up. As a ruler. He wants to wear like pretty costumes and he wants to have like Okay, yeah. As as he should. Let's discuss the legacies of Mad King Ludwig, because there are quite a few. The first one is his castle Neuschwenstein.

SPEAKER_00 4:42

I feel like that was actually a good pronunciation.

SPEAKER_01 4:44

We'll never know. If you've ever seen Disney's Sleeping Beauty Castle, then you've seen Ludwig's biggest legacy. Neuschvenstein's castle. Built in the mountains of Bavaria, this fairy tale fortress was Ludwig's ultimate dream home. It had massive towers, stunning frescoes depicting scenes from mythology and secret passageways. But here's the kicker. He never even lived in it. The castle wasn't completed until after his death. But it has since become one of the most famous castles in the world and draws millions of tourists.

SPEAKER_00 5:26

So I can still go see it? You can see it. It's there. Look all my travelling book it.

SPEAKER_01 5:37

Okay. The next castle is this one's a bit of a bummer. Er in Shimsi and Linderhof. Ludwig didn't stop at building one castle. He built more. It was meant to honor King Louis XIV, who, of course, Ludwig idolized. Linderhof, another palace, was built just for Ludwig himself. It had golden statues, married halls, and even a man-made grotto where he would sit alone and listen to Wagner's music. Lovely!

SPEAKER_00 6:27

Lovely.

SPEAKER_01 6:28

I know, but that's wonderful. Okay, but this is what I'm saying. It's like the more I read about him, I was just like. And it was designed to look like a mythical cave from Wagner's operas, illuminated entirely by candlelight. Servants had to constantly replace and relight hundreds of candles to maintain the eerie dreamlight glow. Because Ludwig, ever the nocturnal recluse, refused to use modern electricity. That's cool. But that's what I'm saying. He's a soft boy. If Ludwig was here in Brooklyn, I feel like I can I can make out exactly who he is. He's worried about uh climate change. He's worried about covering climate change. He's clear playing vinyl. Yes. He hasn't got a TV, he's staying up all night and just like living off a trust fund. Great. It's good. So Ludwig II, who despised socializing, had a special Chischlin Deck dish or wishing table installed at Linderhof Palace. This is my favorite thing for you, Nicole. Because this is something that I feel like we would get. A wishing table? Well, wait for it. Basically, it's a dining table that could be lowered into the kitchen below and sent back up fully set, ensuring he never had to even see his servants. When I say recluse, that's not a good look at me. Huh? It's kind of fun. You don't have to well, because imagine if you're a royalty, you don't want to keep making eye contact with your servants. You might feel a little bad. You're like, I'm Ludwig, I stay up all night, I just make you light candles all the time. Yeah, maybe I don't want to hold eye contact. Maybe I got a wishing table now.

SPEAKER_00 8:22

Why is it called a wishing table? It's not a button, it's just like people sitting on it until it weighs down.

SPEAKER_01 8:28

Yeah, it's literally someone has to wait out the door anyway. Okay. Often he would dine alone while conversing with imaginary guests, including long-dead French kings and legendary figures, indulging in elaborate feasts. Now I'm worried about him. For sure. For sure. He's not like all it's not super checking out. Worried about him. The royal family, like you've gotta, I imagine there's a lot of, you know, it's not. They're different things. They're different. They're different. They're quirky. Yeah. So he's quirky. You have to imagine this. He is just hosting big, elaborate dinners, multiple settings at this huge wishing table. And it's getting lowered up, and he's just chatting away. You know what it's giving?

SPEAKER_00 9:18

Be ow. Guest be ow guest.

SPEAKER_01 9:23

It's giving Lumière. It's giving what would happen to the beast if he didn't like fully coerce Del into a marriage.

SPEAKER_00 9:32

It probably already was like that.

SPEAKER_01 9:34

Exactly. Um great. So let's let's discuss a little bit more what we touched on, which is why his ministers weren't that jazzed about him. Financial ruin, the cost of a dreamer king. Ludwig didn't just spend money, he burned it. He sank the Bavarian Treasury into debt to fund his castle building obsession. His ministers begged him to stop, but he ignored them. At one point, he was so deep into debt that banks refused to lend him money. You are the king, and the bank is like, nah.

SPEAKER_00 10:18

Yeah, this would never happen nowadays. They just be like, no worries, we'll sink a different bank, we'll give you the money.

SPEAKER_01 10:25

His response to that start negotiating with foreign governments to fund his castles without his minister's consent.

SPEAKER_00 10:36

Mom said yes, you can give me cash, please. Don't ask her, Nebaska. I want a castle. I don't want one. I want three. Here's my permission slip. Don't ask them if they signed it. They do.

SPEAKER_01 10:49

No, it's their signature. Are you saying I did it? I didn't do it. That's so rude. So, before we move on more into Ludwig's life, we're just gonna take a little detour and talk about Ludwig and his obsession with Richard Wagner. I said Wagner earlier, but I think it's Wagner. Richard Wagner, a groundbreaking German composer, revolutionized music with his sweeping orchestration, endless melodies, and daring harmonies, paving the way for modernism. Though he died long before the Nazi era, his hostile anti-Semitic writings and the later appropriation of his music by Hitler have tainted his legacy, making him as controversial as he is influential.

SPEAKER_00 11:37

So yeah, let's say that we got a our first Hitler reference in the podcast.

SPEAKER_01 11:44

You know I had to go in for it. Um so Ludwig obviously was a massive Wagner fan. Like so much, in fact, that there's huge speculation that there may have been a relationship between them. But speculated by you. Speculated by me. Well, basically what it seems like is he was super into Wagner. He was a huge patron for him, and Wagner I think just had more of the energy of okay, you're rich and you really like me, so I'm gonna be very chill, but he never reciprocated any sort of emotional feelings, let's just say. It feels like he was happy to take a ride with Ludwig when it suited him. But later on, when Ludwig really fell out of favor, Wagner was nowhere to be seen.

SPEAKER_00 12:44

Well, he probably got paid a lot. Yes. As composers did by the royal families in that time. What do you think he got paid? Oh Bianca, you can maybe do math.

SPEAKER_01 12:55

He got paid uh two dollars, which in 1864, if we do the conversion, was a hundred thousand million dollars. Yeah, yeah, great. So Ludwig idolized composer Richard Wagner to an almost fanatical degree, funded his works, gave him money, palaces, endless support, despite Wagner's reputation for being arrogant and controversial. So some do believe, like I said, that Ludwig was romantically obsessed with Wagner. Yes. And it tracks, but Wagner ultimately took advantage of Ludwig's generosity and abandoned him when the political pressure became too much. See, I want to watch that story. That should be a movie. I want to see my soft boy Crazy Prince with his wishing table in love with this arrogant, psychotic. Well, I threw in psychotic, like musician who's super anti-Semitic, but it's like super chill because I guess everybody hated everyone back then, but also him getting abandoned by Wagner last minute. Like that's that's a story there.

SPEAKER_00 14:08

He got out fuckboy, didn't he?

SPEAKER_01 14:10

He got out fuckboyed. So by 1886, Ludwig's ministers had had enough. They declared him insane and unfit to rule. No. He was arrested and sent to Neuschwenstein, where he was essentially placed under house arrest. The diagnosis of his insanity was highly suspicious. He was declared insane without a medical examination. Just days later, Ludwig and his doctor, Bernard von Guden, were found dead in Lake Starnberg. The official explanation? Ludwig drowned. But there was no signs of a struggle, and Ludwig was an excellent swimmer. Some theories suggest he was assassinated to prevent him from regaining powers. Others claim he took his own life in despair. To this day, his death remains one of history's greatest unsolved mysteries. So we know that Ludwig had a very short but crazy life, and there was a lot that he left behind. Besides that, we said Neuschwinstein was a beautiful castle. It directly inspired Disneyland's sleeping beauty castle. Awww. All worth it. It all comes out in the wash. Also, that castle is Bavaria's biggest tourist attraction. So my question to you, Nicole. Yes. Was Ludwig II truly insane? Or was he just an artist born in the wrong era?

SPEAKER_00 15:53

He's clearly not mad. He was clearly quirky. He's a manic pixie dream boy.

SPEAKER_01 16:00

Well, whether he was a failed king or a visionary dreamer, he left behind something possibly greater than politics. That was really cool castles that are inspirational still to this day.

SPEAKER_00 16:17

Brava. Yeah, truly, that's so cool though.

SPEAKER_01 16:21

There was this book that I was um reading. I actually got it for Christmas because I couldn't stop talking about Ludwig for a while. And there is a firsthand account of his cook who wrote a diary all about working in the castle. Um and he's very defensive over Ludwig. So yeah, which, you know, this is just me taking a guess, but if you're the one who's like cooking up these crazy elaborate meals for a wishing table, and your boss is like sort of not altogether there, and you're still like, hey, lay off this guy, I feel like you have to be kind of a cool person.

SPEAKER_00 17:07

Maybe he was the echor to his Frankenstein.

SPEAKER_01 17:12

I love that one episode of like us talking about Bavaria and you're like Frankenstein. I think that's a good theory. That's his tagline. That's his real housewife's tagline.

SPEAKER_00 17:44

My legacy? Wait, another second. Wait, do the house do it do it yourself.

SPEAKER_01 17:49

My life may have been tragic, but my legacy that's eternal.