Mad Ludwig

After Austria defeated his army, King Ludwig II became reclusive and obsessed with the old Germanic sagas. The legends of Parcifal’s quest for the holy grail, the doomed love of Tristan and Isolde and the adventures of Lohengrin filled his heart and mind. Though he never renounced the Christian faith, the old Germanic tales became like Scripture for him, and he wanted to live like one of the old Germanic kings.

So he used almost all of the resources of his kingdom, or in other words, he taxed his subjects, to create his own mythological German wonderland on a mountainside called Neuschwanstein. In the 1880’s he built a fairytale castle, magnificently furnished and embellished with paintings of all the old folk tales.

Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos of the inside of the castle, but if you use your imagination to envision the most fabulous palace possible, you won’t miss this castle by much. It is interesting, though, that somehow I cannot escape the awareness that this is a fake palace. If you have ever been in Buckingham Palace, or the Savoy Palace in Naples, or the Royal Palace in Amsterdam, their furniture is just a little bigger, a bit nicer, usually older, and everything is real. Here it is impossible to dismiss the fact that this entire building is Ludwig’s toy. Everything is new. Of course, it is made to look old, but there is a difference between a genuine antique and a reconstruction. This castle reminds me of the version of the Eiffel Tower in Las Vegas. This is a Las Vegas castle. It is like Parcifal at Disney World. Still, it IS beautiful, though make believe.

Ultimately his government declared him to be insane, and imprisoned him at Munich. The day after he was imprisoned, he turned up drowned in a lake adjacent to the jail. No one was ever charged with the crime of killing the king, but the circumstances were questionable.

I’m glad we came here today, but I kept asking myself the same question. Even if I could build a home this big, elaborate and opulent, would I actually do it? I don’t think so. What about you? Would you build such a house?Read more