4. The King Who Bankrupted Himself Building Fairy Castles
Ludwig II, AKA “Mad King Ludwig” (1845 – 1886), was all about artistic and architectural projects, and his chief hobby was building fantastic fairy tale castles. When Bavaria joined the German Empire in 1871, Ludwig withdrew from governance, and devoted himself wholly to the arts. He could not get enough of the theater and the opera, particularly the works of Richard Wagner, whose lifelong benefactor and patron he became. Ludwig’s greatest and costliest passion, however, was building castles in the Bavarian mountains.
He started with the Linderhoff Palace, built between 1869 to 1878. Simultaneously, he commenced construction of his most famous project, Neuschwanstein, a fairy tale castle precariously situated on a crag and decorated with scenes from Wagner’s operas. Built from 1869 to 1886, it was the inspiration for Disneyland’s Sleeping Beauty Castle. While that one was being built, Ludwig began an even greater project in 1878, the Herrenchiemsee Palace – a copy of Versailles. It was never completed, because Ludwig went bankrupt. Between abandonment of his official duties, profligate spending on expensive hobbies, and withdrawal into the life of a recluse, Ludwig’s ministers finally had enough. In 1886, he was declared insane, and sent to a remote palace. Three days later, he drowned himself in a lake, taking his psychiatrist with him.