The Conspiracy

The Lead up to Conspiracy

By 1885, it was clear to the Bavarian Cabinet that Ludwig's building was not going to stop. In that year, the King had a number of building projects under way, and was spending huge amounts of money. Although Ludwig paid for the castles and private performances out of his own pocket, and not from the State coffers as some would have us believe, it still was an astronomical amount.

In 1885, Ludwig's buildings that were under way were -

What frightened the Cabinet more than these works under way was the projects that were to come. The Chinese Palace in Austria, and most frightening was the enormous Byzantine Palace that was to be started in a few years time. This project is largely ignored by many historians, but it was to be a building on a positively awesome scale, a gigantic building of marble and gold perched on a mountain, appearing like the Grail Temple from Parsifal.

This grandiose building scheme combined with Ludwig's loathing of Affairs of State, and his refusing to see his ministers, lead to a situation that was volatile to say the least.

Ludwig received an annual income of about 4.5 million Marks from the civil list. By 1884 he was 7 million Marks in debt. A Royal scandal would have come about if his creditors sued him for payment, and the King dragged through the courts. Although such an event would more than likely never occur, a loan from the Bavarian State Bank was arranged by Eduard von Reidel, the Finance Minister. He wrote to Ludwig, stressing the importance of economy. Everything must be done to reduce spending.

Unfortunately, economy was an alien concept for Ludwig, and spending continued at an alarming rate, until the debt had reached 14 million a year later. This time Reidel pointed out the fact that Linderhof and Herrenchiemsee could be handed over to the creditors, but Ludwig just demanded another loan. Reidel refused. Ludwig then demanded a total of 20 million. (He wanted work on the Chinese Palace to start as soon as possible.) The Cabinet refused again. A further loan was totally impossible, Ludwig was told.

Ludwig was now getting desperate. Servants were sent out to raise the money from a variety of sources. The Emperor of Austria, the King of Noway and Sweden, the Sultan in Constantinople and the Shah in Tehran were to be asked for loans. (The servants didn't obey their orders, of course.) As a last resort, men were to be found who would break into the banks in Berlin, Frankfurt and Paris.

In early 1886, Count von Dürckheim, the King's personal aide-de-camp wrote,

"Hesselschwerdt (a servant) came to me with a request from the King to go to England and raise 10 million from the Duke of Westminster. I pointed out how unwise such a step would be, and suggested writing to the King saying he had received the order and would write to His Majesty on the matter.

"Hesselschwerdt replied that he couldn't do that. 'I'm in Naples at the moment', he said. I asked him what he meant by this. 'The King sent me to Naples; but there's no point in going, so I stayed here. I said I was going and would be back on Wednesday, so I can't announce myself till then."

With all this happening, it's not very surprising that the Prime Minister and Cabinet felt it necessary to take drastic action. The King had to go. Perhaps there could have been a more humane way of dealing with this situation, but there was another reason Ludwig's Government took such drastic action. In 1886, Ludwig began investigating the possibility of replacing his Cabinet. The ruling clique got wind of his plan, and in order to protect their own position, they had to get in first and get rid of their King. Speed was important, as was secrecy. If Ludwig heard of their scheme, he would dissolve the Cabinet immediately, and their high positions would be lost.

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