Ludwig II of Bavaria was the most romantic beloved and tragic monarch of modern times. His great physical beauty, his devotion to the music of Richard Wagner, his passion for building fairytale castles, all make him the Dream King of legend.

Born on August 25, 1845, in the castle of Nymphenburg in Munich, Ludwig ascended the Bavarian throne at the age of eighteen.  The beautiful, golden youth captivated his subjects, inspiring their hopes for a glorious reign.  Ludwig II stood apart from the world around him.  Raised without warmth or affection, he grew into an aloof, emotionnally starved young man, curiously detached from everyday life.  In his loneliness he found comfort in glowing accounts of life at the court of Louis XIV, in tales of ancient gods and in the music of Richard Wagner.  His love for architectures resulted in extravagant castles.  Berg, Hohenschwangau, Herrenchiemsee and Linderhof were jewels. But his crowning achievement Neuschwanstein, rivaled any other on the continent.

An intemperate ruler, Ludwig changed the course of European history almost against his will.  He launched Bavaria into two wars, and, with Bismarck, created the German Second Reich.  As Prussia's power grew, he watched the newly unified country come under the sway of the Hohenzollern rather than his own  family, theWittelsbach. 

He assuaged his disappointment by lavishing more of his treasury on art and on funding a new opera house for Richard Wagner's work (Bayreuth Festspielhaus).  The handsome Adonis became a fat, bloated misanthrope, hiden away from the inquisitive eyes of his court and his countrymen.  Misunderstood and alone, victimized by circumstances and by his own character, he sought comfort in his world of fantasy, in his midnight drives through the dark Bavarian forests and in his secret romances with a succession of grooms and soldiers.

Members of his family and the government, fearing the financial security of the throne and the political stability of Bavaria, joined forces to remove him in a coup.  Within a day of his forced deposition, his corpse was discovered floating among the reeds along the shores of Lake Starnberg.  His cloistered existence, lavish castles, and finally, in 1886, his mysterious death, turned Ludwig II into a modern myth.  

Was he mad? Was he murdered?  The mystery of Ludwig II has been the subject of nearly 5,000 books, plays, poems and films.  In his brief lifetime and after his death, he remains as he himself wished it 'an eternal enigma'.  

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