Post-Abdication Bavaria & Ludwig II

    
Fig. 9: Maximilian II

Ludwig I’s son, Maximilian II, was a studious man, suffering from constant ill-health, who had to cope with suddenly becoming king upon his father’s abdication in a difficult period. His succession to the throne at least stabilised Bavaria’s internal politics and put an end to the riots which had led to his father’s abdication.

Maximilian II mistrusted the plans to unify Germany under the Frankfurt Parliament (1848) – partly because of its many factions, primarily because it eventually formed an imperialist constitution. His wish appeared to be for a moderate constitution, and he supported Austria in his attempt to create a balanced “middle” league, until he saw Austria’s reaction to problems that arose per the Schleswig-Holstein question and the outbreak of war with Denmark. He died before he could do anything further, in 1864, and was succeeded by his son Ludwig II.

Fig. 10: Schloss Hohenschwangau

Ludwig, a youth of 18, did not take up the political decision-making upon his accession to the throne. Instead, this was conducted by the two ministers Schrenk and Pfordten. As a child, Ludwig was fired up by the frescoes of heroic German figures in the old sagas which had been painted upon the walls of Schloss Hohenschwangau, where he had spent much of his isolated childhood. Schloss Hohenschwangau, by the way, is a fantasy castle built by Ludwig’s father Maximilian, which certainly inspired Ludwig’s love of extravagant and fantastical castles and his passion for German heroic and romantic sagas.

    
Fig. 11: The swan-knight, Lohengrin

It was entirely predictable that the young Ludwig would have found his imagination and enthusiasm kindled by the opera Lohengrin (based upon the legend of a Nordic swan-knight!) by Richard Wagner, a struggling composer whose undoubted talent did not prevent him from being a difficult and arrogant person, and whose opera librettos were frequently based upon a sense of German nationalistic and romantic idealism. Ludwig, upon becoming king, was able to become the influential patron of Wagner, giving him the unprecedented opportunity to create operas in an environment of prominence and wide exposure.