Hornig was married and Ludwig was fond of his (Hornig's) wife and children as well. Ludwig wrote of being worthy of Richard's (Hornig) love in his diary and happy times alone with him. His longest lasting relationships were with Richard Wagner and Richard Hornig who served as his stable master and confidant. His diaries speak of 'kisses' and repeated resolutions against a 'sin' that could have been homosexual encounters or masturbation or something completely different. But others, like his relationship with Wagner, certainly were not sexual in any sense. He was given to obsessive romantic friendships with various men, some of which may have had a sexual element either overt or covert. Ludwig's journal is an extremely strange document which makes it clear that the man was at the very least a fantasist with a weak grasp on reality. Ludwig never married and died childless and there are those who say he may have been gay, but there is nothing but circumstantial evidence either way. However, the king's well-known eccentricity also brought him the less flattering nicknames "the crazy king" or "Mad King Ludwig". It was, in fact, largely Ludwig's patronage that allowed Wagner to create his famous operas, detached from financial concerns. For what it's worth, Richard Wagner got to build his Festspielhaus (literally: Festival House - a purpose built opera that has played essentially the same stuff for almost a century and a half now) in Bayreuth with the King's money because the King was such a fan. What was unusual however, was that Ludwig had his castles built in the middle of nowhere, making using them to host foreign visitors awkward (and indeed Ludwig had them built to be alone - or as alone as someone with thousands of servants can ever be), but that again echoes the era of Romanticism, if one for example looks at the images of Caspar David Friedrich, the quintessential German painter of Romanticism whose paintings usually feature impressive landscapes and tiny humans all alone almost disappearing in the landscape. While the practical use-value of Ludwig's medieval inspired fortresses was nigh-nill at the time, it was not unusual for rulers to order the construction of massive representative residences for foreign policy bragging rights - in France shortly before the French Revolution there was even the theory of "Useful Splendor" - spend like there's no tomorrow to convince creditors that the household wasn't in unsustainable debt. This was certainly a bit odd, but not that odd, given the times - his contemporary Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia for example called himself "the Romantic on the Throne" and (despite himself being Protestant and leading the Protestant church in Prussia) was an enthusiastic backer of the efforts to finish construction of Cologne Cathedral - something which Heinrich Heine considered to be absolute lunacy. He enjoyed myths and legends and Wagnerian opera, which earned him the nickname "Märchenkönig" ("fairy-tale king"). He was famously eccentric and built many of the most beautiful castles in Bavaria, the most famous of which is Neuschwanstein. Despite his rule occurring during the time of Otto von Bismarck most people who aren't experts on Bavarian history wouldn't be able to name any major political decision of Ludwig II, but he is still the best known Bavarian king and many people have strong opinions on the King's taste in art and architecture, his private life and his mental health. Ludwig the Second, born Ludwig Otto Friedrich Wilhelm von Wittelsbach was king of Bavaria from 1863 to 1885, and the last king to rule it as an independent state.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |