At the end of the 19th century, Louis II of Bavaria undertook to build magical castles mixing references to the Middle Ages and the 18th century.
In this new episode of the Europe 1 studio podcast "At the heart of History", Jean des Cars tells about the mysterious journey of this idealistic sovereign.
Sensitive and melancholy, Louis II of Bavaria was irreversibly marked by the exile of his protégé, the composer Richard Wagner. In this new episode of the Europe 1 studio podcast "At the heart of History", Jean des Cars recounts the shattered dreams which have gradually led the sovereign to lose his footing.
On November 30, 1870, at 3:45 p.m., south of Munich, a pathetic scene takes place at Hohenschwangau Castle, near the Austrian border. An emissary of Chancellor Bismarck demands to be received by King Ludwig II of Bavaria. The sovereign, desperate for the defeat of France and the Prussian victory, is invisible. The envoy from Berlin, Count Holstein, insists: he is the bearer of a very important letter which will give Bavaria its place in the new Germanic political organization. It was only after six hours that King Louis II finally agreed to receive this unwelcome visitor.
Louis II, 25 years old, is nailed to his bed, his head buried under turbans, suffering, he says, from excruciating dental neuralgia.
Count Holstein hands the frightened monarch a draft letter from Bismarck.
In a Shakespearean atmosphere, while an autumn storm blows over the castle, Louis II, emerging from the vapors of his sedatives, gets up and goes to his office.
He sits in an extraordinary armchair of medieval style in cedar of Lebanon.
He places the document on a mobile lectern adjoining the left armrest which allows him to read more easily.
The king studies the text carefully.
The emissary, standing, impatient, waits.
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So, almost broken down, Louis II copies the text submitted to him.
And that he cannot modify.
He writes and signs in an almost illegible handwriting what will be called the "Kaiserbrief", the "Letter to the Emperor", by which he asks the King of Prussia, his uncle since his mother is the sister of William I, to agree to preside over the organization of the United States of South Germany.
Then, by a second letter, a sort of circular, the pathetic monarch informs the princes of these states that he accepts this decision.
At 6 o'clock in the evening, Count Holstein leaves.
Bavaria will remain autonomous.
The Bavarian Autonomy Prize is called Recognition of the German Empire.
But who is this man who said he wanted to remain an enigma for himself and for posterity?
A prince in love with the romanticism of legends
On August 25, 1845, the population of Munich learned through volleys of bells and a hundred and one cannon shots that the daughter-in-law of King Louis I had given birth to a son.
It is a great relief: in 1842, seven months after her marriage to Maximilian of Bavaria, Princess Marie had given birth to a stillborn child.
From now on, the future of the dynasty is assured.
The child was born at Nymphenburg Palace, west of Munich, on the first floor, in an Empire-style bedroom.
A fashionable style in Bavaria: the de Wittelsbach family is grateful to Napoleon for having, in 1806, elevated their duchy to the rank of kingdom.
In the blue salon adjoining the bedroom hung with green silk, King Louis I was waiting with optimism: the day of Saint Louis, patron of Bavaria and France, both his birthday and his feast day, do not could only be favorable.
His family, one of the oldest in Europe, is renowned for its artistic sensibility and its patronage.
He himself made his capital Munich a magnificent city, a true tribute to the Italian Renaissance.
There is even talk of "the Florence of the Alps".
Between two vases glorifying the Napoleonic epic, the king does not hide his joy.
Then, seated at his desk, he couldn't resist the pleasure of turning a few verses in honor of his grandson:
"Only the man who knows how to govern himself
Is worthy of the Throne.
Always remember. "
Satisfied, he puts the sheet away, promising to deliver it - or have it delivered - to its recipient on the day of his majority.
The childhood of the prince, whose brother Othon was born on April 27, 1848, will be bathed in an atmosphere of solitude and reverie.
His father, Maximilien, of a reserved temperament, is an intellectual preoccupied by the progress of the scientific adventure.
He ascended to the throne in 1848 after the revolutionary and scandalous storm which chased his father Louis 1er guilty of his affair with the false Spanish dancer Lola Montez.
Maximilian tries to keep Bavaria a political role between the rise of Prussia and the influence of Austria. Unfortunately, he did not teach the future Louis II the real role of a sovereign. His mother, Marie, is much loved but withdrawn. Protestant Prussian princess, she received in Catholic Bavaria the nickname "The Angel". Passionate about reading, she also launched the fashion for mountaineering.
From his parents, the future Louis II inherited the desire to withdraw into himself on the one hand, and the passion for forests, lakes and mountains on the other.
Sensitive, idealistic, Louis takes refuge in the magnificent Alpine scenery.
Shy, easily hurt by the reality of the world, he displays a melancholy that worries his tutors.
It cannot be concluded from this that the blood of the Wittelsbachs, vitiated by numerous consanguineous marriages, alone explains the tragic fate of the future Louis II.
Between eccentricities and imbalances, the prince loves legends and tales, he is enamored of nobility, purity and beauty.
At 16, the shock of Wagner's discovery
On February 2, 1861, at the Munich opera house, he attended a performance of Lohengrin. This new music, described by its composer Richard Wagner as "music of the future" upset Louis. He cares little that this revelation is theatrical. In the words of Jacques Bainville: "Wagner, his themes and his myths enter Louis in full puberty".
His aide-de-camp will say that the prince makes an essential discovery. Until that date, Louis was unaware of the magic of the stage, the mysteries which shake the curtain, the sounds rising from the orchestra pit and how the imagination can be awakened in the hushed silence of a box. Music envelops her whole mind. It is all the more astonishing that a little while before, he had stopped his piano lessons because his tutor deemed him incapable of "recognizing a Srauss waltz from a Chopin sonata"! But here it is: Wagner is the symbol of a new and dreamed world. Louis has found his idol and his spiritual master, his model, his guide. And when King Maximilian died on March 10, 1864, Queen Marie, aware of the youth and the limits of her eldest son, wrote in her diary: "Max died too soon" ...
At 18 and a half, Louis II, the new sovereign of Bavaria, had only one idea: to bring the composer to Munich. It is not easy and it is politically dangerous. Indeed, Richard Wagner, brilliant but outlawed, is considered a progressive adventurer, revolutionary who participated in the riots in Dresden, riddled with debts, ladies' man, pursued by creditors and deceived husbands. He himself considers himself a finished man and dreams of going into exile. Louis instructs his chief of staff to find him. "Wagner, Sire? But it's a very common name… There are several in Munich…"
Shocked by this opinion of a narrow-minded official, the king charges him and even orders him to find the one and only Richard Wagner.
After three weeks of police investigation, the composer is located in Stuttgart where he is hiding in a hotel.
In a few moments, his life is turned upside down.
On May 4, 1864, at the Residenz Palace in Munich, Richard Wagner, in white coat and tie according to protocol, was received by the young sovereign in audience.
A hearing that lasts an hour and a half.
A historic meeting and all the same strange because everything seems to oppose the two men: the king is young, handsome, very tall (he measures 1.93 m), new in life, excessively idealistic, only interested in the art and they say, without the slightest sentimental experience or interest in young girls.
The musician is thirty years older than him, the temperament of an incorrigible runner. He is a misunderstood genius, both infuriating and sympathetic, who has lived through triumphs and failures, all resounding. What did Louis II know about life? Almost nothing. Wagner is familiar with all the detours of the seraglio.
But in a surprising way, everything brings them together: together, they will build a lasting work. Now the young king has given meaning to his mission. This friendship, which will bind them for nineteen years, has often been considered equivocal. It is a mistake. If the homosexuality of Louis II, troubled and often poorly assumed, is well established, the musician's exclusive penchant for women is no less clear. He says it himself: "Women are the music of life. Women? Especially those of others! Can I renounce the feminine altogether? With a deep sigh, I say no!"
From June 30, Wagner urged his conductor Hans von Bülow to join him in Munich with his family, that is to say his wife Cosima, Liszt's daughter.
She arrives but her husband follows!
This will not bother Wagner: Mrs von Bülow is his mistress and she will later be his second wife.
At 51, Richard Wagner takes unexpected revenge on his life as an outlaw.
The king makes all his debts pay and the composer surrounds himself with luxury: his twenty-four dressing gowns are the talk of Munich.
If Louis II lives a purely intellectual adventure to allow the composer to "spread the wings of his genius" as he wishes, the Bavarian Cabinet, little sensitive to these extravagances, accumulates popular protests.
The threesome of the composer and the von Bülows, the former revolutionary of 1848, the money distributed widely to Wagner represented by an official pushing a wheelbarrow loaded with bags of gold coins, the ferocious caricatures… In Munich, anger growls.
In reference to the Lola Montez scandal, Wagner is even nicknamed "Lolus".
Louis II must exile Wagner: a crime against Art
The government demands the expulsion of Wagner which causes too many scandals, as it always has done.
It is then that the young king has a courageous and politically savvy attitude: it is necessary to calm the storm and not to make the mistake of his grandfather who had lost his throne because of the sulphurous Lola Montez.
While Wagner had become for the novice king his reason for living and reigning, on December 10, 1865, Louis II signed the order to expel the provocateur.
At 20, he bowed to the demand for political peace and the power of public opinion.
He was shown police reports, complaints of cheated husbands, vertiginous bills… All the horrors of real life, the one the sovereign loathes.
Richard Wagner, only accompanied by his old dog, leaves in the first train towards Switzerland. Louis II is devastated, sickened by the hypocrisy of politics. It is a permanent injury. It will always bleed in the mind of the idealistic monarch. He wanted to allow the composer to work with creation's only anxiety. He was on earth to provide for his daily life, to sweep away its vulgarities and constraints.
Louis II will never forgive those who shattered his dream of patronage king.
He will take revenge, he will have a new purpose in life.
It is the city, with its rumors and gossip that has spread the jealousy of mediocre people.
From now on, the king will only trust nature.
His real kingdom will be that of mountains, forests and lakes and the legends of his childhood.
He will create a world that no one can take from him.
Bibliographic resources:
Guy de Pourtalès,
Louis II of Bavaria or Hamlet Roi
(Gallimard, 1928)
Jacques Bainville,
Louis II of Bavaria
(Reissue 1964, Fayard)
Jean des Cars,
Louis II of Bavaria or King Thunder
(crowned by the French Academy, Perrin, 1975)
Jean des Cars, photographs by Jérôme da Cunha,
The crazy castles of Louis II of Bavaria
(Perrin, 1986)
"At the heart of History" is a Europe 1 Studio podcast
Author and presentation: Jean des Cars
Production: Timothée Magot
Director: Jean-François Bussière
Distribution and editing: Clémence Olivier and Salomé Journo
Graphics: Karelle Villais