“Mad world! mad kings! mad composition!”—King John.
SHAKESPEARE'S line was written almost three centuries before Lud wig II ascended the throne of Bavaria, but it serves as a fitting epitaph for that 19th‐century Romantic whose mind was ill‐attuned to the af fairs of modern statecraft. Ludwig's ex pensive attempts to re‐create the world of Louis XIV through grandiose building projects and his seemingly mad infatua tion with what many considered the mad compositions of Richard Wagner, musical and otherwise, led to his ulti mate removal on a finding of insanity.
Much of the story of Ludwig, called by some Mad King Ludwig and by others the Dream King, is reflected in four castles in Bavaria: one, Hohen schwangau, where he spent a good part of his formative years, and three that he built himself — Linderhof and Neu schwanstein in the Alps southwest of Munich and Herrenchiemsee on an island in the Chiemsee, southeast of Munich. All four are open to visitors.
