Some called him Ludwig the Last, others the Millibauer: Ludwig III, Bavaria's last king, who became a monarch in retirement and died 100 years ago, was a tragic figure - right up to the end.
His death nearly sparked a coup.
Munich
- Perhaps it is significant that his death almost tore Bavaria into the abyss. The entire era of Ludwig III, who was only able to take over the reign in 1912 at the tender age of 67 and became king a year later, is overshadowed by dramatic events over which the pension ruler could hardly influence. World war, revolution, civil war-like conditions in Bavaria - and in the middle of it a king who was on the sidelines. Historians' judgments of him are not favorable. "He did not have the obliging and amiable manner of his father Luitpold," says the historian Katharina Weigand. Luitpold left his mark on an entire epoch - the time of the Prince Regent. Ludwig, on the other hand, was called the "multifaceted" because of his badly fitting trousers.He was much more conservative than his father, says Weigand.
Technology, veterinary medicine and agriculture were his interests - "Millibauer" was the nickname for the regent who lived on an estate on Lake Starnberg.
The queen had the hardly less disrespectful name "Topfenreserl".
Ludwig III.
it was not allowed to be immortalized like its predecessors with a castle or other spectacular buildings.
He earned certain merits as a sponsor of the Deutsches Museum in Munich.
But today this house is more closely associated with the actual creator Oskar von Miller.
Annexationist in World War I
The First World War could have been the beginning of an image change. But after initially portraying himself as a modern people's king, with country trips and picture postcards, he introduced himself as a politician to the German discussion of the war aims in a very unfortunate way. In 1915 he made no secret of the fact that he was "settling accounts with our enemies" and called for all of Alsace-Lorraine for Bavaria.
The annexationist Ludwig III, who organized a pompous five-day golden wedding for his wife Marie Therese in the middle of the war, was thus perhaps the weakest king Bavaria had. Swept away by the revolution in 1918, he hoped in the last years of his life at Wildenwart Castle near Frasdorf to return to the throne - "until the end of his life", as the historian Stefan März writes. This end approached on September 28, 1921, when the dethroned Ludwig III. traveled to Sárvár in the Hungarian lowlands, where the Wittelsbach family had possessions. “He had been struggling with health problems for a year,” writes the historian März. "Stomach cancer was diagnosed and later revoked." His health deteriorated rapidly. On the afternoon of the 18thIn October 1921 Ludwig died of heart failure and gastric bleeding.
The news of his death fueled speculation in Bavaria that Bavaria would return to the monarchy. One remembers: 1921 was a politically troubled year. A politician was shot dead on the street in Munich, and the murder of ex-Reich Finance Minister Erzberger in the Black Forest shook the young Weimar democracy. In this situation, a right-wing coup did not seem ruled out. Prime Minister Hugo Graf von Lerchenfeld (BVP), who only took office a month ago, wrestled his predecessor Gustav von Kahr, now President of the Upper Bavarian Government and responsible for organizing the funeral, with a promise: Kahr would be allowed to attend the funeral of Ludwig III. and Marie Therese, who died three years earlier, did not initiate a coup d'état. Yet:“Rumors of a coup were launched in the vicinity of the Oberland Corps and other national-ethnic groups,” writes the historian Dieter Weiß.
The Cardinal's Observations
The Munich Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber captured the mood of those days with fine sensory technology - including the double standards and the courage of some high-ranking personalities, who no longer struggled at the funeral because of the sheer royal admiration, but had pinched in the revolution of 1918.
Faulhaber then gave the funeral speech for the royal couple, which resulted in a settlement with the revolution.
"Where the people are their own king," preached Faulhaber, "they will sooner or later also become their own orator of the dead."
Faulhaber would probably have gone along with a royal coup, at least he had a certain expectation.
This is also evident from his diaries, which the Institute for Contemporary History edits together with the Münster Chair for Church History.
The entries for the days of the funeral on November 4 and 5, 1921 have not yet been published, but our newspaper has exclusive access to them.
On November 4, 1921, Faulhaber wrote contemptuously: “The entrance of the train is very shocking when you consider his (the King's - editor's note) departure three years ago.
Back then nobody reached out for him and now they stand there with their spiked hats and medals and put their hands on their helmets and draw their swords. "
Faulhaber described the burial ceremony in the women's cathedral on November 5th in detail. Everyone was waiting for a sign from Prince Regent Rupprecht, the eldest son of Ludwig III. He probably just had to say yes out loud - then the military and government circles would have chosen him king. Alone: The sign did not materialize, as Faulhaber also observed. In his diary he wrote: “Crown Prince Rupprecht won tremendously in his favor with the bishops today. In the end, however, he purposely did not go out to the main portal (so as not to let the crowd lift him up on the sign in spontaneous enthusiasm - editor's note), but to the sacristy. "
Rupprecht was far too smart to embark on the adventure of a royal coup.
A kingdom as an island in the middle of otherwise republican states - that would hardly have been conceivable.
“He was reluctant to exploit his father's death for a violent coup,” writes historian Weiss.
And Rupprecht wasn't a separatist either.
So the tension of those November days evaporated.
Bavaria remained a free state, the kingdom history.
Ludwig III.
but his heart was torn out in the Frauenkirche, according to the Wittelsbach tradition, and buried in Altötting.
Also read our magazine about King Ludwig II.
