'Mad King' Ludwig's Mysterious Death In 1886 Was Murder, Historian Claims

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A brief recap on this age-old mystery, and why it has captivated so many for so long:

On June 10th, 1886, King Ludwig II was deposed from the Bavarian throne and officially declared incapable of executing his powers, due to what the four reporting psychiatrists headed by Professor Bernhard von Gudden described as paranoia, although no medical examination had taken place. His father's younger brother Prince Luitpold was complicit in the action and was declared regent.

Three days later, on June 13th at 6:30 pm, Ludwig was out walking with Professor Gudden and asked him to take a walk around nearby Lake Starnberg with no guards present. Gudden agreed, and told the guards not to follow them.

The two men never returned. King Ludwig and Professor Gudden were found dead floating near the shore of Lake Starnberg at 11:30 pm.

Based on factual evidence and Ludwig's state of mind at the time, many suspected that the King first murdered Professor Gudden, the object of his rage who had declared him insane and taken his throne from him, then drowned himself. A murder-suicide. It would have explained both bodies floating in the water.

It also fit perfectly with a statement the distraught Ludwig himself made shortly before his death:

"It's not so much losing my throne that bothers me. It's being declared insane that really stings."

Many others thought conspiracy, greed and foul play took center stage.

They may just be right.

Today, the History News Network reported that famed art historian-turned-sleuth Siegfried Wichmann, the leading authority on Bavarian paintings from the late 19th century, says contemporary portraits of Ludwig II prove that far from killing himself in a fit of melancholy, Ludwig was assassinated to put an end his extravagant spending.

Mr. Wichmann published a hitherto unseen photograph of a portrait of the king painted only hours after his death. The portrait shows what Mr Wichmann says is blood oozing from the corner of Ludwig’s mouth. “King Ludwig cannot have drowned. This is blood from the lungs and there is no water in it,” Mr Wichmann insisted on Wednesday.

For Wichmann, it was a terrible reminder of his own wounds from the Second World War, when he was struck in the lung by shrapnel and coughed up the same thick blood.

In his new book, 'The Killing of King Ludwig,' Mr. Wichmann claims that in the 1960s he was approached by a lawyer with three paintings, one of which featured Ludwig immediately after his death. He said that the face in the portrait featured no signs of rigor mortis. Instead, in the corner of the gaping mouth, the artist painted glutinous blood stains.

For the aging art-detective, there is only one explanation for Ludwig’s wounds: he was shot. "The killing was carried out by an assassin,” he said. "It was all about money."

Mr. Wichmann is not the only one coming forth with new evidence involving the age-old mystery.

Last month, Detlev Utermöhle, a Bavarian banker, made a sworn statement claiming that he had seen the coat Ludwig was wearing on the day of his death, and that it contained two bullet holes.

He said the coat belonged to Josephine Gräfin von Wrbna-Kaunitz, a countess who managed assets belonging to Ludwig’s family and had showed it to guests at a party half a century ago.

A secret Bavarian society known as the Guglmänner, whose members dress in capes and hoods and claim to be guardians of the German monarchy, has long questioned the official version of his death.

Calls for Ludwig’s body to be exhumed and given a modern autopsy have now grown louder. Yet despite the development of imaging techniques that would leave Ludwig's remains undisturbed, Ludwig’s family has consistently rejected pleas for a modern examination that might settle the mystery.

“There are still people in powerful positions today who don’t want to recognize these facts,” said Mr Wichmann. “Who knows why?”

So, were the mysterious twin deaths murder-suicide, or an assassin's foul deed?

It appears, barring any miraculous change of heart by the Wittelsbach family, that Ludwig's death will continue to remain as mysterious as ever.

Wikipedia has a surprisingly good account of the King's life, deposing and events surrounding his death here. There are also many wild rumors that have flown over the years. A Google search turned up over 450,000 hits.

King Ludwig II is remembered as a brilliant architect who designed and oversaw the construction of the Linderhof, Herrenchiemsee and Neuschwanstein Castles, the last of which Walt Disney chose as his company's logo in 1940.

He was also a great patron of the arts. Upon his ascension to the throne at the age of eighteen, one of his first acts was to rescue the debt-ridden and despondent composer Richard Wagner, who was rumored to be very depressed and suicidal at the time.

Had it not been for Ludwig, the world would have never known some of the greatest opera music ever written. Like 'der Ring des Nibelungen,' better known as 'What's Opera, Doc?' to you classical music aficionados.

On the flip side, he was a raging eccentric who had full banquets served to him at dinner parties for which he was the only attendee physically present (though he often spoke at those soirees to Napoleon and Marie Antoinette), staged insane bacchanals with REAL guests, and was also rumored to be a raging closet homosexual.

Like the mystery of his death, we may never really know the facts about that last rumor either. But the other ones are pretty well documented.

Rest In Peace, O Great Mad King.

Auf Wiedersein.