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Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio

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Speaker 1: and Aaron Manky listener Discretion is advised. A six year

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Speaker 1: old banker in Munich named Debt Love Udermont couldn't stop

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Speaker 1: thinking about the day in his childhood that he and

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Speaker 1: his mother had gone for tea at the home of

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Speaker 1: Countess Josephine von Verba. Countess Detlev was just ten years

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Speaker 1: old at the time, and though his father was a

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Speaker 1: prominent financier in Munich society, Detlove was unaccustomed to the

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Speaker 1: grandeur of the Countess's home. Every surface seemed covered in

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Speaker 1: velvet or gilding. Detlev's mother was uncomfortable, too, pulling at

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Speaker 1: her hair to when the Countess turned away, and smiling

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Speaker 1: too broadly. When the Countess returned bearing a tray of cakes,

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Speaker 1: Detlov's mother smacked him under the table so that he

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Speaker 1: remembered to fold a napkin on his lap. But the

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Speaker 1: Countess didn't seem to notice the discomfort of either young

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Speaker 1: Debt Love or his mother. She chatted with the practiced

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Speaker 1: ease of a noble woman, someone who knew how to

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Speaker 1: fill this silent with lyrical laughter and conspiratorial whispers. Though

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Speaker 1: Bavaria was no longer an independent kingdom, hadn't been since

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Speaker 1: eighteen seventy, when it first joined the North German Confederation

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Speaker 1: and then the German Empire. The Countess Josephine von Verba

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Speaker 1: Countage was still old Bavarian royalty. Her family were descendants

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Speaker 1: of the victuals Box, and she herself was a relative

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Speaker 1: of the former Bavarian King, Ludwig the second. Ludwig the

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Speaker 1: Second had enchanted the country. He ascended the throne in

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Speaker 1: eighteen young, romantic and handsome, built enormous fairy tale palaces,

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Speaker 1: and then died tragically, mysteriously by a suicide by drowning

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Speaker 1: at age forty in eighteen eighty six. But that was

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Speaker 1: years ago. The Countess finished her tea and put the

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Speaker 1: cup delicately back into its saucer. She leaned in and

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Speaker 1: dramatically cast her eyes around the room before settling them

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Speaker 1: back on young debt Lev and his mother. Do you

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Speaker 1: want to know, the countess said, how King Ludwig the

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Speaker 1: Second really died. Without waiting for an answer, she swept

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Speaker 1: to the back of the room and pulled open an

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Speaker 1: antique chest. You see, The countess continued as the victuals

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Speaker 1: box last remaining relatives. We've become privy to certain personal

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Speaker 1: possessions with the flourish. She pulled out a gray loaded coat.

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Speaker 1: At first, debt Lev didn't notice anything strange about it

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Speaker 1: until the Countess flipped it around and he could see

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Speaker 1: two bullet holes, straight and clean through the back of

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Speaker 1: the coat. But the king drowned. Debt Leve chirped, ignoring

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Speaker 1: the scolding look from his mother. Ah. The countess said,

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Speaker 1: that's exactly what they want you to believe. Debt Lev

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Speaker 1: didn't tell anyone about at strange afternoon eating cakes and

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Speaker 1: drinking tea in the Countess's drawing room, not until he

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Speaker 1: reached sixty and swore a signed affidavit about that memory

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Speaker 1: that kept sticking in his brain. But by then it

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Speaker 1: was impossible to verify. The countess's home had burned down

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Speaker 1: in a fire in the nineteen seventies, a fire that

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Speaker 1: killed both the Countess and her husband. Ludwig the Second,

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Speaker 1: looms large over Bavaria their fairy tale prints. His influence

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Speaker 1: is physical. The massive palaces he constructed during his reign

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Speaker 1: remained Bavaria's most popular tourist attractions, but he also has

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Speaker 1: a philosophical hold on the people. He's a beloved tragic

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Speaker 1: hero whose great misfortune was that he happened to be

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Speaker 1: a romantic born at the height of the industrial age,

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Speaker 1: and his death continues to fascinate and mystify. The king

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Speaker 1: was found face down in a lake in water that

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Speaker 1: was only waist deep. The king had been a champion swimmer.

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Speaker 1: No official reports mentioned a gray coat with bullet holes.

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Speaker 1: But only a day before the king was found dead,

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Speaker 1: he had been deposed by his own council, a government

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Speaker 1: fed up with his obsession with building palaces, and then

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Speaker 1: had him declared insane. All we know for sure is

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Speaker 1: the king was found dead, and anyone who knew the

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Speaker 1: whole story of how or why is long dead by

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Speaker 1: now too. I'm Danis Schwartz, and this is noble blood.

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Speaker 1: On June thirteenth, eighteen eighty six, just a day after

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Speaker 1: being imprisoned at burgh Castle, Ludwig the Second went for

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Speaker 1: a walk with his doctor. Though the former king was

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Speaker 1: usually accompanied by attendants, there were none who joined on

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Speaker 1: that walk down to the shores of Lake Stromberg that evening.

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Speaker 1: It was just Ludwig the Second and Dr Guden, the

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Speaker 1: doctor who had declared the king insane only days before

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Speaker 1: in order to remove him from power. The government commission

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Speaker 1: had arrived at Ludwig's castle Nu Schweinstein at four am

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Speaker 1: three days before in order to formally depose him. Ludwig

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Speaker 1: had been tipped off by a servant and had local

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Speaker 1: police stationed outside the palace to protect him, but it

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Speaker 1: wasn't enough, nor was the flailing of forty seven year

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Speaker 1: old baroness, who attacked the commission with her umbrella to

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Speaker 1: try to delay them. Eventually, a second commission of men arrived,

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Speaker 1: doctor Guden among them, who seized the king as he

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Speaker 1: attempted to make an escape. How can you declare me insane, Ludwig,

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Speaker 1: guess the doctor you've never seen or examined me, doctor

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Speaker 1: Guden cleared his throat. An examination was unnecessary, he said.

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Speaker 1: The documentary evidence was very copious and completely substantiated. It

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Speaker 1: was overwhelming, and so the government installed Ludwig's uncle Luis

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Speaker 1: Pold as regent king and installed Ludwig in a prison

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Speaker 1: palace on the shores of Lake Starnberg. Builders were still

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Speaker 1: putting bars on the windows when Ludwig and his escorts

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Speaker 1: arrived the following day. After dinner, Ludwig and his doctor

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Speaker 1: went for that walk. They left at six pm, and

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Speaker 1: the servants expected them back within the hour by eight

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Speaker 1: p m at the latest, if the pair took the

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Speaker 1: long way down the path. But eight p m arrived

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Speaker 1: and the pair was still gone. Servants were dispatched into

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Speaker 1: now heavy rain to find Ludwig in the doctor through

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Speaker 1: gail winds and unrelenting downpour. The entire palace staff searched

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Speaker 1: the grounds of the castle and the path by the lake.

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Speaker 1: It wasn't until ten thirty that night that a servant

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Speaker 1: noticed the strange bobbing objects just a few feet away

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Speaker 1: from the shore in the water. He shined the light

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Speaker 1: towards the water and saw the former king's head and

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Speaker 1: shoulders floating, his face bloated and lifeless. The servants shouted

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Speaker 1: and more men came and pulled from the shallow waters

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Speaker 1: of the lake both King Ludwig and Dr Guden, whose

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Speaker 1: corpse was floating just a few feet away. An accident

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Speaker 1: seemed implausible. The water was only waist deep, and the

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Speaker 1: king had been a strong swimmer since childhood. The autopsy

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Speaker 1: report came back with no wounds on his body, but

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Speaker 1: also strangely, no water in his lungs. So called dry

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Speaker 1: drownings are possible, but they're rare, usually only occurring when

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Speaker 1: someone dies of a heart attack or stroke before falling

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Speaker 1: beneath the water. The King's watch was stopped at six

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Speaker 1: fifty four. The good doctor's autopsy showed blows to the

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Speaker 1: head and neck and signs of strangulation, as if there

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Speaker 1: had been a fight. Official word came back, declaring that

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Speaker 1: the death of the king and his doctor was a

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Speaker 1: suicide and accidental murder. The king had been trying to

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Speaker 1: kill himself and had fought against the doctor who was

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Speaker 1: trying to save him. Conspiracy theorist mumble that the king

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Speaker 1: had seemed in fine spirit and that an autopsy doctor

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Speaker 1: could have easily been paid off to fictionalize the results.

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Speaker 1: Perhaps the king had been shot while he was trying

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Speaker 1: to escape, and the doctor killed as well to prevent

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Speaker 1: any witnesses. Or maybe the king had just been shot

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Speaker 1: as a preventative measure. He was still beloved by the

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Speaker 1: people of Bavaria, and while he was alive, the specter

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Speaker 1: of his reclaiming power still loomed. Locals tell stories of

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Speaker 1: overheard gunshots of commissioned boats and escape plans, but no

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Speaker 1: stories are verified. All we know for sure is the

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Speaker 1: king and his doctor went for a walk one evening

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Speaker 1: and never came back. As a future monarch, Ludwig was

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Speaker 1: raised in lonely isolation with strict tutors who demanded focus

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Speaker 1: and discipline from a prince who tended to spend most

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Speaker 1: of his time gazing out of windows. His brief moments

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Speaker 1: of childhood happiness came at his family's summer palace in

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Speaker 1: the mountains, where the walls were painted with fairy tale

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Speaker 1: murals about the medieval night Lone Grin, the Arthurian swan

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Speaker 1: king who comes to rescue a damsel in a swan

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Speaker 1: drawn boat and marries her before tragedy pulls them apart.

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Speaker 1: And so when young Ludwig first encountered the Upper Lone

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Speaker 1: Grin by the composer Wagner, he felt as though his

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Speaker 1: life had finally come into focus. To call his interest

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Speaker 1: an obsession would be an understatement. He read the libretto daily,

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Speaker 1: multiple times a day. He dreamt of Wagner and his opera.

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Speaker 1: When Ludwig finally got the chance to see the opera

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Speaker 1: performed when he was fifteen, he wept so hard in

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Speaker 1: the audience that his fellow patrons were afraid that his

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Speaker 1: convulsions were seizures. From then on, Ludwig had a single

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Speaker 1: devotion Wagner. He read his work as if they were

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Speaker 1: religious texts, all based on legends that were familiar to

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Speaker 1: him from the Frescoes and his childhood home. In the

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Speaker 1: introduction of Wagner's massive and as he had unproduced epic

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Speaker 1: The Ring Cycle, Wagner wrote that he dreamt of a

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Speaker 1: prince with all the resources and passion to actually ever

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Speaker 1: bring the massive work to his stage. It was as

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Speaker 1: if the words were meant for Ludwig alone, a plea

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Speaker 1: through time met and answered with a solemn promise. When

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Speaker 1: he was eighteen, Ludwig became king, much younger than he expected,

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Speaker 1: and still far more interested in fairy tales than the

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Speaker 1: minutia of running a kingdom. But the kingdom adored their young, handsome,

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Speaker 1: romantic king who stood at six four and whose dramatic

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Speaker 1: profile was set off by a thick head of dark curls.

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Speaker 1: He was their poet king, and he knew exactly what

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Speaker 1: the first thing he wanted to do with his new

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Speaker 1: found power was I burn with ardor to behold the

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Speaker 1: creator of the words and musings of lone grin? He

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Speaker 1: wrote in a letter to Wagner just a few weeks

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Speaker 1: after he became king. Ludwig included a ruby ring and

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Speaker 1: signed photographs of himself as gestures of his generosity and goodwill.

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Speaker 1: He instructed his chief counselor to track down the composure

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Speaker 1: and bring him to court. The task was more challenging

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Speaker 1: than the counselor anticipated. Wagner was heavily in debt and

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Speaker 1: in hiding. When the courts counselor first approached, Wagner fled,

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Speaker 1: sure the man was a creditor come to demand payment.

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Speaker 1: But soon Wagner would realize all of his financial worries

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Speaker 1: were at ned. As soon as he arrived to Ludwig's court,

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Speaker 1: the king wiped his debt clean, granted him an income

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Speaker 1: and a place to live. You are the world's miracle.

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Speaker 1: What am I without you, Ludwig wrote to Wagner. My

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Speaker 1: love for you I need not repeat. It will endure forever.

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Speaker 1: He called the composer sole source of my delight. From

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Speaker 1: my tenderest youth onward, my friend who spoke to my

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Speaker 1: heart as no other diad. But devoted as Ludwig was

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Speaker 1: to Wagner, the Bavarian people didn't quite feel the same way.

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Speaker 1: The public had begun to sour to the composer, whose

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Speaker 1: absorbitant spending and political dissonance clashed violently with the humbler

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Speaker 1: more pious sensibilities of the people of Bavaria. Ludwig, although

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Speaker 1: he didn't publicly admit it was gay, and although there's

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Speaker 1: no proof that his relationship with Wagner was ever physical,

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Speaker 1: it's clear that Wagner didn't share the king's feelings. While

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Speaker 1: Wagner prudently enjoyed the attention and devotion of the King,

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Speaker 1: he also had a child out of wedlock with the

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Speaker 1: wife of his conductor and engaged with such wild Headenism

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Speaker 1: and munich that Ludwig's government all but forced the king

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Speaker 1: to banish Wagner from Bavaria. With no choice, the king

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Speaker 1: acquiesced and fell into such a period of despondence that

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Speaker 1: he considered renouncing his throne and following Wagner into exile.

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Speaker 1: Both Wagner and the king's counselors politely dissuaded him from

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Speaker 1: the idea, and so instead, while the king continued to

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Speaker 1: fund Wagner from abroad. He also half heartedly began his

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Speaker 1: attempt to perform at least one of his kingly duties,

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Speaker 1: providing the kingdom in air. A year after Wagner's banishment,

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Speaker 1: Ludwig announced his engagement to his cousin Sophie, a young

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Speaker 1: woman who shared his passion for opera. But Ludwig delayed

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Speaker 1: the wedding, first once and then a second time, and

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Speaker 1: then after six months he called it off entirely, My

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Speaker 1: beloved Elsa, he wrote in a letter after the engagement ended,

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Speaker 1: your cruel father has torn us apart eternally, yours Heinrich.

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Speaker 1: He was referencing the story from the Wagner opera Lohengrin.

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Speaker 1: The King could play make believe in letters, but he

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Speaker 1: couldn't bring himself to do it for an entire marriage.

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Speaker 1: With no wedding and no Wagner. Ludwig found another devotion

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Speaker 1: building palaces. Hugh would build the grandest palaces in Europe,

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Speaker 1: play grounds for him to play, act operas and live

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Speaker 1: out his life as he always wanted it, as if

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Speaker 1: he had been born a century earlier. Ludwig began commissioning

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Speaker 1: drawings for castles, engaging not just architects, but theatrical set designers,

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Speaker 1: so the palaces would be dramatic in every sense of

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Speaker 1: the word. The first palace completed was Linderhof, a Rococo

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Speaker 1: jewelry box in the style of Louis, the Son, King

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Speaker 1: of France. Ludwig called himself the Moon King, the dark

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Speaker 1: shadow counterpart of Louis. The two had a lot in common.

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Speaker 1: They shared the same name Ludwig is the germanization of Louis,

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Speaker 1: and the same taste for formal gardens and gilded decor.

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Speaker 1: At Linderhoff, Ludwig built a grotto in which he could

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Speaker 1: be rowed around in a boat shaped like a swan

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Speaker 1: through the new miracle of electricity. The grotto was brilliantly

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Speaker 1: lit in changing colors, as if Ludwig was always on stage.

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Speaker 1: In the woods surrounding the palace, he built a replica

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Speaker 1: hut from the set of Wagner's Volk, with an artificial

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Speaker 1: tree and an artificial sword embedded in it, waiting for

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Speaker 1: the opera's hero Sigmund to come pull it free. Another replica,

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Speaker 1: a cottage from the third act of Wagner's Parsifal, was

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Speaker 1: built nearby for the king to spend long afternoons reading

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Speaker 1: inside his own personal petit, trying on the moon. King

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Speaker 1: was largely nocturnal. In the winter, when the moon was bright,

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Speaker 1: he would have his footman in elaborate replica eighteenth century

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Speaker 1: costumes escored him on sleigh rides through the snow covered meadows.

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Speaker 1: Ludwig despised the company of most people. He had a

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Speaker 1: clever architect designed a dining room table for him at

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Speaker 1: Linderhof that descended on a pulley system down into the

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Speaker 1: floor to the kitchen below. There, the staff set the

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Speaker 1: table and lay it with food. Then the table would

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Speaker 1: rise again to the main dining room, without Ludwig ever

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Speaker 1: having to suffer another person coming into the room to

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Speaker 1: drop off a plate. But the king wasn't lonely. He

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Speaker 1: spent the dinners in long conversations with the portraits he

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Speaker 1: hung on the walls, heroines of French royalty, Madame de

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Speaker 1: Pompadour and Marie Antoinette. People tended to use the word

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Speaker 1: eccentric more and more often about the king. Before Linderholf

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Speaker 1: was even finished, he began on nu Schwanstein, a palace

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Speaker 1: that would be a celebration of all things Wagner and

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Speaker 1: the Swan Knight. The name of the palace itself translates

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Speaker 1: to New Swan Stone. It rose in a white froth

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Speaker 1: from the wooded mountains south of Munich, swirling with high

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Speaker 1: romantic turrets and towers. Inside the palace was filled with

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Speaker 1: tapestries and murals depicting the legend of the Holy Grail,

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Speaker 1: and of course, the operas of Richard Wagner. Swans were everywhere,

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Speaker 1: appearing in murals and carved into furniture, edged into windows

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Speaker 1: in tiny porcelain form. The bedding was filled not with

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Speaker 1: goostown but with swan feathers. Just off the dining room,

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Speaker 1: Ludwig added an artificial indoor grotto, complete with a waterfall

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Speaker 1: and a rainbow machine that could illuminate it in multiple colors.

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Speaker 1: The grotto also had a false moon that moved through

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Speaker 1: regular phases. Even if you've never been to Nusch von Stein,

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Speaker 1: it would look familiar to It served as the inspiration

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Speaker 1: for Walt Disney when he built Sleeping Beauty's Castle at Disneyland.

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Speaker 1: Most royal palaces served a public function, with spaces for

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Speaker 1: the activities of royal court. Nuchvan Stein was an entirely

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Speaker 1: private resident the king that's own private living, theatrical space,

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Speaker 1: a shrine to Wagner. The palace ended up costing almost

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Speaker 1: twice its initial estimates and draining the king's substantial personal coffers.

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Speaker 1: He opened the lines of credit all over Europe, borrowing

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Speaker 1: from every foreign royal family he could. But the king

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Speaker 1: wasn't done yet. He was going to build his masterpiece,

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Speaker 1: a scale replica of Versailles in Bavaria that would be

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Speaker 1: grander and more ambitious than anything built before heron Kim say,

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Speaker 1: would be a monument to the divine right of kings,

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Speaker 1: even though by this point Bavaria had been absorbed by

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Speaker 1: Prussia and no longer operated as an independent kingdom. Ludwig

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Speaker 1: would have a hall of mirrors running nearly two hundred

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Speaker 1: and fifty feet lit by two thousand, one hundred eight candles,

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Speaker 1: which he insisted that his servants light every night and

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Speaker 1: replaced the following day with fresh candles. Obsession became mania.

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Speaker 1: In the end, the king would spend less than a

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Speaker 1: week in his never finished mini Versailles. The Ludwig never

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Speaker 1: used the kingdom's funds for his palaces, the government was

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Speaker 1: still made uneasy by his blase attitude towards spending and debt.

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Speaker 1: They begged him to take an interest in government, to

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Speaker 1: meet with ministers, to do something anything other than reading

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Speaker 1: and writing and dreaming and spending acting on a stage

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Speaker 1: without an audience. Stories of the king's eccentric behavior kept

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Speaker 1: trickling into government officials who exchanged sideways glances. Ludwig asked

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Speaker 1: his cabinet for a credit of six million marks to

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Speaker 1: complete his mini Versailles, which was denied. Ludwig was so

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Speaker 1: frustrated he publicly threatened to fire his entire cabinet and

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Speaker 1: replace them all. A few weeks later, a government commission

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Speaker 1: came to seize King Ludwig the Second and depose him,

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Speaker 1: saying that the king was insane and unfit to rule.

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Speaker 1: A few days later, Ludwig was dead, a prince who

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Speaker 1: lived in a fantasy and died in the shallow waters

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Speaker 1: of the lake near prison palace. That's the story of

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Speaker 1: the tragic death of King Ludwig the Second of Bavaria.

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Speaker 1: But keep listening after a brief sponsor break, to hear

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Speaker 1: a little bit more about his relationship with Wagner. Today,

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Speaker 1: it's almost impossible to think of Wagner without also thinking

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Speaker 1: of his racism and anti Semitism. After all, he was

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Speaker 1: Hitler's favorite composer and Hitler's favorite composer for a reason,

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Speaker 1: Wagner resented the success of Jewish composers Felix Mendelssohn and

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Speaker 1: jiachommayer Beer, the latter who loaned Wagner money and who

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Speaker 1: actually arranged the premiere of Wagner's first successful opera, Rinsey.

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Speaker 1: Mayer Beer was confused and hurt when he first read

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Speaker 1: about Wagner's vitriol towards him and towards all Jews in

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Speaker 1: the essay of Wagner wrote called Jewishness in Music. In

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Speaker 1: that essay, Wagner argued that Jewish composers would never be

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Speaker 1: able to capture a true German spirit. King Ludwig the Second,

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Speaker 1: who remained devoted supporter of Wagner even after the composer

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Speaker 1: was banished to Switzerland, funded a production of the opera Parsifal.

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Speaker 1: Under one condition, Wagner had to accept that the opera

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Speaker 1: would be conducted by Herman Levi, the son of a

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Speaker 1: rabbi and Ludwig's personal Couplemeister or head conductor. Wagner balked,

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Speaker 1: saying that Levi should have to be baptized before conducting

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Speaker 1: his opera. But Ludvic didn't act down. Nothing is more repugnant,

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Speaker 1: nothing less edifying than such squabbles people, after all our brothers,

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Speaker 1: in spite of all denominational differences, Ludwig wrote, and so

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Speaker 1: in two Herman Levi conducted the first performance of Parsifal.

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Speaker 1: While by all indications Wagner remained an anti Semite for

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Speaker 1: his entire life, he and Levi also remained friends. When

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Speaker 1: Wagner died, Herman Levi, the son of a rabbi, was

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Speaker 1: one of his pall bearers. Noble Blood is a production

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Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio and Aaron Mankey. The show was

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Speaker 1: written and hosted by Danis Schwartz and produced by Aaron Mankey,

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Speaker 1: Matt Frederick, Alex Williams, and Trevor Young. Noble Blood is

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Speaker 1: on social media at Noble Blood Tales, and you can

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Speaker 1: learn more about the show over at Noble Blood Tales

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Speaker 1: dot com. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit

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Speaker 1: the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

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Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows. M M