Bonus! A mad gay king, a flying car, and Freddy Mercury
Did you hear the one about the gay king of Bavaria who nearly abdicated his throne so he could follow Richard Wagner around Europe like a Grateful Dead groupie? He wound up deciding instead to stay in power so he could build some of the most beautiful castles in Europe, and also a precursor to Disneyland. I've got the fascinating details about King Ludwig II, and also a new new project to raise his memory from the rubble of a Nazi attack!
Backup link to the video: https://youtu.be/hrwBN1VBJbI
Comments (4)
i live in munich and i never heard of that car rumour. the castles though are amazing.
Evidently there were quite a few movies made about our dear Ludwig II ! Who knew? https://www.famousfix.com/list/films-about-ludwig-ii-of-bavaria
Visconti's "Ludwig" comes to mind, with a magnificent Helmut Berger as Ludwig.
I had heard a little about Ludwig II in high school, when I took a German class on whim (it was either that or Physics... and so German it was). I really only learned about him because my German teacher (who was an actual German person from actual Germany) was a huge fan of the composer Richard Wagner and would play snippets of Der Ring des Nibelungen in class. Ludwig was a huge supporter of Wagner while being a contemporary of him, and is likely a huge reason why the latter was able to reach the considerable acclaim he was able to achieve later in his life, is still renown as one of the most gifted composers in history, and thus the reason why his art will continue to echo throughout the centuries. It just goes to show that when you are patron and supporter of the arts, you doing your part to support the only thing that truly has the capacity to become immortal. Its nice to think that Ludwig believed that too, and indeed, lived his entire life as a testament to that fact. . Good to hear that you're still planning to drop by Toronto Matt. Will you be doing any events while you are here or is the stop only for research? If it's only the latter, be sure to drop by the ArQuives if you haven't had the chance to do so before. https://arquives.ca/