Abstract
In 1886, Bernhard von Gudden and three other expert psychiatrists diagnosed the Bavarian King Ludwig II with “paranoia (madness),” a diagnosis that the Bavarian government used to justify removing Ludwig from power. Although Ludwig was not evaluated in detail by the psychiatrists, in their opinion, sworn eyewitness accounts and general knowledge about Ludwig’s behavior provided sufficient grounds for the diagnosis. Ludwig was a great admirer of the musician, Richard Wagner, and shared some of his ideas of an idealistic society. At first, he identified with Wagner’s opera heroes, and he became Wagner’s patron sponsor for life. However, he grew increasingly interested in an absolutist state, envisioning himself as a monarch with a role similar to that of Louis XIV. His multiple building projects, for which he incurred much debt, his conviction that he was descended from the Bourbons through baptism, his increasingly abnormal behavior, and his hallucinations together formed the basis for the psychiatrists’ diagnosis. Although not mentioned in the expert opinion, Ludwig’s homophilic behavior—a scandal at the time—was probably also an important reason for his removal from office. A review of the psychiatric knowledge and societal philosophy of the time indicates that the psychiatrists were correct with their diagnosis in their time.
Highlights
For more than 150 years, people have questioned whether Ludwig II, the King of Bavaria (1845–1886), was ill
Ludwig’s autopsy revealed that the purulent meningitis he suffered as a 7-month-old infant, which was followed by a long failure to thrive, left behind scars in the frontal lobes, and that he showed frontotemporal atrophy, which could be the basis for an incipient organic delusional psychosis [4, 23] (p 325f)
The “Caesarean delusion” [6] that was discussed was not operationalized, because there were too few occurrences; most notably, Ludwig did not seek out public life, which would have had to be the case to achieve any level of morbid gain
Summary
For more than 150 years, people have questioned whether Ludwig II, the King of Bavaria (1845–1886), was ill. Under Wagner’s mentorship, Ludwig’s idea of a state became the “art religion,” which should promote a change in the state and its people towards the ideal system of government through moral/musical/artistic education (e.g., they planned to construct a representative Semper/Wagner opera house on the high banks of Munich’s Isar river next to the Maximilianeum, the Bavarian parliament) [17, 18]. Cosima’s diary supports the general, early suspicions that Ludwig was ill: it records fears of a swift end to Ludwig’s kingship by early death or madness (September 1, 1871; November 8, 1872; June 14, 1873) His identification with the Bourbon Ludwig XIV is noted with astonishment (November 7, 1872; September 1, 1878; November 27, 1881).
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