0:00

Welcome to Noble Blood, a production

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of I Heart Radio and Aaron Manky

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listener Discretion is advised. A

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six year old banker in Munich named

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Debt Love Udermont couldn't stop

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thinking about the day in his childhood

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that he and his mother had gone

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for tea at the home of Countess

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Josephine von Verba. Countess

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Detlev was just ten years old at the time,

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and though his father was a prominent financier

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in Munich society, Detlove was

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unaccustomed to the grandeur of the Countess's

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home. Every surface seemed

0:36

covered in velvet or gilding. Detlev's

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mother was uncomfortable, too, pulling

0:42

at her hair to when the Countess turned away,

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and smiling too broadly. When the Countess

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returned bearing a tray of cakes, Detlov's

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mother smacked him under the table so that

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he remembered to fold a napkin on his

0:54

lap. But the Countess

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didn't seem to notice the discomfort of

0:58

either young Debt Love or his mother. She

1:01

chatted with the practiced ease of a noble

1:03

woman, someone who knew how to fill

1:05

this silent with lyrical laughter and

1:08

conspiratorial whispers. Though

1:10

Bavaria was no longer an independent

1:13

kingdom, hadn't been since eighteen

1:15

seventy, when it first joined the North German

1:17

Confederation and then the German Empire.

1:20

The Countess Josephine von Verba Countage

1:22

was still old Bavarian royalty.

1:25

Her family were descendants of the victuals

1:27

Box, and she herself was a relative

1:30

of the former Bavarian King, Ludwig

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the second. Ludwig the

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Second had enchanted the country. He

1:37

ascended the throne in eighteen young,

1:40

romantic and handsome, built

1:42

enormous fairy tale palaces,

1:45

and then died tragically, mysteriously

1:48

by a suicide by drowning at age

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forty in eighteen eighty six.

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But that was years ago. The Countess

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finished her tea and put the cup delicately

1:58

back into its saucer. She

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leaned in and dramatically cast

2:03

her eyes around the room before settling

2:05

them back on young debt Lev and his mother.

2:08

Do you want to know, the countess

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said, how King Ludwig the

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Second really died. Without

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waiting for an answer, she swept

2:17

to the back of the room and pulled open

2:20

an antique chest. You

2:22

see, The countess continued as

2:25

the victuals box last remaining relatives.

2:27

We've become privy to certain personal

2:30

possessions with the flourish.

2:33

She pulled out a gray loaded

2:35

coat. At first, debt Lev

2:37

didn't notice anything strange about it

2:39

until the Countess flipped it around and

2:41

he could see two bullet holes,

2:43

straight and clean through the back

2:45

of the coat. But the king drowned.

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Debt Leve chirped, ignoring the scolding

2:50

look from his mother. Ah.

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The countess said, that's exactly

2:55

what they want you to believe. Debt

2:58

Lev didn't tell anyone about at strange

3:00

afternoon eating cakes and drinking

3:02

tea in the Countess's drawing room,

3:05

not until he reached sixty and

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swore a signed affidavit about

3:09

that memory that kept sticking in his

3:11

brain. But by then it

3:13

was impossible to verify. The

3:16

countess's home had burned down in a

3:18

fire in the nineteen seventies, a

3:20

fire that killed both the Countess and her

3:22

husband. Ludwig

3:25

the Second, looms large over Bavaria

3:27

their fairy tale prints. His

3:30

influence is physical. The massive palaces

3:32

he constructed during his reign remained

3:35

Bavaria's most popular tourist attractions,

3:38

but he also has a philosophical

3:40

hold on the people. He's a beloved

3:43

tragic hero whose great misfortune

3:46

was that he happened to be a romantic born

3:48

at the height of the industrial age,

3:51

and his death continues to fascinate

3:53

and mystify. The king was

3:55

found face down in a lake in

3:58

water that was only waist deep. The

4:00

king had been a champion swimmer.

4:03

No official reports mentioned a gray

4:06

coat with bullet holes. But only

4:08

a day before the king was found dead, he

4:10

had been deposed by his own council,

4:13

a government fed up with his obsession

4:15

with building palaces, and then

4:17

had him declared insane. All

4:20

we know for sure is the king was found

4:22

dead, and anyone who knew the whole

4:25

story of how or why is

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long dead by now too. I'm

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Danis Schwartz, and

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this is noble blood. On

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June thirteenth, eighteen eighty

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six, just a day after

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being imprisoned at burgh Castle,

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Ludwig the Second went for a walk

4:50

with his doctor. Though the

4:52

former king was usually accompanied by

4:54

attendants, there were none who joined

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on that walk down to the shores of Lake

4:59

Stromberg that evening. It

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was just Ludwig the Second and Dr

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Guden, the doctor who had declared

5:05

the king insane only days before

5:08

in order to remove him from power. The

5:11

government commission had arrived at Ludwig's

5:14

castle Nu Schweinstein at four

5:16

am three days before in

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order to formally depose him.

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Ludwig had been tipped off by a servant

5:23

and had local police stationed outside

5:25

the palace to protect him, but it

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wasn't enough, nor was the flailing of

5:29

forty seven year old baroness, who attacked

5:31

the commission with her umbrella to try to delay

5:34

them. Eventually, a second

5:36

commission of men arrived, doctor Guden

5:38

among them, who seized the king

5:40

as he attempted to make an escape. How

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can you declare me insane, Ludwig,

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guess the doctor you've never seen

5:47

or examined me, doctor

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Guden cleared his throat. An

5:52

examination was unnecessary, he said.

5:54

The documentary evidence was very copious

5:57

and completely substantiated. It

6:00

was overwhelming, and

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so the government installed Ludwig's

6:04

uncle Luis Pold as regent king

6:07

and installed Ludwig in a prison palace

6:10

on the shores of Lake Starnberg. Builders

6:13

were still putting bars on the windows

6:15

when Ludwig and his escorts arrived

6:19

the following day. After dinner,

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Ludwig and his doctor went for

6:23

that walk. They left at

6:25

six pm, and the servants expected

6:27

them back within the hour by

6:30

eight p m at the latest, if the pair took

6:32

the long way down the path. But

6:34

eight p m arrived and the pair was still

6:36

gone. Servants were dispatched

6:39

into now heavy rain to find

6:41

Ludwig in the doctor through

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gail winds and unrelenting

6:46

downpour. The entire palace

6:48

staff searched the grounds of the

6:50

castle and the path by the lake.

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It wasn't until ten thirty that night

6:55

that a servant noticed the strange

6:58

bobbing objects just a few

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feet away from the shore in the water. He

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shined the light towards the water and saw

7:05

the former king's head and shoulders

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floating, his face bloated

7:10

and lifeless. The servants

7:12

shouted and more men came and pulled

7:14

from the shallow waters of the lake both

7:17

King Ludwig and Dr Guden,

7:19

whose corpse was floating just a few feet

7:21

away. An

7:25

accident seemed implausible. The

7:27

water was only waist deep, and the king

7:29

had been a strong swimmer since childhood.

7:32

The autopsy report came back with no

7:34

wounds on his body, but also

7:37

strangely, no water in his lungs.

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So called dry drownings are

7:42

possible, but they're rare, usually

7:45

only occurring when someone dies of a heart attack

7:47

or stroke before falling beneath the water.

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The King's watch was stopped at six

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fifty four. The good

7:55

doctor's autopsy showed blows

7:57

to the head and neck and signs

7:59

of strangulation, as if there had

8:01

been a fight. Official

8:04

word came back, declaring that the death

8:06

of the king and his doctor was a

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suicide and accidental murder.

8:11

The king had been trying to kill himself

8:13

and had fought against the doctor who was trying

8:16

to save him. Conspiracy

8:18

theorist mumble that the king had seemed in

8:20

fine spirit and that an autopsy

8:23

doctor could have easily been paid off to fictionalize

8:25

the results. Perhaps the king

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had been shot while he was trying to escape,

8:30

and the doctor killed as well to prevent any

8:32

witnesses. Or maybe

8:34

the king had just been shot as a preventative

8:36

measure. He was still beloved by

8:38

the people of Bavaria, and while

8:40

he was alive, the specter of

8:42

his reclaiming power still loomed.

8:45

Locals tell stories of overheard gunshots

8:48

of commissioned boats and escape plans,

8:51

but no stories are verified. All

8:54

we know for sure is the king and his

8:56

doctor went for a walk one evening and

9:00

never came back. As

9:06

a future monarch, Ludwig was raised

9:09

in lonely isolation with

9:11

strict tutors who demanded focus

9:13

and discipline from a prince who

9:16

tended to spend most of his time gazing

9:18

out of windows. His brief

9:20

moments of childhood happiness came at

9:22

his family's summer palace in the mountains,

9:25

where the walls were painted with fairy tale

9:27

murals about the medieval night Lone

9:29

Grin, the Arthurian swan king

9:32

who comes to rescue a damsel in

9:34

a swan drawn boat and marries

9:37

her before tragedy pulls them apart.

9:40

And so when young Ludwig first encountered

9:42

the Upper Lone Grin by the composer Wagner,

9:45

he felt as though his life had finally

9:47

come into focus. To

9:50

call his interest an obsession would

9:52

be an understatement. He read

9:54

the libretto daily, multiple

9:56

times a day. He dreamt

9:58

of Wagner and his opera. When

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Ludwig finally got the chance to see the

10:03

opera performed when he was fifteen, he

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wept so hard in the audience

10:08

that his fellow patrons were afraid that

10:11

his convulsions were seizures.

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From then on, Ludwig had a single

10:16

devotion Wagner. He

10:19

read his work as if they were religious

10:21

texts, all based on legends

10:23

that were familiar to him from the Frescoes

10:26

and his childhood home. In the introduction

10:29

of Wagner's massive and as he had unproduced

10:31

epic The Ring Cycle, Wagner

10:34

wrote that he dreamt of a prince with all

10:36

the resources and passion to actually

10:38

ever bring the massive work to his stage.

10:41

It was as if the words were meant for Ludwig

10:44

alone, a plea through time

10:47

met and answered with a solemn

10:49

promise. When he was

10:51

eighteen, Ludwig became king,

10:54

much younger than he expected, and

10:56

still far more interested in fairy tales

10:58

than the minutia of running a kingdom.

11:01

But the kingdom adored their young, handsome,

11:04

romantic king who stood

11:06

at six four and whose dramatic

11:08

profile was set off by a thick head

11:10

of dark curls. He was

11:12

their poet king, and he knew

11:15

exactly what the first thing he wanted to do

11:17

with his new found power was I

11:19

burn with ardor to behold the

11:22

creator of the words and musings of

11:24

lone grin? He wrote in a letter to

11:26

Wagner just a few weeks after

11:28

he became king. Ludwig

11:30

included a ruby ring and signed

11:33

photographs of himself as gestures

11:35

of his generosity and goodwill. He

11:38

instructed his chief counselor to track

11:40

down the composure and bring him

11:42

to court. The task was more

11:45

challenging than the counselor anticipated.

11:47

Wagner was heavily in debt and in

11:49

hiding. When the courts

11:51

counselor first approached, Wagner

11:54

fled, sure the man was a creditor

11:56

come to demand payment. But

11:59

soon Wagner would realize all of his financial

12:01

worries were at ned. As

12:03

soon as he arrived to Ludwig's court,

12:06

the king wiped his debt clean, granted

12:09

him an income and a place to live.

12:12

You are the world's miracle. What am

12:14

I without you, Ludwig wrote to Wagner.

12:17

My love for you I need not repeat.

12:19

It will endure forever. He

12:22

called the composer sole

12:25

source of my delight. From my tenderest

12:27

youth onward, my friend who

12:30

spoke to my heart as no other

12:32

diad. But

12:37

devoted as Ludwig was to Wagner,

12:40

the Bavarian people didn't quite feel

12:42

the same way. The public

12:45

had begun to sour to the composer, whose

12:48

absorbitant spending and political

12:50

dissonance clashed violently

12:52

with the humbler more pious sensibilities

12:55

of the people of Bavaria. Ludwig,

12:58

although he didn't publicly admit it

13:00

was gay, and although there's no proof

13:03

that his relationship with Wagner was ever

13:05

physical, it's clear that

13:07

Wagner didn't share the king's feelings.

13:10

While Wagner prudently enjoyed the

13:12

attention and devotion of the King, he

13:14

also had a child out of wedlock with the

13:17

wife of his conductor and

13:19

engaged with such wild Headenism

13:21

and munich that Ludwig's government

13:23

all but forced the king to banish

13:26

Wagner from Bavaria. With

13:29

no choice, the king acquiesced

13:31

and fell into such a period of

13:33

despondence that he considered

13:36

renouncing his throne and following

13:38

Wagner into exile. Both

13:41

Wagner and the king's counselors politely

13:44

dissuaded him from the idea, and

13:47

so instead, while the king continued

13:49

to fund Wagner from abroad. He

13:52

also half heartedly began his attempt

13:54

to perform at least one of his kingly

13:56

duties, providing the kingdom

13:58

in air. A year after

14:01

Wagner's banishment, Ludwig

14:03

announced his engagement to his cousin

14:05

Sophie, a young woman who shared

14:08

his passion for opera. But

14:10

Ludwig delayed the wedding, first

14:13

once and then a second time,

14:16

and then after six months he called

14:18

it off entirely, My beloved

14:20

Elsa, he wrote in a letter after

14:23

the engagement ended, your cruel

14:25

father has torn us apart eternally,

14:27

yours Heinrich. He

14:30

was referencing the story from the Wagner

14:32

opera Lohengrin. The King

14:34

could play make believe in letters, but

14:37

he couldn't bring himself to do it for an

14:39

entire marriage. With

14:44

no wedding and no Wagner. Ludwig

14:46

found another devotion building

14:50

palaces. Hugh would build

14:52

the grandest palaces in Europe,

14:55

play grounds for him to play, act operas

14:57

and live out his life as he always wanted

15:00

it, as if he had been born a century

15:03

earlier. Ludwig

15:05

began commissioning drawings for castles,

15:07

engaging not just architects,

15:09

but theatrical set designers, so

15:12

the palaces would be dramatic in

15:14

every sense of the word. The

15:16

first palace completed was Linderhof,

15:19

a Rococo jewelry box in the style

15:22

of Louis, the Son,

15:24

King of France. Ludwig

15:27

called himself the Moon King, the

15:30

dark shadow counterpart of

15:32

Louis. The two

15:34

had a lot in common. They shared

15:37

the same name Ludwig is the germanization

15:39

of Louis, and the same taste

15:42

for formal gardens and gilded

15:44

decor. At Linderhoff,

15:46

Ludwig built a grotto in which he could

15:49

be rowed around in a boat shaped like a

15:51

swan through the new miracle

15:53

of electricity. The grotto was

15:55

brilliantly lit in changing colors,

15:58

as if Ludwig was always on stage.

16:01

In the woods surrounding the palace, he

16:03

built a replica hut from the

16:05

set of Wagner's Volk, with

16:08

an artificial tree and an

16:10

artificial sword embedded in it, waiting

16:13

for the opera's hero Sigmund to

16:15

come pull it free. Another

16:18

replica, a cottage from the third

16:20

act of Wagner's Parsifal, was

16:22

built nearby for the king to spend

16:24

long afternoons reading inside his

16:27

own personal petit, trying on the

16:30

moon. King was largely nocturnal.

16:33

In the winter, when the moon was bright,

16:36

he would have his footman in elaborate

16:38

replica eighteenth century costumes

16:41

escored him on sleigh rides through the

16:43

snow covered meadows. Ludwig

16:45

despised the company of most

16:47

people. He had a clever architect

16:50

designed a dining room table for him at

16:52

Linderhof that descended on

16:54

a pulley system down into the

16:56

floor to the kitchen below. There,

16:59

the staff set the table and lay it

17:01

with food. Then the table

17:03

would rise again to the main dining room,

17:06

without Ludwig ever having to suffer

17:08

another person coming into the room

17:10

to drop off a plate. But

17:15

the king wasn't lonely. He spent

17:18

the dinners in long conversations

17:20

with the portraits he hung on the walls, heroines

17:23

of French royalty, Madame de

17:25

Pompadour and Marie Antoinette. People

17:28

tended to use the word eccentric

17:31

more and more often about the king.

17:34

Before Linderholf was even finished, he

17:37

began on nu Schwanstein, a

17:39

palace that would be a celebration of

17:41

all things Wagner and the Swan

17:43

Knight. The name of the palace

17:46

itself translates to New Swan

17:48

Stone. It rose in a white

17:50

froth from the wooded mountains south

17:53

of Munich, swirling with high

17:55

romantic turrets and towers. Inside

17:59

the palace was filled with tapestries

18:01

and murals depicting the legend of

18:03

the Holy Grail, and of course,

18:06

the operas of Richard Wagner. Swans

18:09

were everywhere, appearing in murals

18:12

and carved into furniture, edged

18:14

into windows in tiny porcelain

18:16

form. The bedding was filled

18:18

not with goostown but with

18:21

swan feathers. Just off

18:23

the dining room, Ludwig added an

18:25

artificial indoor grotto, complete

18:28

with a waterfall and a rainbow

18:30

machine that could illuminate it in multiple

18:33

colors. The grotto also had

18:35

a false moon that moved

18:37

through regular phases. Even

18:39

if you've never been to Nusch von Stein, it

18:42

would look familiar to It served

18:44

as the inspiration for Walt Disney

18:46

when he built Sleeping Beauty's Castle at

18:49

Disneyland. Most

18:51

royal palaces served a public function,

18:53

with spaces for the activities of royal

18:56

court. Nuchvan Stein was an

18:58

entirely private resident the

19:00

king that's own private living, theatrical

19:03

space, a shrine to

19:05

Wagner. The palace

19:07

ended up costing almost twice its

19:09

initial estimates and draining

19:12

the king's substantial personal coffers.

19:15

He opened the lines of credit all

19:17

over Europe, borrowing from

19:19

every foreign royal family he

19:21

could. But the king wasn't done

19:23

yet. He was going to build

19:25

his masterpiece, a scale

19:28

replica of Versailles in

19:30

Bavaria that would be grander

19:32

and more ambitious than anything built

19:34

before heron Kim say,

19:37

would be a monument to the divine right

19:39

of kings, even though by this

19:41

point Bavaria had been absorbed by Prussia

19:44

and no longer operated as an independent

19:46

kingdom. Ludwig would have a

19:48

hall of mirrors running nearly two hundred

19:51

and fifty feet lit by two

19:53

thousand, one hundred eight candles,

19:56

which he insisted that his servants

19:58

light every night and replaced

20:01

the following day with fresh candles.

20:04

Obsession became mania.

20:07

In the end, the king would spend

20:09

less than a week in his never finished

20:12

mini Versailles. The

20:16

Ludwig never used the kingdom's funds

20:18

for his palaces, the government

20:20

was still made uneasy by his blase

20:23

attitude towards spending and debt.

20:26

They begged him to take an interest in government,

20:29

to meet with ministers, to do something

20:32

anything other than reading

20:34

and writing and dreaming and

20:36

spending acting on

20:38

a stage without an

20:40

audience. Stories

20:43

of the king's eccentric behavior

20:45

kept trickling into government officials

20:48

who exchanged sideways glances.

20:51

Ludwig asked his cabinet for a

20:54

credit of six million marks to complete

20:56

his mini Versailles, which was denied.

20:59

Ludwig was so frustrated he publicly

21:01

threatened to fire his entire cabinet

21:04

and replace them all. A

21:06

few weeks later, a government commission

21:08

came to seize King Ludwig

21:10

the Second and depose him,

21:13

saying that the king was insane and

21:16

unfit to rule. A few

21:18

days later, Ludwig was dead, a

21:21

prince who lived in a fantasy and

21:23

died in the shallow waters of

21:26

the lake near prison

21:28

palace. That's

21:35

the story of the tragic death of

21:37

King Ludwig the Second of Bavaria.

21:40

But keep listening after a brief sponsor break,

21:42

to hear a little bit more about his relationship

21:45

with Wagner. Today,

21:55

it's almost impossible to think of Wagner

21:57

without also thinking of his racism

22:00

and anti Semitism. After

22:02

all, he was Hitler's favorite composer

22:04

and Hitler's favorite composer for a reason,

22:07

Wagner resented the success of Jewish

22:09

composers Felix Mendelssohn and jiachommayer

22:12

Beer, the latter who loaned Wagner

22:14

money and who actually arranged the premiere

22:16

of Wagner's first successful opera, Rinsey.

22:20

Mayer Beer was confused and hurt when

22:22

he first read about Wagner's vitriol towards

22:25

him and towards all Jews in

22:27

the essay of Wagner wrote called Jewishness

22:29

in Music. In that essay,

22:32

Wagner argued that Jewish composers

22:35

would never be able to capture a true

22:37

German spirit. King

22:39

Ludwig the Second, who remained devoted

22:42

supporter of Wagner even after the composer

22:44

was banished to Switzerland, funded

22:47

a production of the opera Parsifal.

22:49

Under one condition, Wagner

22:52

had to accept that the opera would be

22:54

conducted by Herman Levi, the

22:56

son of a rabbi and Ludwig's

22:58

personal Couplemeister or head conductor.

23:01

Wagner balked, saying that Levi

23:04

should have to be baptized before

23:06

conducting his opera. But Ludvic

23:08

didn't act down. Nothing is

23:10

more repugnant, nothing less edifying

23:13

than such squabbles people,

23:15

after all our brothers, in spite

23:18

of all denominational differences, Ludwig

23:21

wrote, and so in two

23:25

Herman Levi conducted the first

23:27

performance of Parsifal. While

23:29

by all indications Wagner remained

23:32

an anti Semite for his entire life,

23:34

he and Levi also remained friends.

23:37

When Wagner died, Herman

23:40

Levi, the son of a rabbi, was

23:42

one of his pall bearers. Noble

23:49

Blood is a production of I Heart Radio

23:52

and Aaron Mankey. The show was written

23:54

and hosted by Danis Schwartz and produced

23:56

by Aaron Mankey, Matt Frederick, Alex

23:59

Williams, and Trevor Young. Noble

24:01

Blood is on social media at Noble

24:03

Blood Tales, and you can learn more about

24:05

the show over at Noble Blood Tales dot com.

24:08

For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit

24:11

the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

24:13

or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

24:17

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