A BRIEF HISTORY
OF BAVARIA
BY
GERTRUDE NORMAN
rnia
MUNICH 1906
HEINRICH JAFFE
A
BRIEF HISTORY
OF
BAVARIA
BY
GERTRUDE NORMAN
MUNICH 1906
HEINRICH JAFFE
NOTE.
The authoress begs to acknowledge her gratitude and
indebtedness for the invaluable help afforded her by the
following authors and their works Dr. William Preger,
Dr. Winter, the Rev. S. Baring Gould, Mr. Cecil Headlam
and Miss Frances Gerard.
DEDICATED
BY KIND PERMISSION
TO
H. R. H. PRINCE GEORGE
OF BAVARIA.
,A humble token of esteem and admiration to
the beautiful, ardent, progressive and artistic
Kingdom of Bavaria
from a sojourner in her midst."
FOREWORD
FOREWORD.
There have been innumerable scholarly and
scientific histories written on Bavaria, in German,
and several excellent works on various phases
of her remarkable history, and of the vivid per-
sonalities which so invade her past, in English.
The guide books which are to be found in all
her more important towns and cities are very
adequate, although of necessity much has to be
left untold, owing to their size, and concentrated
as they chiefly are on the one place in question.
For instance Mr. Headlam's "Nuremberg", a truly
significant and exquisite little work, and Miss
Frances Gerard's "Romance of Ludwig II." (al-
though the latter does contain several interesting
details of the unfortunate Monarch's Kingdom,
apart from Munich and the curious castles which
he built). There are various other works, too,
dealing with the stories of Bayreuth, Oberammer-
gau, Munich &c. ; but a want has been expressed
for a small work which would contain as it were,
and concentrate into a small edition, outlines of
all these various subjects and places. It is there-
fore the aim and object of this little volume to
give as clearly and concisely as possible the chief
VI FOREWORD
points and periods of interest in the rather compli-
cated history of Bavaria, the salient features most
interesting to visitors to her more important cities
and towns, dwelling shortly on their churches,
museums, galleries, monuments, most notable
men, their lives and work, and in fact endea-
vouring to give some impression of their atmo-
sphere, past and present. A study of her four
Kings will of course be given; her gift to the
world of many great artists and art works, and
her three chief Festival towns, Munich, Bayreuth
and Oberammergau. There are innumerable festi-
vals, both religious and otherwise, often in memory
of some legend or historical event, in almost all
of the smaller towns and mountain or lake vil-
lages, and of course being a Roman Catholic
country, the holidays everywhere are very fre-
quent. The lives of the upper classes (political,
social or military), the customs and existences of
the peasants, the absorbing life of the university
students, which latter plays such an important
part in the education of the youth of Bavaria,
and many other interesting subjects and customs
must be omitted for lack of space.
Bavaria is indeed pregnant with an all em-
bracing interest ; her cities, towns, villages, moun-
tain ranges and peaks so full of the romance of
folk-lore, legend and the eternal tragedies of the
past. The very atmosphere in which they exist
is potent with an aroma of the most fascinating
and awesome periods of the world's external and
spiritual developement. Great tragedies indeed
FOREWORD VII
halo her, as the setting sun haloes the silent
peaks, lifting her to heights of infinite grandeur
in the annals of the strange and inscrutable ways
of Destiny.
Her country is so varied in its many sided
beauties, her influence, artistically, theologically,
musically and literary so wide spread and pro-
gressive, that one cannot hope to give but the
barest outline of her infinite storehouse of treasures.
One of her most significant and noble of spirits,
Professor von Bellinger, said of Germany (and
the saying is especially and curiously applicable
to that part of the Empire wherein he was born,
lived and worked), "Germany is the centre from
which proceed the great ideas which sway the
world. She attracts all thought within her scope,
shapes it and sends it forth into the Universe
clothed with a power which is her own. Her's
is the battlefield upon which all the great in-
tellectual contests have been fought."
Let us consider for a moment in our heart's
most serious and unprejudiced crypt, what we
do indeed owe to her, this little Kingdom of
Bavaria.
She is the welcome home and haven of the
student, a place of comprehension and aspiration
to the artist, a well of eternal knowledge to the
most erudite scholar, a Mecca and place of glory
to the musician. All coming here find the com-
pletest satisfaction, whether the following of
history be the goal, literature, painting, sculpture
or music, or merely sought as a retreat from the
VIII FOREWORD
too strenuous life of our Anglo-Saxon civilization,
to a life where one can economically find and
enjoy all the stored up riches, from the arts and
sciences of all the ages, and meditatively culti-
vate one's desire for a better and higher know-
ledge.
It would take volumes to interpret rightly,
fully and justly the glories of Bavaria, the heri-
tage of her past, and the manifold attractions
of her magnetic centre, Munich, so advanced with
modern improvements, so fraught with mediaeval
charm.
One's praise must ever seem insufficient, and
one's gratitude poor to the bounteous arms held
out to us by a new country. There is as intense
an element of mystery about it as great as the
most mysterious event of one's life; before it
one must bow.
If this little work can be an incentive to dwell
in Bavaria for a while, and an encouragement
to study, from more profound sources, her beauti-
ful and in-dwelling spirit, thus trending to a
fuller, deeper, and wider comprehension of her
place in the foremost ranks of the nations, we
shall be more than repaid.
G. N.
CONTENTS IX
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I. Page
Prehistoric Bavaria. The days of Celts and Romans.
The Migrations. Developement under Agilosinger,
Carol ingian, Saxon, Saliern and Welf rule .... I 29
CHAPTER II.
Historical outline of the most salient events, and
most illustrious Rulers of the Wittelsbach Dy-
nasty 31 64
CHAPTER III.
Study of Bavaria's three Kings 65 122
CHAPTER IV.
Epics, Literature, Art, Architecture and Religion.. 123 156
CHAPTER V.
Bavaria's chief cities and characteristics. Munich,
Bayreuth, Nuremberg, Oberammergau, Augsburg,
Regensburg, Rothenburg &c 157 215
I.
"What is History, but a Fable agreed on"
Napoleon.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
"DEALING WITH PREHISTORIC BAVA-
RIA, THE DAYS OF CELTS AND ROMANS,
AND IT'S DEVELOPEMENT UNDER
AGILOSINGER, CAROLINGIAN, SAXON,
SALIERN AND WELF RULE."
"The curtains of yesterday drop down; the
curtains of tomorrow roll up; but yesterday and
tomorrow both are; pierce into the Time-Element;
glance into the Eternal." Carlyle.
Mystery enshrouds the beginnings of all Eu-
ropean countries!
But in the Southern Germanic lands perhaps,
the silence is the most profound. For "there is
no beginning in our memory of the Celtic race".
One's imagination must make a vast sweep to go
back over the peaks of time, one thousand four
hundred years before Christ, and even farther
still, to the prehistoric period of Bavaria. But
we must attempt this momentary vision, for it is
only thus that we can trace her upward fluc-
tuations and developement through the long
centuries.
Slowly, slowly . . . , the great veil lifts. Painfully,
as if with reluctance. And through the enormous
thick weaving mists, so long impenetrable, vast
primeval shapes evolve, take indistinct form, draw
4 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
silently near. Forbidding, ominous, as though
full of a terrible wrath at being awakened from
so long a sleep. The sleep of aeons!
We peer through the well nigh inscrutable fogs
of antiquity, expecting, yet fearing to hear some
sound. But the vast shadows move in slow
silence.
Tradition will not speak behind that veil of
illimitable age. The merest glimpse is vouchsafed
of mighty prehistoric forms, creeping towards cre-
puscular caves. Gigantic antediluvian creatures,
silent witnesses to the still greater Power, indo-
mitably onward moving, which controlled them.
A horror enwraps us, such as that which sud-
denly grips the soul when looking, on some deep
isolated night, filled with a vague comprehension
of cosmic space, into the dark infinities of the
heavens.
The great curtains descend! Leaving us im-
pregnated with awe, mystery, wonder, and with
also a key perhaps to certain depths of vision,
primeval sensations, primitive energies, resistless
powers, latent in the consciousness and which in
these days, through the purification of ages,
evolve themselves through thought, into ac-
complishments of art, literature, carvings in stone,
or the guiding forces of empires and democracies.
Again a long silence.
The ages move sombrely by ; like distant, dark
and dominating clouds. Another curtain, more
ephemeral, almost invisible, rises ; revealing a less
dense mist, a clearer horizon . . . through it we
PREHISTORIC BAVARIA
see more movement, as of a vast mass of beings
beginning to bestir themselves, and "carrying with
them presentiments of uncreated forms". Above
on granite peaks the symbolic Norns are tossing
more swiftly the threads of Human Destiny.
The air vibrates with the germinating of huge
forces in motion. A subdued, but tremendous
hum penetrates over the distances.
Dull impotency, mere brute force, life without
any looking upward, begins to vanish. Brows
heighten with a lightening comprehension, and
the stirrings of new and strange desires. Clearer
visions, vague, intangible, but luminous, stretch
out towards the future. Crude ideas are expressed
in pathetic roughness. But the steps of beauty
on which we tread are in the first throes of for-
mation. These beings stop in their turmoil to
look at one another. Their eyes see deeper,
differently, than those of their ancestors, the great
cave men, who killed and fought for the prime-
val woman.
Only a throbbing tortuous music, haloed by
spiritual comprehension, could convey this dream
of the awakening and gradual progression of our
prehistoric ancestors, which began so miraculously,
slowly, but indefatigably to animate the human
species, towards evolution, light, love and unity.
We must now draw in our vision and concen-
trate it on a small spot of plains, forests, moun-
tains and lakes now called the kingdom of Ba-
6 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
varia. Occasionally our glance must expand, for
all nations, like individuals, are indissolubly joined
in their destinies and evolutions, no matter how
they may externally separate. And this small
country is inextricably woven, both in its past
and present with the epic history of Germany.
The curtain rises definitely on the dispersing
mists of the South about the year one hundred
and thirteen B. C. It is curious to note how
much sooner all exotic and far southern races
emerge, both by progression in the arts, cultures
and war into the light of history. It influences
one to believe Schopenhauer's theory that the white
races are merely a deviation from the original
type, and that all people were at one time of
dark skin, hair and eyes and that fair skin, blue
eyes and blond hair are climatically bleached,
and in fact an abnormality. Nevertheless it is
from the olive hued races that all our ancient
knowledge comes. In all things are they the old-
est. Our religion, no matter what it is, comes
from some dark skinned tribe, either Jew, Ma-
hommedan or Buddhist!
It is from the Romans that we first hear, in
the above mentioned year, of a barbaric, ruddy
and enormous race of men, clothed in the skins
of wild animals, suddenly descending from the
plains and hills, north of Italy, and terribly in-
vading their camps.
These strange warriors called themselves the
THE DAYS OF CELTS AND ROMANS 7
Cimbri and the Teutons, both being branches of
the many tentacled Celtic family. (The former
eventually descended into the French, Irish, Welsh
and Scotch, the latter into the Anglo-Saxon and
Germanic races.) This influx from the North not
only revealed new worlds to the conquering Ro-
mans, but must have sprung from the soil of
Bavaria (the Celts below the Rhine), as well as
from the Swiss mountains and more Northern
parts.
So it is we learn that before the Roman in-
vasions Bavaria was inhabited by certain Celtic
tribes, who built up small settlements, and were
ruled by chieftains of their own. Ratisbona, for
instance, was the Celtic name for Regensburg.
There are traces too in Bavaria of yet another
race, other than the Celts, who must have wand-
ered here and settled, and who left their stamp
in such names as Regnitz (the river on which
Nuremberg stands), Karwendel, a mountain in the
Bavarian highlands, and the Scharnitz Pass, point-
ing to a Bohemian, Moravian, or Sklavonic ele-
ment. These various origins give one the key to
the many varying types which one finds all
through Bavaria. For the fair skin, hair and blue
eyes so typical of the pure German, are not so
prevalent here. Instead, high cheek-bones, dark
skin and hair, hazel and brown eyes, are more
often to be met with and cannot all be due
to Italian influences, but stretch back probably
to that solitary, brooding and tragic race, the
Sklavs.
8 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
In all Bavarian history one notices a very marked
and potent difference between them and their far
earlier civilized southern neighbours. Namely,
a searching for the inner meaning, a stern disci-
pline of the senses, and curiously high sense of
morality (for those barbaric days), stamped them,
even then; their ancient laws and customs de-
noting a high standard of principles and faith.
This strikes one all the more deeply as at that
time the unbridled licentiousness, vice, luxury,
degeneracy, and complete laxity of all morals,
found its most dominant expression amongst the
Romans. Three hundred years before the Migra-
tions, Tacitus wrote of the "lofty heroic ideals,
and pure traditions" which he found among the
Germans. Apart from being a warrior- like race,
these Celts were tillers of the soil, living in rude
huts on their farms, or in the deep woods as
hunters, full of a wild elemental picturesqueness
and epic poetic worth. Their warrior-like course
they were driven to inevitably, in that the lands
they knew of, were unable any longer to support
their swiftly growing races, and they were forced
to descend over the peaks and snows to find new
lands to colonize. It was the Celts who opened
up the salt and copper mines, now one of Bavaria's
most lucrative sources of revenue. In these moun-
tain excavations, centuries after, when new pas-
sages, long sealed up, were reopened, were found
many buried relics of one of the worlds most
ancient tribes. Spear heads, curious spiked balls,
necklaces, bracelets, rings (in gold, silver and
THE DAYS OF CELTS AND ROMANS g
iron), utensils, goblets, ornaments of every sort,
and weapons of the crudest forms. High on the
mountains were discovered their burial grounds.
(And do we not in this find a mighty, beautiful
and fearless symbol, shedding rays and premoni-
tions of splendid poetic feeling? For these rough
pagans, worshippers of Wotan, Donar, Hertha,
Nothburga and Freia, symbols all of the wild, prime-
val elements of earth, even if they saw not that it
was perhaps a mightier, more solitary and unearthly
Force which guided them and the elements they
adored, at least desired at the end, to be as near the
"peaks, stars, and great silence" as possible. An ideal
that mundane modern Europe might with beauty
emulate). In these solitary mountain graveyards
were also found the skeletons, lying side by side,
of Celtic warriors and their wives, their spears
and shields in hand. All of the men were well over
seven feet tall. Both women and men decorated
with rings and ornaments.
And so the stone age, the two bronze periods,
the so-called Hallstatt age, concluding with the
La Tene age, move by and past us, and we come to
the obsessive period of the Roman invasions. In
those days Bavaria formed a part of Noricum, Raetia
and Vindelicia, so perhaps it will not be purposeless
here, nor a too great scattering of impressions,
if we go into the Roman power in the Germanic
lands a little more universally than its more
immediate effect upon Bavaria. The first ideal
of a united German Empire was held by one
Hermann (Arminius) who for so long had been
10 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
a hostage in the Roman camps. He had absorbed
their tactics in war, modes of government and
civilization, and returned to his own people
aflame, not only with the dream of imparting his
knowledge to them, but of freeing them from the
foreign yoke. Since the Romans first defeated
the Celts (or Teutons and Cimbri) in 113. B. C.
their power in the Germanic lands had steadily
increased. Caesar, Augustus, Drusus, Tiberius,
Aurelius, all had encroached more and more into
and over their borders. In 102. B. C. the Romans
ultimately conquered the Germans, and just about
1,100 years later the Germans gathered in their
forces under the inspiring leadership of Hermann
and defeated the Romans in turn. This herculean
task was accomplished in the year 9. A. D. But
what takes only a few words to write, took years
of labour, fighting, failure, harsh endeavor, in-
finite endurance, deep optimism, and manifold
crimes to establish. After this epoch-making
event, the Romans began to retreat farther south-
ward, keeping possession only of a certain portion
of land between the Rhine, Danube and Main,
which is that very portion of the Empire of which
we are now writing. This was protected by the
famous Devil's Wall, first constructed by the
Emperor Probus, as a protection against the much
to be feared, warlike Germans. Traces of this
wall can still be seen. It followed a long and
devious course of 200 miles, over morasses, hills,
rivers and valleys, from Heilheim till it reached
the Danube. It was strengthened at regular inter-
THE DAYS OF CELTS AND ROMANS II
vals by fortified towers. The Romans established
all over Noricum and Raetia, forts, military
stations, towers, bridges, and camps; cut roads
and dug out quarries. These roads branching
in every advantageous direction.
Those cut by Augustus Vindelicia can still be
followed through Kempten, Partenkirchen, Rosen-
heim &c. It is in this part of the country that
the most valuable Roman treasures (houses, ex-
cavated roads, and various buildings) were dis-
covered. They also opened up the gold and silver
mines. Celeusum (Keilheim), Guntia (Gunzburg),
Augusta Vindelicorum (Augsburg), Cambodunum
(Kempten), Castra Regina (Regensburg), Castra
Batava (Passau), Juvavum (Salzburg) &c. all are
built on Roman foundation as it were, and their
names evolved from Roman names. About the
middle of the third century, the Germanic tribes
entered into a sort of great Confederacy. The
most important of these being the Allemanni,
Saxons, Franks and Goths.
And now we come upon those vast upheavals,
as gigantic in their effect upon Europe as were
the colossal volcanic eruptions of rock and moun-
tain upon the face of nature; that elemental,
awesome commotion and tumult caused by the
sudden appearance of those Calmuc shepherds
from the northern plains of Asia, the Huns!
That hideous, short, square, filthy, terror-breeding
race of eternal wanderers and avaricious fighters.
Indifferent alike to cold, hunger and danger,
feeding worse than the animals, and sleeping as
12 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
they wandered, on their ponies. They swarmed
over Europe like the dark, portentious shapes of
some fantastic nightmare, driving by their force,
and scattering by their brutality and repulsiveness,
the various communities and comparatively settled
confederacies of the German tribes. The Roman
forces were attacked again and again by the
desperate Celts in the south, who themselves were
forced to move by the fierce and resistless Huns
until their power was completely broken and they
had to retreat into their own dominions. By their
swift strokes, these shepherds altered the entire
face of Germanic Europe, and set in motion the
long centuries of the Migrations. The prosperity
which the Romans had initiated into lower Ger-
many by their advanced civilization, was for the
time being completely swept away. The towns
and villages through which the marauders, and
desperate, unsettled tribes passed, were ransacked,
devastated and deserted for more than a century.
The power of the Roman foe was dispelled, but
a period of the wildest degeneracy and lawlessness
held sway, possessing both men and women. It
was a time of violent reaction, of pillage, car-
nage, endless wanderings and complete divisions
and disunions. Nevertheless, out of this period
of decadence, light eventually emerged, and rea-
son swung back the violent pendulum to its normal
beat. The Migrations took place from the 5 th ;
to the 9 th ; centuries and whole books could be
filled devoted entirely to that extraordinary time,
upon whose foundations we rest, and whose vast
THE MIGRATIONS 13
gestures carved out the future for the sleeping
generations to follow. "Out of such travail are
great epics born", and from them sprang the seeds
of the greatest of the legends and epic sagas of
Germany.
It was long before the scattered multitudes were
able to gather themselves together again and
assume any definite shape or form, but the salient
events eventually manifested themselves. The
gradual adoption of Christianity, the destruction
of the Roman Empire, the sucking in of the much
feared Huns, the beginning of the Crusades, and
the evolving from out the almost inextricable
and tangled web of the many contending forces,
the individuality of Bavaria. But emerge she did,
stencil clear, from the interwoven movements of
Vandals, Heruli, Huns, Goths, Burgundians, Thu-
ringians, Franks, Allemanni, Saxons, Moravians
and Bohemians. It was the Goths, Bohemians,
Moravians and Marcomanni (or March-men) from
the country now inhabited by the Saxons, who
chiefly settled in her torn up province. And last,
but probably the most important of all results of
the Migrations, were the first dominant strokes
of that which we call "modern literature".
And now our little kingdom begins to assume
a boundary line and to take upon herself an
individual title. The word "Bavaria", like the
Latin Boiaria derives its origin from the Bohemian,
Celtic and Moravian people by whom the land
was inhabitated. The original word was Boju-
varii, meaning, the inhabitants of the lands of
14 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
Baja ; which in all probability came directly from
the Bohemian source, "Bojerheims" "Boheim"
or "Bohmen".
At the beginning of the 6 th century, the Duke
of Bojuvarii founded the district which was named
after him, and thus it gradually evolved into Ba-
varia, or rather "Bayern". (It is about 500 B. C.
that we first hear of the name Bavaria.) The
little district had many forces to contend with
and only succeeded for a time in holding its own,
and electing independently its rulers ; these latter
were chosen from the family of Agilosinger,
which sprang from the stem of the Agilolfs. They
governed as follows.
GARIBALD I. 569 599.
The powerful Prankish Kings were the most
dangerous enemies to the independence of Ba-
varia, and Garibald, wishing to strengthen his
position and to be in closer connection with the
enemies of the Franks (the Longobardians), mar-
ried his daughter, Theodolinde, to their King,
Autharis.
THASSILO I. (No date is given, but in this
reign [probably about 613] St. Gallen came from
Ireland and founded the monastery named after
him and shortly after, Magnus came also from
Ireland and introduced Christianity into Kempten
and Fiissen).
GARIBALD II. (About the beginning of the
7 th century.)
THEODO I. (d. 717.) In this reign trouble be-
gan to brew in the Agilosinger House. In 702
THE AGILOSINGERS 15
Theodo had divided the larger portion of his
Duchies between his three sons, Theodobald, Theo-
dobert, and Grimoald. After the death of Duke
Theodo and two of his sons, Grimoald, the third
brother (who had ruled in Freising) desired to
prevent the son of his dead brother Theodobert,
from reigning. This son Hugibert, went for help
to the Prankish vice-regent Karl Martell. Through
this alliance he defeated Grimoald, who thereby
lost his possessions. Hugibert became Duke, but
the short independence of Bavaria was already
a thing of the past!
HUGIBERT I. 725 737. (Theodobert's son.)
ODILO I. 737748. (Hugibert's son.)
THASSILO III. 758788 and to 814. (Son-
in-law to the Longobardian King, Desiderius.
Before his death the Bavarian Duchies were cap-
tured by the great Charlemagne, and came under
the rule of the Carolingian dynast.)
Although all the former Dukes were Bavarian,
after the reign of Garibald I. Bavaria had come
so completely under the power of the Prankish
kings that all their Dukes were elected by them.
In all, ten Agilosingers ruled in Bavaria in suc-
cession.
Duke Thassilo III., who was married to the
daughter of Desiderius the Lombard king, had
long and rebelliously refused to acknowledge the
authority of Charlemagne as Emperor, and had
stirred up the Avars in Hungary to invade him,
even before his powerful and arresting figure had
leaped into the front ranks of historical masters
16 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
and heroes. Before his era Germany had been
nothing but a mass of petty disunited states, but
after his accession, although each was indepen-
dently ruled, he was acknowledged Emperor of
the various kingdoms, duchies and counties. As
Charlemagne's sceptre radiated over Bavaria
(through the medium of two dukes, Gerold and
Adulf) and he held his Imperial Diet at Ratisbon,
and later was even more definitely connected by his
son Ludwig the Pious' marriage to Jutta, a daughter
of one of the earliest Welfs (who were later to
rule in Bavaria) it will hardly be a digression to
touch on his personality and reign. From the
standpoint of a monarch he was a great and
incomparable hero, appearing as a miracle at the
end of his epoch, and towering aloft in majesty
today, peak-high, above the mass of mediocrity,
drones, and evil doers, who besmirch almost every
page of history, appearing, with other mighty
heroic forms, to lighten our back-ward glancing
vision. He was the necessary outcome of his
time, and yet like all such, ages in advance of
that time. "A man, a personal ascendency, is the
only great phenomena. When Nature has work
to be done, she creates a genius to do it. Follow
the great man, and you shall see what the world
had at heart in these ages."
With his broad, independent, free-thinking mind,
Charlemagne takes his place among Germany's
greatest pioneers. Not so much with the war-
lords, as with the influences of culture, poetry,
and the advancers by finer methods. With
CHARLEMAGNE
names such as St. Benedictine, Luther, Melanch-
thon, Diirer, Hans Sachs, Lessing, Goethe &c. ;
bearing near kinship to those minds to whom
Germany owes her clear-cut thoroughness, deep
mentality, broad progression, unique position in
philosophy and socialism, and her great artistic
glories. He not only spread the Christian religion,
but encouraged the renewing of classical lite-
rature and the preservation of the German poets.
He sent to Italy for architects, builders, musicians
and singers, and made a collection of all the
German poems and folk songs he could find, but
these were all unfortunately, nay, disastrously
burned by his prejudiced son, Ludwig the Pious,
who looked upon all pagan art expressions as
dangerous and heathenish. Nevertheless, their
virile memory remained imbedded in the hearts
of many, and after years of hoarding and repe-
tition, found again outward and tangible expression
in the later epics. "The world is indeed the re-
presentation of the sensibility and the thought of
a few superior men, who have made it what it
is, and in the course of time, broadened and
adorned it. In the future they will still further
amplify and enrich it, and the world as it today
appears, is a magnificent gift from the few to
the many; from the free to the slaves; from
those who think and feel to those who must work."
Again in Charlemagne sprang to life the lu-
minious dream of Hermanns' of an unified nation.
A welding together of all the territories under his
sceptre. It had slumbered restlessly, lifting now
Norman, Bavarian History. 3
l8 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
and again a troubled glance in the people. But
all great movements need the incentive of a soli-
tary individual. The masses follow.
The electing and crowning of Charlemagne as
Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire as well as
of Germany, set in train centuries of disasters.
From this dangerous and unthinking deed sprang
the long and fatal schism in both church and
nation. The Pope was both temporal and spiri-
tual ruler of the Roman Empire, but it was not
considered fit that he should have to attend to
external duties, so Charlemagne was chosen to
wield that power in his stead. After this, Charle-
magne raised the Archbishops and Bishops to the
ranks of secular princes, giving them dominions
over which they could rule like sovereigns,
hoping by this he would encourage them to
help him in his constant fights with the innume-
rable petty princes and ambitious dukes, keep the
unity of the country, and raise the spiritual and
moral standard. But their riches and power soon
turned the heads of these ecclesiastical dignitaries
and they started to impose laws, levy taxes, raise
armies, exert power over life and death, keeping
curates to attend to their forgotten duties. They
soon became the greatest, most baneful and
vicious power in the land. Their only claim to
a religious title was that they wore the insignia
of spiritual princes, but in reality they were se-
cular, clad in armour, and mail, at home in the
fight and on horseback, the sword in one hand
and the shepherds crook in the other, (an ironi-
CHARLEMAGNE 19
cal touch), and crowns on their heads, encir-
cling a mitre. They lived in sumptuous, royal
state, playing on the peoples prejudices and love
of display, and thrilling their sensuous imagi-
nations. This position they held until the power
of the Empire built up by Charlemagne began
to disintegrate and diminish and the long troub-
les with Rome commenced, in which they al-
ways took the latters part. When Archbishops,
Bishops, Princes, Dukes and Margraves had
so much power and independence, and were
ruled by egotistical ambitions and not love of
universal progression, how could a country hope
to have any peace. By this error Charlemagne
temporarily fractured his highest ambition. But
his was the spring which re-started the onward
flowing, though often dammed up, stream, which
eventuated into the flower of German Unity. His
also was the ardent spirit which lifted out of
ignominy, the culture of the next 800 years. His
Empire crumbled away, but he left behind that
most certain of all things, a lofty ideal and a
star-clear example.
Although Germany was called an Empire after the
Treaty of Vedrun in 814 (made in consequence
of the continuous fights between the grandsons
of Charlemagne and their father, one of whom
after his death governed Bavaria) and was still
ruled by an Emperor, the disintegration was so
great, that the title was little more than a neces-
sary form applied to a figure-head. The Emperor
was still considered head of the state, but all the
2*
20 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
members moved independently. The successors of
Charlemagne who ruled in Bavaria, bore the tit-
les of Lord of the Marches or Margraves, but in
the year 920, the ruling Margrave was raised
to the rank of Duke, which continued the title of
his successors for more than 700 years. In his
war against Thassilo, Charlemagne had begun the
Canal which was to connect the Main and the
Danube, but the work was never completed, until
Ludwig I., King of Bavaria, took it in hand and
had the canal finished. (1825 1848.)
And now we come to the first root of the fa-
mous family of Wittelsbach. After Charlemagne's
death, the German Emperors who possessed and
ruled Bavaria were as follows.
LUDWIG THE PIOUS. 814817 and 840.
LUDWIG THE GERMAN. 843876.
Then his three sons in succession.
KARLMANN. 876880.
LUDWIG, THE EAST FRANKEN. 880882.
KARL THE FAT. 882887.
ARNULF. 887889. (Nephew of Ludwig the
German.)
LUDWIG THE CHILD. 900911.
It is during these last pages of the dynasty of
the great Charlemagne that the Wittelsbachs spring
into prominence, although under another name.
Arnulf , king of Germany and a grandson of
Charlemagne's, raised the soldierly and brave
Count of Scheyern, ancestor of the Wittelsbachers,
to the rank of Margrave of the Ostmark in Ba-
varia. After Arnulf's death, this Count Luitpold
THE FIRST OF THE WITTELSBACHS 21
of Scheyern was appointed one of the guardians
of the youthful little king, Ludwig the Child, and
also commander in chief of the Bavarian army.
(900.) Bavaria was at this time over-run by the
barbaric Hungarians, having been beseiged by
them continuously from time to time. They were
a constant source of menace and danger. Luit-
pold succeeded in driving them back for a time,
and erected at the point where the rivers Lech
and Inn meet, a fortress called Ennsburg. The
whole country was in a dissatisfied and turbulent
state. The crown in the incapable hands of a
small child.
The Hungarians again gathered in their forces
and broke once more into Bavaria causing ter-
rible devastations; ruining and demolishing mona-
steries, fortresses, villages and towns. Thousands
of her people were killed, also many of her Arch-
bishops and counts, among them being the famous
Count of Scheyern (in 907). After his death there
was little relying for Bavaria on the Empire, so
she elected Arnulf, a son of Luitpold, who ruled
comparatively as an independent sovereign, from
907 to 937, first under Conrad (Emperor of Ger-
many after the death of Ludwig the Child) and
then under Henry the Fowler of Saxony. The
Bavarians had desired that Henry should be king,
and did what they could to further his conquests.
Arnulf divided among his vassals the lands de-
vastated by the Hungarians, thus greatly streng-
thening his position. Under the incentive of Henry
of Saxony, he persuaded the Bavarians to sur-
22 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
round their towns by walls, and built many for-
tresses and castles. The people began more and
more to prosper under his wise and beneficent
rule and to be more firmly protected against the
constant attacks of the barbarians. He fought
and defeated the Hungarians in 909 and again,
in conjunction with the Swabians, gained a great
victory over them at Otting on the Inn (913)
later helping Henry defeat the Bohemians.
When Otto I. became Emperor, Arnulf was his
Marshall. After his death his son Ebberhard reig-
ned, but only for a year, as he angered the king
by his too great desire for power and indepen-
dence. Otto wished to gather his possessions into
a more concrete form, and rule them from a cen-
tral government, so he took the dukedom from
Ebberhard and gave it to his uncle Bertold who
ruled for him from 938 947. Before this Ber-
told had been count of Karnten. The family of
Scheyern or Luitpoldinger, was now a great and
recognized power in the Empire and the better
to bind himself to them and to prove their im-
portance, Otto married his brother, Henry of
Saxony, to Judith, a daughter of Arnulf. Like
his brother before him, Bertold strongly opposed
the Hungarians. He gained several victories over
them, the most famous being on the Welf Heath
near Traunfluss in 944. Bertold left one son
Henry or Hezilo, but as he was too young to
inherit his father's position, Otto I. gave the
duchies to his brother Henry I., who imme-
diately set in also to vanquish the obstreperous
BAVARIA UNDER THE SAXON KINGS 23
Hungarians. During the reign of Henry the Fowler
they had been so severely checked that for a
time they were kept at bay, but under Duke
Henry, they again swarmed into Bavaria sur-
rounding the famous old town of Augsburg. But
Bishop Ulrich had persuaded his citizens to rebuild
their fallen walls, and after a severe battle the
Hungarians were defeated and their king killed.
The Augsburg weavers earned themselves a last-
ing fame for bravery in this battle. After this
the Hungarians were completely driven out of
Germany, eventually becoming Christianized and
in the year 1000 were ruled by Stephen the
Saint, who had married Gisela, called the Pious,
the sister of the Bavarian Duke (grand-daughter
of Judith of Scheyern and daughter of Henry the
Wrangler).
The official dukes in Bavaria under the Saxon
kings were.
HENRY I. (Brother of Otto the Great and
husband of Judith of Scheyern.)
HENRY II. (His son.)
OTTO OF SCHWABEN. (Son of Ludolf.)
HENRY III. or Hezilo. (Son of Bertold of
Scheyern.)
HENRY IV. (Later Emperor of Germany as
Henry II.)
HENRY V. (Brother-in-law of King Henry II.
of Luxemburg.)
Bertold's son, Henry III. (or Hezilo) ruled for
two years only, as Henry the Wrangler came
back to rule again. He died in 989. When
24 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BA VARIA
Otto I. ruled in Bavaria, Hezilo was given Karnten
as a duchy.
Bavaria was now one of the most influential,
powerful and mighty states of the Empire. After
the death of Hezilo, or literally for a hundred
years from 948 1070 (up to the dynasty of the
Welfs), the so-named official dukes were either
the sons, brothers or nearest relations of the Em-
perors. After the Welf ascendancy the Luitpold-
ingers or Scheyerns lived as counts on their pro-
perty near Pfaffenhofen, famous as soldiers and
of great influence in the empire. In 1113 at the
beginning of the crusades, they gave their castle
to the Benedictines, and built themselves a new
one which they named Wittelsbach. From then
on they were no longer known as the Counts of
Scheyern but as the Counts of Wittelsbach. Their
new castle was near Aichach. After the fall of
the House of Saxony the next ruling House of
Bavaria was that of Saliern.
Of course during all the above there were
skirmishes, fights, disagreements and innumerable
changes in the Bavarian duchies, but they were
more petty than otherwise and so not necessary
to annotate outside of a detailed and lengthy
work on the subject.
The Salierns ruled as follows.
HENRY V. 1027 1042. (King of Germany
as Henry III.)
HENRY VII. of Luxemburg. 1042 1047.
CONRAD VON ZUTPHEN. 10491053.
HENRY VIII. (Emperor of Germany as Henry IV.)
GENEALOGICAL TABLE
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olf became extinct in 1340.
3. King Ludwig the Bavarian
)uke of Bavaria. 1302 1347.
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of Wittelsbach's. This Line
became extinct in 1777.
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26 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
OTTO VON NORDHEIM. 10611070. (His
daughter married the Duke of Bavaria who was
afterwards Welf I.)
About 919 936 an independent, distinctively
German kingdom was founded, and she separated
herself entirely from France. An intense national
movement manifested itself, and seemed to ani-
mate all the various states and duchies. Imperial
dignity was revived under Otto the Great and
Henry II. This renewed national life bore a very
marked ecclesiastical stamp, especially in Celtic
Bavaria, and her monasteries and bishoprics were
the chief seats of learning and culture. Once
more she stepped forward and asserted an heredi-
tary right and the famous line of Welf came
into prominence as her chosen ruling Dukes.
The Welfs were a very ancient family of South
German counts, possessing one of the oldest of
pedigrees, dating back in an unbroken line to
Count Welf of Swabia in Bavaria, the father of
Jutta, wife of Louis the Pious. During the no
years that they ruled in Bavaria, they proved
themselves a vivid and potent line, full of inde-
pendence, daring and ambition. But they were
brought to the dust by the faithlessness of
one of their own, as was the race of Charle-
magne.
The Houses of Welf, Wittelsbach and Hohen-
staufen, are so intertwined, that we will not here
attempt to unravel them, but will insert a genea-
logical table which will show the connection of
the three branches.
THE SALIERNS AND THE WELFS 2?
The Welfs who successively ruled in Bavaria,
were as follows.
WELF I. 1070 1077, and again from 1097
to HOI.
(In 1075 he fought for King Henry IV. against
the Saxons. In 1076 he had a disagreement with
him and lost the Duchies. In 1078 86 he
fought two battles, one at Melrichstadt, one at
Pleichfeld, and in 1097 was reconciled with the
Emperor and regained his duchies. In ion he
went on a Crusade to Jerusalem, where he died.)
WELF II. HOI 1120. (In this reign, Otto of
Wittelsbach was Count of the Palatinate.)
HENRY IX. The Black 11201126. (Married
to the daughter of the King of Saxony.)
HENRY THE PROUD. 11261138. (In 1127
married to King Lothar of Saxony's daughter,
Gertrud. Thus were Saxony and Bavaria joined.)
LEOPOLD OF BABENBERG. 11381141.
(The duchies were taken after several disagree-
ments with the Emperor, from Henry the Proud.
Saxony being given to Albrecht of Baren, and
Bavaria to the Austrian Margrave, Leopold V.
of Babenberg.)
In the wars with Conrad, both Henry the Proud,
and Duke Leopold died, and so in 1142 Henry
the Lion received Saxony, and Bavaria went to
the younger brother of Leopold of Babenberg,
Henry Jasomirgott, who immediately married Henry
the Lion's mother, the widowed Duchess Gertrud.
Then came the impressive Hohenstaufen dynasty,
one of the most notable in all German history.
28 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
The emperor, Frederick Barbarossa, who wished
to pacify the powerful and useful Welfs, returned
the Duchies to their house, and Henry the Lion
became the reigning Duke. But Henry's folly
and faithlessnes swamped again the destinies of
his House, for he repaid Barbarossa with such
an act of treachery at Chievanna (he had been
sent for as one of the principal vassals to accom-
pany Frederick on his war against Italy), over-
weening ambition so over-stepping its mark, that
the Duchies, on Fredericks return, were taken from
him and he was put under the ban of the Empire.
Henry the Lion married Mathilda of England,
and treated her with his customary unfaith-
fulness, but when he went on his long pilgrimage
of confession, to seek absolution from Pope
Gregory, that terrible journey over mountains,
snow and ice, she and one faithful knight ac-
companied him.
Henry had also, during his time of power,
stirred up much strife and revolt in Germany, in
conjunction with his uncle Welf VI. But when
the latter fell into numerous difficulties, Henry
refused to come to his aid, so that when he died
after a very extravagant and unruly life, he left
all his property to Frederick Barbarossa. This
was one of the innumerables causes which raised
Henry's wrath and jealousy against Frederick.
There was a long feud stretching over 100 years
between the Welfs and the Staufens. Henry the
Proud refused to acknowledge Konrad of Hohen-
staufen as Emperor of Germany, or to give up
THE HOHENSTAUFENS 29
Saxony, in which he was abetted by Lothar.
This of course led to war. In the north the Welfs
kept the upper hand, in the south the Staufens.
The legend called "Weibtreue" which took place
at Weinsberg, occurred at this time. Welf VI.
with his wife and followers were beseiged by
Conrad the Hohenstaufen in the above named
little town. They had long and gallantly held
out against the enemy, but when at last they
signalled to yield, Conrad was so enraged at their
stubborn resistance that he ordered every man in
the town to be killed, allowing first of all the
women to go free, each carrying with her, her
most precious possession. When the gates of
the town were opened a curious procession emerged
before Conrad and his soldiers. It was headed
by the Countess -Ida, Welf VI. 's wife (she was
a daughter of the Count Palatinate of the Rhine),
carrying her husband on her back. She was fol-
lowed by all the other woman of the town, each
carrying either her husband, father, brother, lover,
or son on her back. The soldiers were enraged
at the deception, and in fury wanted to kill them,
but Conrad was so touched by the women's de-
votion that he pardoned them all. After this
Welf VI. was made Duke of Spolito and Margrave
of Tuscany.
II.
"The unpastured sea, hungering for calm."
Shelley.
THE WITTELSBACHS 33
THE WITTELSBACHS.
In the year A. D. when the protection of the
"Holy Grave" first sprang up as an ideal, the
Bavarian Counts of Luitpolding or Scheyern, of
whom we have already written, gave their an-
cestral home to the Benedictine monks and built
themselves a new castle which they called "Wit-
telsbach".
From this date on they were no longer known
as the Counts of Scheyern, but as the Counts
of Wittelsbach. Long before the name of Hohen-
zollern or even Hapsburg adorn the pages of
history, they were prominent as an influential
and noble family of Counts, ardent and typical
representatives of the strong handsome race of
the Bavarians. Their name is to be found stencil-
clear, intermixed with those of Welf, Hohenstaufen,
Carolingian and Saxon, from the earliest times,
and few princely houses can boast if they so will,
a longer or more unbroken pedigree. The first
personality of this ancient house, upon whom we
can put the tracing finger, is Luitpold of the
Luitpoldinger or Scheyern line, who in the year
907 A. D. lost his life in a war against Hungary.
His son was Elector of the Palatinate, his daughter
married Henry of Saxony, Duke of Bavaria, and
Norman, Bavarian History. 3
34 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
his grandson by his daughter Judith, was Henry
the Wrangler, King of Germany. He is the direct
ancestor of all the various branches of the entire
Wittelsbach family.
After the treachery of Henry the Lion at Chia-
vanna, Barbarossa took from him the Duchies
and gave them to his faithful supporter Otto of
Wittelsbach (1180). He was already Count of
the Palatinate, and had achieved fame by his
deliverance of the German army in the Pass of
Chiusa di Verona. He was invested with the
Duchies at Altenburg and his statue is to be seen
in the Brunnen-Hof, in the courts of the palace
at Munich.
OTTO I. reigned as Duke for only three years.
(1180 1183.)
After him came the following Dukes.
LUDWIG I. (11831231.) (In 1214 he be-
came Count Palatinate of the Rhine.)
The Crusades were now the ideal of almost
every German knight, and this spirit especially
animated the poetry-loving romantic Bavarians
and in 1231 Ludwig went on a long sojourn
into Egypt. During his reign the Duchies of
Bavaria became definitely hereditary to the house
of Wittelsbach.
It was during the rule of the second Wittels-
bach that the first tragedy occurred which added
a significant gloom to their name. It is difficult
to find out the complete truth of the story. After
Barbarossa's death, Phillip, his youngest son, was
elected Emperor. But the Welfs thought the in-
OTTO THE ILLUSTRIOUS 35
heritance belonged to the second son of Henry
the Lion, Otto.
In the ensuing war, Phillip seemed to gain and
to keep the upper hand, but the Pope, Innocent
the Second, was on the side of the Welfs as also
was the House of Wittelsbach. Suddenly the
situation reached a climax by the news that Phillip
had been murdered in the Castle of Altenburg,
the seat of the Count of Babenberg, by Count
Otto of Wittelsbach, Count Palatinate, and a nephew
of Otto, the first Wittelsbach Duke of Bavaria.
He was followed and immediately killed by one
Heinrich Celanen von Pappenheim.
The story runs that his daughter had been
decieved by the Emperor. In atonement, Ludwig,
Duke of Bavaria, demolished the castle of Wittels-
bach, erecting on the spot a church and a Gothic
memorial pillar in 1209.
OTTO II. The Illustrious, the son of Ludwig,
was the first most eminent ancestor of the
Wittelsbach's. He reigned from 1231 to 1253. He
also became Count Palatine of the Rhine on his
marriage with Agnes of the Palatinate. His
daughter Elizabath married Conrad of Hohen-
staufen, afterwards Emperor of Germany. Otto II.
left behind him two sons. Ludwig the Severe
and Henry XIII. They divided the Duchies
between them. Ludwig taking upper Bavaria,
the Palatinate, Munich and Heidelberg. (Heidel-
berg had been one of the chief castle residence
of the Wittelsbach's, although Otto had resided
mostly at Trausnitz-Landshut. Regensburg had
3*
36 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
been the capital, but Ludwig changed the capital
to Munich.)
Ludwig the Severe was twice married. First
to the hapless Maria of Brabant, whom he had
had executed in the castle of Donauworth for
her supposed unfaithfulness. Later he built
the Monastery of Fiirstenfeld near Bruck in her
memory. His second wife wasMelchthildis, daughter
of Emperor Rudolf of Hapsburg. He left two
sons, Rudolf and Ludwig. The latter became
Emperor of Germany. The eldest son Rudolf
desired at first to rule the inheritance alone, but
was forced to take his brother in as Regent. He
became the founder of the Palatine Line*, and
reigned from 1293 1317. Almost immediately
after his accession he went to war with Hungary
endeavouring to regain his lost possessions, dying in
Austria after a life of constant fighting in 1319.
We must now return to Henry XIII., Otto's
other son, He inherited Lower Bavaria and
Landshut, and through this division of the Duchies
came the first partition of Bavaria. Henry was
the founder of the Lower Bavarian Line, which
existed only till 1340, when it was again reunited
to Upper Bavaria. After his death, Lower Ba-
varia was inherited by his three sons. This further
division led to innumerable quarrels and tangled
difficulties. Otto, the eldest son, desired to retrieve
some of his lost possessions in Hungary. He
gained a complete victory over the Hungarians
* See Page 55.
LUDWIQ THE BAVARIAN 37
and later was crowned their king. Lower Bavaria
suffered much at this time from famine, pestilence
and plague. The division eventually led to the ulti-
mate disintegration of the following Lower Line.
Henry XIII. (Brother of Ludwig the Severe 12531290.)
Otto III. d. 1312. Ludwig III. d. 1296. Stephen I. d. 1310.
(King of Hungary.)
Henry XV. d. 1333.
Henry XIV. d. 1339. Otto IV. d. 1335.
John. d. 1340.
After the extinction of the above Line, Lower
Bavaria was once more joined to Upper Bavaria
under Ludwig IV. the Bavarian. He was the
second most illustrious ruler of the Wittelsbach dy-
nasty, and his concentration of thought and most
strenuous energies were all bent towards the pro-
gression, assimilation and prosperity of his coun-
try. His reign of forty-five years was of the
profoundest significance. In 1311 he ordained
that a Charter for the Nobility and towns be
drawn up, and in 1324 he gave his son Ludwig
the Mark of Brandenburg, the last of that Line
having died out. In 1314 he was crowned Em-
peror of Germany. In 1322 he went to war
against Frederick of Austria who also laid claim
to the Imperial crown.
Ludwig defeated Frederick at Ampfing, Miihl-
dorf and Gammelsdorf, taking him prisoner, and
keeping him a captive for three years in the
castle of Trausnitz, the birth place of Conrad,
the last Staufen.
After that time the feud was amicably arran-
ged, for Ludwig was so filled with admiration
38 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
for Frederick's gallant and noble behaviour while
a captive, that he not only gave him his liberty
but acknowledged his claim to the throne, agree-
ing to share it with him. From that time on
they were the best of friends, always together,
and ruling with devoted love their Imperial pos-
sessions. (Before this the Dukes of Wittelsbach
had several disagreements with Austria, and had
had to share a slice of their territory with them.)
In 1343 Ludwig married Marguerite Maultasch, by
this union joining the Tyrol to his territory. In
1346 he married for the second time Marguerite
of Hennegau, who by the death of her childless
brother had inherited Hennegau, Holland, Seeland
and Friesland. These also were added to the
Bavarian possessions. Ludwig the Bavarian was
buried in the old Frauenkirche. In 1437 his
great-grandson Albrecht III. erected there a monu-
ment to him, which is still to be seen. It reveals
a face of penetrating power, justice, and nobility
of purpose. The accompanying genealogical table
will show the way of his descendants. He left be-
hind him six sons. The inheritance gathered in
by his marriage with Marguerite of Hennegau,
he left to his two younger sons, William and
Albrecht. Despite his warning, his four other
sons divided the duchies between them. An-
other branch of the now firmly established
Wittelsbach House, was in possession of the
Palatinate, but as both inheritances were so
divided up, there was constant friction. Lud-
wig V. the Brandenburger (eldest son of Ludwig
LUDWIG THE BAVARIAN 39
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40 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
the Bavarian) had the Tyrol, Upper Bavaria and
Brandenburg, and ruled these parts from 1347
to 1361. His brother, Stephen the Rash, had
Lower Bavaria and Niederland, and ruled from
J 349 1 375> causing the second division of Ba-
varia. His wife was Beatrice, Countess of Glongau.
The Palatinate was being held by the descen-
dants of Rudolf.
During this time Bavaria was again swept by
a terrible plague which fearfully devastated the
aspiring little country. It carried away thousands
of the population, and in Passau alone in one
day 330 people died. The persecution of the Jews
was also stirring up innumerable crimes and bru-
talities. In 1363 Bavaria lost the Tyrol, and in
1373 the Margraviate of Brandenburg. Ludwig V.
had only one son, Meinhard, who died in 1363,
thus his inheritance came back to Stephen the
Rash, again joining Upper and Lower Bavaria;
but he later divided Bavaria between his three
sons, causing the third division of the Duchies.
Stephen the III. had Ingolstadt, Frederick, Lands-
hut, and John II., Munich.
It would take too long to go into the constant
fighting and innumerable details of these repeated
divisions of Bavaria and the Palatinate.
After the death of Ruprecht III. of the Pala-
tinate (who had also been Emperor of Germany),
the Palatinate was divided into two parts, the Heidel-
berg or Kiirline, and the Zweibrucken-Simmern.
Later came another division, the Neuburg and
Siilzbach, and even more divisions and re-unions.
LOWER BAVARIA 41
Lower Bavaria was also in the hands of several
brother Dukes. In 1433 occurred the loss of the
Netherlands. In 1440 Albrecht, who had inherited
Munich from 1438 1460, was offered the crown
of Bohemia, which he refused. Then there was
Ludwig the Rich of Landshut, 1450 1479, who
founded the University there. Eventually Lower
and Upper Bavaria were again joined under Al-
brecht IV. the Wise of Munich, who founded the
Primogeniture, or right of the eldest son of the
reigning Duke to the Duchies of Bavaria. In
1461 he laid the foundation for the new Frauen-
kirche in Munich. In 1494 he erected St. Sal-
vators, now the Greek Church, and also founded
the Library. (Landshut was for a time separately
ruled by the son of Ludwig the Rich, George the
Rich, but after his death in 1503 that also was
joined to the united Duchies.) In 1487 Albrecht
went to war against the Emperor of Germany.
There was also a short war over the succession
to Landshut but Albrecht eventually won, and
Bavaria was now ruled by his descendants until
the extinction of his line and the ascendancy of
the Wittelsbachs of the Palatinate.
The ensuing reigns of William IV., Albrecht V.,
William V. and Maximilian I. (the first Elector
of Bavaria), are filled with the turmoil of the
Reformation, the Thirty Years War, and the ap-
pearance of innumerable and extraordinary geni-
uses in every branch of art. But their works we
must leave to another chapter. William IV. be-
came Duke of the two Bavarias, and under him
42 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
began many internal reforms. His brother Lud-
wig, whom he had appointed Regent in Lower
Bavaria, endeavoured to bring about a big church
reformation on the side of Luther. Albrecht V.
(called the Courageous) was an eminently progres-
sive and powerful ruler. He encouraged both the
arts and sciences, founding the treasure-collection
of the Reiche Kapelle, decorating the Chateau
of Trausnitz, amongst many other notable works.
William V. founded the St. Michael's Kirche.
We must now go back a little. Apart from
the constant turmoils in her very centre, Ba-
varia's position was one of great precariousness
and she had to be constantly on the watch to
protect herself from the continual encroachments
of Austria. But as battles, sieges, and bloody-
avariciousness were the order of the day and the
established habits of a certain class of princes,
archbishops, and counts, it were useless and un-
interesting to lay them out in detail.
Toward the end of the 12 th century the Migra-
tory travels were over, and the boundary lines
of European nations comparatively fixed; much
the same in fact as they are today.
Bavaria was daily asserting a more definite, inde-
pendent and individual position. The conflict bet-
ween Christianity and Paganism was over for a time:
the ,, death of the Gods" had taken place; the Gotter-
dammerung had shed its crespuscular rays over Eu-
rope ; the gentle miracles of Christ were sowing their
glorious seeds in a few ardent and receptive hearts;
in others, being used for private ends of a fierce
INTERNAL TROUBLES 43
ambition and egotism, or perverted in the hands
of unprincipled princes, prelates, and foulest poli-
tical corruption. But until a more perfect civili-
zation could emanate, the dominion of the soul,
art and its spiritual message fully realised, the
"resurrection of the Gods" had to take place, in
other ways and forms perhaps, but still had to
be, as an "outward and visible sign of an inward
and visible grace". The world was waiting for
its Luther, its Leonardo, Angelo, Dante, Diirer,
and there was much groping in dangerous dark-
ness for Bavaria. Religion was a fanaticism, an
anarchy, an egotistical lust. The Catholic Church
was universally acknowledged. Social chaos may
have been banished, but a complicated system of
feudalism had appeared, the individual only exist-
ing as part of a social whole, having no political
rights, but merely being the last ring on a long
chain of sycophantic interdependencies. The sup-
porter of the state was as ever the working man.
On his back he upheld lords, nobles, counts,
bishops, princes, dukes and emperors. He paid
the taxes, and was ground down into that dark
cavern from whence emerged, by the terrible
pressure, that electric force which spread in eter-
nal, innumerable currents, Socialism! As a Chri-
stian he had no communion with God, he saw
Him not in "every grass-blade, every star and
every living soul", for he could only address Him
through the intervention of some priest, bishop
or Pope. Thus his fears and prejudices were
cultivated, his mental and moral growth checked,
44 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
his spirit he know not of, for in the entire orga-
nism, man as man did not exist. The Popes
were the greatest arbiters of an arbitrary age.
In 1268 occurred the first signs of the great
schism which was to rend eventually the power
of the church in twain, and tear up in violent
emotions the feelings of every German state. It
grew in force and all the deadly premonitions
gradually reached a climax under Ludwig the
Bavarian, who, in conjunction with all the other
German states, declined to acknowledge the ab-
solute infallibility of the Pope, the dominance of
the Roman power, and the election of the Em-
peror as due to Papal consecration.
An inspiring impetus came over from England
in the appearance of Wycliffe. In 1443 the three
opposing Popes were deposed, which considerably
weakened their power, and Martin V. was elected.
Then a storm was raised by the individual, dar-
ing opinions of John Huss and his followers and
the deep indignation caused at his martyrdom.
This was swiftly followed by the devastations
caused by his violent and rather unprincipled
avenger, Ziska the one-eyed man, and his law-
less followers, who broke into Germany and laid
waste some of the fairest parts and cities of Ba-
varia. In 1493 1518 came the final great rent,
the appearance of Luther, and the terrific ons-
laught of a Reformation. "How different would
the course of events have been if there had exi-
sted at that time a broad national spirit, a strong
public opinion in Germany. The great Hero was
LUTHER 45
there, Luther! but he was beset on all sides
by divided classes and sects, regardless of the
welfare of the whole, thinking only of the indi-
vidual liberties. But the enlightened princes were
on his side, and the gentry. The peasants too
realised that he came to them as a saviour of
social betterments, as a weapon against hierarchi-
cal aggression. But he was defeated by small
conspiracies and the root of all failures, lack of
unity. Nevertheless, under his impetus the main
supports of mediaeval life had crumbled away,
and a new power arose, destined to become the
chief instrument in a new civilization. The so-
vereign power of the territorial princes and the
communal independence of the cities. Both these
forces trended to prepare the way for modern
democracy.
The history of the 14 th , 15 th and i6 th centuries,
are a record of continuous and finally successful
effort on the part of the princes to assert the
supreme power of their office against conflicting
interests of all classes; the clergy, and nobility
as well as the bourgeousie."
Bavaria had innumerable internal troubles and
salvations of her own to work out, but she had
always possessed more independence than any
other German state, and as all her cities were
free Imperial cities, they developed more swiftly
and on broader lines and principles than the
others. But her concentrated little kingdom felt
the reverberating shocks which were so convul-
sing Europe: she was at heart, like all Celtic
46 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
races, pronouncedly Catholic. In 1530 began the
many disunions which terminated so disasterously
in the terrible Thirty Years War. Bavaria was
caught up in the surging maelstrom of this fear-
ful religious strife and swept along in the vast
tide of furies. Catholic, Protestant, Lutheran,
Calvinist, all were at bitter enmity in their un-
religious egotisms, and with each step falling
more and more away from the true meaning of
Christ's universal message.
Maurice of Saxony had rushed through Bava-
ria on his way to attack Frederick V. Bavaria
was the head now of the Catholic league, all the
Catholic princes uniting under Maximilian of Ba-
varia, while the Reformists were led by the Pala-
tinates Elector, Frederick.
The Thirty Years War is too well known to
all students of history for one here to go into
its seemingly everlasting turmoils. Duke Maxi-
milian of Bavaria rendered continual and great
service to the Emperor, having completely routed
the troops of the Elector Frederick, the Calvinist
King of Bohemia. Ferdinand, Emperor of Ger-
many, rewarded him by giving him the Electo-
rate of Bohemia and also the Upper Palatinate,
which remains Bavarian to this day. He was
also appointed one of the nine Electors of the
Empire.
The Thirty Years War which had been waiting
in an electric tension in millions of nerves, now
that the final signal had been given by the re-
volts in Bohemia, burst forth in all the blaze of
THE THIRTY YEARS WAR 47
its cruel fury. After this came the devastations
caused by that remarkable Bohemian individual,
Albert von Wallenstein. He and his army of
30 ooo men had become the dread of entire Ger-
many, for although he had gathered together his
army for the avowed purpose of fighting for the
Catholics, later he and his men became mere
adventurers and plunderers, pillaging both Catho-
lics and Protestants alike, robbing, murdering,
burning, laying waste to villages, castles and
monasteries on their path of wild and unruly
lawlessness.
The Thirty Years War most truly exemplified
the maxim that "a great licentiousness treads on
the heels of every reformation". The Catholic
league assembled at Heidelberg (for the Bavarians
were the most ardent of all the Roman Catholic
states), (1629) and requested the Emperor to
make peace. Wallenstein had raised his army
seemingly to help the Emperor, but egotistical
glory poisoned his soul, and although he had
been made Commander-in-chief of the German
army, so awful were the crimes and atrocities
committed by him and his followers, that the
Emperor took it from him and gave it to Tilly,
the famous Imperialist leader. The latter has be-
come a national hero to the Bavarians, as he
fought consistently for them and the Catholics.
Nevertheless, the capture and destruction of Magde-
burg by him, one of the most brutal events of
history, seemed to turn the tide of his luck.
Success comes so eternally from within, and he
48 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
himself felt that by this deed of unwarranted
cruelty he had sown the seeds of his own de-
struction. Ever after he was shadowed by his
crimes, and when Gustavus Adolphus, the Swe-
dish king, swept through Germany driving out
the Catholics, as Tilly had the Protestants, he
was defeated by him and died at Ingolstadt of
his wounds. Yet another awful crime took place:
the capture of Wiirzburg and the butchering of
all the monks. Crime succeeded crime, deeds of
bloody vengeance, hate and wild thirst for satis-
faction for fanatical beliefs, ruled the prejudiced
hearts of both Catholic and Protestant alike.
Gustavus Adolphus reaped success for a time,
making a triumphant march through Roman
Catholic Bavaria, entering and taking posses-
sion of Munich. Every indignity was put upon
the inhabitants by the Swedes, until at last the
long suffering, down trodden peasants rose in a
fearful wrath and fell on the Protestant army.
There followed a series of terrible combats ; Fried-
stadt was burned to the ground and all the in-
habitants killed by order of the officers of Gu-
stavus. Tilly was dead, and so the Emperor
had again to turn and look for help to Wallen-
stein, who had in the meantime, returned to his
estates in Bohemia. He promised to help him
and the country out of their increasing difficul-
ties, on condition that the Imperial troops be
entirely at his disposal, and many other arbitrary
conditions.
The Emperor was forced to assent, and thus
WALLENSTEIN
the Empire was entirely at the mercy of this
one strange, powerful, arresting adventurer; this
man with two such distinct forces at work within
him; one of large, noble ideas, straightforward,
fearless, and generous; the other suddenly con-
suming, like a Jekyll, all his better nature; mean,
treacherous, unprincipled and ignoble. He quickly
gathered together an army, and advanced on
Gustavus Adolphus who was then in Nuremberg
with only 16 ooo men. Gustavus stationed him-
self at Fiirth, a strongly fortified place outside
Nuremberg, and Wallenstein was two miles off
on a low wooded hill. For months they remained
watchful, quiet, lynx-like. But at last pesti-
lence broke out in Gustavus 1 camp. His patience
had reached the end of its enduring tether. They
met in a fearful battle and Gustavus was defe-
ated and killed. After this Wallenstein became
a terrible power. His influence, combined with
his utter indifference to the Emperor's commands,
were causing that monarch much uneasiness.
Wallenstein had allowed, without any resistance,
both Ratisbon and two other towns to be taken
by the Duke of Weimar, which the Emperor had
ordered him to protect. He refused to receive
orders from the highest, so Frederick was even-
tually forced to take from him again the com-
mand of the army, and put him under the ban
of the Empire.
It was then that Wallenstein [decided to go
over absolutely to the side of the enemy, the
Protestants; but his treachery was discovered, and
Norman, Bavarian History. 4
50 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
he was murdered in 1634. Still the terrible wars
continued their ravages in Bavaria as elsewhere
until 1648 when they were terminated by the
Peace of Westphalia. But Bavaria had lost some
of her fairest possessions. Germany was merely
the bare skeleton of an Empire : spineless, flesh-
less, and shattered. Switzerland and Holland be-
came independent and also all the German prin-
ces. The supreme power was invested in the
Reichstag, which was to sit permanently at Ratis-
bon in Bavaria. The latter was torn and sick
with weariness of war. Half her inhabitants were
lost, not only by the sword, but by pestilence
and famine. Villages had completely disappeared,
others stood empty, unpopulated. The land was
a tragedy to the eye, trampled, and uncultivated.
All the trades in her heretofore glorious towns
had failed, the streets were deserted and grass-
grown, doors and windows battered in and broken.
The famines had been so awful that the eat-
ing of human creatures was not rare, and bands
of men, in cannibal-like frenzy, wandered abroad.
It was a time of the most profound and fearful
horror, bestiality, and degeneration.
In Franconia the depopulation had been so
great that every man was forced to have two
, wives, and neither men nor women were allowed to
enter monastery or convent. The population of Ger-
many had dwindled from 17 millions to 4 millions.
The years following for Bavaria were full of both
a decay and a growth. Her endeavour to resuscitate
the lost greatness of her towns resulted in the
MAXIMILIAN I. 51
most absurd and hideous form of despotism. There
seemed to be even less religious or political
liberty than before. Municipal privileges were
reduced to nil. The Elector, petty princes, and
rulers of the entire country determined to exert
absolute power over the religious beliefs of their
subjects. Luther's message was distorted and
mangled. And yet out of the midst of this
chaos and utter desolation, modern German life
has sprung.
Maximilian I., marks an epoch-making period,
despite the fearful times in which he lived, in
the internal development of Bavaria. His great
penetration, wisdom, energy, strength and pru-
dence steered Bavaria perhaps a trifle more safely
than other countries during the throes of these
religious turmoils. He not only encouraged art,
architecture, poetry, &c., but improved the army,
placing it on a very different footing to what it
had heretofore held. In 1616 he gave the com-
mand to John Werner Tzerklas and Count Tilly,
the latter having learned his statistics in the army
of Duke Alexander of Parma. Tilly was a bril-
liant soldier and General, and attained great
prominence and fame, not all to his ennoble-
ment, during the first part of the Thirty Years War.
Maximilian I., was undoubtedly the most famous
Elector of his century. Bavaria had been for
the last ten years of his reign, the central meeting
point for all the forces engaged in the war; French,
Swedish, and those of the Emperor; and had in
consequence endured untold misery, and loss.
4*
52 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
Maximilian I., died in his seventy-first year
at Ingolstadt where he had in the happiness
of his youth laid the foundation of the Uni-
versity. He was succeeded by his little son
Ferdinand Maria; the mother, Maria Anna
(sister of the Emperor Ferdinand III.), acting as
Regent until his coming of age. It was the deep
ambition of Ferdinand Maria to keep the peace
of his country. He married Henrietta Ade-
laide of Savoy, and later his daughter Maria Anna
married the youngest son of Louis XIV. of
France. Ferdinand Maria's wife brought a combi-
nation of French and Italian atmosphere to the
court of Munich. Their union was devoted and
happy. The terrible fire of the Residenz in 1674
gave her such a violent shock that her health
was ruined, and two years later she died, to be
followed in three years by her husband. Max
Emanuel, their eldest son, inherited the duchies,
and another son, Joseph Clemens, became Elector
in Cologne. Max Emanuel was an ambitious and
striving Elector. In 1682 he fought for the Em-
peror Leopold against the Turks with 15000 Ba-
varians. After the war (1685) he married the
Emperor's daughter, who was also a niece of the
childless King of Spain. In 1688 he made a great
conquest over the fortress of Belgrade. An enor-
mous number of Turkish prisoners and some ex-
quisite booty and plunder he sent back to his
capital. After this he was called the "Conqueror
of Belgrade".
Ever since the reign of Maximilian I. (1620)
BAVARIA AND FRANCE 5J
his successors had continued faithful bodies of
the German body, and allies of Austria. But now
(1701) Max Emanuel began to assist Louis XIV.
of France by threatening and attacking Austria
so as to prevent her co-operating with England
and Holland. This was occasioned by the death
of Charles II. of Spain, and the various claims
put in for the throne, two of which were the
Bavarian Elector and the Emperor Leopold I. his
father-in-law. This occasioned another long war,
retarding violently the progress of Bavaria. But
"Kings must have slaves; kings climb to eminence
over men's graves". The Bavarians fought with
the Pope, and that abomination among monarchs
Louis XIV., against the German Emperor, Hol-
land, England, Portugal and the Electors of
Hannover and Brandenburg. It resulted in the
famous battle of Blenheim fought on August 2 nd
1704 (or the 13 th ) when the French and Bavarians
were defeated by the Duke of Marlborough. From
this date the Elector of Bavaria and his remain-
ing forces served for ten years the French armies,
and his country was governed by Imperial com-
mission, until the Peace of Utrecht, or more pro-
perly the Peace of Baden, in 1714 which re-in-
stated him in his dominions.
His son Charles Albert seems to have been
untaught by the disasters which followed in the
wake of this union, and he renewed his con-
nection with France, and on the death of the
German Emperor in 1740 came forward as a
candidate for the Imperal crown, obtaining a
54 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
nomination through a majority of the Electors.
He sent an envoy to Austria to say that he
could not recognize Maria Theresa as Empress
of Austria because he considered that the House
of Bavaria had first claim to the inheritance. In
1741 he marched against Austria and over-ran
a considerable part of the country, but his triumph
was of short duration, for the armies of Maria
Theresa, with the aid of the Hungarians and the
Croats (who had come enthusiastically to the aid
of the ardent young queen) completely routed
the French and Bavarians. They pursued the
Elector's army into Bavaria and took possession
of Munich. On the very day that the Austrians
and their champions entered Munich, the Bava-
rian Elector had been crowned Emperor of Ger-
many (Charles Albert VII.) but he was unable
to show himself in his Bavarian dominions. He
died in 1745, and the Duchies of Bavaria were
returned to his son Max Joseph, on condition
that he would renounce all the pretentions of his
father. All now went fairly smoothly for Bavaria
until the death of Max Joseph in 1777, when the
direct line of Wittelsbach died out, having reig-
ned for 500 years, and the Pfalzbach-Simmerchen
branch came into the, inheritance.
Karl Theodor of this line became the successor
to the Electorate, thus uniting once more Bavaria
proper with the Rhine Palatinate. Karl Theodor
was the representative of the elder branch of the
Wittelsbachs. But now Austria suddenly laid
claim again to the title and took military pos-
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56 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
session of the country. But Frederick II. of
Prussia came to the aid of the Bavarians, and
Austria was obliged to withdraw her claim, luckily
before any more blood was shed; but Bavaria
had to give her the frontier district which has
the name of Innviertel, or the Quarter of the Inn.
Karl Theodor was not a favorite with the Ba-
varians ; they looked upon him as an alien, and
he was not a man of enough character to win
their esteem, nor a ruler of enough weight to
prove important or beneficial to their country.
He personally disliked the country, people, cus-
toms and manners, and never really took root
among them. He was especially unpopular after
the cession of the Innviertel to Austria, and the
spread of the rumour that he had intended to
come to a curious bargain with that remarkable
and subtle queen Maria Theresia of Austria;
which was nothing more nor less than to trans-
fer the descendant of the Wittelsbach inheritance
to Sicily, and hand over to her the Bavarian
Duchies.
Probably the most notable thing he did was
the laying out of the English Gardens. Before,
it had only been a marshy, wooded region, damp
and undrained and spreading as a desolation into
the town. The work of laying it out artistically
was entrusted to Count Rumford (an American
by birth, Benjamin Thomson. He had become
naturalized, made a Bavarian general and also
a counsellor of state). The turning of the lonely
marshy region into broad, sweeping meadows,
PALA TINA TE LINE OF THE WITTELSBACHS 57
deep groups of trees, quiet green walks, long
misty avenues, Bocklin-like lakes and waterfalls,
is a work done with appreciative and beautiful
care. It was commenced in 1797, but not
opened till 1799, and not actually completed
until 1803. Carl Theodor also laid out the
Konigin Strasse.
In 1771 there was a slight war over the Ba-
varian Succession, and in 1785 a Bond or Union
of the Princes signed.
For long now it had been the fashion in Ba-
varia to regard everything French as the epitome
of all that was right and beautiful; her habits
the pattern, and her manners the ideal by which
all must live. The i8 th century in Bavaria was
one entirely of French atmosphere. It was in
a way a natural reaction against the "dead for-
mula" which had before existed, and also the
parasitic attitude towards a more powerful con-
queror. For in the wars with Maria Theresa most of
the Bavarian towns had been continually occupied
by the French and they were reduced often to
poverty by this influx and the heavy levying of
contributions. After the death of Carl Theodor
(he having died childless), the Duchies passed to
his brother, Max Josef, who had been acting as
Regent in the Palatinate. The left Palatinate of
the Rhine Carl Theodor had lost to the French.
Max Josef had also lost his ancestral land of
Zweibriicken to them. He came with a grateful
heart into Bavaria, but during the first two years
of his electorship, the French took military pos-
58 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
session of both Munich and Landshut, and he
was obliged to hold his court at Amberg.
Not only that, he was forced to fly to Mann-
heim, to the beautiful castle of Karlberg, built
by Duke Carl. He was there surrounded by the
Jacobites and his standard torn down. The spirit
of revolution was rampant and howling for satis-
faction everywhere. He came in at a stormy
time and saw little rest during his arduous and
difficult reign. In the great contest of the Franco-
Prussian war Bavaria was again forced into battle
by having to furnish a contingent as a member
of the Empire (1793).
During the first years of the tremendous struggle
for liberty on the part of Germany, her terri-
tories remained comparatively untouched, but in
1796 Munich was again occupied by a powerful
French army under Moreau, forced to sign a
separate treaty with France, and withdraw her
contingent from the German army.
In 1799 Bavaria found that she had con-
siderably benefited by her French alliance, for
having placed her troops at Napoleon's disposal,
in his war against Austria and Russia, France
in turn, came to Bavaria's aid when the Austrians,
enraged by this act, came swarming into Bavaria
and attacked Munich. But they were beaten by
the Bavarians and French and forced to retire.
Then again, when Austria took up arms against
France in 1805, Bavaria, Wiirttemberg, and Baden
came forward, or were either forced by Napoleon
to take up arms for him again. Hesse-Darm-
BAVARIA AND NAPOLEON 59
stadt, Baden, Wiirtemberg and Bavaria had ere
this formerly separated themselves from the Ger-
man Empire, and declared themselves subject to
the French Emperor. So that the unfortunate
Emperor Francis II. was forced to abdicate, and
announce the dissolution of the Empire. But
Bavaria, by her alliance with the French, con-
tinued to gain in power and strength.
Napoleon, in 1806, on New Years Day, made
her Elector, Max Josef, king; giving her also very
many important acquisitions of territory; Ans-
bach, Bayreuth, Nuremberg, Wiirzburg, the Palati-
nate left of the Rhine, Salzburg and other por-
tions of the Tyrol. This led to the heroic upri-
sing on the part of Andreas Hofer (an innkeeper),
Speckbacker (a hunter of chamois) and Haspinger
(a friar), the three who led the Tyrolese to make
one of the most gallant and stirring endeavours
in the pages of history for liberty. It is
curious that Bavaria should have continued to
support the French and receive favours from
Napoleon's hand, allowing this son of the people,
this genius of egotism, purpose, power and vi-
tality, to hand them a crown. But then in
those days he went in much for king-making,
crowning both himself and his partner, Jose-
phine, making republicans aristocrats, of his
own family kings, queens and princes, and of
his friends dukes, barons and knights. His dis-
graceful and unforgetable murder of John Palm,
the bookseller in Nuremberg, should not have
been either forgotten or forgiven, but at this time
60 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
Bavaria was obsessed by his dominating will, and
was merely the vassal of France. French was
spoken and written by the court; in fact this
European Caesar had made a vast Confederacy
out of the German States. Bavarian men of
letters and people of the highest social standing
thought nothing of the Fatherland. Patriotism
was looked upon as vulgar and in bad taste.
Princes, nobles &c. , sought by bribery and other
corrupt methods to gain favour and position from
the French authorities. It was a period of the
deepest degradation, even though Bavaria reaped
many material benefits from it. Her excuse lay
in the fact, that knowing the designs of Austria
upon her, she was forced to chose some power-
ful ally, and Napoleon had proved by his many
victories, and the Germans by their ghastly fai-
lures, that the former meant protection, the latter
annihilation. If Bavaria had not taken this ini-
tiative she would in all probability have been
swamped by the powers around her, as Prussia
seemed at that time fated by destiny to fail.
The situation was very different then to what it
is now. There was no German Verein or Bund.
Each petty state had its own politics, and was
virtually independent. After the crowning of
Max Josef as King, Napoleon visited Munich.
An enormous banquet was given in his honour,
and Max Josef's eldest daughter was betrothed
to Napoleon's stepson, Eugene Beauharnais, the
Viceroy of Italy. (Beauharnais was Napoleon's
first wife's son.) While Napoleon was in Munich,
NAPOLEON 6l
he showered presents wherever he went. Beauti-
ful Gobelin tapestries, chimney pieces of Carrara
marble, a table which is now in the Museum at
Munich, and that remarkable gift of twenty nine
cannon, which Austria had taken from Munich
to Vienna long before, and which, after Auster-
litz, Napoleon returned to Bavaria. All this
portion of Bavaria's history does not tend much
to awaken the admiration of the reader.
But in this she is not unique. All nations
have, and still have, their pages of weakness,
political corruption and the ascendancy of medio-
crity. Without her strong German element she
would not be what she is today, and without the
power and egotism of a Napoleon she would in
all probability still be ruled by an Elector. In
1813 Max Joseph decided to throw off the French
yoke and join the successful Allies of his Empire.
Napoleon's power was on the wane, and he aided
the Germans in Napoleon's eventual defeat, march-
ing to the Main to cut him off should he attempt
to retreat. It was at this time that Max Joseph
presented his people with a rather complicated con-
stitution, making the attempt to satisfy the growing
demands for political freedom in speech and action,
also striving to maintain the so newly acquired
kingly rights in autocratic fashion. Nevertheless,
he was a most excellent king, who dearly loved
his people, having ever their interests at heart,
and being in turn much beloved by them. He
was always called "Father Max". From his ac-
cession the present modern spirit of progres-
62 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
sion began to manifest itself. As soon as he
could gather a little time and peace from out
the furious harlequinade which had swept so
ruthlessly through his dominions he set about
making innumerable reforms and introducing
many beneficial measures for the country, putting
on a much firmer basis the financial system, en-
couraging the cultivation of the land and the
value of home products. Freedom of speech and
improvement in learning made steady advance.
The districts of Bavaria, consisting of four tribes
and eight provinces, were now definitely arranged.
The former are, Bavaria Proper, the Palatinate
of the Rhine, Franconia and Swabia. The latter,
consisting of the Isar Province (Upper Bavaria)
Upper Danube (Schwaben and Neuburg), Lower
Danube (Lower Bavaria), Regen (Upper Palatinate
and Regensburg), Reza (Middle Franconia), Upper
Main (Upper Franconia), Lower Main (Lower
Franconia and Aschaffenburg), Rhine (Palatinate).
Universities and schools of the highest standard
sprang up in all the towns and cities, such as
Landshut, Erlangen, Wiirzburg &c. The Art Aca-
demy, the Hoftheater, and the Botanical Gardens
were also built and laid out respectively under
his auspices and in the year of his death, 1825,
he founded the world famous Bronze Foundry
from which came the gates for the Capitol at
Washington.
Max Joseph was possessed of little martial
spirit. None of Bavaria's four kings have for
long been animated by a desire for either
MAX JOSEPH, KING OF BAVARIA 63
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64 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
the military life or its glories, but they pos-
sessed other and probably more useful, inspiring
qualities ; namely, a deep and sincere love for art
and its uses, the desire to beautify their country,
control it in peace and lead it to a height of
prosperity ; while an overweening desire for mili-
tary ascendency, drains its country commercially,
leading it to penury, and the most direful poverty
for the poorer classes.
Through the able advice of his brilliant, wise
and prudent counsellor, Monteglas, he put into
movement also many momentous political and
religious reforms. He died at Nymphenburg castle,
October 12 th 1825. His son Ludwig I. said of
him in tender memory, "a better heart never beat
upon a throne".
We now come to such recent history of Ba-
varia and to two such vivid, potent and curious
personalities that we must reserve the subject
for another chapter.
III.
"Enter with me into the
dark zone of the human soul."
Emilia Pardo Bazan.
THREE KINGS OF BAVARIA 6j
THREE KINGS OF BAVARIA.
And now the vista opens out onto the tragic
viscissitudes of the mysteriously fated Wittelsbach
dynasty. The gloom and grandeur of a mighty
doom seems to enshroud them, stealthily following
with vindictive footsteps. And hand in hand
with this nocturnal mist which descends on them,
their kingdom has come more and more to the
front ranks of European countries. Bavaria may not
be one of the "influential powers", neither have
successes from the standpoint of military or poli-
tical glory added much to the splendour of her
history. Her story has been chiefly an artistic
one combined with a long fight for emancipation
to enable her to follow this path of beauty.
But behind her failure in military statistics she
has climbed steadily to the highest peaks of lite-
rature, art, and music. Her pages are emblazoned
with the names of great painters, sculptors, archi-
tects and literary men. And in this respect per-
haps she holds out the most benificent hands to
us of all her more prominent neighbours. Those
who seek in her gratification of physical, com-
mercial or external success will go away empty
handed. Those who come to her for spiritual
s*
68 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
comfort and artistic inspiration will depart through
newly revealed gates of light.
And yet, still in her very midst, not far from
her very heart and capital, to whose magnetic
centre so many yearly flock, is the symbol of a
great heritage, crushed seemingly by an irrevo-
cable doom; an incomprehensible destiny. Even
more tragic than "the ruins of illustrious cities",
is the ruin and degeneracy of an ancient, noble
house. Yet in it's very age perhaps lies the
germ -seed of its downfall. The "atrocity of
fate" such as impregnated with unswerving pur-
pose the classical dramas of ancient Greece, hangs
over her door-lintels; lifting her far above the strata
of ordinary, mundane weaknesses and tragedies,
and investing the house of Wittelsbach with a pro-
found significance. The solemn lineaments of a
world-wide meaning, perchance a lesson applicable
to all, looks out on us through curtains of thick
silence. And not only tragedy but impenetrable
mystery surrounds this House of so ancient a
lineage, which many sentimental, garrulous ton-
gues, failing or not wishing to see or feel
the awesome breath and purpose of God, have
endeavoured to sink to paltry depths of romance,
bathos, and illogical perverseness. Nevertheless it
is a serious and gigantic sorrow ; a lonely destiny.
The pen of an Ibsen, Tolstoi, Maeterlinck, or
the unerring penetration of a Symons, would
be able, if they so willed, to unravel and
reveal the sweeping outlines of this psychological
tragedy.
"THE TRAGICAL IN DAILY LIFE" 69
But do we ever learn? The pages of history
are fraught century after century with pregnant
lessons which we seldom raise above the mere
folly of humanity, or distort to suit our own
ambitions, convictions and prejudices ! History it-
self, of course, can seldom be authentic or accurate.
It descends through too many mediums, and we
are all too apt to generalize.
The more potent the message the more do we
pervert it by the addition of innumerable details,
devoid of certain foundation. The more violent
the tribulation or the sin, the more do we, in
smug satisfaction, banish it to other countries or
distant ages. Nature, Beauty, Sin, all repeat
themselves in each age and all countries, and
with a purpose. Surely not a whisper that occurs,
but is meant for all, and comes from the trailing
Garments of God. Not a tragedy but that is, or
should be, felt by each. Not a symbol but could
be both individually and universally applied. But
we live, wander and work, in a hushed secrecy
of soul, and temperament. We are as afraid of
ourselves as we are afraid of Beauty, until this
self-repression has become a thing to laud and
emulate The lessons remain untaught. We
neither reveal, nor do we care to understand. The
voice of God is not allowed to penetrate
We hide its whisperings by innumerable veils
of prejudice and convention which we call refine-
ments, dignities and goodtaste Do we
never see a laughing, satiric face grinning at us
in conquest?
70 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
Many books have been written on the last
three kings of Bavaria, both psychological, ar-
tistic and bathotic. - - And it is difficult to extri-
cate from the mass of tangled matter and detail
the most salient and revealing points. The strong
tendency to erraticism and eccentricity which
revealed itself in different forms in all three of
them, has so often been contradicted ; or if ack-
nowledged laid to so many varying and different
sources. But it is more than probable that the men-
tal trouble of Ludwig II. came from both sides of the
family, for as early as 1763 Frederick Christian
of the Palatinate showed several signs of insanity.
After the death of "Father Max" in 1825 Lud-
wig I. became king of Bavaria. He was born at
Strassburg in 1786 being therefore thirty seven
years of age when he was crowned. Ludwig was
married to Princess Theresa of the Saxon-Hilde-
burg line. When Crown Prince he had spent
many years in Italy, cultivating his passionate
love for art and beauty and leading a free and
independent life with a little gathering of earnest
artists and students. In these years were laid the
foundations of his excellent taste and judgment
in architecture and painting and in the deter-
mination to make of Munich, if so were possible,
a German Athens. He gained a very perfect
knowledge of the three sister arts, and while still
very young realized the necessity in Munich for
a collection of masterpieces of sculpture in a
fitting building. He employed, out of his private
means, eminent archaeologists to excavate for
KING LUDWIG I. 7J
him in Greece, and Herr Haller von Hallersten
and Professor Wagner unearthed and collected
for him many rare treasures. The former, while
excavating in Greece, discovered in the Island
of Aegina a wonderful marble group, from the
Temple at Athen, which was of infinite value to
the entire artistic world, throwing as it did al-
most a new light on Greek art. For the recep-
tion of these valuable possessions the Glyptothek
was built and the title chosen by Ludwig's former
tutor Lichtenthal. The architectural designs were
by Professor Klenze. The work is a combination
of pure Greek architectural beauty and the practi-
cal and noble Roman style. It contains one of
the most remarkable collections of original an-
tique sculpture in Europe. The interior is magni-
ficent and the collection arranged in historical
order, containing specimen of Assyrian, Egyptian,
Incunabula, Aeginetan, in fact all ages of Greek,
Roman, Renaissance and modern sculpture. Lud-
wig had the best advisers and was surrounded,
in his youth, by the most cultured and artistic
minds of his period. In the days of his early
enthusiasms and ardent "hero-worship" Martin
Wagner was ever his close friend, and at his
house in Rome, Thorwaldsen, Overbeck, Wagner,
Cornelius, Schnoor, Casanova &c. met to discuss
all artistic subjects.
Before he became king, Ludwig had paid two visits
to Italy; first, when but a boy and later after
peace was restored and the introduction of the
German Bund promised that it should be lasting.
72 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
In the intervening time between these two visits he
had to serve with the Bavarian army under Na-
poleon. Ludwig was a thorough German at heart.
He hated Napoleon, and this enforced military
service under his power and against his Father-
land bred in him a deep and bitter hatred for
the Emperor and for the French. He once said
that "it would be the happiest and proudest day
of my life if Strassburg, the town where I was
born, should once more become a German town".
He longed for re-union with Germany, and for
the time when he could raise the standard of
art in his country which had been so paralyzed
by the continuous wars and political troubles.
When Napoleon was in Munich arranging the
marriage of his step-son, Eugene Beauharnais,
with Ludwig's sister, the latter showed his con-
tempt for the great Conqueror so plainly that
Napoleon in turn took a violent dislike to him,
and, so rumour has it, contemplated having him
assassinated in the comfortable way Bonaparte
had of doing. His own words "the contagion of
crime is like the plague" fit him very well. He
was very desirious that the Kingdom of Bavaria
should be inherited by the children of Beauhar-
nais, and to this end also would have been satis-
fied with the premature death of the Crown
Prince ; but Destiny is stronger than the strongest
will. The future of Bavaria might have been very
different if this colossal egotist had fulfilled his
unscrupulous purpose.
Ludwig came as the direct artistic awakener
KING LUDW1G /. 73
of his people and it would be difficult to anno-
tate all the art treasures which sprang from his
inspiring brain, or what Bavaria and the artistic
world in general, owe to him in this respect.
The Bavarians, as their history shows us, have
always been an artistic loving, and genius breed-
ing, race. But the many vicissitudes and crushing
failures through which they had passed had left
them lacking in enthusiasm and the strong powers
to progress and to "absorb without being ab-
sorbed". They needed the firing of an ardent,
fearless and enthusiastic soul. Ludwig came to
fill this need. We can imagine Nuremberg and
Rothenburg and some of the other mediaeval towns
without Ludwig, but not Munich. This city is
the outward and visible form of his dreams and
ideals. But as no external form ever can attain
its ideal "the value of the act and the splendour
of the dream can seldom converge toward the
same apex". Nevertheless, he gave us the Glypto-
thek, the Propylean (a beautiful Graeco-Doric
Arch, which was erected to commemorate the
connection of the House of Wittelsbach with the
Liberation of Greece. His second son Otto had
been elected King of Greece, but the irony of
fate intervened and on the day of the completion
of the arch Otto had to return to Bavaria. One
of Ludwig's dreams had been the resuscitating
of the glory of Greece and her freedom. But
his son's failure shattered this hope). Opposite
the Glyptothek he erected the Art Exhibition in
Corinthian style; and in the Carolinen Platz the
74 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BA VAR1A
bronze Obelisk, in memory of the 30000 Bavarians
who fell in the Russian campaign of 1812. In the
first year of his reign he brought the University
from Landshut to Munich, and made innumerable
efforts to better the conditions in schools, con-
vents and monasteries. The original University
had been founded by Ludwig the Rich in Ingol-
stadt and was moved to Landshut by Max Joseph.
It possesses over 300 ooo volumes. When Ludwig
was Crown Prince he had always coveted the plains
and meadows lying north-east of the city and
later he bought them, carrying out his plan of
wide avenues and streets with magnificent, har-
monious buildings. The Ludwigstrasse, which was
commenced in 1816, with the two severe bronze
fountains, the school for the daughters of the
nobility, the Georgianum Seminary for Priests
and the Blind Asylum, was his entire work. The
magnificent Siegesthor erected to the Bavarian
army, is a copy of the Arch of Constantine in
Rome and with its mighty figure of Bavaria
driving forward in inspired strength toward the
future and into light, fittingly terminates the
Ludwigstrasse. The Ludwigskirche (Church of
St. Louis) and the Leopold Palace which was
originally intended for a villa for his wife, Queen
Theresa, were also built, the Old Pinakothek com-
pleted and the New Pinakothek founded (the
former for the old masters, the latter for the
modern school).
The Royal State Library was also built by
Ludwig; its entrance fittingly guarded by the
KING LUDWIQ I. 75
meditative figures of Thucydides, Homer, Aristotle,
and Hippocrates. The building is in imposing
Romanesque-Florentine style, containing the Royal
Archives of over half a million parchments, be-
ginning with the year 777 A. D. and the records
of Bavaria before the year 1400.
The most ancient objects of interest it contains
are the "Wessobriinn Gebet", the Hohenems M. S.
of the Nibelungen, Tristan and Isolde, Parsival and
Titurel. The Tournament book of Duke William IV.
the Prayer book of Duke Albrecht V. (the founder
of the original library) containing the Psalms
written for his orchestra by Orlando de Lasso,
and illuminated with water colors by Mielich
(1565), and the Emperor Maximilian's prayer book
with marginal drawings by Diirer and Cranach.
Ludwig also built the Palace of Duke Maxi-
milian (now the residence of Duke Karl Theodor,
the famous oculist), the Odeon Concert Hall (the
Court balls which he liked so much to attend
were given here. The famous frescoes of the
hall were painted by the elder Kaulbach).
The equestrian statue of Elector Maximilian I.
in the Wittelsbach Platz by Thorwaldsen (one of
the finest pieces of monumental work in Munich)
the Wittelsbach Palace, the Feldherrnhalle (copied
from Oreagnas Loggia del Lanzi by Gartner),
which symbolises the boundary line between
Old and New Munich, the Konigsbau, the Fest-
saalbau, the Allerheiligenkirche , (one of the
most exquisite, artistic and consistent pieces
of ecclesiastical art products of modern times.
76 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
It is restful, entrancing and full of the delicacy
of a truly mystical atmosphere. The interior
is a copy of the Byzantine-Romanesque church
of St. Marks in Venice.) The Basilica or Church
of St. Boniface which is attached to the Bene-
dictine Convent, (the most beautiful of all
the larger churches in Munich ; the artistic deco-
rations being unusually beautiful, especially the
ones dealing with the life of St. Boniface and
painted by Heinrich von Hess after the hi-
storical information supplied by that eminent
historian and remarkable man Dr. Ignaz Dollinger),
the Ruhmeshalle, the great statue of Bavaria,
Walhalla near Regensburg, (that wonderful temple
erected to the great pioneers of Germany, from
Hermann to Goethe), the Befreiungshalle near
Keilheim (erected in 1842 a second national
monument), the Gartner Platz in Giesing, with
statues erected to his two favorite architects
Gartner and Klenze, the Promenade Platz with
its five statues, (the Elector Max Emanuel, the
historian Westenrieder, Gliick the composer, who
was born at Weidewangen in the Upper Palatinate,
Kreitmayer the Bavarian Chancellor, and Orlando
de Lasso the composer of the i6 th century),
the Monopteros and Exedra in the English garden
and the entrance to the Hofgarten, with it's frescoes
and arcades, the former by Cornelius, Kaulbach
and Neureuther, are all the works of Ludwig I.
It would be impossible to name all the statues
and pictures which he presented to Munich, or
to speak of the immense progress which sprang
KING LUDWIG I. 77
up under his eager guidance. It is said that he
spent out of his private purse over 30,000,000 marks
on Art and 20,000,000, on scientific, religious
and charitable institutions. Apart from Munich
he did a great deal for the art of the country,
renovating the Cathedrals of Bamberg and Speier,
completing that of Regensburg, and in Kissingen
building the Arcardenbau and Kursaal &c.
As a personality, Ludwig is by far the most
interesting of the three kings; an arresting, ec-
centric, ardent and dominating character. He
was peculiarly democratic in his ideas, which
were considerably advanced by his keen friend-
ships with so many artists. He paid little atten-
tion to Court conventions, liking to go about
with as little ostentation as possible, as a private
gentleman. He was ever willing to lay down his
royalty and be a man among men; a fellow
artist. His early years had bred in him a cosmo-
politan love of unity and humanity, which chafed
at the apartness of a crown and all the forma-
lities it entailed. At times he showed that curi-
ously contradictory characteristic which appeared
again in his son Maximilian and so dominantly
in his grandson Ludwig II ; that sudden changea-
bility of mind, from simple democratic ways to
amazingly autocratic ones; becoming a stickler for
the finest points of a ridiculous court etiquette.
His hatred of war was very marked and only one
of his sons was educated for a military career,
the Prince Luitpold (the present Prince-Regent).
He cut down the expenses of the army as soon
78 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
as he could and once more the military reputation
of Bavaria fell into ill repute. Ludwig is not to
be censured for his lack of interest in the impor-
tance of this profession, for he must have been
surfeited by war and the humilations of his early
years of military experience under Napoleon. He
clearly saw that Bavaria's only hope lay in an
artistic and scientific awakening. It was time for
peace, and to forward these most necessary ends
the expenses of the army had to be cut down
and her reputation in that line forced to take
a secondary place. It became more of a hu-
miliation than an honor to become a soldier, and
the feeling was so intense, that, although con-
scription existed, the young men of the period
did everything they could to unfit themselves
for that unpropitious profession.
But in the financial and ministerial depart-
ments, Ludwig excelled. He was more than
punctilious, rising in the dark wintry mornings
to work by lamp-light, when everyone else was
asleep. Not only was it his dream to make of
Munich such an honor to Germany, that no
traveller could say he had seen Germany if he
had not visited her, but to institute innume-
rable reforms for the benefit of his people, both
in town and country. He was an ardent encou-
rager of literature and poetry, doing considerable
work in the latter branch himself, but it can
hardly be said that he excelled, or attained in
this line the high quality which so marked his
other achievements. He left behind him four
KING LUDWIG I. 79
books of poetry, mostly of a patriotic order, inter-
mingled with love sonnets, and a biographical
work entitled "Valhallas Genossen".
His was a personality well calculated to earn
and keep the love of his people. But the Bava-
rians are of a curious temperament. They love
rashly, in an impulsive way, more like the Austrians
than the Germans, and are easily influenced in
individual as well as artistic and national direc-
tions. They are dominated too by a good deal of
southern-like jealousy and what they possess, they
desire shall exist for them alone. They adored
Ludwig for a number of years, the eccentricities
of his youth appearing as charming to them.
His absolute disregard of danger, his independence
of thought, the free way in which he moved
among them all, his abundant enthusiasms, were
intensely admired. It was probably always a
little felt that his political capacities were not
very brilliant, but that was overlooked and if
the quiet, plain and gentle Queen chose to shut
her eyes to his rather numerous failings in the
way of marital fidelity, well ! neither would they
say anything ! The pictures of him when he first
came to the throne show one a strikingly fine,
sensitive, earnest, cultured, delicate and artistic
face. But as old age crept over him and his ec-
centricities did not wane, they assumed a some-
what less loveable and more sinister shape to
his people. Their leniency wavered. What had
once seemed like individual habits, or the irre-
sponsibility of genius, now looked more like bad
80 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
habits; and erraticisms appeared as tendencies
towards that weakness of will which so often
leads to an unbalanced mind.
The country had again been shaken by the
permeating waves of revolution from France.
The former revolution had influenced all men's
minds and speech, and they were ever in wait,
despite their many advancements, for yet another
brand to light their flaming senses of the rights
of man and that eternal desire which cries for
more independence. The brand to light the wait-
ing faggots came, as it so often does, carried
in the pioneering yet destructive hands of a
woman.
The people were chafing against certain un-
fulfilled reforms, certain broken governmental
promises, when suddenly into their very midst,
like a flame encircled in a whirlwind, sprang the
alert and radiant Lola Montez.
This period of the few years before Ludwig's
abdication is one of the most interesting in all
later Bavarian history, but one difficult to un-
ravel accurately, so surrounded is it by prejudice
and the dislike of eye witnesses and biographers.
Some of the participants in the tumultous excite-
ment of the time are still alive, namely the
Prince-Regent.
The ecclesiastical feeling was running very high;
its power very great. Bavaria had ever been
ardently Catholic, and the Ultramontanes were
the dominating party, holding the reins of govern-
ment. Into this atmosphere^of rigid Catholicism
LOLA MONTEZ 8l
appeared the, for the time being, still more
dominating figure of the Spanish dancer, Lola
Montez.
She came to fulfill an engagement as a dancer,
but the authorities refused to sanction her appea-
rance, as certain rather discreditable reports had
preceded her. But the ambitious woman refused
to acknowledge any authority but that of the
King, and promptly beseiged him in his palace.
She was at first, of course, refused admittance,
but after one or two failures, learning that at
a certain time Ludwig was wont to take a walk
in a portion of the Palace grounds, she so mani-
pulated as to meet him on his stroll, and while
passing gave him a full view of her glorious
face, making a seemingly unconscious remark
concerning the grandeur of expression on the
monarch's countenance. Impressionable Ludwig of
course enquired who she was, granted the desired
interview, and not only allowed her to dance, but
fell completely under the spell of the witty,
daring, magnetic, and very lovely woman.
Lola Montez only made two appearances at
the Opera House as a dancer, at both of which
the king was present. The dancer's beauty must
have been very compelling, her magnetism irre-
sistible, her brilliancy and fearlessness of brain
incontestable. She was the type of woman who
rules for the time being wherever she goes. Be-
hind all earthly powers some such unprincipled
yet delicate force is at work. She reminds one
not a little of Hamilton's Mrs. Croix, with her
Norman, Bavarian History. 6
82 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
"exalted eyes and insatiable mouth", but unlike
the latter remarkable woman, was unable to hold
her own to the end.
If Lola Montez was not sent out by some
secret political party to upset the Ultramontanes,
or some English Freemasons Society, to over-
throw the public peace and government, certain
it is that she was keenly bitten with the passion
for politics, a love of power and a strong anti-
pathy for the Ultramontanes; and knew that to
accomplish her ambitious ends, she must work
through some high positioned, but susceptible
medium.
After her retirement from the world as a dancer
in Munich, she first resided in a Hotel, then she
went to Fiirstenried, as the King's guest, and
later she came and took up her abode in the
little palace on the Barerstrasse which he had
built for her. Of course she promptly attracted
the attention of the entire town. Parties were
formed for and against her, but for a long time
she drove the heads of the army, the govern-
ment, the students and a portion of the people
in her fascinanting leading strings. Her receptions
gathered in the most prominent and brilliant in
the land. She founded the Corps of the Allemani,
and through the severity of the fight afterwards,
they always upheld her. She coquetted with the
Ultramontanes, blinded them by her subtle machi-
nations, and then overthrew the entire govern-
ment. All who criticised or worked against her
earned the enmity of the king, losing both posi-
LOLA MONTEZ 83
tion and royal favor. A new set of ministers
were brought in, and after the dismissal of
Abel and Dollinger, Lola Montez was compara-
tively the ruler of the state.
First of all she was given the title of Baroness
Rosenthal, and later that of the Countess of
Landsfeld.
Her past, before her advent in Bavaria, is
wrapped up in the same mist of unauthentic
detail, and it is with no affirmation of authenti-
city that the following is given.
Her real name was Marie Dolores Elise Ro-
sanna Silbert. She was born in Limerick in
the year 1818. Her father was an Irishman
in the English army, her mother of Spanish
extraction, from whom later she took the name
of Montez.
In 1837 she married Captain Thomas James,
who died in 1842. After his death she was evi-
dently left very badly off and she took up danc-
ing as a profession. From her mother she in-
herited all her Spanish grace, witchery and talent
for that especial art which so characterises the
Spanish people. Some aver that she was a failure
at Her Majesties in London where she appeared
in 1843, but it is more than probable she was
a success. She went to Dresden and Berlin
where she had continued success. Then on to
St. Petersburg where the Czar is said to have
fallen very much in love with her. From there
she went to Warsaw and thence to Paris. There
scandal followed her and she is supposed to have
6
84 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
been the mistress of Du Javier or Dugarier (he
was the editor of the "Presse"), who was killed
in a duel with Beauvallon over her age. In the
autumn of 1846 she went to Munich, promptly
exerting her brilliant powers over the King, and
dominating the situation for over two years. Apart
from her beauty the Countess of Landsfeld was
a very cultured woman. She spoke German,
French, Italian and Spanish, fluently. The latter
appealed much to Ludwig, it having always been
one of his dreams to go to Spain.
The fair Lola used to read to him from the
Spanish Calderon and Don Quixote, in the origi-
nal. She had in her early youth travelled much,
having been to India and America. It was
little to be doubted that the king should
have been captivated by such a woman. The
conformities of Bavaria hardly allowed that a
woman, whatever her talents or genius, should
take such a prominent part, or comprehensive
interest, in politics.
The Countess of Landsfeld knew no confor-
mities, and politics were her passion. She was
a born revolutionist, strongly imbued with the
fever of democracy, and knowing her powers, did
her utmost to influence Ludwig to carry out her
ideas. At last her power grew so great, and her
spirit so ambitious, that public favor began to
turn and grow fearful. She made her most
fatal error in demanding the Royal Salute and
the title of "Countess". Jealousy as well as
moral indignation, were at boiling point. All the
LOLA MONTEZ 85
students, except the one Corps of the Allemanni,
rebelled against her, also the government and
the people. All were up in arms, literally, and
demanding that Ludwig should banish her. He
refused. This woman with her witty tongue, her
brilliant pen, profound knowledge and domineer-
ing ways, combined with her unusual and rare
beauty, held him complete captive. The revo-
lution between the Liberals and Ultramontanes
began. Munich was no longer safe for the Coun-
tess, but she refused to leave. Twice when out
driving she was forced to fly for safety. Once
into the old Academy in the Neuhauserstrasse
where one can still see the marks of the bullets
and bayonets on the walls, from the infuriated
mob (the story runs that she fled inside and hid
behind one of the big canvases, thus escaping
detection). At another time she had to flee into
the church of the Theatines for protection.
But she possessed as fearless a spirit as Ludwig
himself and once when the mob stormed her
house, she rushed out at the head of her stu-
dents, the Allemanni, clad in a coat and sash
of their colors, a sword in her hand, and braved
the danger of being torn to pieces. She was
badly hurt, and at last her friends had to in-
sist that she should leave the city. After her
fall she went to Berne, and thence to England
where she married a young man called Heald.
After that we cannot follow her very definitely.
She went to Spain and thence to America, where
she acted in two plays written by herself, entit-
86 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
led "Lola Montez at the Court of Ludwig" and
"The Amazons".
In 1852 she married a journalist (whether her
second husband was dead or divorced we have
been unable to discover), called Hall. She had only
been in America a year when she went touring
in Australia (and later in America also) with her
plays. She used to lecture, and wrote several
books, one of which was called "The Art of
Beauty" and also her Autobiography. She
died in New York in 1861 at the age of forty-
three. There have been several books and pam-
phlets written on her dramatic carrer, but most
of them treat the subject as a romance or are
so prejudiced over her anti-papal views that she
is left little character or charm.
Lola Montez was one of those brilliant, misguided
temperaments, full of invaluable fire, intelligence,
penetration and power, which could have led her
to great heights, if only the qualities of a high
ideal, and necessary spirituality, which must have
been inherent in her, had only been cultivated.
After her "deposal" and banishment, the king
did not seem to care to retrieve his position in
the sight of his people. National love and public
sentiment had been deeply wounded and hurt by
the monarchs weakness and vacillations, in the
hands of this foreign woman. He felt that he
could not regain his old footing, and rumour had
it that he did not wish to.
He was sick and tired with disappointment at
the so easily raised barriers and prejudices of
IGNAZ DOLLINGER 8j
the people for whom he had done so much, and
he abdicated soon after she left the country. It
is said that he followed her to Italy, that being
the reason why he remained there for the next
twenty years of his life, but it is almost certain
that he and the Countess Landsfeld never met
again. Ludwig had her portrait painted to hang
with the rest of the famous beauties who ador-
ned the gallery of his palace, but after his ab-
dication it was taken down ; or rather when the
present Prince-Regent came into power. It is now
kept with its face to the wall in some disused
lumber room and cannot be seen.
The most prominent men of letters during
Ludwig's reign were, Joseph Gorres the historian,
Oken and Schubert, natural philosophers, Frede-
rick Thirsch and Ludwig Doderlein, students of
ancient philology (the former in Munich, the latter
in Erlangen), Andreas Schmeller, Schlegel and
Baader (philosophers), and the two famous theo-
logians, Michael Sailer (Bishop of Regensburg),
and Ignaz Dollinger, one of the most remarkable
men of his time, and a great friend of Glad-
stone's. He was the most erudite, gentle, benign
and noble of men. A splended nature, encased
in a calm, abstracted, plain but attractive exterior.
A great stir was caused by his brave and daring
resistance, late in life, against the innovation
of certain papal doctrines, and although a sincere
Catholic and the first theologian in Germany, he
was excommunicated by the Pope for his in-
ability to believe in his Eminence's infallibility.
88 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
Nevertheless he still remained the greatest histori-
cal theologian of the church, his lectures were
always crowded, and he was made President of
the Royal Academy of Sciences in Munich. It
was he also who exposed so relentlessly the many
abuses and misuses of the Confessional.
Dr. Dollinger always looked upon himself as
an especially ugly man, but Lenbach saw
the intense attractiveness concentrated in the
curiously lined, long, thin, luminious, and deep
countenance. He painted several portraits of
him, the finest of which is to be seen in the
Academy of Sciences. Hildebrand (the sculpture
of the Wittelsbach Fountain in the Maximilian
Plate), also did a bust of him. Dr. Dollinger
died at the age of ninety-one.
Other famous men were Klenze and Gartner
(who so magnificently carried out the king's ideas
for the embellishments of Munich), Ziebland, Ohl-
muller, Schwanthaler, Wagner, Thorwaldsen and
Rauch. The painters most prominent were Kaul-
bach, Cornelius, Stieler, Schmid, Schrandolph, the
brothers Hess, Rottmann and Schnoor of Carolsfeld.
Stiglmayer and Miiller did exquisite work in bronze,
and at the same time the famous old Bavarian art
of glass-painting was resuscitated, by Ainmuller.
Riickert from Schweinfurt (a poet), Jean Paul
Richter and Platen from Ansbach were all en-
couraged by Ludwig. He abdicated in 1848, and
died twenty years later in Nice, at the age of 82.
His body was brought back to Munich where his
grandson was reigning and buried in the Basilica,
MAXIMILIAN II. 89
where he himself had had an exquisite sarcophagus
placed. His wife, Queen Theresa, had died in
Munich of cholera in 1854. A beautiful statue
was erected to him by the people of Munich,
who by that time had forgotten all his weak-
nesses and failings, only remembering all he had
done for their country. It was modelled by
Widnmann, and the two pages, either side of the
mounted figure, carry each a tablet on which is
written Ludwig's favorite motto: "Just and Per-
servering".
Ludwig left behind him only three children;
Luitpold (the present Prince- Regent , who was
born in 1821). Adelgunde, who married the Duke
Franz of Modena, (she died in 1875) an d Adel-
bert, who married Amalien of Spain (and who
also died in 1875), Otto, who was for a time
King of Greece, died in 1867, a year before his
father (he was married to Amalie of Oldenburg)
and Maximilian, who came to the throne on his
fathers abdication, in 1848.
Maximilian II. was of a severe, introspective,
melancholy temperament, an earnest scholar, and
clever man. But his tastes ran more to scienti-
fic, literary and philosophical subjects, than to
the arts of sculpture and painting. He was a
profound lover of the ancient classical authors,
especially the writings of Marcus Aurelius, endea-
vouring to rule both his life and his country on
certain stoical principles. He was the simplest
of all the three latter kings, believing in that
"evenness of mind" so characteristic of the Ro-
go A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
mans; in controlling every passion, cultivating
an interior as well as an exterior repose, and in
not showing so plainly and frankly his emotions,
likes and dislikes, as his more irresponsible and
erratic father. Maximilian's was a very difficult
position to fill, coming to the throne as he did
during his father's life time, and having almost
immediately to endeavour to quell the insur-
rections in Westphalia. In this he was assisted
by Prussia. But the tribunals, in carrying out
the punishments, were so ruthless, and unrelent-
ing, that they were hereafter known as the
"Bloody Assizes".
He was of a delicate constitution, inclined to
melancholia, loving solitude and the desolation
of wild mountain scenery. He did not court out-
ward show but his disposition was inclined to be
more autocratic than his father's, and the up-
bringing of the unfortunate Ludwig II. was ruled
by the strictest discipline, severity and lack of
comprehension. It was an endeavour to crush
all too spontaneous feelings, and to quell all sen-
sitive dislikes or attractions. Maximilian never-
theless had also his romantic, theatrical and in-
consistent streak, which found such a violent and
pathetic climax in his son. For instance, we read
of him on his hunting excursions always dres-
sing himself entirely in a sort of "Robin-Hood"
costume of green ; green hat, suit, stockings and
shoes. All the suite and foresters were bound to
wear the same costume. Later in life his pas-
sionate love for the mountains and solitude deve-
MAXIMILIAN II.
loped into a kind of misanthropy and he lived more
and more away from the city, his capital. Imme-
diately after his succession he set about carrying
on the innumerable reforms both for the govern-
ment, improvement of the country, &c. ; which
his father had so strenuously set in motion. He
devoted most of his energies to the improvement
of the educational system and to the further-
ance of scientific and philosophical progress. He
gathered into his capital, for this purpose, a
brilliant circle of famous men, Liebig, the great
chemist, the historians Eybel and Giesebrecht,
Riehl, the authority on historical culture, Carriere,
the professor of Aesthetics &c. He also laid
out, at his own expense, the beautiful Maximilian-
strasse, one of the noblest streets in the world.
Now that the new bridge is completed, the view,
up this broad and superb avenue, with its har-
monious skyline, tree -lined promenades, fine
statues, crowned in the distance, high on the
hill, with the exquisitely beautiful Maximilianeum,
so decorative and almost estatic in outline, is one
of extraordinary loveliness and perfection. When
this lovely building is lit by the setting sun
one can hardly imagine in any European city,
a more exalting or poetry-begetting scene.
All the buildings down the Maximilianstrasse
were erected by the king in the curiously mixed
style of Gothic and Renaissance which he pre-
ferred, but the effect is so satisfying and the
street so beautiful, that one cannot complain at
perhaps a want of perfect architectural know-
92 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
ledge, or feeling for perfect taste. He also
built the old National Museum, the Govern-
ment Buildings, and founded the new Mint.
The magnificent monument which terminates
the "Forum" of Maximilian II., was not erec-
ted till 1875, but it fills in the vista with a
perfect balance of gradation. Maximilian II.
also built the remarkable Germanische Museum
in Nuremberg. The postal, telegraph and rail-
way systems were much enlarged and improved
under him, and under his auspices the first Indu-
strial Exhibition ever held in Germany was given
in Munich in 1854, for which purpose the Glass
Palace was originally built.
One day on one of his hunting expeditions, Maxi-
milian, when still Crown-Prince, passed the ruins
of the ancient castle of Schwangau. As one travels
through the beautiful country of Bavaria, one sees on
the borders of almost every lake, on almost every
hill and mountain, or appearing like some white
secret from the dim greenness of deep woods, the
marbles and turrets of some ancient castle or
chateau. But those which will most absorb
our attention, are Linderhof, Berg, Neu-Schwan-
stein, Herren-Chiemsee and Hohenschwangau.
Not only are they fraught with sombre, tragic
memories, not so far distant, but are almost
psychological guides to the souls of their resusci-
tators. And all are built on sites which are
alive and throbbing with the poetical interest of
legends, romance, and heroic days.
After the memorable day when Maximilian
HOHENSCHWANGAU 93
passed the old castle of Schwangau, he determined
if possible to elevate its lost glories, and restore
this ancient feudal home of his ancestors. He
purchased it about 1832, but the restorations did
not commence until about 1842.
It is high up in the Bavarian Alps, rising, a
second Wartburg, from rich, mystical and purple
shadowed forests. Around, sweep the solitary,
steep mountains, majestic and powerful, below
lie the clear lakes of the Alpensee and the Schwan-
see. The ancient title comes from "Schwan" a
swan and "Gau" (meaning district or province).
There are Chronicles devoted alone to the history
of this knightly castle. Below it, nestles the
little village of Hohenschwangau. It is in truth
the district of the Knights of the Swan, and
from here Lohengrin went forth on his knightly
quests, the son of Parsival. The first feudal
owners of the castle were the Welfs or Guelphs
who named it Schwanstein. In 1191 it came
into possession of the Hohenstaufen Dukes of
Swabia. In 1221 Hildebold, an amateur or gentle-
man Minnesinger, lived here. He was a Crusader
and Knight of the Round Table, and on one of
his pilgrimages fought in Syria. The Chronicles
prove him to have been a noble and luminious
character, a poet of good verse and a friend of
Walter von der Vogelweide. In 1567 it passed
to the Bavarian Dukes. The name of Ludwig
the Bavarian appears in the Chronicles and the
widow of Conrad IV. and his little son Conradin
(a ward of Ludwig's), lived here for some years.
94 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
The race of Schwangau eventually died out and
the last two of that name sold it to a wealthy
citizen of Augsburg, including all its rights and
titles. But they were unable to keep up its
princely magnificence, and it was bought back
by Albrecht, Duke of Bavaria. In the 17 th and
1 8 th centuries it was beseiged and captured seve-
ral times, destroyed by the Tyrolese in 1809 and
sold in 1820 for a small sum. The castle as it
now stands is not very large, but of great lovi-
liness. Maximilian's tastes were comparatively
simple, and he had the interior decorated with
legends from German history. The architectural
part was carried out by Quaglio, Ohlmuller and
Ziebland; the interior frescoes and sculpture by
Schwanthaler, Lindenschmidt and Schneider (all
Munich artists). The castle was Maximilian's
favorite resting place and retreat, and after his
death his widow spent much of her time there.
Ludwig II. was also passionately attached to it.
Maximilian also resuscitated the Castle of Berg,
which was purchased by the Elector Ferdinand
Marie in the i7 th century, having been built by
a Baron Horwarth.
By his shrewd and economical government and
strict attention to financial affairs, following thus
in the footsteps of his father, he left the country
in a prosperous condition and a large fortune to
his two sons. There is little doubt but that Maxi-
milian would have been a happier and healthier
man if the arduous reigns of government had
never fallen to his share, and he been privileged
DEATH OF MAXIMILIAN //. 95
to lead in the seclusion of some university home,
the life of a scholar. But the cares of a crown
and the many state difficulties wore continually
on his frail constitution.
During his reign Maximilian gathered about
him, apart from the eminent circle of scientific
brains, a number of poets, such as Paul Heyse,
Emanuel Geibel, Franz Kobell (a dialect poet),
Frederick Bodenstedt (an epic poet), and Her-
mann Liugg. Also Hermann Max Schmid and
Martin Greif (who wrote dramas for the Residence
Theatre, dealing with the Welfs, Wittelsbach and
Bavarian personalities in general. For instance
"Henry the Lion", "Ludwig the Bavarian" and
"Hans Sachs" are all plays of his.)
All through his reign Maximilian had been
constantly troubled by the Schleswig-Holstein
difficulty. Bavaria had continually stood up for
the independence of Holstein and the hereditary
right of the Holstein Augustunburg House.
For a short period Denmark had been pacified
by Prussia, and the latter with Austria, took
possession of the Duchies. But in 1864, while
Maximilian was in Italy, endeavouring to nurse
back his fast failing health, the trouble broke
out again and he was forced to return to
Munich. For some time his life had been so
frail that it was despaired of, but the people
demanded his return. Prussia and Austria had
gone to war again with Schleswig-Holstein.
Maximilian returned to his death. He fell des-
parately ill and died on the io th of March 1864,
96 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
leaving his nineteen year old son to reign in
his stead.
His Queen, Marie of Prussia, lived for twenty-
five years after her husband's death. She lived to
see four kings reign in Bavaria, her father-in-law,
her husband, her son Ludwig, and the present
unfortunate Otto, who never could inherit his
rights.
In later life she is said to have shown several
signs of marked eccentricity; insisting always
on going about in the elaborate State coach.
She was a protestant Princess, but very late in
life during the rule of her son, was converted
a Catholic.
It is somewhat with trepidation that one ap-
proaches a character which has been so curiously
idealised as Ludwig II. The peasants of Bavaria
are naturally prone to romance ; especially when
the object of their attention is their King and
one who surrounds himself with mystery and
seclusion, and whose end is haloed with such a
terrible tragedy. Nothing awakens the sentiment
of simple folk so much as the exclusiveness of
a picturesque personality, placed by destiny, in
the worldly annals, so far above them. And
then the abrupt and crude treatment with which
he was suddenly made virtually a prisoner in
his own kingdom, awoke all the resentment which
lies latent in most individuals against governmental
power. Ludwig is a piteous, tragic and helpless
figure. Many assert, that, if he had not been
born to inherit a crown, he would have been one
LUDWIG II. 97
of the most unique and remarkable geniuses of
modern times. For this assertion there seems
little foundation. Ludwig never showed any indi-
vidual creative art powers and his tastes seldom
were on the exquisite track of pure, lofty, or
either brilliantly suggestive or intellectual art.
He was an impressionable, theatric-loving, and
very Celtic character. Marred ever by a weak-
ness of mental grip, a too self-centred egotism,
a temperament which lacked centrality, and more
an inclination to be absorbed into his ardent and
heated fancies, than the power to absorb and
then reveal them in individual fashion. His
strange and terrible story, upon which all the
terrific lime-light which surrounds one in his
position was thrown, called forth innumerable
expressions and opinions. Yet when the die is
too far cast the self same adorers, who leap to
hysterical emotions at the sight of a crown, can
be the most cruel to rend when the fall conies.
"We are (ever) betrayed by what is false within"
and from the first years of his youth Lud wig's
destiny was marked out for him by his inherent
weakness. With a little more solid strength and
advice on the part of those around him, a little
less fear and a little more true compassion and
interest for the soul of a brother in mortal ill-
ness, his way might not have been so hard.
Ludwig II. came to the throne on the death
of his father in 1864. His grandfather, on whose
birthday he was born, was still alive and in
Italy. Ludwig was little over eighteen years of
Norman, Bavarian History. ^
98 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
age. Before Maximilian's death he had insisted
on his son taking a prominent part in the affairs
of state for which the youth had little taste or
inclination. He had an unsympathetic and severe
education. One little calculated to strengthen his
sensitive and selfish temperament, or to make him
more frank or outspoken. He early evinced those
swift and repellent antagonisms for certain people,
or for any ugly sight, which grew a morbidity with
him in later years. He was shut within himself and
the result was an imagination which, having no
artistic outlet, was thrust back upon unwhole-
some dreams and morbid fancies. A nature
can be exaltingly great and noble and of neces-
sity apart, introspective and solitary. It was not
those qualities which marked Ludwig's mental
tendencies so early, as the combination of them
with a furious and unruly temper which found
vent and delight in cruel amusements. There is
probably no human being who does not possess
in some cryptic portion of their nature the ele-
ments of greatness. Ludwig certainly possessed
them. He loved the peaks and heights even
better than did his less ardent father. But his
lofty loves were more for externals, and he never
seems to have brooded over the possibility of
attaining the self same peaks within. He was
ever filled with the "delusive dreams of a sick
man" and "a dreamer is a madman quiescent"
(sometimes) "as the madman is (often) a dreamer in
action". He ever lacked personal courage and
in any unexpected danger completely lost his
LUDWIG II. 99
composure. In the latter years of his reign his
fear of assassination was pitiful. He hated to see
any sickness or illness around him and could not
even bring himself to go and see his wounded
soldiers when they returned from the war of
1871. Dollinger says that he showed marked signs
of military genius, but if so, the talent died early
with other of his enthusiasms, for he never led
his soldiers to battle, although he used to wear
a uniform and occasionally review the troops.
Art was to him the only setting for life, and it
was the banners, colors, costumes, music and
other theatrical paraphernalia which characterises
the army, which appealed to his imagination.
The horrors of war, and the reason for an army,
probably never crossed his mind.
Ludwig II. was very sensitive to ridicule in
his youth, and if any place had unpleasant as-
sociations for him he never liked it again. Such
as the beautiful church in Berchtesgarten, where
he went as a boy and with which he was so
impressed that he returned at night to see it in
the moonlight and was so scolded for the esca-
pade that he never liked the place again. He
showed very early that tendency to live always
within himself, and to indulge in waking dreams.
Dollinger said to him one day, on finding him
alone, buried in the depths of a big sofa, unable
to read because of some trouble with his eyes
"Your Highness should have something read to
you, it would serve to pass the tedious hours".
"Oh! they are not tedious to^rne", said the
7*
100 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
prince, "I think of lots of things and am quite
happy."
The contradictions of temperamentwhich marked
both his father and grandfather were still
more accentuated in Ludwig. His adoration for
Wagner is well known, and his youthful interest
in freedom and independence for the people. He
evinced a keen interest in the small Republic of
Switzerland, and when little more than a boy
wrote a play, the subject of which was a king's
son who conspired with the people and incited
them to revolution, dethrones his father and de-
clares a republic. It was a truly republican
tragedy and showed which way his thoughts
were trending. Yet in contradiction to all these
democratic ideas, the two personalities to whom
he looked for artistic inspiration were the auto-
cratic and corrupt Ludwig XIV. and XV. His
most consistent passion seems to have been for
a dead woman, the beautiful, unhappy, self-in-
dulgent Marie Antoinette.
The heads of the government were continually
changed under his vascillating rule, but despite
reports to the contrary, even after his comparative
desertion of Munich, he did personally attend to all
the affairs of state. During the first years of his
reign, Ludwig seemed to be filled with a kind of
joy over his power and position, and the adulation
which followed his every footstep, word and action.
He was a striking figure, of a dark, sombre and
melancholy beauty. Some have likened him to
a "Shelley on the throne", but his nature did
THE YOUTH OF LUDWIO II. IOI
not seem to trend so much to the spiritual or
abstract, as to the glory of external things, a
passion for colour, and a certain sensuous mysti-
cism and gloom that likens him more to the
temperament of a Byron. He surrounded himself
with the most refined and cultured men of his
government, and promptly started in to carry
out some of his long cherished views. Almost
his first act was to send for Wagner, whom he
had long worshipped from a distance, since a
memorable day when he read a pamphlet of his
in possession of his beautiful cousin Elizabeth,
Empress of Austria (who also was an ardent
admirer of Wagner's). Ludwig's strong attraction
for Wagner's permeating genius, can be simply
traced. His youth had been spent in a hero-
worship of the knights and poets of his romantic
country, and the legends of Lohengrin, Parsifal
and Tannhauser had all been inwardly absorbed.
Suddenly on the horizon of his lonely life appeared
this man of fire, giving them new life and
vitality through the most exquisite of mediums.
Ludwig had long identified himself with the knight
of the Swan, so is it any wonder that his brain,
teeming with all the ancient folk-lore and saga,
with which Bavaria is throbbing, should have
been immediately drawn to the man who had
come to that country for the very sources and
foundations of his works. Ludwig had first heard
Lohengrin in 1857 when the opera had met with
such fierce opposition in Munich, but his ardent
imagination had been captured and his allegiance
102 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
sworn. He read all Wagner's works, and studied
his operas, but it was more as a medium for
the ancient legends that he admired him than
for his music. It was the possibilities for exter-
nal and gorgeous setting which attracted him,
as it did in all his art phases, for we do not
hear that he ever attended any orchestral con-
certs, or loved music for it's own sake. His
musical teacher, Wanner, always maintained that
Ludwig had no ear for music. Nevertheless,
three weeks after his succession, Wagner was
in Munich.
The latter at that time was steeped in every
kind of misery. His operas not only failures, but
scorned and ridiculed. Burdened with domestic
troubles and disappointed with poverty, failure
and seemingly hopeless ambitions; he was over
fifty, and though convinced of his dominant mes-
sage, to which some day all would listen, was
much in need, not only of a helping hand mone-
tarily, but of a sympathetic friendship and the
encouragement of an ardent admirer. This all
came suddenly and unexpectedly in the appear-
ance of the youthful king. The story of the
latters friendship for Wagner, of the invaluable
help he continually held out to him, of his pro-
ductions of his operas, are all too well known
and have been too often discussed from every
standpoint to again be treated of. Wagner be-
came a naturalized Bavarian, and to this country
and the energies of Ludwig he owed a great deal.
This step showed unusual discernment on the
LUDWIG II. AND WAGNER 103
part of Ludwig when one remembers that he was
only a lad of eighteen at the time and that all the
world was against the initiations of this new
reformer. It is doubtful, though, if Wagner's
works had on him personally a very beneficial
effect, for they so developed his morbid ego-mania-
cal tendencies, that later he would only witness
them in private, and had extra performances
given for him in the opera house, or out at one
of his palaces. Wagner became his constant
companion. Again public jealousy was aroused,
reaching a deadly climax when Wagner one
night received the applause of the public from the
King's box. It is curious that Bavaria should now
be the country where the genius of Wagner is most
honoured. Bayreuth is her's and the Prinz-Regen-
ten, the two great festival houses for his operas.
But during his friendship for Ludwig, they looked
upon him as the Kings most baneful influence.
Whatever political or governmental error Ludwig
committed and which did not please the people,
was considered due to Wagner's machinations.
Insinuations and innumerable evil reports were
spread. He was accused of greed, undue influence,
ingratitude &c. ; and the banishment of the King's
favourite was demanded. Ludwig was incensed,
but at last the trouble grew so intense, that he
had to accede. Wagner was asked to leave,
but it is doubtful if Ludwig ever forgave the
people of Munich.
All the above, however, spread over a number
of years. During that time, a new school of
104 ^ BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
music was founded for the practical education
of students in a high sense, and von Billow was
sent for to be its director. Wagner raised the
musical taste and judgment of the entire country,
giving an entirely new impetus to the operatic
outlook.
He had touched a new borderland of psycho-
logy and suggestive penetration. It was a pity
the Miincheners did not realise that his advent
in their city was epoch-making. Following him
came Cornelius, von Billow, Liszt, Schnoor (the
great tenor ; the finest interpreter of Tristan) and
Semper, the conductor. It was a revealing time,
but the eyes remained closed. That Wagner had
any influence over the king politically, or that
he used any influence he may have possessed,
except for the furtherance of art, has been tho-
roughly refuted. In after years, after his virtual
banishment from the city, Wagner often visited
it for the productions of his operas. After his
departure, Ludwig started in to make the plans
for a Festival Playhouse in Munich but was
prevented by both government and populace and
the idea crushed as a whim of foolish infatuation.
The wealth which Munich thus thrust from her
was incalculable. She would have been musically
what Bayreuth was, if jealousy had not so killed all
reason within her. After Wagner's departure,
Ludwig was seldom seen, going whenever he
could to visit his friend, and plunging into the
wild extravagances of his castle building. His
eccentricities grew; he changed continually his
LUD WIG II. AND SOPHIE CHARLO TTE 105
suite and companions, no longer seeking the
society of cultivated men, but taking with him
on his solitary visits to his castles and his long
wild drives, only a quarter-master and a couple
of grooms. He overlooked in them almost all
etiquette; became careless and morose, hating
to be seen or recognised.
There are of course several tales about his
love adventures and of his platonic admirations
for the opera singers, but it is difficult to find
any substantial proof of any real romance in
Ludwig's life. In his early days as Crown-Prince
he was supposed to have been much attracted
to a little Russian Princess and planned building
a castle is Graeco-Muscovite or Russo-Byzantine
style. There is also a story about his attachment
to a young peasant girl. The two prima-donnas
who capitvated him (more by their art than
anything else), were Josephine Vogel and Fraulein
Schefsky.
In 1867 he was engaged to Sophie Charlotte,
daughter of Duke Maximilian of Bavaria, and
sister to his much beloved cousin Elizabeth of
Austria. Her mother was the daughter of Max
Joseph I., king of Bavaria, so they were first
cousins. The marriage was delayed on pretence
after pretence. It was well known that women
had little or no fascination for him, although he
was always most courteous to them. He had
doubtless imbibed freely Wagner's theory of celi-
bacy and his seemingly passionless love was given
to Marie Antoinette and his cousin Elizabeth.
106 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
The engagement was broken off and the truth
of the story will never be known until the world
is able to read the letters of Ludwig, Wagner &c.,
which are tied up with other state and private
documents.
Amongst the many rumours was one to the
effect, that he had heard his fiancee was in love
with someone else and through jealousy had
broken off the engagement. Another, that he
delayed so long with the final preparations that
her father asked him finally to name a day or to
break off the engagement and that Ludwig in his
anger, thinking he was being forced against his will,
flew into a rage and refused to get married alto-
gether. Another, that his growing eccentric ways
frightened his little cousin. She afterwards mar-
ried the Duke D'Alencon and was burned to
death in the terrible fire in Paris in the Rue
Jean Gonjon in 1897.
His weariness and restlessness grew on him
more and more; he became more gloomy and
solitary, riding and driving wildly, not only in
the -mountains, but in the city thoroughfares.
He suffered from awful headaches and became
conscious himself that his will and self-control
were giving way.
Before this he visited Wartburg, the castle
where Wolfram von Eschenbach and Walter von
der Vogelweide had sung; a romantic and deso-
late castle in Thuringia, not far from Weimar.
Luther lived here after his secession from the
old faith, and it also has the romantic tradition
LUDWIG II. J07
of having been the place where the ancient trials
of minstrelsy originally were held, reproduced in
Tannhauser and Die Meistersinger. These ancient
spots of past glory appealed to Ludwig and awak-
ened his slumbering dreams.
Another added disturbance was the unsympa-
thetic feeling existing between him and his mother.
She had been much in favor of his marriage
with Sophie Charlotte and had never forgiven
him for breaking off the match. Also her jea-
lousy of Wagner was intense and she did not
hide her pleasure at his dismissal from Munich.
Ludwig on his part was much incensed at his
mother's conversion to Catholicism, although he
was a Catholic king.
Between 1860 1864 the political horizon was
very stormy for all of Germany.
In 1865 Ludwig reviewed in Munich 14 ooo sol-
diers. This was so unusual and his appearance
so remarkable that it re-created and revived the
waning interest in him. Monarchies have often
to be fed by visions of royalty ; they pay for the
royal appurtenances and want to be constantly
viewing them. Consequently nothing trended so
much toward making Ludwig unpopular as his
wish to live a retired life.
The Schleswig-Holstein affair which so troubled
the last days of Maximilian came to the fore
again more seriously than ever and required the
most dexterous handling to avert an European
war. In 1866, Ludwig was carried away by an
enthusiasm lacking much in diplomatic tact. His
108 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
troops allied themselves with Austria and both
were hopelessly beaten. But Bismarck, knowing
so well the value of the second largest German
state, did not intend to humiliate her too much,
so that, despite her tragic losses, she did not
suffer as much misery as did Saxony and Austria.
On the withdrawal of Austria from the German
Confederation, Bavaria again changed her attitude
and took sides with Prussia against France. After
that a good deal of religious and political fer-
ment began. But on Nov. 23. 1870, a treaty was
signed between the German Confederation and
Bavaria, acknowledging the King of Prussia as
the head of the German Empire. At the same
time a greater amount of independence was given
to Bavaria than to any other of the German
Confederacies. She was freed from domiciliary
surveillance of the Empire and allowed to retain
the administration of her postal and telegraph
system, while her army was a separate organi-
sation during peace, under the Bavarian King.
This treaty with Prussia was epoch-making, for
the Emperor Napoleon III. had hoped for a renewal
of the international Bavarian policy, when he
had declared war against Prussia, not counting
on the united Federation of Northern Germany
with Bavaria.
On July i6 th 1871 the victorious army returned
to Munich in triumph under the command of the
Crown Prince, Frederick of Prussia. Ludwig who
had not gone to the front, and the unfortunate
Prince Otto, his brother, had to be sent home,
LUD WIG II. AND FREDERICK OF PRUSSIA log
owing to his mental trouble which had manifested
itself very markedly. Ludwig was filled with
mortification and despondency over the tremen-
dous ovation given to Frederick by the people
of his own capital. The Crown Prince had cov-
ered himself with heroism and glory; he was
a martial hero, a "man of Iron and War", ex-
celling in physical courage and well equipped to
awaken the enthusiasm of the emotional crowds.
Poor Ludwig, who had ever shown a lack of
courage, fled to his castle of Berg on the very
morning of the big military banquet given in the
conqueror's honor. He was torn with fear that
Frederick, in the event of another war, would
threaten the independence of Bavaria, and seize
from him his crown. But in this direction his
fears and jealousy of Frederick were unfounded,
although the latter's manner was anything but
cordial and full of an overbearing ungracious-
ness and arrogance. By this condescension of
manner Ludwig read that he only looked upon
him as half a king. His ever alert sensitive-
ness was deeply wounded, and after the first
reviewing of his troops by the Crown Prince
after the war, he never came into Munich to
receive his royal visitor. Concerning this period
Frederick wrote a diary, containing many inte-
resting and also very personal details. It was
published in 1881, but suppressed by the order
of Bismarck.
The great Franco-Prussian war of 1870 1871 did
more to unite the disunited states of Germany and
HO A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
to draw them together in a union at least of
political friendship if not of national love. At
least the great dislike between the North and the
South externally gave way.
All the miseries of Germany, the petty quar-
rels, the terrible wars, the awful bloodshed and
sieges were due, as indeed are they not ever, in
all nations, to internal jealousies, differences of
religious opinion, and love of abnormal individual
power; instead of the part for the whole, and
the knowledge of the great secret of Unity which
must bind everything together? But Unity had
to come. It was the people's destiny, as it must
be the ultimate destiny of the world. And to
this end Germany had to slowly shape herself
from the first moment of her embryo spirit.
On January I st 1871, William, King of Prussia,
was saluted as Emperor of the entire German
Empire. The present German Empire consists of
twenty-six states, twenty-two of which are mon-
archical, three republican, and one, an imperial
province.
An incident, which occurred at the time of the
meeting of all the German princes, after the
victory in France, when all the kingdoms of the
German Bund had to write a proposal to lay be-
fore the Empire that the king of Germany
should become universal Emperor, did much to
upset Ludwig's failing equilibrium, and fill him
with distrust of even his nearest friends. It was
absolutely necessary to get Ludwig's signature
attached to this proposal, and knowing his ec-
LUDWIG II. AT OBERAMMERGAU III
centric and unreliable ways, innumerable wiles
and intrigues were used, Holstein, his most trusted
friend being corrupted to step forward and
deceive him. It was a political necessity to have
both Ludwig's signature and letter, for Bismarck
looked upon him as the one influential friend
which Germany at that time possessed; a force,
unconscious perhaps, in the political world.
The whole scheme, which was deep laid, was
arranged by Bismarck. The latter nevertheless
always maintained that in all his numerous corres-
pondence with Ludwig, he found him clear-headed,
just and clever.
In 1870 Ludwig went to Oberammergau. He
was deeply impressed by the beauty of the sacred
performance and the devotion of the earnest
peasants, and he presented them with the Calvary
group, which stands, white and symbolic, above
the little village, to prove his love and gratitude.
It was not finished until 1875. The sculptor was
Halbig. The inscription on it runs "To the ar-
tistic and excellent people of Oberammergau, by
their King Ludwig, in memory of the Passion
Play". Since then Ludwig has been consistently
idealised by the artist-peasants up there, and
many of them refuse to believe that he is dead
even now. He assumed the aspect of a god to
their easily awakened imaginations.
1868 is chiefly eventful for the division of the
Church on the subject of the Pope's infallibility,
and the excommunication of that mighty but
gentle force, Doctor Dollinger. The King had a
112 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
great and lasting admiration for this remarkable
and courageous ex-tutor of his, and encouraged
him in this important step. In 1872 during a
severe ministerial crisis, Ludwig began to show
even more vascillation of mind than usual. He
was rarely seen now and seemed to fear the
glance of every eye and to distrust the hand of
every friend. The last occasion upon which he
held high festival in Munich, was in 1876, and
in 1880 when Bavaria celebrated the centenary
of the house of Wittelsbach, he used as an excuse
for not appearing, the toothache and headache
from which he now so continually suffered.
He made the same excuse when he refused to
attend the celebration of the fifteenth centenary
of the union of his own Palatinate with the King-
dom of Bavaria. But the truth was that he had
gone to keep Wagner's birthday at his country
seat. Dissatisfaction among the city people and
in political and governmental circles was assuming
stern and forbidding aspects. The kings dislike
of his fellow beings, his refusal to attend court
functions, his growing fear of being seen, were
coming under severe criticism and censure. His
passion for building, for complete isolation on
his dark midnight journeys, rumors of furious
outbursts of rage, and extravagant autocratic
demands were breeding an ominious atmosphere
around him. His fantastic and strange desires
for the most notorious tastes and luxury were
reaching beyond the realms of leniency. After
holding a grand parade of the troops in Munich
LUDWIG II. AND HIS CASTLES 113
in 1875 he was hardly ever seen, plunging
himself more passionately than ever into his
buildings; Linderhof, Neu-Schwanstein and the
dream of a Bavarian Versailles on the island at
Chiemsee, all began to assume definite form, and
the special performances to take place in the
Court Theatre in Munich. He ordered special
plays to be written for himself on the subjects
of Louis XIV. and XV., Marie Antoinette, de
Maintenon, Du Barry, the Pompadour and other
personalities of the periods which so obsessed
him, by the court dramatist Carl von Hegel. The
only personalities he now allowed near him
were musicians and actors, but he seemed to
prefer the theatric to musical art. Ludwig had a
marvellous memory and could recite pages of his
favorite authors; Racine, Schiller, Voltaire and
Victor Hugo. When he so wished, his powers of
conversation were remarkable, compelling and
arresting, and one reads that he could influence
to his own way of thinking the most biased
politican !
Artists were invited to his castle weeks at a
time and the now famous Austrian actor, Joseph
Kainz was one of his great friends, visiting him
often at Linderhof. Like so many temperaments
of a self absorbed egotism and perverted nature,
Ludwig could be both winning and exceptionally
magnetic. There are innumerable stories of his
kindness of heart and deeds of spontaneous genero-
sity. And despite the draining extravagances of
his castles, they certainly encouraged Bavarian
Norman, Bavarian History. 8
114 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
arts, manufactures and trade, as all the work
that could be done in Munich was ordered from
there. Nevertheless the kings extravagances were
immense for Bavaria, and that, coupled with his
now violently advancing mental tendencies which
could no longer be hidden, brought the royal
family, ministers and government, to the decision
that his abdication and retention would be
necessary, and the country be ruled by a
Regent.
Ludwig's last days have filled many pages, and
caused innumerable rumors. Many of the pea-
sants to this day do not believe that he is dead,
wear buttons on which his picture is painted,
and worship with romantic sentimentality the
strange king who occasionally drove so hurriedly
through their midst in the night-time, sometimes
with a galaxy of outriders, in his elaborate sleigh,
sometimes alone, except for a groom. They looked
on him as a much abused mortal, the victim of
political machinations. When the final verdict
came, with the news that the government was
to be given over into more competent hands,
they rose in resentment and when the medical
attendance and a court commision were despat-
ched to Hohenschwangau to break the news of
his enforced abdication to Ludwig, and that his
his uncle Prince Luitpold was to reign in his
stead, he to be kept a virtual prisoner, on the
grounds of insanity at Berg, the peasants sur-
rounded the castle, took the court commission
and doctors prisoner and lay in wait in the woods
LUDWIG II. 115
and lanes to protect him should more violent
measures be used. But of course both they and
Ludwig were helpless. The peasants were quelled
and he taken to Berg. The rest of the story is
world's history. The wretched man immediately
sought his death in the waters of the lake of Starn-
berg. He was drawn back at last to "the heart of the
mystery whence he came" and the poor, restless
brain and unsatisfied heart were at rest. The
later pictures of Ludwig show a marked degene-
ration of the sombre, dark and flashing face.
The brows and eyes in the earlier photographs
were almost noble. The latter full of a certain
predestined melancholy. The mouth and chin
showing the frail inherent weakness; both being
self-indulgent and vacillating. But in the last
pictures taken of him, a coarse, gross, heavy,
loose look manifested itself, a suggestion almost
of cruel brutality. One hears that he presented
a loathsome and almost ridiculous figure; be-
coming fat and bloated and in his apparel careless.
His entrances into Munich were always heralded
by swiftly riding torch-bearers, for he always
came at night. In a few moments the sound of
wildly galloping horses could be heard, dashing
down the Leopold and Ludwig strasse's like the
wind. The breakneck speed was never slackened
even when the carriage came to the narrow en-
trance leading before the palace, into which the
horses were turned with masterly dexterity. If
one by chance caught a glimpse of his face, it
was to see a pale, haunted countenance, with trem-
8*
Il6 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
bling eyelids ; the face of one endeavouring to flee
from himself and all his terror-breeding thoughts.
From the first he seemed conscious, "in the re-
cesses of his soul, that an irrevocable hour was
awaiting him, that he was crushed by a tyranni-
cal doom, by a threatening prohibition", which
he had not the character nor even the will, de-
sire or principle to conquer. He was an impris-
oned soul ; more a victim, than a son, of fate.
And now that distance has lent the perspective
of gentle, beautiful and charity-colored mists,
we see in his lonely, mournful, misguided and
exceedingly sorrowful career, the picture of an
ardent soul "bathed in the most ruined dreams"
and wasted energies in which a hopelessly, per-
verted egotism can possibly lose itself.
A chapter on Ludwig would be incomplete
without mentioning the extraordinary castles which
he built. Neuschwanstein, or the castle tower to
Hohenstaufen, is probably one of the most magni-
ficent castles in Europe, and certainly the finest
that sprang from the brain of Ludwig II. His
other two castles are obsessively French, and yet,
not seemingly so much the direct outcome of the
mood through which that nation had passed,
as the unwholesome adoration of a man sick
with morbid fancies. Neuschwanstein is absolu-
tely German. The site on which it rises being
one on which knightly families used to build
NEUSCHWANSTEIN
their strongholds (It is here we believe the Castle
of Tannhauser used to stand). In dark and distant
times it was peopled by the Schwangau race, and
four castles are said to have adorned the summit.
It is separated from the castle of Hohenstaufen
by a deep valley. The marble and granite of
which the present castle is composed comes from
Fiissen and Passau. The interior appointments
are entirely German; the decorations mostly re-
lating to incidents in the lives of Lohengrin,
Tannhauser, Walther von der Vogelweide, Hans
Sachs, Tristan and Isolde &c . ; in fact to all the old
legends, sagas and historical details which Lud-
wig so loved. Linderhof, in the depths of great
mountains and vast forests, isolated, apart und
grand, was always a much loved spot of Maxi-
milian's and he used often to frequent the place
for chamoix hunting. The quaint old wooden
building with it's galleries and rare old tiled
stoves, the "Linder", a typical peasants home,
was Maximilian's hunting box; but this was demo-
lished in 1872. On this spot, backed by the high
peaks, Ludwig built his typical, French Rococo
Chateau. It is completely an imitation, ablaze
with rich, gaudy colours, gobelin tapestries, in-
laid tables, statues, gilded and in marble, gold,
lace, ivorylustres , stoves of lapis lazuli, carrara
marble, Meissen bric-a-brac, and magnificent
Sevres vases. Despite it's undeniable treasures,
it gives one a very distasteful impression of
the frivolous tastes of Louis XIV. and XV. The
gardens are laid out with all the ingenuity
Il8 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
of the highest achievement of landscape garden-
ing; fountains, cascades, arbours, stiffly cut
shaded avenues, flights of steps with trickling
water and statues, everywhere in profusion. The
exterior of the little castle is very beautiful, the
interior consistently luxurious, uncomfortable,
fantastic and immeasurably insane. Neither Linder-
hof nor Herrenchiemsee seem habitable, yet
it is to the former place of extravagant richness
that Ludwig used to fly, calling it his "retreat".
Artists, musicians and painters being here his
sole comrades. In the Blue Grotto (with it's
extremely artificial blue calcium, or electric
lights), on the small, dark, oily-looking lake,
he used to row with his friends, in a boat
imitated from Lohengrin's swan. At one end
of the lake (supposed to represent a curtained
stage one imagines), and lit by foot-lights, is a
painting of Venus and Tannhauser. It is blatantly
obvious, unsuggestive and shiny looking. In the
garden stands the so-called Moorish Kiosk, the
interior fantastically decorated in Turkish style.
The Chapel in the grounds was also restored by
Ludwig. Not far from Linderhof, in a deep ravine in
the wood, is "Hunding's hut" the interior being
a copy of the first act of Wagner's "Die Wal-
kiire". It used to be lighted by pine torches, and
on the walls are axes, spears and trophies of
the chase. In front of this hut is a small lake
and on it a small canoe hollowed out of the
trunk of a tree. The king used often to dine
here, afterwards retiring to the "Hermitage"
LUDWIG II. . JJp
which nestles under a huge rock, built of the
bark and trunks of trees, containing only a simple
bed, a bench and a Prie-Dieu. Farther on are
the Marco castle and the Pavilion of St. Hubert.
All along the roads from Linderhof to Hohen-
schwangau are numerous buildings giving proof
that this was Ludwig's favorite spot. On this
road he used to drive in an enormous golden
sleigh, "a la Louis XV." on high runners and
drawn by six powerful white horses ; the corners
of the sleigh were adorned with carved figures
and the horses heads with costly plumes. Ludwig
usually drove at night and it is little wonder that
the superstitious peasants looked upon him, appear-
ing suddenly in their midst and as swiftly dis-
appearing, as a mysterious vision, magician or
spirit 1
The hall marks of Greek art, which so animated
Ludwig I., are a noble simplicity and calm gran-
deur, and it is curious, that with his professed
love of Greek art, Ludwig II. should have revel-
led so much in the following of the Rococo style.
The one so austere, dwelling on perfect line with
no unnecessary detail; the other so overloaded
with superfluities, so vulgar and bizarre. The
idealism of the former should have surmounted
for good and all, the gaudy artificiality of the
suggestively sensual French school. Bavaria had
of course gone through a period of ridiculous
subservience to everything French and it reached
its height in this unwholesome sycophancy of
Ludwig's. He seems to have been more truly
120 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
than aught else, a visible, tangible exemplification
of the inner heart of the people of the Rococo
period. All decadence reaches its climax in some
outward form, some completing degenerate type.
The Rococo is fundamentally and incontrovertibly
corrupt, breeding such types as Louis XIV. and
Louis XV. and influencing such unhappy mediums
as Ludwig II.
The present King of Bavaria, Otto, Ludwig's
brother, is still alive, kept in secluded watch-
fulness in the castle of Fiirstenried. He was
born in Munich in 1848, but has never been
able to rule his kingdom, having much earlier
revealed such distinct mental trouble that after
his return from the Franco -Prussian war he
was almost immediately forced to be kept in
retreat. His madness had a painful effect on
Ludwig, who had a deep affection for his brother.
Their mother, Queen Marie Fredericka Auguste
Hedwig, a royal Princess of the House of Prussia,
resided mostly in Munich in the winter and in
the summer at Elbigen-Alp near Hohenschwangau.
She died in 1889.
Since the death of Ludwig, Bavaria has had
a time of peace and continued prosperity. The
Prince Regent, Luitpold Carl Joseph Wilhelm
Ludwig, was born at Wiirzburg in 1821 and
married in 1844 at Florence, Augusta Josepha,
an Imperial Princess Arch-Duchess of Austria
and Grand-Ducal Princess, of Tuscany. She died
in 1864. Until his assumption of the Regency,
Luitpold was Master General of the Ordnance in
THE PRINCE-REGENT 121
the Bavarian army. When but fourteen he was
made a Captain and when but eighteen a Colonel
of the regiment now bearing his name (the
I st Artillery). The Prince Regent has four children;
three sons and a daughter. The heir presumptive
is Prince Ludwig, a General of Infantry, who is
married to a Princess of the House of Este
(Austrian). His second son, Prince Leopold, mar-
ried the Princess Gisela, daughter of the Empress
of Austria, and the third son, Prince Arnulf is
married to a Princess of the reigning House of
Lichtenstein. The third Bavarian heir-presump-
tive is Prince Rupprecht, eldest son of Prince
Ludwig, and married to Duchess Gabriel, daughter
of Karl Theodor, in 1900. He was born in 1869
and is a Lieutenant in the 3 rd Bavarian Regiment
of Artillery. Prince Luitpold is a veteran soldier,
having fought in many battles; notably, in the
Franco-Prussian war of 1870. He was the only
one of Ludwig's sons to receive a military edu-
cation and under him the army has again begun
to assert an absorbing despotism.
1899 was the 100 anniversary of the Zweibriicken-
Birkenfeld line.
Since the rule of the Prince Regent the splen-
did new National Museum has been built, the
famous Prince Regenten-Theater, the Palace of
Justice (which is considered the finest specimen
of Late-Renaissance architecture in Europe) and
the Army Museum at the end of the Hofgarten,
only completed in the winter of 1905, and the
New Rathaus. The Luitpold Bridge over the
122 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
Isar, the lovely Luitpold Terrace above the
river, and the exquisite, delicately poised Peace
Monument, were begun and finished since his
regency.
This year of 1906 witnessed the celebration of
the one hundreth anniversary of Bavaria as a
Kingdom.
IV.
"Art rests on a kind of religious sense and on a deep
steadfast earnestness; and on this account it unites so
readily with religion." Goethe.
ART AND RELIGION 125
ETHICS, LITERATURE, ART, ARCHI-
TECTURE AND RELIGION.
Perhaps the study of history teaches us one
thing more clearly than aught else, the indubi-
table, absolute and, furthermore, necessary union
of religion and morals with art. Great art is,
after all, beneath many technical phrases, but a
capturing of the mood spiritual. Art devoid of
morals, of ethical values cannot live, is comple-
tely useless, nay more, one may dare say has
hardly ever existed before the present times, if
one may apply the word "art" to the immoral
excuses expressed through some art mediums in
these days. As far back as one can trace, art
has been the manifestation of the religion which
animated the nation and individual in its given
period. The religion of the Greeks was Immorta-
lity ; the immortality of the Soul and of Beauty,
and they endeavoured with every fibre of their
beings to defend that Beauty and "live the
dream that was in them". The great art epics,
which stormed, at first so crudely, through the
hearts of the wanderers during the Migration
periods, now unhappily lost to us, were the endea-
vours of their turbulent souls to express their
worship j for the "Elemental Gods". The art of
126 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
modern Europe, apart from its sculpture, is the
result of the luminous teachings of a sad, lonely
Gallilean, the Divine founder of the Christian
Religion. The art which he inspired may not
always have been, nor be, merely an exposition
of his concrete teachings, but one can safely
assert that little art would have been ours today
without the story of his martyrdom on the hori-
zon. His was the impetus which awoke the desire
for the mystical places of prayer (temples, altars
and images for other creeds had of course been
erected in all lands long before this, but we are
speaking chiefly of the lands above Italy), in
which to be able the more fittingly to approach
His Presence. For love of Him, ardent and devout
souls illuminated the Gospels and early books of
prayer. Pictures, monuments, architecture, poems,
sacred and miracle plays, all, as it were, impelled
by the dominance of His far-reaching power and
the result of the deep, unchangeable, earnest
and religious sense in man. As religion becomes
universal, so vast that it escapes all definite creed
or power of diminishing words, embracing all
Love, Beauty, Concord, Spirituality and a con-
sciousness of the soul's immortality, the Omni-
present God and the illimitable Godhead in man,
so must art broaden, becoming ever more full
of wonder and beauty, haloed by the luminous
shadow of an "unseen power". And so, to garner into
our vision, the epics, art, architecture and literature,
and the great art natures which have glorified this
one small kingdom, we must again go far, far
ART AND RELIGION
back and follow the religious atmospheres which
have, through various periods, controlled her.
We shall find that the ideal had to follow its
star over many a winding road, beneath dark
abysses, over rough tracks, gloomy ways, face
many corruptions, oftentimes expressed through
strange and incomprehensible mediums, "the
artist being merely the path of the Creator to
his work". Quietly, irresistibly, these two forces,
Art and Religion, have gone their steady upward
way with a train of martyrs, sages, mystics,
"men of sorrow, and acquainted with grief",
shadowed often with despair, and by a seemingly
eternal and awful failure. Nevertheless an army
that "never turned it's back, but marched breast
forward" following it's undivided starlit way, despite
the wars, plagues, conquests, influx of foes, political
corruption, the base power of prelates and ignoble
ecclesiastics. The waves of these latter evils may,
and did, for a time shatter the borders of the
developement of art. The fantastic French in-
fluence later, seemed to turn men's eyes from
the path of wholesome courses ; and the modern
nervous artificiality and poverty-stricken desire
to startle, seems to pervert and banish the true
aim, purpose and object of this mighty force for
joy, revelation and spirituality. Art for Art's
sake (unless we include in those words Religion, in
it's deepest, widest and most all embracing sense),
is the most insufficient of all cries. Every sense
within us, mystery, truth and wonder, all repea-
tedly affirm, if we would but listen, that art
128 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
must be for the sake of religion, inspiration and
beauty. Otherwise it sinks no deeper than the
eye's glance ; awakens no faculty but the critical,
and appeals to no depth but the egotism of the
senses.
*
The loss of the poems, legends and folk-songs,
which Charlemagne had collected and which his
narrow son, Ludwig the Pious, had burned as
heathen monstrosities, was an irreparable loss.
A few of the native German traditions, however,
had not all been destroyed, but those fanatically
inclined endeavoured also to suppress them. But
we know that they must have been full of vivid
pictures of the stir and strife of the times, and
were sung and recited in the banqueting halls
of the Germanic kings; the composers and singers
being men of noble birth who had personally
taken part in the events of which they sang.
Christianity had made its first entrance and
potent mark very early into Bavaria, completely
transforming the people and country, bringing in
an entirely new element and attitude, and culti-
vating in the rough people an upward tendency,
and striving to express their manifold yearnings
n adequate outward form. In 472 Saint Seve-
rinus met everywhere on his journey through
Noricum, Christian churches and missionaries.
A hundred years before the gospels had been
widely spread through the splendour of such
brains as Theodoric the Ostrogoth, and Bishop
ART AND RELIGION I2Q
Ulfilas the Visgoth (d. 381). (It was the latter
who translated the Gospels into old Gothic and
the selfsame work, a labour both of religious
adoration and impelled by the springs of art, is
still to be seen in the library at Upsala. It was
done in silver letters on a purple ground.) In
Bavaria proper the Irish missionaries were the
first definite preachers of the Gospels, and their
earliest manuscripts are to be found there, and
not in their own country, as one might suppose.
During the 6 th and 7 th centuries they were moved
by a perfect ecstasy for missionary work and
crossed from Ireland in little wicker canoes co-
vered with hides, which they paddled, to England,
France and Germany. Thus did Celt return to
Celt, and the present enormous and inconceivably
momentous Celtic Renaissance in Ireland and
Scotland, for the resuscitating of their ancient
speech, their folk-lore, old sense of mystery and
wonder, which so animated them, their quaint
and sweet beliefs, their profound genius for poetry,
their passion for religion, their inherent compre-
hension of, and power for art, must appear of
redoubled interest to us.
For there is much in common between the
true, simple Celtic Bavarian and the Irish.
It was about this time that Saint Kilian (the
Scotch monk), Colman and Totnan came to Wiirz-
burg, were the former was martyred, in 613.
Saint Gallen also came from Ireland (founding
the monastery named after him), and later Mag-
nus, who introduced Christianity into Kempten
Norman, Bavarian History. 9
130 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
and Fiissen. But like all luminous things, the
way was long, and although the Christian religion
had taken indestructable root, it did not imme-
diately infuse itself and come vividly to light,
at one time seeming like to perish and flicker
out like a wind-blown candle, both for lack of
followers and the insincerity and hypocrisy on
the part of the so-called Bishops. But into this
world of spiritual decadence came that ever to
be remembered, sweet, earnest and abnegating
soul, the Devonshire monk, Saint Boniface (or
Winifred, the Good Doer). After his advent into
Bavaria, he sent to England and Ireland for more
helpers and missionaries. Many answered his
call and immediately he began everywhere to
found schools and build monasteries. The monks,
under his guidance and inspiration, tilled the
ground, drained the marshes, planted fruit trees
and corn, and carried on various kinds of trades.
Those whom they converted settled in cottages
around the base of the hills whereon stood their
monasteries, and these settlements grew and thri-
ved until at last they developed into villages,
towns and later into the great cities. In 735
Saint Boniface founded the order of Bishops in
Bavaria and made more firm and complete the
bond between the new German and Prankish
churches and the Church of Rome. He was
called "the Apostle of the Germans". In 732 he
founded in Bavaria the Bishoprics of Freising,
Passau, Regensburg, Eichstadt, Wiirzburg and
Erfurt. When he was seventy-four years old he
ART AND RELIGION JJJ
went to preach the gospels to the heathen Frisians,
by whom he was murdered in 755, but not be-
fore he had awakened with vigorous strokes the
sleeping germs of Christianity and set in motion
that definite movement towards the civilizing and
educating of the rude people among whom he sacri-
ficed his life. Before this, in the year 600, Bishop
Ruprecht (who had been driven out of Worms),
went with St. Emmerau to Regensburg. They
had been called there by the ruling duke of Ba-
varia, Theodo, who had been converted to Christia-
nity by his wife Regintrude. He earnestly desi-
red the gospels to be more widely spread in his
small domain, and so later Ruprecht was sent
to Juvavum (Salzburg), which had formerly been
a Roman military station, with a determination
to make it his head quarters for the furtherance
of the Gospels. From that time on Salzburg
played an important part in the history of Ba-
varia. Other prominent propagators of the gospels
in Bavaria were Corbinian and Willibald of Eich-
stadt. Hand in hand with the absorbing of the
Christian religion, took root and blossomed out
the first seeds of the present national art and
culture. Monasteries were built in all parts of
the kingdom for the preservation of the new
creed. The monks and Bishops especially culti-
vating the handicrafts, architecture and the illumi-
nating of the sacred books. For a long time
they were the only strivers after the beautiful
in both buildings and handiwork. The most fa-
mous early monasteries in Bavaria were St. Em-
9*
132 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
merau, Wellenburg, Weihenstephan (near Frei-
sing), Herrenchiemsee, Tegernsee and Wessobriinn.
The Benedictine monastery was founded as
early as the seventh century.
"All that Europe knows or possesses of art
and knowledge," wrote the famous Dr. Dollinger,
the Bavarian theologian, many centuries later,
"she owes to St. Benedictine and the cloisters
which he founded and which sprang from his
incentive and inspiring genius. One thousand two
hundred years have gone by since he trod this
earth, pioneering weary souls and those possessed
of deep philanthropic ideals, to his haven of rest
and work combined. Those havens were one
could both meditate and yet be of practical service
and use. The wisdom of this rule with its happy
combination of action and contemplative life
remain to this day, and from his cloisters have
sprung the works which have regenerated the
world."
In 748 788 was found, in the monastery at
Wessobriinn, near Weilheim, a very ancient
prayer in the old poetic form, which even then
was on the wane. It was called the "Wessobriinn
Prayer" and is still to be seen in the Royal State
Library at Munich. At Regensburg also was
found another very ancient poem called "Muspilli",
treating of the end of the world and the judge-
ment day. It, too, is supposed to have been
written in Bavaria. Many of the first works of
literature, poetry, painting &c., came from Ba-
varian monasteries. The first glass painting ever
ART AND RELIGION 133
done in Germany was started at Tegernsee (962),
and from thence spread over the entire country.
The poetry of the period had been, both in
form, subject matter and text, Latin, but now
they turned to their own traditions for inspiration,
although Latin was still the tongue written in.
The forerunners of these new poems were the
Nibelungen Sagen, later translated by Bishop
Pilgrim of Passau. The Ruodlieb of Helden poetry
was also in Latin, written by Monk Froumond
of the Tegernsee monastery (1000). In St. Gallen,
at the beginning of the eleventh century, the
Psalms were translated and also the book of
Job, printed in both Latin and German. About
the middle of the same century Williram of Ebers-
burg in Upper Bavaria, formerly a teacher in
Bamberg, introduced and translated hymns, and
at the same time Ezzo of Bamberg wrote the
song or poem of the Miracles of Christ, a typical
early German poem. After this Bishop Giinther
went on a long pilgrimage to Palestine and soon
after began the great era of the Crusades. We
have drifted a little too far ahead and must re-
turn again to the era of Charlemagne (768 814),
under whose progressive influence Bavaria deve-
loped farther and farther on the highways of
art and culture, realizing too in her deeper con-
science with the other Germanic lands, that they
must be more and more solded together, and
that it would be of infinite benefit to their tempo-
ral and worldly good to allow this spiritual power
to be the means of putting an end to the con-
134 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
stant bickerings and fightings and combine them
into one compact nation. But it was a long
delayed dream! From the death of Charle-
magne, to the succession of the Wittelsbachs, Ba-
varia passed through innumerable vicissitudes,
retardations and difficulties. But she was, as we
have seen, growing with every year, more power-
ful and prominent. All her towns were on the
great trading roads between Italy and the heart
of Germany. Consequently she was ever in re-
ceptive touch with the outside world, receiving new
impressions of art, sculpture, beauty, and advan-
cing in the progression of trade. Enormous wealth
was floating towards her. Her commerce and art
increased with astonishing rapidity. Her dukes,
bishops and merchants were noted for their in-
dependence, power, wealth and magnificence. And
although her days were of necessity full of both
great and small combats, the flowers of a world
famous period of art were lifting their irrepres-
sible heads. The beginnings of beautiful and
lasting examples of architecture were manifesting
themselves in both monastery, castles, cathedrals,
churches and private dwellings. Charlemagne had
himself encouraged the renewing of classical lite-
rature, the writing of poetry, and had brought
musicians, builders, architects and singers from
Italy. The Christian Church, under the power
with which he had invested it, was becoming
almost the greatest power in the land, both politi-
cally and scholastically, although it had almost
completely escaped from it's original purpose and
ART AND RELIGION 135
meaning, by the worldly personalities of the
Archbishops and other ecclesiastics. Nevertheless
the monasteries were the chief seats of learning,
and many brilliant women who were in convents,
or ruling them as abbesses, were earnest students
and produced many valuable literary works. The
first play ever written in the history of modern
Europe was the work of a nun. A typical poem
of this period was one written by a Saxon monk
by order of Ludwig the Pious, then ruling Ba-
varia, on religious and national subjects. It was
called "Heljand or the Redeemer", and was an
endeavour on the part of the king to open the
ears of his subjects to the true meaning of
Christianity. It was commenced about 830.
In 942 the cathedral of Speir was founded by
Duke Henry II. and between 1103 and 1120 the
cathedral at Bamberg by King Henry the Saint.
In the Royal State Library at Munich are to be
seen the most rare, beautiful and valuable manu-
scripts used by Henry II. at his cathedral.
That the ecclesiastical prelates were well versed
in all the technicalities, as well as the ambitions
for artistic progress, is potently manifest when
we read that for the completion of his cathedral
at Speier, Henry IV. sent "for the famous archi-
tect, Bishop Otto of Bamberg, to overlook and
finish the work".
Between the rule of Otto of Wittelsbach and Lud-
wig the Bavarian, the intense artistic progression
made, was little short of bewildering. The thir-
teenth and fourteenth centuries were alive with
Jj6 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
a growing independence and a deepening desire for
individual expression in poetry, painting, and
stone. The above two mentioned cathedrals and
the one at Regensburg, founded in the thirteenth
century, are masterpieces of early German archi-
tecture. The first two are in Romanesque, the
latter in Gothic, style. The dominance of the
clerical party of course coloured all the literature
of the period. In feelings and life they were
anything but clerical, being strongly flavoured
with national, more than universal, ambitions.
The real and sensuous world attracted them and
their pens infinitely more than the spiritual, ab-
stract and ideal. They were all men of warfare,
keen on politics, and possessed of an inordinate
love of power, adulation, position, and love for
worldly goods.
They followed most consistently the dictates of
those churchmen who, "would fain kill their
church, as the churches had killed their Christ".
Consequently the literature of the tenth and ele-
venth centuries was entirely realistic, often mun-
dane, and very sensual. The first novel of modern
European literature was written by an unknown
Bavarian monk in the monastery at Tegernsee
in 1030. The work gives one a very vivid pic-
ture of the atmosphere of life in Bavaria during
the first half of the eleventh century, proving it
to be sadly sensual, narrow and prejudiced.
And now we come to the age of Romance.
All the above was changed to a great extent by
the daring strokes of Frederic Barbarossa and
THE CRUSADERS AND TROUBADOURS
the deep pure ideals of the knights of the Crusades.
Chivalric culture took the place of clerical learning.
The above named Emperor had an incalculable in-
fluence on his epoch by his remarkable indepen-
dence of thought. He was the first broad minded
free-thinker of modern times, and broke through
many a granite wall of prejudice, setting in
movement the great resistance against the all
absorbing power of the Romish Church.
The whole atmosphere was changed too by the
oversweeping ambitions of the Crusades. This
movement reawakened the enthusiasm for the old
heroes, lighted many a phlegmatic heart and
again the Gods were celebrated in song, epics
and saga. But they were thoroughly altered from
the Migration period, being completely Christianized.
The ancient, fierce, strong, barbaric rovers were
turned into chivalrous knights, although at times
the old spirit of the contemporaries of Attila,
king of the Huns, and Theodoric, at times creeps
forth. This period was not only characterized by
the resuscitation of the old Helden-Sagen, but by
the birth of the Minnesingers. These knights
established innumerable manners and customs of
morals and noble ideas, not the least impetus
coming from distant Provence, that home of song
and ideal knighthood, thus introducing French
court epics and the Provencal troubadours into
Bavaria.
These troubadours were knights and gentlemen
of Provence who composed their own songs and
wandered over the country giving expression to
138 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
them. The word comes from "trouver", to find,
meaning the "discoverers". The Germans, espe-
cially in Bavaria, quickly assimilated and followed
their example, their poets calling themselves
"Minnesingers" or "Love-Singers". At first they
borrowed a good deal from the French, but later
they "turned the lamp inward upon themselves"
and composed heroic poems from the old German
legends. Is there any country so throbbing with
Romance as Bavaria? One portion of it's history
is ablaze with Sagen, legend and mystic atmo-
sphere. Tall mountain peaks, exquisite undulating
valleys, rivers, caves, castles, monasteries, gate-
ways, fortresses, all were fraught with a pregnant
call to dream; an aroma of old-world fable,
haunted by mimes, fairies, gnomes and goblins.
During the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth cen-
turies, the travels of the Bavarian knights in-
undated the land with tales of strange and wonder-
ful adventure. The Welf and Thuringian Dukes
were all ardent patrons of Art, and their courts
the homes for Minnesingers and Troubadours. The
chronicles of the Welfs and Babenbergers especially
are characterized by their love and cultivation of
chivalry and knightly heroism. Welf VI., the hus-
band of the brave Countess Ida, was famous for
his protection of players. At the court of Henry
the Proud, the court pastor Conrad composed at
the request of the Duchess a poem which he
recited in French, Latin and German, describing
the deeds of Charlemagne. This poem was called
the "Rolandslied", and belongs to that great
THE NIBELUNGEN LIED 139
cycle of which the Nibelungen Lied is a part.
In the time of Henry the Lion, Wirrnherr, a monk
of Tegernsee, wrote the life of Mary, in verse
and prose.
Between 1221 and 1228 Conrad of Wurzburg
wrote "The World's Reward, or the Golden Forge"
which reveals an earnest spirituality. Hugo von
Trimberger, a Bamberg schoolmaster, also a poet
of the thirteenth century, wrote a didactic poem
entitled "Der Renner".
In 1386 at Heidelberg, the early home of the
Wittelsbachs, the University was founded. All
over Bavaria the spirit of Romance, poetry, song
and short story, ran a riotous way, and the most
important movement of modern literature was
founded. The peasants, merchants and artisans
began slowly to realize their rights and to take
their place beside the clergy and knight in public
and artistic life. The famous cycle, Frisian, Bur-
gundian, Anglo-Saxon and Lombard, out of which
sprang the Nibelungen Lied, is too well known
here to analize. The Walthuri Saga is preserved
to us in Latin by the monk Ekkehard of
St. Gallen (930).
The Nibelungen (of the Burgundian cycle or
Kreise) was gathered in and first written by two
unknown Austrian poets about 1136, also the
Kudrun Lied. In the fourteenth century, Bishop
Pilgrim of Passau, gathered into one volume all
that he could find of these sagas. The collection
of these ballads, called the "Nibelungen Lied and
Chriemhildes Revenge" and "The Lament" were
140 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
translated into German, first by Karl Simrock,
from a Swiss poetical version by Professor Bodmer,
about 1575. Bavaria at this time was rich with
the presence of two luminous characters, Wolfram
von Eschenbach, and Walther von der Vogel-
weide. The latter was the first whole-souled
patriot of German literature; he brought the
lyrics of the middle ages to their greatest emi-
nence and perfection. He lived for a long time
at Wiirzburg and his monument is to be seen
there in the Kreuzgang of the Neue Miinster.
Wolfram von Eschenbach was also a noble and
gallant knight, his whole life dedicated to an
exalted love, living on his small property in the
little town of Ansbach in Eschenbach. It is now
the capital of central Franconia. He was the
greatest epic poet of the middle ages, belonging
to that small circle of poets and troubadours
who, in the last years of the twelfth, and first
years of the thirteenth century, assembled at the
court of the Landgraf Herrmann of Thuringia,
and made a brilliant centre, similar to that for-
med six hundred years later by the prince of the
same Duchy, when the greatest poets of the
eighteenth century marked a new era in Eu-
ropean culture and progression. He wrote a series
or cycle of poems entitled, "Titurel and Parsival",
in which also Lohengrin is mentioned. It is to
him that we owe our most intimate knowledge
of Parsifal. Lohengrin also springs out of Ba-
varian folk-lore, and Tannhauser was a Bavarian
knight who led a wild and roving life, dying
WOLFRAM VON ESCHENBACH 141
about 1270. The castle of Neuschwanstein* being
built on the site of the ancient castle of Tannhauser.
The greatest historian of the Middle Ages was
Bishop Otto of Freising, the son of Leopold, Mar-
grave of Austria, a grandson of Henry VI. and
a cousin of Frederick Barbarossa. He was the
latters biographer. The Crusades, apart from the
new refinements they introduced, proved inva-
luable in the broadening of the mental capacities.
For the long journeys and wanderings through
many lands quickened all the senses by new
sights and sounds, exciting an interest in geo-
graphy, history, the natural sciences and intro-
ducing the travellers, to many unknown pro-
ducts, such as sugar, spices, silk, dyes &c. With
the fall of the great Hohenstaufen dynasty (1268)
began the decline of national unity and the disso-
lution of clerical supremacy. The advanced minds
of the day were beginning to fall away from
the belief of the complete infallibility of the Pope.
Ecclesiasticism was proving itself a spiritual and
national failure. In deep souls it was being
realized that this obsessive external power had
little to do with internal truth. Dante, the su-
preme forerunner of humanism, was raising his
clarion, withal desolate, cry.
The great transition period between medieval
and modern times was in motion, and all art
was profoundly affected. It must not be forgotten
that during all these troublous times the Dukes
* Or Hohenschwangau. It is not quite possible to ascertain!
142 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
of Bavaria were founding innumerable universities,
and building the cathedrals which have so grown to
be her pride and glory today, and in the forth-
coming sixteenth century they did an infinite deal
to save the religious reformation from being
buried in a party hatred and fanaticism. The
history of Bavaria from the tenth to the eleventh
centuries, is one of a struggle for emancipation.
All her more important cities were Free Imperial
cities, and this political independence, while it
certainly did eventually have much to do with
the dissolution of the national unity and the
religious horrors which followed, nevertheless
gave birth to that great wave of art which
dominated so majestically the future. For the
settlements of artisans employed by the bishops,
and living around the bishop's palaces, had in the
course of time changed into independent com-
munities of free citizens, making and executing
their own laws, electing their own magistrates,
ranking with the princes and barons as important
props and impellers of the kingdom. The lite-
rature in its inevitable alteration may at first
seem disappointing, the heroic grandeur of the
national epic, the grace and dignity of the court
romances, becoming things of the past. But slowly
their place was taken by a deeper thought and
a higher common sense, and though no great
poet stands out luminously to light the way in
the fore-going era, the way was being paved for
a Luther, a Diirer, Melanchthon, Lessing, Kant,
Goethe, Schiller and down and onwards into the
THE FRANCISCANS AND DOMINICANS 143
oncoming centuries to all the great writers of
poetry, science and philosophy in modern times.
The germ of what we now know as individuality
had its seed in this period. For the first time
popular criticism lifted up its head and attacked
the existing order of things and all the evils and
abuses they entailed. The first remarkable mani-
festation of this new spirit was to be found in
the religious oratory which was brought about
chiefly by the two great preaching orders, the
Franciscans and Dominicans. With their entrance
into Bavaria a marked and beneficial change
began to manifest itself. Free speech began to
feel the power of its soaring and compelling
wings; expression among the people began to
assert its needs. It was chiefly from these two
above named orders that the innumerable travelling
preachers sprang. They went about from town
to town speaking on whatever subject or text
they chose, and on any day, whereas before the
sermons were only preached on Sundays and
Holy days, and then under the greatest restrictions
and strictest supervision. But now all was changed.
They used any place most convenient for their
sermons; either the public square, before the city
gates, from the steeples, or the trees. The most
influential speaker of this period was Bertold of
Regensburg, the greatest orator of his century
and a pupil of the also famous preacher David
of Augsburg. They were the virtual founders of
that potential wave of 14 th century mysticism.
The Dominican Bishop of Regensburg and Al-
144 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
bertus Magnus were also two of most the learned,
cultivated men of their century and did much
to improve the condition of freedom for the people,
in both art and life. Of great import at this
time was the building of the first paper factory
(1320) and also the building and working of the
first mill by water power at Nuremberg (1390).
The artistic soil of Bavaria was so rich in the
14 th and 15* centuries, her individual towns so
amazingly productive, her gift to the entire world
of great and artistic souls so resplendent, that
one can but barely touch on their most important
names and works. The cities, Nuremberg, Augs-
burg, Rothenburg and Wiirzburg will have to be
treated separately. Each one of these grew in
beauty and wonder. The spirit for beautifying,
for following all the arts and crafts was not
limited to the luminous names of which we so
well know, but seemingly to all the citizens. The
atmosphere was impregnated with the desire to
beautify. As in America today the spirit is one
of rush, hurry and the desire to get on, and make
money, so, then was it the desire to create
lasting and exquisite works of art, not only in
ornaments, pictures and statues, but in streets,
houses, bridges, door-lintels and courts. In 1450
Ludwig the Severe founded the University at
Ingolstadt and to this period belongs the great
mathematician, Johann Miiller, who went from
Konigsberg to Nuremberg ; also Johann Reuchlin,
Conrad Celtis, Martin Behaim and the learned
philologist, Rudolf Agricola.
GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 145
The architectural evolution had of course during
all this time been gradually advancing and growing
under every fresh impetus and influx of new and
foreign ideas. The slow, fascinating and at first
almost imperceptible and most delicate changes,
creeping in to decorate more suggestively the moul-
dings on walls, the tracery on windows, the choir,
doors, nave and towers, gradually transforming
all to a marvellous internal harmony and external
beauty. The art style which had existed in
Bavaria from the io th to the 13 th centuries
was entirely Romanesque, which latter was a
developement from the Roman Basilica of distant
early-Christian days. The most typical examples
to be seen being the cathedrals at Ratisbon, Speier,
and the finest of all at Bamberg.
About the middle of the 13 th century the style
generally known as Gothic manifested itself, in
cathedral, city and conventual churches. It was
partly an independent and original growth and
partly receptive to a wave of architectural in-
fluence from France. The churches of Nuremberg
and Rothenburg, the Frauenkirche in Munich and
the St. Martinskirche at Landshut being luminious
exemplifications of these majestic edifices.
Technical skill was making miraculous advance
in sculpture, painting and architecture during
the 15 th century, achieving, from the splendid
foundations of the school, invaluable knowledge
from which to work up, onwards and outwards.
Painting, wood-carving and sculpture finding the
richest of soil and mediums of incontestable genius
Norman, Bavarian History. 10
A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
in Bavaria; Nuremberg and Augsburg being the
most important radiating centres in all Germany
for art works of every sort. Wiirzburg too was
not far behind in her presentations of master-
pieces at this time. Wood carving was prominently
brought to the fore by the works of Veit Stoss
in Nuremberg; painting, by such world famous
artists as Wohlgemiith (1435 1519), Diirer (1571
to 1628 and his little group of famous followers),
Hans Schauffelein, Sebald and Barthel Beham, Al-
bert Altdorfer, Hans Baldung Grien, and Christopher
Amberger and the prolific Tilman Riemenschneider
of Wiirzburg, the celebrated landscape painter of
that city; sculpture and bronze work by Adam
Krafft and Peter Vischer.
Still another influence manifested itself toward
the end of the 15 th century, which grew out
in ever widening blossoms till it reached an
incalculably glorious maturity in the splendid
"German Renaissance". In the early part of this
century, and probably earlier, the artisans and
artists of Bavaria had begun to visit Italy and
were in consequence much influenced by the
difference and variety of art styles there prevalent.
The 1 6 th century is very strongly flavoured with
the influences of this warm, glowing, colorful
land; which began to guide the chisel as well as
the brush to the introducing of the characteristic
ornamentation of the Italian architecture. All over
Bavaria, in too numerous examples to mention,
the German Renaissance, laid its magic touch,
not only in new buildings but in re-touching the
THE GERMAN RENAISSANCE 147
old ones. The Fiigger Bath Rooms in Augsburg and
the St. Michaels Kirche in Munich are, one might
say, absolutely Italian Renaissance, so dominant
had been the power of southern thought on
the South German temperament. In every town
and minute parish the new spirit entered, Nurem-
berg, Rothenburg and Augsburg leaping with their
usual ardent receptivity to the front ranks of the
most perfect examples of German Renaissance
towns.
It was Albrecht the Wise of Munich who founded
the Frauenkirche, St. Salvator's (now the Greek
Church) and also the Royal State Library. Bet-
ween 1508 1550 Johann Turmair appeared x in
Ingolstadt. Adam Krafft, Peter Vischer, Willibald,
Pirckheimer, Hans Sachs and Diirer were but a
few of the names which glorified Nuremberg. In
Augsburg Conrad Peutinger and Holbein were
crowning their names with greatness. Painting,
sculpture, iron, bronze and copper works, and all
the creations of "those mediaevals architects whose
lives were a prayer in marble", exquisite silver
and goldsmith's work, fresco-painting, sarcophogi,
carving, &c. all reached a height where criticism
stands dumb. The illuminated books of the period
were gems of patient, perfect art and coloring.
A very good example of the last named is the
Tournament Book of Wilhelm IV. to be seen in
the Royal State Library at Munich. Albrecht V.
was a great lover of art and also an ambitious
collector, he started the collection of Wittelsbach
treasures now in the Reiche Kapelle and encouraged
10*
148 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
the genius and talent of such men as Orlando
de Lasso (the founder, one may say, of German
music), Philip Apain, Migulas Hund and Hans
Mielich, the painter. He also decorated the Cha-
teau of Trausnitz which had been built by Duke
Ludwig. Another interesting book to be seen in
the Royal State Library is the prayer-book of
this same Albrecht, beautifully illuminated and
containing psalms written for his orchestra by
Orlando de Lasso. He also founded at this time
the Gymnasium in Munich. And so the great
tide of art in all breasts swept on its way, re-
ceiving a tremendous religious impetus and in-
spiration from the Reformation which was ablaze
in most hearts and guiding their genius. Luther's
spirit was abroad in all men, urging them to faith
and freedom.
William V. began the St. Michaelskirche and
founded the University at Wiirzburg.
Maximilian I., the great Elector, built the Reiche
Kapelle for the reception of Albrecht the Wise's
collection. He personally, apart from his warrior-
like propensities, was a fine, delicate artist, carving
in ivory, beautiful Chinese vases and candelabra,
still to be seen in Munich. He was also an ardent
admirer of his incomparable countryman, Albrecht
Diirer, and secured many of his finest works.
Peter Candid also glorified Bavaria at this time.
The mediaeval cycle was running its inspiring
course when suddenly, imperceptibly, the tide began
to change, and a new phase entered, a new spirit
moved on the face of the artistic waters. The
THE THIRTY YEARS WAR 149
surface of Bavarian art slowly began to change
its colors, forms, ideals and dreams.
A strange and tragic spectacle was manifested
toward the end of the sixteenth century. At the
beginning, Bavaria had shown not only the highest
intellectual promise, but the most extraordinary
prolixity in artists and art. The long pent up
revolt against class rule, which reached its highest
climax before the Reformation and its second
before the Revolution, was impelling all men to
break forth and speak their word, through poem,
book, picture, or statue, with elemental power.
Great men were everywhere standing up for great
causes. All were republicans at heart. Holbein,
Diirer, Melanchthon, Candid, Vischer, &c. were
hand in hand spiritually with Erasmus, Coperni-
cus, Hutten and Luther. The entire world was
swayed by the deepest feelings. Art was the
medium, combined with the true religious sense,
that sense of universality against restrictive for-
malities, to express, reveal, break down and re-
build. The way was being prepared by them for
a new and higher form of national life, for a
more suggestive art, and a more glorious religion.
But suddenly, tragically, the "Golden Age" seeming-
ly so near at hand, was swept off its feet, the
door already opened brutally and inexorably shut,
and the liberty so dearly bought hurried away
into a cruel vortex, and for the time being
hopelessly lost in the terrible contest between
Catholic and Protestant, Calvinist and Reformed.
The war of the churches leads to the most
150 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
awful of all destructions. To argue over religion
is to murder religion. To fight over it is the
most arrant of blasphemies and incomprehensible
of inconsistences.
And so Bavaria drifted with the rest of Ger-
many towards the abyss of the Thirty Years War.
Its disasterous effect upon art was incalculable.
From 1618 to 1641 Bavaria and all her cities
were in the clutches of this long, weary, devas-
tating fight. Her towns were almost ruined: her
trade was lost: her castles, monasteries and churches
were ransacked, burned, torn and shattered to
mounds of lost glory. First by Catholic and then
by the Protestant Swedes. She sank into a hopeless
mire of mental and spiritual degradation. Being
the head of the Catholic League she was the
chief recipient for all the hate which that party
engendered. Notwithstandig the "Pacification of
Passau", the Diet at Augsburg, and the "Con-
fession" drawn up by Melanchthon, peace seemed
an inanimate thing. Beauty, and all desire for
it, to have vanished.
The men of the period were mostly brutalised
by the hate animating every party. The land
was so torn up, the mere difficulty of living so
great that art was a lamp extinguished: a wan-
dering, disembodied soul.
When at last peace did come the spirit of the
nation had undergone a complete change. France
was very highly cultivated, withal in a rather super-
ficial manner, inclined to the external and the
frivolous. But the few left in Bavaria, who still
THE ROCOCO STYLE 151
had some desire for a return of delicacy and
beauty, turned their eyes to her for inspiration.
Gradually the inevitable and overmastering desire
for art returned and France became the lodstar,
pattern and model, and Louis XIV. the idol by
whom all must live. The new element was first
definitely introduced by the wife of Elector Ferdi-
nand Marie, Henrietta Adelaide of Savoy. She
came from the land of "rococo" and soon after
her marriage asked her husband to build her a
palace after the one at Versailles. And so Nymphen-
burg was built. This new style, a mixture of
both French and Italian Baroque, caught hold of
every heart. Every petty prince, duke, count and
bishop wanted his miniature Versailles and the
results were some very beautiful and some very
ridiculous exemplifications of this style, so full
of ,,pomp and weakness". It was a reaction,
not only against the awful horrors of the wars,
but against the severity, soberness and a certain
stiffness prevalent in mediaeval times. The rococo
was light, full of a "fantastic foppery", a quaint
lightness, a courtly flippant grace. It was preg-
nant too with a certain element of unreality,
which spirit also potently invaded the literature,
painting and manners of the period. It was dainty
on the surface, but beneath sickly and unwhole-
some, devoid of fibre and backbone, of soul,
lasting strength or suggestiveness.
But it came as a relief to the worn out nation.
Everywhere in Bavaria repairs now went on in
churches, castles, palaces, rath-houses and all
152 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
public buildings. It developed a splendid, extra-
vagant, artificial and luxurious spirit. Churches
were redecorated in the new style and many new
ones built. The bishop of Wiirzburg built him-
self a typical palace of the times. It contained
two-hundred and eighty four rooms, one completely
lined with mirrors and another devoted to a merry-
go-round for the amusement of the prelates. His
Eminence having for himself a little plush em-
broidered car. Perhaps every nation, even almost
every individual, goes through a rococo period,
if only in thought, as all pass through a Greek
period. It is a pity that the latter cannot al-
ways dominate.
The word "rococo" comes from "roche" and
"coquille", meaning "rock" and "shell". The
ornamental work in the architecture of the time
emulating a combination of shell and rock. The
costumes had changed from the sobriety and severe
richness of the mediaeval burghers, merchants,
artisans and dames, to dainty silks, lace ruffles,
paint, powder, patches and white wigs.
Nevertheless to this period of frivolity do we
owe the first absolute birth of modern music.
Against this new dresden - china like phase a
strong revulsion had to come. For Bavarians at
heart are in deep and serious earnest, possessing
"in their literary and artistic natures not only
a love of exact knowledge, but also a love of
vast horizons, an insatiable curiosity as to the
"whence" and "whither" of all things: the sense
of mystery and the immensity of the universe."
BAVARIA BECOMES A KINGDOM 153
From the same land whence had sprung the
flippant atmosphere of rococoism came another
impelling voice ; the voice of Jean Jacques Rousseau.
The adoration of French superficiality began to
fade. Outward pomp, the inner hypocrisy of the
churches and all absorbing militarism rose and
fell and rose again. But brains of enormous depth
and genius manifested themselves. Lessing, Kant,
Schlegel, Winckelmann, Goethe, Schiller, Fichte,
Hegel, Herder and the Bavarian Richter all swelled
the onward -moving throng. It was a period of
storm and stress indeed, and Bavaria marched
with the foremost into the light. Change, growth,
developement and the violent assertions of indi-
vidualism were all at work in her artistic soul.
She was clamoring for a more complete form of
expression. The Seven Years War from 1756 1763
again plunged her into another period of retar-
dation, but from this she was soon resuscitated.
Her fight was a hard one, for during the en-
tire struggle for the independence and freedom
of Germany, Bavaria was again constantly the
scene of battles, marching armies, and in the
possession of the French. This accounts for the
French atmosphere which for so long influenced
her. From the time of her ascendency to the
rank of a Kingdom she has steadily developed
toward, not only a calm and onward-moving
prosperity, but artistically has again come to the
front rank of European nations.
Her capital has become a centre for the culti-
vation of painting, music, literature and sciences,
154 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
her cities famous for their beauty of architecture
and the preservation of ancient atmospheres.
In 1808 the Academy of Fine Arts was founded,
and Frauenhofer, the celebrated optician, Reichen-
bach, Liebig (the famous Chemist, whose statue
is in the Maximilian Platz), Utzenschneider, Westen-
rieder, Franz von Baader, Sailer and Schlegel, all
added their vast knowledge to the developement
of Bavarian culture. Her Residence Theatre (built
during the reign of Ferdinand Marie, in the
Rococo style by Frangois Cuvilles), the Hof
Theatre (built under Maximilian I. and rebuilt
after a severe fire in 1825 by Klenze), and the
beautiful Prince-Regenten (built under the auspices
of the present Prince-Regent), all tend to sustain
at the highest standard the great operas and music
of the world.
In painting, Bavaria has been the chief pioneer
and medium for another changing movement.
The three most striking personalities in this im-
portant revival being Cornelius, Marx and Kaul-
bach, whose names will be well known to all
students of Munich art.
Kaulbach's works are monumental and will
be handed on to future generations as the highest
product- of the Renaissance of the arts in modern
Germany; that great wave which resuscitated
the slumbering genius of painting in the art-
souls of Europe, and to which we owe so in-
finitely much.
Whatever our personal opinion of Kaulbach's
work may be, we cannot but help realising that
KAULBACH 155
he was one of the most necessary leaders of
modern art in Germany, as were Maddox Brown,
Burne Jones and Rossetti of the Pre-Raphaelite
movement in England.
Kaulbach helped Cornelius with the enormous
frescoes of the Glyptothek. Later he was made
director of the Bavarian Academy, when Cornelius
left. The present director is Karl Mahr.
The above mentioned movement in which Kaul-
bach played such an important part was one of
the most singular of art manifestations. He had,
like all great art-souls, absorbed freely from other
lands and schools, and tried hard to be both
Grecian and Italian, but the blood of Holbein,
Diirer, and Martin Schongauer ran too strongly
in his artistic veins, and he remained at root
essentially South-German.
The most important of his works are to be
seen in the Hofgarten Arcade and on the walls
of the New Pinakothek. He illustrated a Shake-
speare Gallery, and a Goethe folio -edition of the
Gospels. His most remarkable works are pro-
bably "The Destruction of Jerusalem", "The Tower
of Babel", "The Age of Homer", "The Crusades
and The Reformation" (symbolising a Cyclus or
Series), "The sea Fight at Salamis" (painted for
the Maximilianeum) and "The Battle of the Huns".
All art students are familiar with the names
of Lenbach, Stuck, Rottmann, Feuerbach and
Bocklin, all of whose works can be seen in Munich
either at the New Pinakothek or the Schack
Gallery.
156 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
That Bavaria will still continue to uphold and
excell in her artistic greatness is well assured.
The world's greatest singers, conductors, virtuosi
and actors, all come to this meeting place of the
arts; the orchestral concerts are hardly to be
equalled in any other city in the world. Classi-
cal, romantic and the modern psychological dramas
are all remarkably produced. The Royal House
of Wittelsbach still keep up with ardent enthusiasm
their long famous reputation as patrons of art
and music. The Prince-Regent is deeply beloved
for his philanthropic encouragement of all artistic
and charitable institutions, and for the continual
help he extends to individual and struggling genius.
The brilliant yearly Wagner Festival held in the
Opera House named after him holds almost as
important a place in artistic and musical annals
as that of Bayreuth, and has added still more
to the charms and fascinations of Munich, which
has become one of the most delightful of all
modern cities to sojourn in, exerting in its way
as much, if not more than Paris, a permanent
and controlling affection.
V.
Admit that the people of the Middle Ages were ill-lodged,
that the houses were ill-built, undrained, with the gutter
water splashing the threshold, and the eaves of the opposite
houses so near that the sun could not penetrate into the
street. All this may have been so, but around two-thirds
of the town were gardens and fields, the neighbouring streets
were full of painted shrines, metal lamps, gargoyles, pinnac-
les, balconies of hand forged iron or hand carved stone,
solid doors, bronzed gates, richly colored frescoes, and the
eyes and the heart of the dwellers in them had the where-
withall to feed on pleasures, not to speak of the constant
stream of many colored costumes, and of varied pageant
procession which was forever passing thro' them. Then in
niches there were beautiful carved bridges, and there where
towers, spires, cremulated walls and the sculptured fronts of
houses, churches and monasteries. And close at hand was
the freshness and greeness of wood and meadow, the fresh-
ness of the unsullied country. Think only what that meant!
no miles on miles of dreary suburban waste to travel, no
pert, aggressive modern villas to make day hateful, no under-
ground railway stations or subways; no hissing steam, no
grinding and shrieking cable trains; no hell factory smoke,
and jerry builders lath and plaster, no glaring geometrical
flower-beds. But the natural country running like a happy
child laden with flowers right up to the walls of the town."
Ouida.
THE CITIES AND THEIR CHARACTERISTICS 159
BAVARIA'S
CHIEF CITIES AND CHARACTERISTICS.
The most dominant characteristic which im-
presses itself on the traveller in Bavaria, is the
intense spirit of devotion which immediately
manifests itself as one leaves Prussia, Baden and
Wurttemberg and draws within her borders. A
perceptible change becomes apparent in the atmo-
sphere. Out of the landscape, the first thing which
rises up to greet one, as one approaches village
or town, is the spire of some church or cathedral.
The houses always nestle round the protecting
walls of some ancient, monastic retreat. In
the fields, as one speeds past them, rise up
white stone crosses, slender ones of wood, and
little shrines for prayer. Stations of the Cross
climb up the hills to church or chapel. The
spirit of religion seems the very breath of life,
not merely an adjunct for certain days. At sun-
set or sunrise in the verdant, quiet and sweetly
smelling fields, the labourer stops to rest and
pray in the miniature chapel. The Saints Days
are full of processions, and all the houses are
adorned with niches over the door lintels to hold
some figure of Saint or Madonna.
In the eating rooms of country inns and taverns
160 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
hang large crucifixes or religious pictures. Day
and night, over the old town gates, lamps before
the Virgin are ever burning. The churches are
munificently kept up, and in the smallest towns
we find a magnificent old pile, rising up above
the little brown-roofed cottages. The swallows
fly in and out, building their nests in the heads
of some little rococo angel, or in the mitre of
some Bishop or Saint. On All Soul's Day the
cemeteries are crowded, in villages, towns and
cities, with the families of the departed, who
spend all day by the graves, decorating them
with wreaths and flowers, and at night illumi-
nating them with lanterns and candles. In the
small villages the early morning air is filled with
a monotonous chant of mingled voices; old men
and maidens, young men and women, walking
two by two, with bent head and clasped hands,
in lengthy procession, a robed priest leading, with
little lace-and-scarlet-clad choir boys, the Cross
held aloft, bent on some mission of prayer to a
distant shrine, for the succour of some soul, or
some martyred Saint.
The initiation services of young priests are
fraught with many ancient customs and sym-
bolical rights, such as the marrying of a little
maiden to the young priest, at his holding of the
First Communion and departure from the world.
For eternity she is to be his spiritual bride, he
her protector, by prayer and seclusion, for life.
The Bavarians are very conservative, clinging to
old ways, customs and dress. In some districts
CHARACTERISTICS l6l
the costumes are intensely picturesque ; the broad
brimmed hat, high leather boots and silver buttons
everywhere to be seen, or the charming grey and
green costume of the mountain districts. That
simplicity is inherent in the Bavarian folk is
very evident in their unsophisticated acceptance
of old myths and legends to this day as truisms.
For instance, on Walpurgis Night, there is still
to be observed in certain parts of the more remote
districts, the custom of driving out witches or
evil spirits. The young fellows of the village
assemble after sunset on some height, especially
at a crossroad, and crack whips with all their
strength for a while in unison. This, so they
firmly believe, drives away the witches; for so
far as the sound of the whip is heard, these
maleficent beings can do no harm.*
In some places, while the young fellows are
cracking their whips, the herdsmen wind their
horns, and these long drawn notes, heard far off,
vibrating through the silence of the night, are
believed to be very effectual for banishing the
evil spirits. In temperament, the Bavarians re-
semble more the Austrians, being more open
hearted and buoyant of nature than their more
Northern brothers. They are spontaneous, cheer-
ful, effervescent, and intensly artistic loving, yet
inclined to be credulous and superstitious, and
the lower classes are comparatively ruled in both
ecclesiastical and political views by their superiors.
* The Golden Bough by J. G. Fraser.
Norman, Bavarian History.
162 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
Of course, to this there are exceptions, and all
over the country, socialists and independent think-
ers are to be met with. Among the cultivated
classes, a very marked independence of both
thought and action has latterly manifested itself.
The low German or Bavarian has a very noticeable
dialect, which in mediaeval days, was called Platt
Deutsch (that is, flat Dutch), the Highland Ger-
man being called Hoch Deutsch (or High Dutch).
The inhabitants of Holland are called Dutch, but
they belong to the Low-German races, and have
no exclusive right to the title. Luther, being born
in upper Germany, and having translated the
Bible into High German, is probably the reason
why "Hoch Deutsch" is alone recognized as
the literary and aristocratic language of the
country.*
"The present form of government is founded
partly on long established usage and partly on
a constitutional act passed in May, 1818, and
modified by subsequent acts, especially one passed
in 1848 after the abdication of Ludwig I. The
monarchy is hereditary and the executive power
vested in the King, whose person is considered
inviolable. The responsibility resting, as it does
in England, with the ministers. The Upper Parlia-
ment, the Chamber of the Reichsrath, comprises
the Princes of the Royal blood, two Archbishops,
the Barons or heads of certain noble families and
a Protestant and Catholic clergyman."
* Baring Gould.
CHARACTERISTICS 163
The history of the mysterious cities of Southern
Germany hangs around them with a melancholy
severity, occasionally serene, always earnest, but
seldom with that colourful radiance of hope,
which one so promptly feels on crossing the
borderland into the warmth of Italy. It is typi-
cally the land of Diirer, of Cornelius, Hans Sachs
and Wagner. And yet it is immensly progressive
and full of an enthralling magnetic charm. In
Munich, however, all the above is changed. The
air there glistens and shimmers as no where else
in Bavaria. It has little of that staid formalism,
that rigid mediaevalism of the other cities. It were
impossible to follow individually the history of
the many Free Imperial cities which are now
joined to Bavaria, or the stories of all her towns,
castles, palaces, monasteries, lakes and villages.
The civilization of these cities and their art, reaches
back to a very distant period, as we have
seen. The Thirty Years War and the discovery
of the passage around the Cape being the two
chief causes for their downfall. But the mona-
steries mostly managed to maintain their prin-
cely wealth and celebrity up to the nineteenth
century. Although the Carolingian period saw
the beginning of Ratisbon's importance, little that
is of other import from that time has descended
to Bavaria, excepting some fine specimens of the
goldsmith's art and miniature painting. About
the tenth century an unbroken chain of activity
began to manifest itself in a number of important
towns. From the tenth to the thirteenth cen-
164 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
turies the art style most prevalent was the Ro-
manesque, revealing itself in innumerable eccle-
siastical buildings. It had been suggested by the
Roman Basilica and attained its artistic height
in Bavaria in the twelth century. Ratisbon is
aglow with buildings of this style, the most remar-
kable being the cathedral, the Ober Miinster, the
Schottenkirche and Saint Emmeraus. But the
most perfect example of the Romanesque archi-
tecture is to be found in one of the most ancient
cities of Germany, Bamberg ! This cathedral was
founded by Henry II. in the year 1004 who also
built the Bishopric of Bamberg. He and his wife
Saint Kunigunde, are buried in the former. The
Romanesque period of architecture was followed
victoriously in Bavaria by the Gothic. The Frauen-
kirche in Munich, the church at Landshut and
the churches of Nuremberg, being very perfect
examples. During this Gothic period sculpture
and painting began in Bavarian cities to achieve
their world-wide distinction. Tombstones in stone,
altars in carved wood, fonts in metal, were the
most followed branches of art. Wood carving
was religiously carried on everywhere, in all the
mountain districts, as well as in the towns and
cities, the chief works being altars, choir-stalls
and crucifixes. The carvings on the altars were
usually painted, and most perfect specimens of
the latter can be seen in the Museums at Munich
and Nuremberg.
Later the towns became transformed under
another influence, that of the German "Renais-
RENAISSANCE TOWNS 165
sance". It breathed its influence, into every
branch of art. St. Michael's Kirche in Munich,
and the Castle and New Palace of Landshut show-
ing very clearly the new tendency. As the riches
and power of the Bavarian Dukes increased, their
palaces gradually became transformed into homes
of splendid magnificence. In almost every town
and parish can be seen the vast sweep of this
new influence, but Nuremberg and Rothenburg
unquestionably stand at the head of all German
Renaissance towns. The former, despite it's wide
fame, perhaps less than the latter, for the in-
vasions of modern thought and a devastating
practicality have laid their disturbing touch on
the ancient atmosphere. Rothenburg is probably
the purest existing type of unadulterated German
Renaissance beauty, revealing the consistent aim
at inner harmony with exterior beauty. The gold-
smith's work, the woodcarving inlaid with ivory,
the metal panelling, brass utensils, coarse pottery,
finely coloured, and much plastic ornament, lead-
ing one outwardly as it were to the shell, the
complete architecture of the enclosing form. In
the seventeenth century the Italian style crept in
to influence all the arts and we can see it's
mark in the facades of the Nuremberg Rat-
haus, and in the "Goldene Saal" of the Augs-
burg Rathaus. Italian ideas were very dominant
in the latter city, as she was in such vital
and continuous intercourse with that country.
The next art influence to manifest itself was the
Baroque.
166 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
MUNICH.
The city which is of the greatest import to
Bavaria now undoubtedly is Munich. Since the
splendid energies of Ludwig I. and the enormous
art inspiration spread through Cornelius, Kaul-
bach and their followers, she has ranked among
the foremost of European art centres.
Not before the reign of Henry the Lion does
she come into prominence.
We first read of her as "Dorf Miinchen", where
some warehouses stood, built by monks for the
reception of salt which was brought from the
mines of Reichenhalle and Salzburg. These monks
belonged to the Schaftlarn or Tegernsee mona-
stery, where they possessed a small farm or pro-
duce dairy which was called "Miinchen". The
word comes from the Latin Forum "ad monachos"
or Muniha, and the present title of Munich or
Miinchen comes from these same monkish pioneers.
Henry the Lion built a wooden bridge over the
Isar, founded a customs house and mint and
started also a market, but it did not become the
residence of the Bavarian Dukes until 1255, when
Otto the Illustrious transfered his residence there,
and his son Ludwig the Severe built the Old
Palace, or Alte Veste. The latter it was who
started the first brewery, drawing up himself the
regulations for the brewers.
Under these Wittelsbach princes the town be-
gan to prosper. After a terrible fire in 1327
Ludwig the Bavarian, who was born in the Alte
MUNICH 167
Veste, almost entirely rebuilt the city. He was
deeply attached to his Bavarian capital and
the people worshipped him. His tomb is in the
Frauenkirche. Between 1550 and 1573 Duke
Albrecht V. founded the library, the Kunst
Kammer and the first collection for the National
Museum.
Elector Maximilian I. erected the Arsenal, the
Alte Residenz and the Marien-Saule. Munich suf-
fered a severe retardation in 1631 when Gustavus
Adolphus made it his head-quarters on his de-
vastating journey through Bavaria. But like all
the other cities she slowly resuscitated herself
after the Thirty Years War, and under the rule
of Ferdinand Maria began the building of the
Rococo works of architecture, in churches, palaces
and houses. Munich contains two distinct atmo-
spheres; the older part of the city still possessing
an aroma of ancient days. The city was originally
surrounded by a wall and ditch (but these were
filled up in 1791), and one entered her precincts
by castellated gates, many of which are still stand-
ing. The beautiful old Sendlinger-Thor dates from
the fourteenth century. The Isar-Thor and the
Carls-Thor were built about 1315. The oldest
parish church in Munich is St. Peters; originally
it was a small Romanesque building, but was
enlarged in the Gothic style in 1327. The Marien-
Platz, although even there numerous new build-
ings have sprung up, is still suggestive of the
mediaeval life of the city ; the houses being built in
the same quaint, attractive way, which appeals so to
168 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
one in Nuremberg and Augsburg. Still can we
see buildings, irregular both in size and form,
oriel windows high up on some corner, high
sloping roofs, punctured with scores of little win-
dows in tiers. The fronts of these houses are
often covered with frescoes, scroll-work or stucco
patterns. The great market place with its Column
of the Virgin, erected by Elector Maximilian in
commemoration of his victory over Frederic of
Austria and the end of the Plague, the old clock
tower and Rathaus, first built in 1315, all Mil
the eye with a picture of ancient beauty.
In 1715 Max Josef III. founded the Academy,
but it was Maximilian I., who began to add most
to the improvement of modern Munich. He dis-
solved a number of superfluous religious houses
and erected new buildings. But all its modern
magnificence dates from the accession of Lud-
wig I.
Munich, like any other city, can only be ab-
sorbed by a visit with some reliable guide book.
One notices on the pavements, as signs over inns,
or as advertisement or crest, the Miinchener
Kindel. It immediately attracts ones curiosity.
The legend has passed through innumerable phases
and changes. One story runs that our Saviour
came down to bless the town and the furtherance
of the good works of the monks, in the guise of
a little child, robed in a monk's garment and
hood. It probably was originally the seal of the
monks, and through the centuries, under the
hands of various artists, who carved, painted and
MUNICH l6g
chiselled the little figure, endeavouring to beautify
it, it gradually became transformed to its present
childlike aspect. The greatest contributors to the
splendors of modern Munich in carrying out the
ambitions of Ludwig I. were Schwanthaler, Klenze
and Gartner. They are all buried in the Southern
cemetery which is considered the finest and most
artistic in Germany. Frauenhofer, the astronomer,
Senef elder, the inventor of lithography, Neumann,
the historian, and Franz von Hess the painter
were also buried here.
For the artist, the student, the seeker for rest,
Munich will make a very definite appeal. Her
broad streets, fountains, statues, deep wooded
park, quaint customs, picture galleries, (containing
almost the finest collection of old masters in
the world), her galleries of sculpture, academies
for the study of every branch of literature, science,
or art, her beautiful little Residenz-Theater and
magnificent Opera House, her concert halls, the
great artists who flock to her centre every year,
her standard in productions and plays, all seem
to round out a life of complete artistic enjoyment.
It is a city both to absorb, study and create in.
Here Kaulbach the elder lived and worked and
here now in his artistic home lives and works
his famous son. Lenbach's exquisite home, so
alive still with that great and suggestive persona-
lity, the classical, remarkable home of Stuck, and
on the hill above the river, the inspiringly poised
Peace Monument, the wonderful Prinz-Regenten
theatre for the production of Wagner's operas
170 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
and classical dramas alone, all greet us with in-
spiring hopes.
Next to some of the galleries in Italy, the old
and new Pinakotheks contain some of the finest
pictures in the world. Next to Vienna and Ant-
werp the former possesses the most exceptional
collection of Rubens. Diirer (the greatest painter
Germany has ever given birth to), Rembrandt,
Van Dyck, Ruysdael, Van der Meer, Schongauer,
Holbein and many masterpieces of the Flemish,
early Cologne and Italian masters, all being
excellently represented. In the New Pinakothek
is an entrancing array of the works of Overbeck,
Hess, Markart, Max, Piloty, Kaulbach (father and
son), Defregger, Stuck, Lenbach, Bocklin, Rott-
mann, Piglheim &c.
Two very noticable pictures of the later modern
school, are Stuck's "War", and "Die Siinde".
But the gem, almost of all picture collections in
Munich is that contained in the little Schack
Gallery. One leaves Munich rich with memories,
but perhaps the most treasured remembrance of
all is that of the New National Museum on the
Prinz-Regenten Strasse.
No better evocative lesson for the resuscitating
and absorbing of the arresting changes, through
which this one small kingdom has passed, can
be obtained than by a visit to this most wonder-
ful of all European Museums. Each room is
built so as to harmonize with the period of its
contents. This alone was a labour of infinite art
and all-embracing knowledge.
THE BAVARIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM I? I
The exterior is of the German Renaissance
style; within, all the objects are arranged in
chronological order (as in the Glyptothek) from
far prehistoric times, down through all the pass-
ing centuries, and bearing all through a special
reference to Bavaria. To dwell in each room for
a while is to be impregnated with the past atmo-
sphere and personality of barbaric, pagan, and
mediaeval times. A very aroma seems to cling to
the furniture and to emanate from the walls,
hangings, relics and pictures; wordless oracles
from the graceful mystic urns, which hide what
secret of death or fragrance of life? The silent
standing armoured figures are stern and ominous
with blood and wars; the Roman floors are poli-
shed with the passing of countless sandelled
feet, now long ages at rest; the ancient altar
receives no more ardent pagan prayer, no more
ceremony in praise of Beauty ; the antique forge
and tools lie impotent, and the Hun's Column
rises up in impenetrable mystery and eternal
secrecy.
The arduously, delicately illuminated minia-
tures and illustrations of full deep coloured mis-
sals, reflect innumerable, concentrated, earnest
faces, bent long years in devotion and labour of
passionate love. All these ancient objects, these
rooms, empty of the life which wrought them,
which have witnessed so many births, deaths,
scenes of love, lawlessness and cruelty, the hatch-
ing of revolutions, the first appeals of new
religions, the quiet inevitable progress of the arts,
IJ2 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
changes of costumes, habits and manners, and heard
the gradual evolution of speech and language,
seem to be mourning with a burden of the past,
hung with enwrapping folds of ancient gloom and
grandeur, and of their own present impotency.
Nevertheless, they mark a luminous road. They
may be musty with an old and terror abiding
memory of an unwieldy civilization, but as we
pass downward through the centuries, we are
more and more struck by the chastening, direct
and potent influence of that "handmaid to Religion",
Art. We can see man reaching upward and out-
ward in steady throbs as if impelled by some
gigantic cosmic machine. We see the progression
of the abstract and eternal ideas sweeping aside
the external and the temporal; crude forms and
expressions crumbling away before the mounting,
powerful, penetrating, persistent, delicate thoughts
of the artistic soul; and as art heightened and
rarified, nothing able to bar its onward sweeping
power, the aspect of the cities, towns, villages,
and life in the home, becomes distinctly different,
moulded by the same inward beautifying power;
all becoming as it were purified by flame and
thought; simplified, the unnecessary rejected,
the necessary applied. And so we leave behind
with traversed room after room, the horrors
of the past, wars, rapine, crimes of political
and ecclesiastical corruption, holding only to
those necessary, beautiful and illuminating
things which must, from very virtue of their
own necessity, exist.
BAYREUTH 173
BAYREUTH.
"Little city of my habitation, to which I belong on
this side of the grave, at the foot of the fircapped
mountains" wrote that transcendental and sweet
spirit, Jean Paul Richter, of Bayreuth where
he spent so many years of his arduous and fruit-
ful life.
This "Festival Grail", which is a modern place
of pilgrimage, is situated in "a fascinating circle
of enchanting environment". Long stretches of
tender, green and undulating meadows sur-
round the town; then in the foreground loom
the deep shadowed pine forests, their delicate
spires pricking the blue of the heavens, and en-
circling all are the picturesque fir-capped moun-
tains. It is a spot of infinite peace, of calm undi-
stracting joy, a place in which to concentrate
the dream, and draw the scattered fancies into
a glorious artistic bondage!
"The word Baireuth means a piece of ground
reclaimed or dug up by the Bavarians. Reut or
Reuth being still made use of by the peasants to
designate a spade or shovel, which is always to
be seen hanging from the plough. Baireuth is
the ancient mode of spelling and Bayreuth the
modern."*
It was not until 1881 that English or Americans
heard much of Bayreuth, nevertheless it is fraught
with a significant historical interest. It possesses
* Thomas Carlyle.
IJ4 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
the home of the present ruling house of Ger-
many, Hohenzollern-Brandenburg ; also the princi-
palities of Culmbach-Baireuth, together with the
Upper portion of the Burggraf of Nuremberg,
which in reality includes Nuremberg itself and
Rothenburg. Originally it was a principality or
a duchy like Salzburg ; appearing in the old deeds
as a Margraviate, or small duchy, its ruler styled
only Margrave, which led to much ill-feeling,
discussion and bitter jealousy.
In the year 1005 we first find mention of a
Margrave ; one Count Berenger of Salzburg who had
married a daughter of Margrave Hezilo (Duke of
Bavaria). The latter gave his son-in-law a
piece of territory as a wedding portion, called
Bayreuth. Berenger tried to convert his pagan
subjects to Christianity, and is credited we believe
with being the founder of the town of Bayreuth.
But there is no absolute proof of a town there
until 1194. He disappears from the ancient
Chronicles and for some time no other name of
import comes into notice. Then we come to
Berthold, a famous knight and crusader who later
was created Duke of Meran by Frederick Barba-
rossa. He died after a warlike life, in Bayreuth
and was succeeded by his descendants, the last
of whom, Duke Otto was murdered in 1281. His
possessions were then snatched by his neighbour
the Brandenburger Hohenzollern Burggraf Frede-
rick of Nuremberg who managed to secure for
himself Bayreuth and some adjacent territory,
proving notable acquisitions to the Hohenzollern
BAYREUTH
family. These possessions increased as years went
on until it became of large extent, including terri-
tories under the names of Margravdom of Ans-
bach, Bayreuth and Culmbach.*
All in all there where twelve of these Hohen-
zollern Margraves or Electors. John the Alchemist
was the son of the second Elector, but he resigned
in favor of his brother Frederick, accepting in
lieu of the Electorship the better half of the
Culmbach territory. He died in 1469. After his
death his portion of Bayreuth passed to his brother
Albert, who likewise inherited the Electorship of
Brandenburg. He was the third Elector, and called
in his day the "Achilles of Germany". Albert
is the ancestor of all the Culmbach and Branden-
burg Hohenzollerns. Until the iy th century Culm-
bach was the capital of the little duchy, but
about that time the Margrave Christian directed
his thoughts towards Bayreuth and resolved to
make it the Residence of all the future Margraves.
In 1 60 1 however a terrible plague which was
working havoc in Germany and especially in Ba-
varia, swept through Bayreuth, to be followed by
a devastating fire, both of which frustrated the
plans of the Margrave, driving him and his Court
back to Culmbach. In 1610 he returned again,
determined to carry out his former plan, but
again misfortune occurred, and the re-building
of his town seemed a futile hope, for it was
again reduced to ashes by another terrible fire!
* Frances Gerard.
Ij6 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
Then followed the hopeless turmoil of the Thirty
Years War, which threw not only gloom and
death over the entire land, but killed all aspiring
dreams. The next thirty years were for Bayreuth
as well as for all other towns one long, weary
repetition of seiges, battles, loss and degeneration,
which we will pass over until we come to the
Margraviate Frederick, who was ruling the Duchy
in 1738. This Elector was the husband of the
fascinating Wilhelmine, sister of Frederick the
Great. Bayreuth had in the mean time slowly
endeavoured to gather herself together, and under
the impetus of this enthusiastic, talented, extra-
vagant and charmingly irresponsible couple reached
the highest zenith of her progression and beauty.
This was between 1735 and 1759. The Court
was put on an entirely new footing, assuming an
almost supremely monarchical appearance. New
and lovely buildings were erected, and the beauti-
ful duchy with its verdant meadows, deep woods
and distant far-stretching forests soon became
one of the most brilliant capitals of Europe.
Wilhelmine's father-in-law, the former Margrave
had been a close, unenthusiastic, avaricious
man, possessed of little mentality; but his
son Frederick was full of a lavish generosity,
cultured tastes, artistic ambitions, and exceedingly
clever. He was an expert linguist, and more, of
a winning and loveable disposition. He was adored
by his subjects, whom he did all in his power
to instruct and cultivate. The art fever was
running an epidemical course all over Germany,
FREDERICK AND WILHELMINE
finding enthusiastic mediums in the luxurious
loving princes. Frederick and his Margravine were
much bitten by the prevailing building mania,
and also with that of constantly improving their
own tastes and those of their subjects. French
and Italian architects, artists, painters, actors and
singers were recruited to Baireuth, inundating
the little court. The theatre was enlarged (it had
originally been built by Frederick and Wilhelmine),
and despite their undeniable extravagances, for
which they were severely rebuked by Frederick
the Great, the town, under their lavish rule, was
much improved for both rich and poor alike.
The old gatehouses were taken away and also
the fortifications ; the moat was filled up and laid
out in landscape gardens, which occupation was
Wilhelmine's hobby.
Frederick was so anxious to encourage building,
and the improvement of the town architecturally,
that he not only gave the ground, but immunity
from taxes, for fifty years to whomsoever wished
to build. Need one say that both Italian and
French architects availed themselves of this extra-
ordinary privilege to a great extent. In 1735
Frederick presented his wife with the Eremitage,
a sort of miniature Trianon, wherein she wrote
her famous "Memoirs". Frederick never taxed
the people of Bayreuth, but in order to pay
his debts taxed the numerous French residents
of the town. He died in 1763 and was sin-
cerely mourned as a well beloved ruler who
had done an infinite deal towards raising the
Norman, Bavarian History. 12
178 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
fortunes, entire worth and atmosphere of the
little duchy.
He was succeeded by Frederick Christian, a
morose and gloomy man, who had for a number
of years led an isolated and solitary life. Certain
grave stories concerning the time when he had
been governor of Neustadt had preceded him and
his advent in Bayreuth cast a shadow over the
town. He neither came with, nor was he received,
with enthusiasm. Some years previously he had
been confined, by order of Frederick, in the fortress
of Plessenburg, and since then had led an excluded
existence at Wandslech. The Bayreuthers feared
that he might revenge himself on them for his
imprisonment, but their anxiety was groundless.
His one passion seemed to be economy, and his
sole desire to cut down all expenses to the lowest
possible fraction, to decrease the amount of debt
and diminish the outgoings of the duchy. He
promptly dismissed all the opera singers, reduced
the expenses of the court, and abolished every
unnecessary office. He was not popular, coming
after the gay and buoyant Wilhelmine and her
husband. He loved to listen to the lengthiest of
sermons and to have innumerable prayers said
for his soul. Despite his attributed avariciousness
he gave large alms to the poor, evidently in an
endeavour to wipe out the secret guilty stain
which lay on his conscience. He died in 1769,
and with him the line of Brandenburg- Kulmbach
became extinct, the ducal principality of Bayreuth
passing to the Margrave of Anspach. Wilhelmine's
ALEXANDER AND LADY CRAVEN J79
sister had married this Margrave and rumour had
it that she was very unhappy with him. They
had one son, Alexander, and as Wilhelmine's only
child had been a girl, the former became Mar-
grave of Bayreuth as well as Anspach. He had
no children, but it was just about this time that
Lady Craven came upon the scene. Alexander
fell very much in love with her, and she took up
her permanent abode in Bayreuth. In the mean-
time Lord Craven died, and soon after, the poor
little sickly and unhappy Margravine. Alexander
promptly married Lady Craven, but they were
very unpopular in their duchies, not only on
account of the death of the Margravine, but be-
cause of the letting out of the troops of the
Duchy to fight for the English and the Dutch.
Under the influence of his second wife, Alexander
ran into all sorts of extravagances, and quarrelled
with his foremost ministers. Later, in 1791 through
the influence of his wife and the court at Berlin,
he sold the duchies of Bayreuth, Brandenburg and
Anspach to Prussia, receiving in return an an-
nuity. They immediately left Bayreuth, fading in
ignoble manner from the pages of history. For
fifteen years Bayreuth remained in the possession
of Prussia, and then came the conquering French.
After Jena, the army of Napoleon took possession
of the Margraviate, and by the treaty of Tilsit
it was handed over definitely to him, becoming
part of his great road from the Rhine to the
Volga.
Until 1809 Bayreuth remained a French depen-
l8o A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
dency, suffering much from the ravages of the
troops who committed excesses of every sort.
Money was levied on it in a relentless manner,
in conjunction with many another town, to
keep up the enormous expenses of Napoleon's
army. In 1899 it became, for the short space
of six months, Austrian, but when Max Josef
was elected King of Bavaria, Bayreuth and all
her surroundings were given to him. On June
13, 1810, Bavarian troops marched into the town
which had endured so many changes, and now
for ninety six years it has been a Bavarian
province.
Wagner had visited Bayreuth early in his youth,
and had then been much impressed by its peace-
ful beauty, which had also so appealed to the
gentle soul of Richter. Wagner revisited Bayreuth
in 1871 and was so enthusiastically received by
both, municipality and administration, that he felt
assured his hopes had at last found a resting
place and that his great idea would meet with
encouragement. Wahnfried, that "home of peace-
ful fancies" was built, but his first years there
were nevertheless beset with infinite difficulties,
hardships and struggles. Bayreuth now is a sun-
centre, radiating over the entire civilized globe,
the inspired music of this luminous genius. In
choosing Bayreuth, for the spot on which to found
his great Festival playhouse, Wagner fully rea-
lized that concentration on the one idea was the
surest and absolutely necessary foundation for
success. People go to Bayreuth for the Wagner
WAGNER AT BAYREUTH l8l
Festival, not to be charmed with the attractions
of some mediaeval town. The foundation stone
for the theatre was laid on May 22, 1872, Wagner's
fifty-ninth birthday. Among other notabilities, both
Haeckel and Nietzsche were present. The building
is on the top of a hill, commanding a wide and
sweeping view. It was made from plans drawn
solely by Wagner, and not by Semper, who designed
the plans for the Munich house. Architecturally
it resembles a Grecian Amphitheater, and holds
one thousand, four hundred and fifty people. The
interior is severely plain, with few decorations, no
gilding or draperies, and no disturbing, glaring
chandelier. The lights, which are all placed on
the tops of pillars, are extinguished immediately
the performance begins. The orchestra is invisible,
buried in a "mystic abyss". Pilgrims journey to
Bayreuth, concentrated on the one idea of be-
coming absorbed in the elemental genius of a
solitary man. It is probable that without the
constant enthusiasm and aid of Ludwig II., Wag-
ner's dream might have been still longer delayed ;
as it was, he called the latter "the fellow creator
of Bayreuth". At the great production of Parsifal
in 1 88 1 Ludwig was not present. The darkness
was beginning to enwrap him, but when he heard
of Wagner's death, he was sorely stricken, ex-
periencing probably the greatest loss and sincerest
affection of his life.
182 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
NUREMBERG.
"In spite of all ifs changes and in spite of all
the disfigurements of modern industry, Nurem-
berg is and will remain a mediaeval city; a city
of history and legend and a city of the soul."
Cecil Hadlam.
There is a subtle charm about Nuremberg which
can be found nowhere else in Germany. Its great
age carries one back to those shadows of tradition
where only silence greets us. We learn that it
sprang up gradually from the midst of woods and
marshes and that during the Migrations was sacked
by the Huns, their king Attila probably passing
through the little town, murdering and plundering.
There is little proof, as in the more southern
towns, of a Roman colonization, but later it was
taken by Charlemagne and came under the rule
of the Prankish kings. The first authentic mention
of Nuremberg occurs in a document about 1050,
which was called into existence by the founding
of the castle. About this time a mint, custom-
house and market were established. After the
first persecution of the Jews, the entire town was
burned down by them, but rebuilt in 1120. In
1127 it endured a long seige: the Emperor Lothair
took it from the Duke of Swabia and gave it to
Henry the Proud of Bavaria about 1130, but in
1138 it was re-united by Conrad III. to the German
Empire and for the next three or four centuries
belonged to the Hohenstaufens and was much
favored by the Emperors. Gradually around the
castle grew up the little winding streets and houses,
NUREMBERG 183
and a strange mixture of races, Germans, Franks
and Sklavs, converged to its centre. Not only
a special dialect was the result and the art of
the future ages stamped propitiously by this in-
flux of various nationalities, but an enormous
business energy became prominent, the city soon
becoming the centre of the vast trading processions
between the Levant and Western Europe, and
with Augsburg, the chief medium for the valuable
products of Italy. Barbarossa often came to
Nuremberg, adding to the castle and making it
an Imperial stronghold. The progress of the city
was greatly promoted by the privileges granted
to it by this Emperor and in 1219 it received
from Frederick II. the charter making it a free
Imperial city, independent of allegiance to all but
the Emperor. The years, from 1225 and onward,
were a period of much lawlessness all over Ger-
many, murder and violence being matters of every
day occurrence. The power of the Princes was
almost anarchic: the strength of the robber Barons
a source of menace to everybody's safety. In 1259
all the towns had to band together to protect
themselves and their travelling merchants against
these robber Knights who swooped down on them
from their castles.
The Government of Nuremberg was originally
vested in the patrician families, but in 1344 they
were expelled by the civic guild, only later to
return and reap a greater control than ever. The
office of Burggraf (originally a deputy-governor
in the name of the Emperor) was first held by
184 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
Frederick I. (1218) of the Zollern family, under
Henry IV. But these governors soon acquired
independent power and in 1363 became Fiirstens or
Princes. In 1226 Conradin, nephew of the ruling
Duke of Bavaria, became Burgrave of Nuremberg,
but he had to pledge his possessions in order to
pay back a loan, and in 1269 Duke Ludwig and
Henry of Bavaria took equal rights in Nuremberg.
Nevertheless, it still continued to retain its in-
dependent rights as a free city. There were con-
stant discussions and fights between the Margraves
and the citizens, but it did not materially inter-
fere with the rapid growth and progress of the
city. The Emperors constantly came and made
it their headquarters on account of the good
hunting in the surrounding forests, and it also
attracted thousands of pilgrims, owing to the
miracle-working relics of St. Sebald, which it
possessed. As early as 1020 1080 pilgrims be-
gan to flock to Nuremberg and this alone was
enough to attract commerce and success. The
story of this remarkable monk, St. Sebald, the
son, in all probability, of some Danish, Irish or
British Christian king, his early brilliant theo-
logical career in Paris and his subsequent relin-
quishment of all worldly goods, happiness, fame
and comfort for the service of Christ, is fraught
with much tender interest. He settled in the
great forests outside of Nuremberg, performing
miracles, healing the sick, fasting and praying.
He was buried on the spot were St. Sebalds Church
now stands, and his relics, of which innumerable
NUREMBERG 185
miracles are still recorded, lie in the beautiful
shrine made by Vischer in 1507.
In 1298 took place another awful massacre of
the Jews all over Franconia. In 1340 Nuremberg
entered into a treaty with Wiirzburg and Rothen-
burg for the mutual protection of the Bavarian
Dukes. In the wars of succession, at the time of
Ludwig the Bavarian, the latter had taken his side.
Under Maximilian of Bavaria in 1447 1491 Nurem-
berg reached her greatest height of prosperity,
where she comparatively remained for the next
two centuries. She possessed at this time an
independent domain and furnished 6000 fighting
men to Maximilian's army. Her artisans worked in
all sorts of metals ; there were smiths, cutlers, ar-
mourers, casters in bronze, and gold and silver-
smiths. Also sculptors, painters, engravers, mathe-
maticians &c. In 1414 John Huss passed through
Nuremberg on his daring reforming journey.
Although given up to trade and merchandise, the
Nurembergers were full of a deep religious enthu-
siasm, and in 1453 eleven burghers went on a
Crusade on hearing that Constantinople had been
taken by the Turks.
In 1494 there was another antagonistic move-
ment against the unfortunate Jews, who had
chiefly carried on the profession of medicine (the
business of money-lending was carried on by the
monasteries!), they were expelled and on pain of
death forbidden to sleep even within the walls.
At a later period the gates were even closed upon
the Protestant weavers exiled from France and
186 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
Flanders, who, however, found an asylum in
other German cities and by their skill and talent
soon rendered themselves successful competitors
to the prejudiced Nurembergers. The citizens of
Nuremberg early adopted, with their neighbouring
city Augsburg, the Reformed Faith, and clung to
it for several years, no Romanist being allowed
to hold property in the town. In 1518 Luther
came to Nuremberg and we read that both Diirer
and Hans Sachs were devoted admirers and ardent
upholders of his. In the famous conflict between
Wallenstein and Gustavus Adolphus, Nuremberg
took the part of the latter. This awful siege
drained the city of all its wealth and plunged it
into debt, exhausting it in every way, and this
period of the Thirty Years War inflicted a calami-
tous and seriously permanent blow to the city.
Down to the peace of Pressburg, Nuremberg pos-
sessed a constitution of its own, but in 1805 it
was taken possession of by the French, and to
this period belongs the cruel execution by order
of Napoleon, of John Palm, the Bookseller. In
1806 Nuremberg ceased to be an independent city,
and was given over to the newly established
Bavarian Monarchy by the French Emperor.
The oldest chronicler of Nuremberg was Ulman
Stromer; he was also the first man to set up
a paper mill. (1390 1407).
A little later the great names of Wohlgemuth
and his noble pupil Diirer began to adorn the
NUREMBERG 187
pages of her history (1435 1519). And now also
began that lavish expenditure for the adornment of
her person; such incidents for instance crop up
to establish the proof of the Nurembergers great
love for their city, as in 1447 the voting of five
hundred florins for the gilding of the beautiful
fountain in the Hauptmarktplatz.
Diirer's personality, works and life, have occu-
pied many students and the career of this gentle,
devout, ardent and painstaking genius is well known.
He was both painter, sculptor, engraver, mathe-
matician and veritable northern Leonardo.
1529 saw the name of Adam Krafft, the
sculptor, appearing on the scroll. Between 1440
and 1503 Veit Stoss lived, the best wood
carver of his time and also a beautiful carver in
stone, painter, engraver and mechanical architect.
His most famous piece of woodcarving is the
beautiful Nuremberg Madonna. A remarkable
altarpiece and other exquisite works of his are
to be seen in the Lorenz-Kirche. Nuremberg at
this time was the incentive for many revealing
practical necessities and remarkable inventions as
well as for her artistic beauties. In 1380 cards
were manufactured; in 1390 the first paper mill
was built; in 1356 the first cannon balls were
cast. Watches were made in an oval form, called
the Nuremberg egg, by Peter Helbe, in the year
1500. In 1517 the first gunlock was invented.
In 1550 Erasmus Ebner discovered that particular
alloy of metals, composing brass. Nuremberg also
gave birth to Veit Hirschvogel and his three sons.
188 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
famous as potters and glass painters, and also
promulgators of the art of enamelling. In 1560 Hans
Lobeinger invented the air gun, and in 1690
Christopher Denner invented the clarionet. A few
weeks after the birth of Diirer, in 1471, Johann
Miiller came to Nuremberg. He was a great mathe-
matical genius, and looked upon that city as the
centre of Europe, the meeting place of art and
industry. Diirer's book on Geometry was due to his
influence, and also the beautiful chart he made
of the heavens. Miiller also introduced popular
scientific lectures and organized the manufacturing
of nautical and astronomical instruments. Martin
Behaim, that adventurous navigator and con-
structor of the globe, was also his pupil.
Nuremberg is very mediaeval in both atmo-
sphere and appearance. It is surrounded by feu-
dal walls and turrets, strengthened in more recent
times by ramparts and bastions resembling the
early Italian fortifications, these being enclosed
by a wide ditch. Four principal arched gates,
flanked by massive towers, are not only intensely
interesting, but serve to complete a picture as of
a coronet of antique towers encircling the city.
One is immediately carried back to a remote age
as one threads one's way through the irregular
streets and examines the quaint, gable-faced houses,
the churches and other monuments of religion,
charity and art. All is singularly perfect having
miraculously escaped the ravages and storms of
wars, sieges and even the Reformation. The
patrician citizens have homes like palaces. Many
NUREMBERG l8g
are still inhabited by families who trace their
descent back to the cities earliest days. A number of
the houses, though built in the fashion of the 1 5 th cen-
tury, with narrow, highly ornamented fronts and
acutely pointed gables, are very large, telling one
poignantly of the luxury in which they lived at
that period. The part in which the family lived
was richly decorated with stucco and carving,
and there is little wonder that Nuremberg acquired
the name of the Gothic Athens. The Italian
Cardinal, Eneas Silvio, who visited Germany in
1459, in writing of the glories of the then resplen-
dent German Empire, said, that "the kings of
Scotland would be glad if they were housed as
well as the moderately well-to-do burghers of
Nuremberg, and that Augsburg is not surpassed
in riches by any city in the world". All the
cities at this time, but especially Nuremberg,
cultivated music, each town having it's "master-
singers" and musical guilds and on a Sunday
afternoon the members would meet and give
performances in the Town Hall or in churches.
Prizes of philigree-wire, wreaths of silver and
gold, were given for the best compositions.
The first prize was a representation of David
playing the harp, stamped on a golden slate.
The last performance given in Nuremberg was
in 1770.
Nuremberg, at present may be said to be the
second largest town in Bavaria, and the first in
commercial importance. The best point of sur-
veyance of the old town is from the burg or castle,
A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
picturesquely situated on the top of a rock on
the north side of the town. This castle, dating
back, in its present form, to the year 1151 is a
store-house of interesting relics and shuddering
moments for the imaginative and sensitive sight-
seer. The collection of all those tortuous instru-
ments, especially that of the "Iron Virgin", that
climax-reaching of all degenerate horrors, gives
one unpalatable glimpses into what the minds
of the majority were like, in those mediaeval
times, excepting when they were exalted by a de-
votion to art or the gentleness bred by a true
religious sentiment. We are infinitely thankful for
their great heritage of artistic genius, but more than
grateful that their times are remote, and to be
resuscitated only by the divine gift of memory.
That gift which can bring us, in an almost vivid
nearness, to the purest and most soul entrancing
days of Greece, Rome, Egypt and of mediae-
val glory; which enables us through the inter-
vening mists to see the luminious countenances
of Homer, Plato, Dante, Leonardo, Angelo and
Diirer; and again are we initiated into the eternal
secret whisperings, which bespeak, that in Beauty
lies the greatest and only permanent strength,
the solitary power which alone is lasting, which
never dies, but ever repeats itself in all times and
climes. "The Beautiful is higher than the Good.
The Beautiful includes in it the Good."
In all the beautiful Gothic churches of Nurem-
berg are to be seen innumerable examples of the
noble artists of her great art-cycle. In the awe-
NUREMBERG
some and mighty edifice of St. Lawrence are
miracles of carving by Adam Krafft; the most
noticeable perhaps being a receptacle in the form
of a Gothic spire, sixty five feet in height. There
is also a beautiful piece by Veit Stoss represent-
ing the Salutation. One of the most precious art
treasures in the entire rich land of Germany is
in the equally magnificent church of St. Sebalds.
It is an enormous bronze sarcophagus and canopy,
adorned with many statues and reliefs, the master-
piece of Peter Vischer. This glorious monument
took the incomparable artist fifteen years to
accomplish, from 1506 1521.
Everywhere are works of art, from the artistic
decorations over doors and windows to the master-
pieces of Diirer, Van Dyck, Wohlgemuth &c.
Most of Diirer's works are sadly scattered from
his native town, adorning the galleries of Munich,
Vienna and Berlin. But his undying fame haloes
the city, as the fame of the past glorious days
of Greece halo her very name with a transcen-
dental lustre. His statue, copied from the portrait
by himself, stands in the Albrecht-Diirer-Platz.
In his house are copies of his masterpieces, and
a fascinating collection of antique and very typi-
cal German furniture. The exquisite art of stain-
ing glass is the curiously fitting occupation of
the warder who guides the traveller over the
ancient home of Diirer.
Wood carving, glass staining, medal and me-
dallion engraving, copying of the antique furni-
ture and old cabinets and the world famous toy
192 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
making, are only a few, but the most attractive
of the occupations of the Nuremberger. Exquisite
linen, superbly embroidered, and decorated with
drawn work is to be found in abundance. In
fact this work is a speciality of Bavaria's. In the
spring, summer and also at Christmas time, pea-
sant women come in from the mountain districts,
with baskets full of dainty doilies, tablecloths,
sheets and gowns, in the purest hand-woven linen,
both coarse and fine, the former being the most
beautiful. All is edged with heavy hand-made
lace.
The atmosphere of this fascinating city is hard
to leave, the more one feeds on its rare and
delicate charm. The narrow streets are lined with
houses which lean towards each other in intimate
and confiding manner.
The windows are picturesque and prominent,
and high up on the corners, balconies! jutt out in har-
monious contrariness, and as one steps through
the doorway into the mystic sancturary of some
ancient house one finds oneself suddenly in an
old world atmosphere of rich and legendary
tapesteries, deft and suggestive wood-carving, and
absorbing old prints. Doors, panelling, floors and
ceilings, inlaid, carved and chiselled, and every-
where brass, copper, iron and pewter utensils,
to awaken envious longings in the heart of the
collector.
After a long day, when the brain and heart
are full of new and lasting treasures and visions,
one must wend one's way to the quaint little
OBERAMMERGAU 193
Bratwurst-Glocklein, and step over its high door-
sill, to enter the minute room so dimly lit with
many small windows, seat oneself at one of the
little tables on one of the wooden benches, look
into the burning charcoal furnace curling up over
the bricks, watch the rosy-cheeked maids cooking
the "wurstlein" and dream of the day behind
one which has brought and taught one so much.
OBERAMMERGAU.
As one draws upward toward the little station
of Oberammergau one is conscious of a peace
descending, of an atmosphere as unusal as it is
strange and elusive. The very air seems impreg-
nated with a tender benediction; the atmosphere
poignant with some great, omnipotent thought,
possessed and held throughout the centuries. It
is indeed a peaceful village into which one glides,
leaving behind great ranges of mountains, enclos-
ing one in a God-made circle of blue haze and
distance ; an infinitely gentle picture which meets
ones gaze.
Not one of primitive grandeur or estatic love-
liness, but one of simple, reflective and intro-
spective beauty; one to inspire the thoughts to
climb, to enable them to remain at ease at a
certain elevation with a quiet joy and not to awe
one into moods of tragic gloom, impossible specu-
lation, or an almost uncontemplative passion,
which the overpowering majesty of certain vistas
is apt to do. On every side are verdant fields
Norman, Bavarian History. 13
194 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
which stretch away lovingly to wooded hills, and
guarding all are stately mountains, shedding tender
shadows, rolling away to greater and ever greater
peaks.
One is not suprised to see, running along the
little station-platform, a beautiful youth in eager
welcome, the marks of an ardent, healthy and
devout nature on his brow; tanned cheeks, black
hair flying long in the breeze and deep intelligent
eyes. Immediately one is transplanted to another
world; to a simpler, saner, freer, more natural
and wholesome outlook, where the lies of a false
civilization do not exist, where the beauties of
nature are not sneered at and the ugly strenuous-
ness of modern life forced in upon one as a
virtue. Such a vision as this young boy, who
might indeed have been the beloved disciple John,
in all the beauty of his ideal young manhood,
in our sophisticated cities, would call forth only
censure and opposing adjectives.
In Oberammergau one falls effortlessly into a
new and longed-for mood of rest, feeling at last
in a haven where life is lived as it should be;
art loved as it should be; religion absorbed and
existent in a universality of spirit; not as an
acquisition nor even a part of one's life, but life
itself. One's thoughts rise, and mentally one begins
"to burn all that one used to worship and to
worship all that one used to burn".
These mountain folk do indeed "set their faces
to the wind and throw their handful of seed on
high". This inspiring ardour seems to invade
OBERAMMERGAU Jp5
the souls of all in the little hamlet; and not in
fear, with tears, accusing consciences, or droning
wearisome conventions, is this religious atmo-
sphere attained, but in beauty, joy and enthusiasm.
The first thing to attract one's gaze, even be-
fore one catches a glimpse of the village, attract-
ing the eyes upward, is a thing of mighty sym-
bolical import. One of the peaks, detached as it
were and isolated from the rest, rises up, narrow-
ing at the summit to receive as its crown, a
lofty simple cross. The elusive grandeur of this
moment is a prayer, a song, a comforting caress.
So high is it, that the pine trees cease to grow,
and the summit is rocky with only low shrubs
and bushes clinging to the ground, leaving all
stencil-clear for the reception of the delicate spire.
It points upward, year after year, like the eternal
flame of the indomitable spirit, in sunshine, storm,
snow and gloom. Even in natures blackest moods,
though it become invisible, still is it there, the
everlasting symbol of spirituality, aspiration and
eternity. The cross of the Kofel, as the Ober-
ammergauers call it, is faced with some shining
metal which catches the sun, the wall of rock
below changing colour with every mood of the
day; now blue and green, now brown and purple,
now dark and awesome with the reflection of
some great inrolling cloud, now white and luminous,
like the holy guardian of the Grail, in the moon-
light! Wheresoever one may wander in this
consecrated little spot one cannot, nor would not,
escape this silent voice of uplifting sorrow.
13*
A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
The little village is winding and of exceeding
picturesqueness, the intrusion of several modern
buildings unable to effect its sweetness of] atmo-
sphere. The houses are of delicately coloured
plaster, or sunburned to a deep velvety brown.
Through the village, bordered at first on either
side by cottages and later running out to fragrant
flower-laden fields, is a clear, limpid, opalescent-
hued stream, reflective also 'of the life of its
hamlet and the clarity of its mission. It is a
stream in which to look long and deeply; a
stream to breed dreams of purity, of steadfast
faith and musical art; a stream to cleanse and
make innocent, to draw one into a mesh of end-
less visions of eternal wonder.
By its waters one feels new-born, re-awakened.
The whole place is an enchantment, wherein
everything is a symbol, from the lives of the,
inhabitants to the great theatre which greets one
on first drawing into the village.
The theatre, which was built, in its present
form in 1830, and improved in 1890, is a severely
simple, solid and earnest looking structure. High
over its entrance a clear white cross appears, to
face the Calvary Group, marble- white on the
green hill, and the great cross of the Kofel.
All here work in unison; art, religion, the
labourer of the fields, woodcarvers, builders and
potters; all these sturdy, aesthetic peasants with
their remarkable culture, refinement, unusual
personal beauty, dramatic ideal and remoteness
of position.
OBERAMMERGAU
Originally Oberammergau was a Celtic settle-
ment and later in the time of the Romans a
station on their military road from Verona to
Augsburg.
It was named by them "Ad Coveliacas" mean-
ing the station at the Kofel.
From the 9 th to the 12 th century it was in
possession of the Welfs and one of their Dukes,
Ethiko, built a castle and also founded a mona-
stery there. It was in the year 1167 that the
village of Oberammergau was transferee! to the
Hohenstaufens, and exactly one hundred years
later, to the House of Wittelsbach. It has always
enjoyed a great amount of freedom, being granted
many more rights and privileges than any other
of the near lying villages. Under the rule of
Ludwig the Bavarian (1330) it was allowed even
more freedom, and immunity from serfdom. It
was at this time that the above named Duke
founded the famous old monastery of Ettal, near
Oberammergau. From that time on, for a long
period of years, the prosperity of the little town
was assured. Not only did the Emperors, on their
hunting expeditions pass through, but continous
caravans of both German and Italian merchants;
introducing the villagers not only to the progres-
sion and culture of the outside world, but also
giving them the impetus and encouragement for
the carrying on of their wood-carving (combined
with the possibility of selling it, and having it
carried to other towns and countries). It was
probably about this time that the Passion Play
ig8 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
was first given, for in the 13* and 14 th centuries
the various monasteries, especially in southern
Germany and the Tyrol, were in the habit of
giving both Miracle and Religious plays. It was
in England originally, as far as can be gathered,
that the first mystery plays were given and from
thence they swiftly spread all over Christianised
Europe. In Augsburg "moralities" were constantly
performed from the year 1200 down to the time
of Holbein.
Commercialy and artisticallly Oberammergau
continued to have a glorious prosperity until the
breaking out of the terrible wars in the sixteenth
century. Violent, wild and reckless armies of
soldiers, passed ceaselessly through the heretofore
peaceful hamlet, leaving behind poverty, famine
and worst of all, the hopeless ravages of the
plague. It was then the vow was made, that if
only the plague might be taken from amongst
them, they would, in thankfulness, give the Passion
Play every ten years. Oberammergau never again
attained the commercial importance which had
been hers, but she nevertheless enjoyed a long
period of happiness and peace until war again
broke out at the beginning of the eighteenth
century, when hordes of Austrians and Hungarians
beseiged the valley, devastating all with their
fierce breath of destructiveness. Then came the
Austrian wars of Succession, and later the dis-
asterous period of the French invasions. Famine
again and innumerable losses were endured by
the plucky little town, but at last peace has
AUGSBURG igg
settled once more within her borders by the sold-
ing together of the German Empire in Peace and
Unity.
Wood-carving, apart from the enormous influx
of thousands of strangers from all over the
world to witness the Passion Play every ten years
and the "David Play" every five (formerly the
latter was given only every thirty years), is still
the chief work of the peasant-artists. Their talent
in this direction is full of a rare and most deli-
cate perfection. Oberammergau, as early as the
year mi introduced the art of wood-carving
into Berchtesgarten, which points to the fact that
she was the founder, or at least the original
home of this art in Bavaria. Her sales-men used
to travel out into the distant towns with their
packs on their backs, achieving for their treasures
a wide and enviable fame, and they now possess
branches for the disposal of their beautiful art
works at Liverpool, Bremen, Hamburg, Amster-
dam, Groningen, Drontheim, Copenhagen, St. Peters-
burg, Moscow, Lima and Cadiz.
AUGSBURG.
The very name brings up vivid dreams of
ancient splendor, and the picture of that vast,
endless sea of evolution, on artistic and progres-
sive lines, which is comparable only to that
of Italy's.
Wiirzburg, Regensburg, Bamberg, Landshut,
Ingolstadt, Bayreuth, Oberammergau; is it possible
200 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
that all are contained in that one enchanting
word, Bavaria ? And the sapphire lakes, enclosed
by, or revealing, over wooded hills, the glistening
snow peaks and chaste, wide glaciers, and those
vast, deep forests written of by both Tacitus
and Caesar, so impressive in their grandeur,
only the soul of the observer and not the
pen of the writer, can do justice to their mystic
loveliness.
From Munich it is an easy run to Augs-
burg, which is virtually the capital of the circle
of Swabia and Neuburg and the principle seat of
South German commerce. The latter word brings
a mundane clang with it, but one need have no
fear that one is about to see something similar
to the unattractive toils of an English or American
commercial town; for Augsburg, sheds with the
richest of Bavarian towns, an atmosphere of
mediaeval charm, if not of such complete ar-
tistic beauty.
Its name is derived from the Roman Emperor
Augustus, who on the conquest of Rhaetia by
Drusus, established a Roman colony here and
called it Augusta Vindelicorum. This was about
the year 14. B. C.
About the fifth century we read that the town
was sacked by the Huns and later, came, with
the rest of Bojuvarii, under the rule of the
Prankish kings. In the war of Charlemagne
against Duke Thassilo it was almost entirely
destroyed. Later, after the division and disso-
lution of the Empire, it fell into the hands of
AUGSBURG 201
the Dukes of Swabia. It gradually rose as a
prosperous manufacturing town, becoming so
noted for it's wealth and beauty that it was one
of the chief points desired by the constantly
attacking and avaricious Hungarians. (936 954.)
In 1276 it was raised to the rank of a Free
Imperial city, which position it retained, despite
many internal changes in its constitution, until
1806, when it was annexed to Bavaria by Napoleon.
Augsburg reached its greatest height, both for
prosperity and beauty, during the 15 th and i6 th
centuries. Its merchants were literally citizen-
princes, enjoying the most enormous individual
wealth and power.
Three daughters of Augsburg merchants mar-
ried princes. The unfortunate Agnes Bernauer,
(who was secretly married to Albrecht III.) and who
was drowned in the Danube near Straubing by
his father, Duke Ernest of Bavaria in 1435, the
latter being so enraged at his son's supposed
mesalliance. Then there was Clara von Detten
who was married to Elector Frederick the Vic-
torious of the Palatinate, and Philippina Welser
to Arch-Duke Ferdinand of Austria.
The famous Fugger family, the richest people
of their century, were originally but poor weavers.
Their house on the Maximilianstrasse, with its
beautifully painted and frescoed front, is, to this
day one of the most interesting houses to be
seen in Augsburg. Curiously interesting too is
the Fuggerei, a small quarter of Augsburg, foun-
ded by Jacob Fugger "the Rich" in 1514.
202 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
It consists of 1 06 charming little houses,
like some ideal Morrisonian village, for the
benefit of very poor Roman Catholic families.
The miniature town with its spotless asphalt
streets, two storied cottages, gaily colored little
doors and flower-potted window-sills, and pumps
of clear running water, is enclosed within its
own gates.
The Maximilianstrasse is exceptionally hand-
some, broad and long. In the centre of the
street, at harmonious distances, are three magni-
ficent bronze fountains; one of Augustus, the
founder of the city, and the other two of Hercules
and Mercury. Another very beautiful statue is
the "War Monument" in the Frohnhof, near
the Cathedral. The latter is a remarkably beauti-
ful Gothic edifice begun in 995 but altered con-
siderably in 1321 1431. The most mediaeval
looking street is the Jacobstrasse, which leads
down from the Barfusserkirche to the Fuggerei.
Near the latter stands the house where the elder
Holbein lived and the younger Holbein was born.
The Rathaus is one of the most remarkable of
Renaissance buildings in Bavaria. The "Goldener
Saal", said to be the finest of the numerous
halls in Germany, is brilliantly decorated in
the Italian rococo style, the exquisitely carved
ceiling being hung from above by twenty-four
chains. All the rooms in this especial Rathaus
impress one by their extravagant wealth of
decoration, splendid ancient stoves and treasures
of every sort. - r :
AUGSBURG 203
St. Annakirche, the Fuggerhaus and St. Ulrics
are all full of both beauty and historical interest.
The Royal Picture Gallery which is situated in
the old monastery of St. Catherines, contains some
very fine works, but is chiefly notable for it's
collection of the works of two Augsburg artists,
Holbein and Burkmair. During the i6 th century
Augsburg was the seat of many Diets held by
Charles V. In 1530 the Protestant princes handed
him, in the above mentioned Rathaus, the famous
"Confession" (drawn up by Melanchthon of Nurem-
berg). The article consisted of a reformed creed
containing twenty-one articles in the name of
the Evangelical states of Germany, which lucidly
explained the doctrinal position of the Lutheran
church ; a religious peace, of the greatest import
to the religious welfare of Germany, was also
concluded here in 1530. In 1632 the city was
beseiged and captured by Gustavus Adolphus on
his slaughtering journey through Bavaria, but
after he was vanquished it returned again to its
old inheritance. But the enormous trade and pro-
sperity of Augsburg was for the time being completely
ruined by the civil and religious strifes and the
long, bloody wars which so racked Germany in
the 15 th and i6 th centuries. In 1703 it was bom-
barded by the Electoral princes of Bavaria and
forced to pay a heavy contribution, later as we
have seen, becoming absolutely Bavarian.
In 1518 the first fire-engine ever used was in-
vented in Augsburg. Between the years 1500 and
1800 the gold and silversmiths guilds were every-
204 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
where noted, even more so than those of Munich,
or Nuremberg. For the seeker after these rare
old pieces, or for antique brass, copper or pewter,
Augsburg is a veritable treasure house.
A beautiful portion of the old wall is still
standing and some fine old gates. Along the
canal, the houses are intensely picturesque, and
down the winding, narrow and sloping roads from
St. Annaskirche one comes across entrancing bits
of mediaevalism. In 1703 the ancient fortifications
were dismantled and laid out in public prome-
nades.
Many, many years ago the famous Mon-
taigne wrote, declaring, that to him the wonder-
ful old city of Augsburg was more beautiful even
than Paris.
REGENSBURG.
The interesting city of Regensburg, which
was ceded to Bavaria only in 1810, derives it's
name from the river Regen on which it stands.
The Celts, in the days when it was one of their
settlements, used to call it Ratisbon, the Romans
later naming it Castra Regina. It is in reality
on the Danube, but the Regen flows into that
mighty river just opposite to where the city was
founded. It used to be the capital of the Romans
in those parts, holding as it did such an advan-
tageous position on the Danube. The narrow
stone bridge, which connects the town with it's
suburb, was thrown over in 1136. Later, after
REGENSBURG 205
the Roman power had waned, it became the seat
of the Bavarian Dukes and the chief point of
the East Prankish monarchy. It was one of the
most important centres for the promulgation of
Christianity, for in the 7 th century St. Emmerau
founded the Abbey here and in the 8 th St. Boni-
face the Bishopric. In the 13 th century it became
a Free Imperial city, one of the most flourishing
of all German towns and a favorite resort, like
Nuremberg, of the Emperors. Of enormous im-
port was the short, but vital hold, the spirit
of the Reformation held here, and later of the
counter-reformation inspired by the Jesuits.
From Regensburg, cargo boats used to go down
the Danube to the Black sea, with merchandise
from the Western and Southern countries, bring-
ing back in turn, treasures from the East as far
off as China. Even in the remote days of the
Crusades the Regensburg boatmen were famous,
conveying down the broad waters of the river
holy pilgrims and warriors on their way to the
Holy Land. No less than seventeen sieges are
recorded as having been endured by this city
during the Thirty Years War, that fearful time
from which we can nowhere escape in the history
of Bavaria, almost completely ruining both the
prosperity and beauty of the town.
* The powerful but barbarous General Tilly met
his death here, and the enormous cup which he
is supposed to have emptied at one draught for
a warlike wager, is still in existence, every year
a celebration being held in memory of the event.
* See Page 215.
206 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
From 1663 to 1806 it was the seat of the Im-
perial Diets, sixty-two of which were held within
it's walls. 1806 saw the assignment of the town
and bishopric to the Prince Primate Dalberg, by
the Peace of Luneville. In 1809 it was stormed
by Napoleon, the Austrians experiencing a fear-
ful defeat beneath its walls, when the city itself
was almost reduced to ashes. Nevertheless many
of the old buildings remained mercifully untouched,
some of which are much older even than those
in Nuremberg. A curious and essentially charac-
teristic feature of Regensburg are the towers
attached to the houses, all loopholed, witnesses
to a day when battle, danger and internal strife
were of daily occurrence.
The Golden Tower, attached to the Inn
of the Golden Cross and the one adorned with
paintings of David and Goliath, being the most
notable. The Street of the Ambassadors (where all
the Ambassadors of the German Diet used to
reside), bears still over the doors many of their
Coats of Arms. Of the purest Gothic style is the
beautiful old Cathedral founded in 1273. It was
not completed till 1634 and the towers are of a
still later period ; one of the little interior chapels
dates back to the 8 th century.
An ancient Benedictine monastery of Irish
monks, named "Scoti" used to stand on the spot
where now rises the Schottenkirche, a Roman
basilica of the 12 th century. The Golden Cross
Inn is famous for being the meeting place of
Barbara Blumenberger and Charles V. She was
REGENSBURG 207
the mother of Don John of Austria. Regensburg
is full of magnificent pieces of architecture of
every period.
Not far from Regensburg, above Keilheim, on
the heights of the Michaelsberg, the Befreiungs-
halle or Hall of Liberation was erected in 1842
by Ludwig I. It resembles a Roman Temple and
contains, ranged within a circular-domed hall,
statues in Carrara marble by Schwanthaler, and
bronze shields made out of French cannon, on
which are engraved the different victories gained
by the Germans and the names of their leaders.
The walls are lined with marble, the roof being
supported by granite pillars.
In his interesting little book of his trip
down the Danube the noted American historian
Mr. Bigelow writes, "the slabs bear the names of
such as the King of Bavaria recognised as the
liberators of the Fatherland. But we are struck
by the names of many Austrian and South Ger-
man mediocrities, and the absence of those who
really did make their country free. Wellington
is conspicious by his absence, so the noble Boyen
and Liitzow. The man whose far-sighted legis-
lation lifted Prussia from out the result of Jena,
is not to be found here we mean Stern,
nor his able successor Hardenberg. The poets,
thinkers, the patriotic spirits that stirred the
people to heroic actions, these were the ones who
fought Katzbach and Leipzig, but they are not
noticed on these slabs. Schiller and Korner, whose
songs of liberty fired every German heart and
208 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
who sent every schoolboy into the army. Arndt
and Jahn, Uhland and Fichte .... names that
in 1813 did more for the German success than
a fresh army corps .... of these this Bavarian
Mausoleum says nothing."
An easy trip from Regensburg is to that magni-
ficent and masterly construction of Klenze's, the
Graeco-Doric Temple of Walhalla, a national
monument built by Ludwig I. also as a temple
of fame to Germany's greatest men. The temple,
architecturally is the exact copy of the Parthenon.
Walhalla means "Walhall or Hall of the Chosen".
The glorious view from the platform extends over
the level plain of Bavaria to the glistening snow
peaks of the Alps in the south and to Straubing
and up the majestic Danube to Regensburg in
the East. Within are innumerable busts and
statues of Germany's most famous men, heroes,
musicians, statesmen, artists, poets, sages &c.
ROTHENBURG.
This gem like appendage, as it were, of Nurem-
berg, is one gleaming mass of rich artistic trea-
sures and innumerable historical detail. It is
perhaps the least altered and the purest existing
example of all mediaeval towns, and being more
miniature and concentrated than Nuremberg is
the easier to fully absorb. It rises before one's
vision beautifully encircled by walls, moats and
towers, rich in harmonious coloring and warmth
of tone. The well preserved gabled houses are red-
ROTHENBURG
tiled and glow in the sun. As far back as 942
Rothenburgs name appears in the ancient docu-
ments, and for five-hundred and twenty-nine years
it was a free city of the Empire like most of the Ba-
varian, Franconian and Swabian cities. During the
14 th and 15 th centuries it radiated the highest artistic
standards in every branch of art and architecture
and it's industries were similarly progressive.
During the Reformation it's sympathies were
entirely with Luther. In 1525 it experienced the
disturbances of the uprisings of the peasants,
taking part with them, and also suffered the in-
evitable relapse and degeneration consequent on
the Thirty Years War. During this period it was
several times beseiged and taken by opposing
parties.
To the sojourner within it's enthralling crown
of walls, it offers such a bewildering wealth
of architectural beauty, that one scarce can
recall another city which can vie with it in
this direction. It's absolutely mediaeval streets,
narrow, and winding, are more exquisite in an har-
monious suggestiveness than even those of Nurem-
berg. Gothic churches, Renaissance buildings
(mostly of an ecclesiastical character), Rathaus,
arches, gates, fountains, castle, all are in the
most perfect state of preservation. The most
fascinating piece of ancient beauty, where even
on the rainiest days can be seen artists sketching
and painting it's perfect outlines, is the old gate
of the Altes Rathaus, with it's overhanging lantern;
and the quaintest vista, that to be seen on look-
Norman, Bavarian History. 14
210 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
ing down toward the Plonlein. In the church of
St. James are some very exquisite specimens
of altar -carving by Tilman Riemenschneider,
and in the church of the little village of Dett-
wang, is also another fine example of this same
artist's work.
We cannot pretend to go satisfactorily into all
the venerable towns which add to the interest
and glory of Bavaria; each one possessing both
a significant historical and artistic interest, which
must be sought in a more complete and indivi-
dual form.
WttRZBURG and BAMBERG could alone fill
a book with the vicissitudes of their deve-
lopement, height attained, and wealth of ec-
clesiastical buildings. The latter is built on a
chain of hills, innumerable churches rising up to
crown their summits in majestic outline; the
former is situated in a vine-clad, verdant valley of
the Main. From 741 down to 1803 Wiirzburg
was governed by an unbroken chain of Bishops.
The first was Burkardus who was consecrated by
St. Boniface. As history has already told us these
Bishops attained enormous power, and in 1120
the Emperor Frederick created them Dukes of
Franconia. The sceptre of these same princes
often including the See of Bamberg. In 1803 it
was incorporated with Bavaria.
Then there are the towns of INGOLSTADT
(now a mighty fortress, famous as having been the
first home of the University founded by Ludwig
the Rich in 1472 and beseiged by Gustavus
WUNSIEDEL, FORTH AND CARLSTADT 211
Adolphus in 1632 when Tilly lay mortally wounded
within the city, and also of having the first establi-
shed Jesuits college in Germany).
WUNSIEDEL (the birthplace of Jean Paul
Richter, and where, on certain dates, every few
years, is given an intensely interesting festival
drama, in the beautiful forest of the Luisenberg,
in honor of the visit paid to the lovely little
town by the much beloved Queen Luise).
FORTH, meaning a fort (the rival manu-
facturing town of Nuremberg, and the haven
which sheltered the Jews when they were driven
out of Nuremberg). The great progression of the
town is due to their wonderful industry and
talents.
They possess a Hebrew printing establishment,
a college, separate court of justice, many schools
and a Synagogue. At the time of the epoch
making battle between Gustavus and Wallenstein,
the latter made this town his head quarters,
putting up at the Griiner Baum in the street
which takes it's name from this noted Swedish
Emperor. CARLSTADT (founded by Charlemagne,
and the birthplace of the reformer Rodenstein,
the instigator of puritanical iconoclasm. 1543).
HANAU (the home of the Flemish and Walloon
peasants banished from the Netherlands 1597,
the birthplace of the world-known and loved
brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm 1785 1863
and 1786 1859. Near here Napoleon with 80,000
men defeated the Bavarians and Austrians under
Marshall Wrede with 40,000 men in 1813).
212 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
ASCHAFFENBURG (belonging from 982 to the
bishops of Mayence, and ceded to Bavaria in
1814. In the old castle, erected in 1605, is a most
remarkable collection of missals, engravings,
prayerbooks, miniatures &c., and also an extremely
valuable collection of paintings, including good
examples of Ruysdael, Rembrandt, Rubens,
Teniers, Angelica Kaufmann, Giordano, Cuyp and
Cranach. Beyond the castle gardens stands the
Pompeianum erected by the indefatigable Ludwig I.
in 1824 in imitation of the Castor and Pollux
at Pompeii, decorated with mosaic and mural
paintings).
AICH ACH (the cradle of the Wittelsbach House),
KISS IN GEN, which is the most frequented water-
cure place in Bavaria, was in 1866 the scene of a
fierce combat between the Prussians and the Ba-
varians, the latter under Prince Karl being defeated.
In 1874 Go ben also attempted to assassinate Bis-
marck here.) Freising, Donauworth, Lauingen (the
birthplace of the most famous man of his cen-
tury, Albertus Magnus). Voburg, Fiissen &c., all
towns of quaint custom, interest and value to
the kingdom to which so many of them only
latterly have definitely belonged. Then the
many lovely country districts, such as Berchtes-
gaden which Ibsen so loved. Garmisch, Parten-
kirchen &c.
Bavaria is very rich in beautiful lakes, the
most important being Starnberg lake, lake Con-
stance, forty miles in length, and curious, apart
from its immense beauty, in that its banks be-
THE BAVARIAN LAKES ' 213
long to five different states, Bavaria, Wurttem-
berg, Baden, Switzerland and Austria. Lindau,
the little island on the waters of the lake, be-
longs to Bavaria. Tegernsee, Herrenchiemsee,
which has three islands (the Herren-Insel on
which formerly stood a monastery, and on whose
site Ludwig II. erected his castle, the Kraut-Insel
which used to be a vegetable garden for the
monks and nuns, and the Frauen-Insel on which
still stands a convent).
The most beautiful lake in Germany is the
Bavarian Konigsee, a small emerald lake through
whose delicate green waters shine the rarest tints
of sapphire -blue. The brittle -looking, mighty
mountains pierce upwards from the very waters
edge to a distance of 6500 feet, in a perpen-
dicular glory, leaping heavenwards like ardent,
aspiring prayers. In this soul exalting spot we
will take leave of this marvelous and beautiful
little country, for which one lifetime is all to
short wherein to comprehend fully it's charms,
influence, inestimable treasures, and the picture
of a wonderful mental, spiritual and artistic pro-
gression.
To know her, nevertheless how imperfectly, is
to love her. Through all her evolutions, wars,
battles of belief and unbelief, times so terrible
that we swiftly endeavour to wrap a heavy veil
of unprejudiced leniency over the eyes, we have
seen that at bottom a great Justice ruled her,
a beautiful Destiny awaited her. And if we have
seen that the path of her noblest and most artistic
214 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA
souls has been one of martyrdom, they indivi-
dually seldom seeing the fruit or result of their
profound endeavours, let us remember that "to
take from art it's martyrdom is to take from it
it's glory. It might still reflect the passing modes
of mankind, but it would cease to reflect the
face of God". .
NOTE.
* After the book had gone to press, the incident about
Tilly at Regensburg was discovered to be incorrect. The
wager took place at Rothenburg and was between Tilly and
the famous old burgomaster Nusch. It was the latter who
saved the town and the lives of the council from the wrath
of the harsh Tilly by drinking at one draught, so the
legend runs, a flagon of thirty Bavarian quarts.
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