Neuschwanstein Castle

Stopped at the gate

In the rain, in the night before 10 June 1886, an eleven-man government commission arrived at Neuschwanstein to take King Ludwig II of Bavaria into custody. On 9 June four psychiatrists, among them Bernhard von Gudden, had declared him unfit to rule on the strength of witness statements, without examining him.

A coachman warned the king, who had local gendarmes occupy the castle gate. The commission, which included the foreign minister Friedrich Krafft von Crailsheim and Count Maximilian von Holnstein, was refused entry. Baroness Spera von Truchseß appeared, abused the commissioners and threatened them with her umbrella. After half an hour, at about half past four in the morning, they turned back.

Ludwig then had them arrested and locked in the gatehouse. They were released without his knowledge once the proclamation of the regency reached the telegraph office in Hohenschwangau. Prince Luitpold had taken over as regent that same day.

Three days to Lake Starnberg

A second commission, with Gudden, arrived around midnight on 11 June. At four in the morning on 12 June the king was taken to Berg Castle on Lake Starnberg.

On the evening of 13 June he went for a walk by the lake with Gudden. Both were found dead in the shallow water, no more than 25 paces from the shore. How they died has never been explained.

A castle half built

The castle the king defended was unfinished. The foundation stone had been laid on 5 September 1869. The gatehouse, of red brick with a stepped gable, was finished first, and Ludwig lived in its upper storey before moving into the unfinished palace in 1884.

By June 1886 the white limestone palace was roofed and complete outside, with a slender north stair tower about 65 metres high. The square tower was still in scaffolding, the bower had not been started, and the great keep existed only as foundations. In all, Ludwig spent just 172 days in the castle.

He built it as a stage for his imagination. Its models were Wagner's operas, above all Tannhäuser and Lohengrin, and the Wartburg near Eisenach.

Why the fairy-tale castle is Bavaria's

Neuschwanstein opened to the public within weeks of the king's death. It now receives almost 1.5 million visitors a year, more than 61 million since it opened. In July 2025 it was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List together with Linderhof, Herrenchiemsee and the king's house on the Schachen.

For Bavarians the castle and the king cannot be separated. Ludwig, deposed on psychiatric grounds that are still debated and dead three days after that night at the gate, remains the most beloved and mysterious of their monarchs.

Sources

• Wikipedia (de): Schloss Neuschwanstein
• Wikipedia (de): Ludwig II. (Bayern)
• neuschwanstein.de
• Wikipedia (en): Neuschwanstein Castle