My life, my loves, and my untimely death…
(To be read in a very thick German accent)
Hallo, Hallo! This is the ghost of Ludwig II telling all you commoners about my life, my loves, and my death.
LIFE
If I am being honest here, which I guess I have to be, I just wanted to live my glamorous life in my beautiful castles, BY MYSELF!!!!! Especially Linderhof, my amazing palace inspired by the French, and Neuschwanstein, my fairy tale castle on a cliff. I heard that Walt Disney designed his theme park castle after mine. How adorable.
I made Linderhof Palace my “French” getaway in Germany. Oh, the French were the best! To live with beautiful art, the most AMAZING jewelry, and all the best decor! Now THAT is THE life. That is obviously why I spent the most time here, and my favorite part of that castle was my dining room, which had a magical table. My servants would lower the table down using a crank and pulley system, and put food on it, and then it would come back up to ME! I liked to eat 10-12 courses per meal (depending on my mood), so all of my servants had bulging, how do you say, biceps?
LOVES
I was engaged to Duchess Sophie Charlotte for about ten months when we both came to our senses and realized we were in love with other people. She was in love with Edgar Hanfstaengl while I was in love with Richard Wagner. I remember later writing to her and saying "The main substance of our relationship has always been … Richard Wagner's remarkable and deeply moving destiny.” We were both hopelessly in love, but not with one another.
DEATH
On the night of my death, my doctor, Gudden, and I decided to take a walk by the lake. My death has always been a mystery, even for me. But my dear friend and private fisherman, Jakob Lidl, later said that I was shot. He was waiting for me with his boat behind the bushes so we could escape for some reason, and apparently I had one foot in the boat when three bullets killed me on the spot. It was all a blur, but I remember hearing a few people say that they found me and Gudden dead in the shallow waters of the lake, and Gudden was said to have strangulation marks around his neck. It might have been me, but no one knows, and no one can prove anything…
THE END
