Prince Otto's Insanity--The King's Morbid Sensations
The House of Wittelsbach has been terribly ravaged by insanity. In
the course of one hundred years more than twenty members of the family
have been visited by this misfortune.
The sons of Maximilian II. were burdened with exceedingly neurotic
tendencies. Their grandfather had been eccentric in a high
degree; and a sister of King Maximilian was for long retained in a
madhouse. The parents of Ludwig II. and Prince Otto were, moreover,
near relations. They were both connected by ties of blood with the
Royal House of Hesse-Darmstadt, where there had been insanity for many
years. The grandmothers of the Bavarian Queen-mother, on both her
father's and her mother's side, were Hessian princesses. The mother
of Ludwig I., who died in her youth, likewise belonged to this house;
and his wife was the granddaughter of a princess of Darmstadt.
At the beginning of 1872 the newspapers began to insert notices
in their columns to the effect that Prince Otto of Bavaria was
suffering. In the fifties and sixties he had been the picture of
health. Where Ludwig had withdrawn, he had gone forward towards
people with outstretched hands. He had always been gay, amiable, and
lively. The unnaturally strict upbringing, and the rapidity with which,
from almost unendurable restraint, he had been thrown into unfettered
freedom, had, however, been a concurrent cause of his losing his
mental balance. Hardly two and twenty years of age, he had followed
the army (1870). We know that, despite his wish to remain with it,
the King had recalled him to Hohenschwangau. The summons was probably
the dictate of the elder brother's personal feelings; but the Prince's
nervous system had also shown itself to be unfitted for the bloody
scenes of a battlefield. Crown Prince Friedrich wrote in his diary:
"Prince Otto came to take leave before his return to Munich. He was
looking pale and wretched. He sat in front of me, apparently suffering
from cold shivering fits, while I developed to him the necessity of
our making common cause in military and diplomatic affairs. I could
not make out whether he understood me, or only heard what I said."
Shortly after his return he began to show the first signs of
insanity. The report of this aroused general sorrow. He had been
given the affectionate nickname of "Otto der Fröhliche." In spite of
predisposition, and in spite of the circumstances attending his birth,
which might furnish some ground for the supposition that the germ
of the malady was to be sought there, the public would not at first
credit the news. He was seen daily in the streets, the theatre, and at
the circus. Suddenly his sickness took a violent turn. He had to be
placed under restraint, and some occurrences which took place caused
the physicians to advise his being sent away from Munich. The Prince,
however, would not agree to this. For the time being, therefore, he
remained where he was, though it was found impossible to allow him
to be alone. At length he was declared to be incurably mad, and was
completely separated from his relations. The King was very decided
in his wish that he should not live in the vicinity of the castles
he himself was in the habit of occupying. He was, therefore, taken to
Nymphenburg, and two years later to the lonely Fürstenreid. His mother
was inconsolable at the misfortune which had struck her favourite
child; and Ludwig also greatly felt the blow. When, on his accession,
the ceremonies for his father's funeral had been decided upon, and
he had been asked what place the Prince should take, he had answered
without hesitation: "At my side!" The younger brother's light-hearted
temperament had formed a favourable contrast to his serious, heavy
view of life. He had regarded him as his successor, and hoped that
Otto by making a brilliant match would repair the injury done to
the country by his own celibacy. Instead of this, he had from mental
dulness sunk into the darkest night of insanity. He showed no feeling
at the moment of departure, and cared only for some toys; but all
the tenderness which had lain dormant in Ludwig's nature burst forth
at this moment. Those who were witness to his parting with his mad
brother were moved at the heart-broken sorrow he displayed.
From this day the King became deeply solicitous about his own health;
he suffered from fear lest Otto's fate should become his. A doctor
had been careless enough to inform him that his father had led a
light life in his earliest youth. After he had learned this fact, he
attributed the greater number of his physical sufferings to inherited
tendency. The remembrance of his father became painful to him, and
he could not suppress bitter expressions with reference to him. At
the time of his ascent of the throne several persons had thought to
remark that his nerves were wanting in the power of resistance. The
celebrated French physician, Dr Morel, who had been called to Munich in
1867, had had an opportunity of seeing the young King. He had uttered
the sadly prophetic words: "His eyes are sinisterly beautiful; future
madness shines from them!"
The political events of 1870-71, and their results, had increased his
already painful feeling of the contrast between his imagination and
reality. Signs were not wanting that his dream-life might have fatal
results for him. His nervous excitement became even more apparent when
his brother's malady broke out. In 1874 his condition was considered
so dangerous that it was talked of openly in his capital. The editor
of a Conservative newspaper publicly mentioned the report that the
King was insane. He was condemned to six months' imprisonment for
lèse Majesté, although he called as witnesses several deputies of the
Landtag, who declared on oath that this topic had been discussed in
the ale-halls of Munich.
Megalomania, the traces of which at times were apparent, had not yet
penetrated so deeply into Ludwig's consciousness that they affected
more than certain of his actions; the fire was still smouldering,
though it threatened to burst out into flames. As yet his power of will
was strong enough to curb his imagination. As yet a healthy mental
current ran, and was to run for long, side by side with the diseased
one; as yet he could at times by restless activity bring his unquiet
mind to rest. He fought like a lion to avert the misfortune, which
he so greatly dreaded; but he fought alone. His lofty conceptions had
year by year deepened the cleft which a want of understanding had dug
between him and his mother. Circumstances had parted him from Richard
Wagner, the friend whom he had most loved. He had no confidant,
hardly, indeed, anyone in whom he placed confidence. There was no
one who with a firm hand might have led him away from his erroneous
conceptions, no one who could obliterate the impressions which made
him superstitious and bitter.
This King, who a few years before had awakened the enthusiasm of all,
became transformed into a heavy, corpulent, pallid man, weary with the
burden of his life. In the midst of the romantic splendour with which
he surrounded himself, he was tormented by the thought of suicide. On
stormy nights he would drive about the mountain roads at a furious
pace in his gilded coach, alone with his morbid sensations and fancies.
Only the deep blue eyes, with their expression of Schwärmerei and
their melancholy glance, remained to remind the world of the handsome
youth who had been the pride and hope of Bavaria.