On the evening of June 13, 1886 — a warm and overcast Sunday — King Ludwig II of Bavaria asked his physician, Dr. Bernhard von Gudden, to accompany him on an after-dinner walk along the shores of Lake Starnberg. Ludwig had been brought to Berg Castle as a prisoner the previous day, deposed from his throne by a government that declared him insane. Gudden was both his doctor and his jailer — a distinguished alienist who had diagnosed the king without ever examining him, based solely on the testimony of servants and ministers. The two men left the castle at approximately 6:30 in the evening. They were expected back by 8 o'clock. They never returned.
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Riddles of the Past·1/3·1′
The place
Neuschwanstein Castle
Death in the Lake
The unsolved mystery of a drowned king and his doctor on a summer evening in 1886
1886Neuschwanstein Castle
Moral of the Story
“Some mysteries endure not because they cannot be solved, but because the powerful have reasons to keep them unsolved — and a dead king can accuse no one.”
Characters
K
King Ludwig II of BavariaD
Dr. Bernhard von GuddenJ
Jakob Lidl (fisherman)T
The Bavarian government commissionSource
Hacker, Rupert. Ludwig II von Bayern in Augenzeugenberichten, 1972; Haasen, Gerd. Konig Ludwig II: Wahrheit und Legende, 1986; Bavarian State Archives