BrainStuff Classics: How Did a Mad King Design Disney's Castle?

Walt Disney based Sleeping Beauty's castle -- the centerpiece of Disneyland and the Disney logo -- on a real castle in the Bavarian Alps of Germany. Learn about Neuschwanstein Castle's strange and tragic history in this classic episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://history.howstuffworks.com/european-history/neuschwanstein-castle.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to BrainStuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey, BrainStuff. I'm
Lauren Vogelbaum, and this is a classic episode of the podcast.
In this one, we look into the weird and perhaps
surprisingly spooky history behind Disney's iconic Sleeping Beauty Castle. It's
based on a real one in the Bavarian Alps with

(00:23):
a tragic backstory. Hey, BrainStuff. Lauren Vogelbaum here.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
You can thank a mad Bavarian king for the opening
credits to every Disney movie. Before Walt Disney built Disneyland,
he and his wife Lillian toured Europe, including a stop
at the magnificent Neuschwanstein Castle in the Bavarian Alps of Germany.
Disney was so impressed with the skyscraping turrets and towers
of this faux Romanesque structure that he used it as

(00:51):
the model for Sleeping Beauty's castle, the centerpiece of Disneyland,
and now the ubiquitous logo of Walt Disney Pictures. But
if Disney had known the real story of Neuschwanstein and
its fairy tale king, an eccentric opera fan who was
declared a madman before dying under mysterious circumstances, he might
have chosen a different castle. Neuschwanstein Castle is one of

(01:14):
the most visited tourist destinations in Europe, welcoming more than
6,000 visitors on busy days in the summer. But the
man who dreamed up the fantastical castle never intended for
it to be open to the public. It began as
an architectural love letter to the German composer Richard Wagner
and evolved into a refuge for a reclusive king who

(01:35):
slowly lost his grip on reality. King Ludwig II never
fit the mold of a stoic monarch. Born in 1845,
he was raised in princely elegance in his father Maximilian
II's castle, Hohenschwangau, where the young royal, quote, enjoyed dressing
up and took pleasure in play acting, according to his mother,

(01:56):
Marie of Prussia. From an early age, Ludwig had a
vivid imagination and a flair for the dramatic. Hohenschwangau, built
in 1832 in the Gothic style, was decorated with paintings
drawn from medieval German legends and poetry, and young Ludwig
particularly identified with Luhengreen, a legendary knight of the Holy
Grail who traveled on a boat pulled by swans. When

(02:19):
Maximilian II died suddenly in 1864, Ludwig, then 18 years old,
was thrust into power. Unprepared for any serious political leadership,
one of the first things Ludwig did as king was
to invite his musical idol Wagner to come to Munich
for an opera festival. Wagner was also obsessed with German
medieval legends and an even written opera version of the

(02:41):
Luhengreen story in 1850. Wagner, who was in dire financial straits,
eagerly accepted Ludwig's invitation, and the young king became one
of the composer's chief patrons. When they met, Wagner didn't
know what to make of the otherworldly Ludwig. Wagner wrote,

(03:16):
Wagner couldn't have predicted it, but just two years later,
in 1866, Bavaria and Austria suffered a humiliating defeat to
Prussia in the Seven Weeks War, and Ludwig was stripped
of all real power. It was then, historians believe, that
Ludwig decided to retreat into a fantasy kingdom in the
Alps dedicated to Wagner, an alternate reality in which he

(03:37):
could play out his operatic daydreams full of Christian knights
and magical swans. Ludwig already had the perfect location picked out,
a rocky promontory near his childhood castle with 360-degree views
of pristine alpine lakes, lush valleys, and towering peaks. He
wrote a letter to Wagner describing his plans to build

(03:58):
a far more ambitious version of his father's Hohenschwangau. Quote,
the location is one of the most beautiful to be found,
holy and unapproachable, a worthy temple for the divine friend
who has brought salvation and true blessing to the world.
To bring his vision to life, Ludwig enlisted a theatrical
set designer and scene painter from Munich named Christian Jung

(04:20):
to make some appropriately dramatic drawings of the new Hohenschwangau,
as Ludwig called it. It was meant to be an
idealized version of a medieval castle, inspired by a visit
to the legitimately medieval Wartburg Palace, but cranked up to
an 11. Ludwig wanted 200 well-appointed rooms, a cavernous singer's
hall for opera performances, ornate walled gardens, and even a

(04:43):
knight's bath akin to the ritual baths used by the
Knights of the Holy Grail. But rather than being a
complete throwback, the castle was to include the latest technological comforts,
including electric lighting, flush toilets, central heating, and an electric
buzzer system for summoning servants. The first stone of Ludwig's
dream castle was laid in 1869— He had written to

(05:05):
Wagner that he hoped to move in in three years,
but construction was still ongoing when Ludwig finally moved into
the first completed section 15 years later. By that point,
the scale of the castle had been pared down significantly,
and the project had taken on a distinctly chaotic feel. Ludwig,
a deeply pious Christian, had begun to identify himself more

(05:26):
and more with the Arthurian hero Parzival, another knight in
the quest of the Holy Grail. In the castle, a
space originally planned as an audience room for receiving guests
was turned into a high-toned throne room without a throne. Instead,
its gilt walls and murals would serve as a hall
of the Holy Grail. Ludwig grew increasingly reclusive. He slept

(05:49):
during the day and wandered the castle at night. He'd
hire musicians and actors for private concerts and operas. And
during Bavaria's snowy winters, journey out for nighttime sleigh rides
in an elaborate custom-made sleigh, sometimes in medieval costume. By 1885,
the still-unfinished castle had gone wildly over budget, and Ludwig

(06:10):
had tried the patience of his foreign creditors. When he
couldn't repay his debts, the foreign banks seized the property
and threatened to bankrupt the state of Bavaria. Ludwig's ministers,
largely to protect state assets, accused the king of insanity
and removed him from the throne. Ludwig had clearly shown
some borderline delusional behavior, and his obsession with building his

(06:31):
new Hohenschwangau, plus four other lavish personal palaces and homes,
was all-consuming. Whether or not he had any mental disorder
that would be diagnosable by today's standards is still debated.
Ludwig's ultimate fate is also shrouded in mystery. Days after
Ludwig was deemed insane by the state-appointed psychiatrist and locked

(06:52):
up in a drab castle, he was found dead, apparently
drowned in waist-deep water. Ludwig's death at only 40 years
old would have been ruled a suicide if not for
one gruesome detail. His psychiatrist was floating dead next to him.
No one knows exactly what happened. The castle was renamed Neuschwanstein.
a German for New Swanstone, after Ludwig's death as an

(07:16):
homage to the tragic and eccentric figure known as the
Fairytale King. Ironically, the debt-ridden castle, opened to the public
just seven weeks after Ludwig's death in 1886, has paid
for itself many times over thanks to the 1.4 million
tourists who visit every year. Today's episode is based on

(07:37):
the article Neuschwanstein Castle, The Real Story Behind the Fairy
Tale Fortress on HowStuffWorks.com, written by Dave Ruse. BrainStuff is
a production of iHeart Podcasts in partnership with HowStuffWorks.com and
is produced by Tyler Klang. For more shows from iHeart Podcasts,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.