Ludwig’s Education

More than anyone else, three people shaped Ludwig’s education as a young man and, unfortunately for his father Maximilian, two of them were actually appointed by him. The three were Count Theodor Basselet de la Rosée, Michael Klass, and Richard Wagner. Count de la Rosée – a former cavalry officer appointed by Maximilian to oversee Ludwig’s education – attempted to segregate Ludwig from the common people and encouraged him to trust no one, and only see his closest family as intimates. Furthermore, the Count encouraged Ludwig’s belief in his own superiority and indulged his snobbery. He insisted that Ludwig should only associate with his fellow Wittelsbachs and with children of the Bavarian aristocracy, thus further insulating Ludwig from having a relatively normal childhood.

Klass, a rather liberal but influential Bavarian educator whom Maximilian appointed to teach Ludwig languages, had rather medieval ideas about the separation of monarch and people. Overawed by Ludwig’s rank, he made the disastrous mistake of urging the young Ludwig to see himself as the link between his people and his deity. Being naturally gifted with languages, and with Count de la Rosée having practically isolated him from the outside world, Ludwig had little difficulty in accepting Klass’s suggestion that he should be aloof from “the common people”.

Above all, Wagner – through his music and his books – gave Ludwig’s life a sense of purpose. The sentimental and patriotic messages of Wagner’s operas appealed to Ludwig’s romantic mind. Beyond this, however, lay a deeper reason: barely a year after seeing the opera Tannhäuser being performed, a copy of the poem Der Ring des Nibelungen, with a preface by Wagner, was given to Ludwig by one of his mother’s ladies-in-waiting, Countess Fugger. In the preface, the composer denounced the current state of German opera; for his own works, Wagner hoped for better productions with higher standards and trained musicians, singers, and actors working together in a creative community. But Wagner despaired of ever reaching his goal, pointing out what he saw as the sad state of financial support for the arts in Germany. He did, however, hint that a German prince could lend his support as a patron to such a cause, thus ensuring the purity and survival of German art for generations to come. He ended the preface with this question: “Will this Prince be found?”⁴ Reading these words, Ludwig was overcome with emotion. Here lay his destiny, his purposes as a monarch, his role in adult life. Given the opportunity, Ludwig vowed to himself, he would be the patron prince and come to the rescue of German national art.