Ludovika Wilhelmine of Bavaria

Joseph Karl Stieler : Portrait of Princess Ludovika Wilhelmine, later Duchess of Bavaria, oil on canvas, around 1828

Ludovika Wilhelmine Princess of Bavaria , married Duchess Ludovika in Bavaria (born August 30, 1808 in Munich , †  January 26, 1892 in the Herzog-Max-Palais in Munich), was a daughter of the Bavarian King Maximilian I Joseph and by marriage Duchess in Bavaria . She was the mother of the Empress Elisabeth of Austria-Hungary ("Sisi") and the last Queen of the Two Sicilies, Marie in Bavaria .

Life

origin

Joseph Karl Stieler: Luise (far left), Maria Anna and Sophie Friederike , princesses of Bavaria, dancing in a meadow, 1812

Princess Ludovika Wilhelmine, called Luise , was the daughter of Maximilian I Joseph (1756–1825), King of Bavaria, and his second wife, Princess Karoline Friederike Wilhelmine (1776–1841), a daughter of Hereditary Prince Karl Ludwig of Baden and of Princess Amalie Friederike von Hessen-Darmstadt , born. Her paternal grandparents were Count Palatine Friedrich Michael von Pfalz-Birkenfeld and Princess Maria Franziska Dorothea von der Pfalz-Sulzbach , who had been exiled to a monastery for adultery.

Ludovika was the younger sister of Princess Sophie Friederike , who married Archduke Franz Karl of Austria , from which the future Emperor Franz Joseph I emerged as the son. Ludovika's half-brother was the future Bavarian King Ludwig I.

At the age of four, the princes and princesses had to take part in court life, including going to the theater, so that they could get used to court etiquette. The children were taught the literature of famous classics , geography and history and grew up bilingually - German and French , the court language. Among the teachers of the Bavarian princesses was the famous philologist Friedrich Thiersch , who had come to Munich from Göttingen in 1809 .

Marriage and offspring

Engagement portrait of Princess Ludovika Wilhelmine of Bavaria and Duke Max in Bavaria (Joseph Karl Stieler, 1828)

The children: Sophie, Maximilian Emanuel, Carl Theodor, Helene Karoline Therese, Ludwig Wilhelm, Mathilde Ludovika and Maria Sophie Amalie, 1854

Ludovika fell in love in Vienna in 1824 on the occasion of the wedding of her sister Sophie in Dom Miguel (1802–1866), a Portuguese prince from the Bragança family . Dom Miguel was so impressed by the Bavarian princess that he asked for her hand while in Vienna. Ludovika's father, however, rejected his application. This rejection may have been due to the fact that Dom Miguel had instigated a coup against his own father in Portugal and was therefore in exile in Vienna . Ludovika's mother, Queen Karoline of Bavaria, regretted this development, since it was rare to find “such a natural inclination as in this case”. When Miguel became king of Portugal in 1828 , he immediately asked again for the hand of Princess Ludovika. The messenger with the letter, which was addressed to Ludovika's now widowed mother, arrived in Tegernsee in September 1828 . Five days earlier, Princess Ludovika had already been married to Duke Maximilian in Bavaria there. Duke Maxmilian was a great-nephew of King Maximilian I Joseph, Ludovika's father. The contents of the letter were kept secret from Ludovika, as they "feared the awakening of an old love", as Ludovika's brother-in-law, Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia , wrote to his father.

After her youngest sister Maximiliane Josepha Karoline, who had been promised to Duke Max, died at a young age, Ludovika was appointed as his fiancée in her place against her will. Duke Max was also not taken with this connection, which had also been imposed on him because it brought political advantages.

Ludovika and Max married on September 9, 1828 in the collegiate church of St. Quirinus in Tegernsee. During the wedding celebration, Ludovika is said to have uttered a curse while throwing the bridal bouquet: “This marriage and everything that emerges from it, the blessing of God should be missing until the end.” The historian Christian Sepp has examined where this tradition comes from. This curse appears for the first time in the memoirs of one of Ludovika's granddaughters, Countess Marie Louise von Larisch . Marie Louise Countess Larisch came from the marriage of Ludovika's eldest son, Duke Ludwig in Bavaria , with the actress Henriette Mendel , who had been raised to Baroness Wallersee. She played an inglorious role in the suicide of the Austrian heir to the throne Rudolf , her cousin, and was expelled from the family as a result. She later retaliated by publishing several books of her memories. In order to earn as much money as possible with her works, she invented numerous bizarre anecdotes in order to make her family appear in the worst possible light. This means that Ludovika's “curse” is documented for the first time more than 100 years after the wedding at Tegernsee and that by a source that can be classified as unreliable. Furthermore, there is no contemporary source to substantiate this curse.

The marriage had ten children:

• Ludwig Wilhelm (1831–1920) renounced his firstborn right

⚭ 1859 ( morganatic ) Henriette von Wallersee (1833–1891)

⚭ 1892–1913 ( morganatic ) Antonie von Bartolf (1871–1956)

• Wilhelm Karl (1832–1833)
• Helene Karoline Therese , called Néné (1834–1890)

⚭ 1858 Hereditary Prince Maximilian Anton von Thurn and Taxis (1831–1867)

• Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie , called Sisi (1837–1898)

⚭ 1854 Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary (1830–1916)

• Karl Theodor , called Gackel (1839–1909), Duke in Bavaria and well-known ophthalmologist

⚭ 1865 Princess Sophie Marie of Saxony (1845–1867)

⚭ 1874 Infanta Maria José of Bragança (1857–1943)

• Marie Sophie Amalie (1841–1925)

⚭ 1859 King Francis II of the two Sicilies (1836–1894)

• Mathilde Ludovika , called Spatz (1843–1925)

⚭ 1861 Prince Ludwig of Bourbon-Sicily and Count of Trani (1838–1886)

• Maximilian (* / † 1845)
• Sophie Charlotte Auguste (1847–1897, who died in the fire in the Bazar de la Charité )

⚭ 1868 Ferdinand d'Orléans, duc d'Alençon (1844–1910)

• Maximilian Emanuel in Bavaria , called Mapperl (1849-1893)

⚭ 1875 Princess Amalie of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1848–1894)

Married life and later years

Duchess widow in Bavaria, around 1890

The rich legacy of his mother, Princess Amalie Luise von Arenberg (1789–1823), which included possessions in France and a palace in Paris , enabled Duke Max to lead a generous lifestyle. In Munich, Herzog Max built a palace on Ludwigstrasse , which is currently being built , the so-called Herzog-Max-Palais . The palace, built by the architect Leo von Klenze , was completed in October 1831 and moved into the following year after the couple returned from Italy, where they had fled cholera .

In addition, Duke Max bought the court brands Possenhofen and Garatshausen on Lake Starnberg in 1834 . The family used Possenhofen Castle as a summer residence, but Duchess Ludovika spent most of the time here alone with the children. An eyewitness reported in a letter in August 1844 that "the Duchess with an unrecognized heart almost always takes care of the children and the house by herself." Duke Max, on the other hand, traveled a lot, went on a long journey to the Orient in 1838 and often went hunting at Unterwittelsbach near Aichach . The marriage was unhappy, Ludovika and Max lived more together than together.

Her unhappy marriage and the death of her second-born son Wilhelm at the age of only a few weeks led Duchess Ludovika in Bavaria into the "first serious crisis of her life" at the beginning of 1832. Based on statements that Ludovika made towards one of her granddaughters when she was old, and on the basis of observations made by Ludovika's mother, who stated that her daughter had become quite "apathetic", the historian Christian Sepp came to the conclusion that the Duchess was at this time in a depression was ill.

While her husband lived a freedom-loving and eccentric life in the typical Wittelsbach manner, Ludovika dutifully and lovingly looked after her children. In addition, she had the landscape between the two castles designed with horticultural enthusiasm and promenades laid out along the shore zone.

The preserved corpse of Ludovika, 1892

When a wife was being sought for her nephew, the young Emperor Franz Joseph, Ludovika saw her last great chance to get close to the Austrian crown. Together with her sister Sophie, the imperial mother, she secretly chose her eldest daughter Helene to be Franz Joseph's future wife. Instead, 23-year-old Franz Joseph fell in love with his 15-year-old cousin Elisabeth, Helene's sister. The wedding took place on April 24, 1854 in Vienna's Augustinian Church.

Duke Max died after two strokes on November 15, 1888. Many people paid their last respects to him, as the popular duke was very popular. The following year, 1889, her grandson, who was then 30-year-old died Crown Prince Rudolf in his hunting lodge at Mayerling by suicide .

As the last member of the family of the first Bavarian king, the duchess widow Ludovika Wilhelmine died in Bavaria on January 26, 1892 in Munich at the age of 83 from the effects of bronchitis . Her remains were buried in the family crypt at Schloss Tegernsee in Tegernsee - next to her husband.

Titles in different phases of life

• 1808–1828 Her Royal Highness Princess Ludovika of Bavaria
• 1828–1888 Her Royal Highness The Duchess in Bavaria
• 1888–1892 Her Royal Highness The Duchess Widow in Bavaria

Honors

• In Munich, Luisenstrasse and the Luisengymnasium are named after her.

Reception in popular culture

In the "Sissi" -Filmtrilogie of Ernst Marischka played Magda Schneider Duchess Ludovika in Bavaria. Magda Schneider was the mother of Romy Schneider , who played "Sissi" in the films. In the historical film Sisi by Xaver Schwarzenberger , Duchess Ludovika was played by the Italian actress Licia Maglietta .

literature

• Erika bestereiner : Sisi and her siblings. Piper Verlag, 2003, ISBN 3-492-24006-2 .
• Sigrid-Maria Großering : Sisi and her family. Ueberreuter Verlag, Vienna / Munich 2005, ISBN 3-8000-3857-9 .
• Bernhard Graf : Sisi's siblings. Allitera Verlag, Munich 2017, ISBN 978-3-86906-977-7 .
• Christian Sepp: Ludovika. Sisi's mother and her century. August Dreesbach Verlag , Munich 2019, ISBN 978-3944334875 .
• Christian Sepp: Duchess Ludovika in Bavaria (1808-1892) , in: Brucker Blätter 2019. Yearbook of the Historical Association Fürstenfeldbruck, Issue 33 (2019), pp. 93-100.

Web links

Commons : Ludovika Wilhelmine von Bayern  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Ludovika Wilhelmine Princess of Bavaria on thepeerage.com , accessed July 26, 2015.
• Contribution "Duchess Ludovika in Bavaria: Who was Sisi's mother really?" in the TV show Between Spessart and Karwendel .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ In some publications her name is incorrectly given as “Maria Ludovika”, for example in Michaela and Karl Vocelka: Sisi. Life and legend of an empress , Munich: CHBeck 2014. The birth and baptismal certificate located in the secret house archive shows that she was baptized in the name of Ludovika Wilhelmine . Compare with: Christian Sepp: Ludovika. Sisi's mother and her century , Munich: August Dreesbach Verlag 2019, pp. 56f and 417.
2. ^ Christian Sepp: Ludovika. Sisi's mother and her century . Munich 2019, p. 69f.
3. ^ Christian Sepp: Ludovika. Sisi's mother and her century . Munich 2019, pp. 126–129, quote: p. 129.
4. ^ Christian Sepp: Ludovika. Sisi's mother and her century . Munich 2019, pp. 153/154.
5. ↑ Hans Kratzer: "Sisi's father was an aristocratic eccentric". In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , October 10, 2016 (accessed July 5, 2018); Alfons Schweiggert: Duke Max in Bavaria. Sisi's wild father . Munich 2016, p. 40.
6. ^ Marie Louise von Wallersee, formerly Countess Larisch: Empress Elisabeth and I. Leipzig 1935.
7. ^ Christian Sepp: Ludovika. Sisi's mother and her century . Munich 2019, p. 153.
8. ^ Christian Sepp: Ludovika. Sisi's mother and her century . Munich 2019, p. 168.
9. ^ Christian Sepp: Ludovika. Sisi's mother and her century . Munich 2019, p. 202
10. ^ Christian Sepp: Ludovika. Sisi's mother and her century . Munich 2019, pp. 164 and 172.