Terrace carriage of King Ludwig II of Bavaria
| Terrace car | |
|---|---|
 Terrace carriage Ludwig II.
|
|
| Number: | 1 |
| Manufacturer: | Klett & Comp. |
| Year of construction (s): | 1865 |
| Retirement: | 1918 |
| Axis formula : | 3 |
| Genre : | (WS) |
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) |
| Length over buffers: | 8,809 mm |
| Bogie axle base: | 2,600 mm |
| Total wheelbase: | 5,400 mm |
| Service mass: | 16,380 kg |
| Brake: | Westinghouse air brake |
| Train heating: | steam |
| Seats: | 3 compartments |
The terrace carriage of King Ludwig II of Bavaria was a half-open observation carriage for the court train of King Ludwig II of Bavaria . Today it belongs to the holdings of the Nuremberg Transport Museum .
description
The three-axle car has open entry platforms at both ends. The rest of the car is divided into three roughly equal segments: The middle section is a largely glazed pavilion , to which an open terrace is attached to each of the two entry platforms. In terms of style, the king chose Louis Quatorze for the design of the car . The absolutist King Louis XIV of France, after whom the style is named, was the great model of King Ludwig II of Bavaria.
history
King Ludwig II expressed his wish for a terrace wagon one year after taking office on July 16, 1865, in a letter to the Minister of Commerce and Public Works, in order to complement the court train taken over from his father Maximilian II . The royal wish was immediately implemented and the vehicle at Klett & Comp. commissioned in Nuremberg . The cost of building the car was 5,880 guilders .
The vehicle was already completed on November 18, 1865, too late in the year to be used. And in the following year, in which Bavaria waged war against Prussia without success , it was not appropriate to travel across the country in such a carriage. The only tour of the kingdom by King Ludwig II, carried out after the lost war from November 10 to December 10, 1866 to strengthen the loyalty of the Franks , took place at a time of the year when a terrace carriage was impractical. However, it was probably part of the court train that was used on the journey.
Later the king largely withdrew from the public eye and certainly did not use a vehicle that presented him to the public as relentlessly as a terrace car. So it remains open whether and how often the king was in the vehicle at all. It reflects his romantic feelings towards the landscape rather than his practical use. Perhaps the car was used on the king's journeys between Munich and his country palaces. But there is no proof of this.
There are also only a few sources about the use of the vehicle after the death of Ludwig II in 1886. His work on the court train for the Shah of Persia who is visiting Europe is certain . The car was technically modernized from 1891–1893 by MAN in Nuremberg (formerly Klett & Comp.), Received gas lighting and a Westinghouse air brake and was still part of the car fleet of the Royal Bavarian State Railways in 1913 .
After the end of the Bavarian monarchy in 1918, the car was handed over to the Nuremberg Transport Museum by the Royal Bavarian State Railways by order of the Bavarian State Ministry for Transport , which was also under this ministry at the time. Since the Transport Museum moved into the Lessing building in 1925, the car has been on public display. During the Second World War , the vehicle was only insignificantly damaged in air raids on Nuremberg , which also hit the museum, but was significantly damaged by looting immediately after the war . The parts that were removed were added in 1953, which was successful in terms of monument conservation because the original building and equipment plans were preserved. With this restoration, however, most of the signs of use were lost, so that the vehicle looks more “brand new” today.
See also
literature
- Car directory of the royal. Bavarian State Railways for the network on the right bank of the Rhine . 1897.
- Car directory of the royal. Bavarian State Railways for the network on the right bank of the Rhine . 1913.
- Ursula Bartelsheim: Versailles on Wheels - Ludwig II and his court train (object stories from the DB Museum 1). Nuremberg 2009, ISBN 978-3-9807652-5-1 .
Remarks
- ^ The - unoccupied - statement by Paul Dost: The red carpet. History of State Trains and Salon Cars. Stuttgart 1965, p. 138, that the terrace carriage already belonged to King Maximilian's court procession, is refuted by the sources given by Bartelsheim.
- ↑ Bartelsheim's statement that it was supposed to have been a trip by Mozaffar ad-Din Shah in 1889 cannot be correct. Mozaffar ad-Din Shah did not rule until 1896.