Why did Bavaria's new king, Ludwig I, write a sentimental poem lamenting his lost youth just as his reign began?
The episode opens with Ludwig I's melancholic 1825 poem written upon becoming king, revealing his sentimental self-image. Historian Richard Läubel notes Ludwig wrote over 4,000 poems, often mocked for their quality, like by Heinrich Heine. Despite this, Ludwig was a decisive ruler who immediately reversed his father Max I Josef's secularization policy, founding 120 new monasteries for their structural importance in healthcare, credit, and education. Ludwig, influenced by his time in Paris, admired then despised Napoleon, building the Befreiungshalle in Kelheim to celebrate victory over France while ignoring French contributions to Bavaria's creation. He centralized power in Munich, transforming it from a provincial town through projects like the Ludwigstraße, Königsplatz, and Oktoberfest origins from his wedding to Therese. However, Munich lacked proper sanitation, causing disease outbreaks only solved under his son. Ludwig's stubbornness manifested in infrastructure: he pursued the 170-km Ludwig-Donau-Main canal with 100 locks, blocking railway expansion that isolated regions like the Bavarian Forest, harming its glass industry. Ironically, granite columns for his Befreiungshalle sat unused for years due to poor transport. Personally, Ludwig was a workaholic who left 65,000 diary pages but was pedantic and stingy, even complaining about a Protestant priest blessing a ship named after him despite having an evangelical wife. Politically, he missed his chance in 1848 to lead German unification, opposing the Frankfurt Parliament and contributing to its failure, leading to Prussian dominance later. The Lola Montez affair, where he wrote poems for an Irish dancer posing as Spanish, combined with revolutionary pressures forced his abdication in 1848. Läubel argues Ludwig's autocratic style was already obsolete, and his abdication began the Wittelsbach dynasty's decline. Ludwig lived 20 more years as an ex-monarch, continuing his artistic pursuits.
