Ludwig not so mad

NapoleonXIV

Banned
We've all heard of the 'Mad King' Ludwig of Bavaria, We've all seen and marveled at Neuschwanstein the incredible structure which was the model for Disneyland.

This odd monarch didn't just build several of the world's most unique structures. He bolstered the already well known Munich Oktoberfest into a world class tourist event and then founded his own, The Wagner Festival at Bayreuth is today still one of the world's premiere cultural events and the hall was largely completed due to his generosity.

Was Ludwig crazy like a fox? Sure he spent a lot of money but Theme parks aren't inexpensive but they're even more profitable.

Let's say Ludwig wasn't found dead with his Doctor the Day after he's was decalred insane. Instead, he's found normal. (or at least able to run the government) and he returns to bankrupting his small province.

Is it possible that this all might turn around even quicker than it really did under Ludwig II's auspices. Could a wiser and smarter Luwig turn his own province into first a tourist trap and go on to use this to finance its transformation into some sort of Economic Power house by the early 1900s'

And just to make this interesting there are 1000 bonus no points to anyone who can have new buildings at Bayreuth in 1972 being designed and erected by the Architetural/Contracting Firm of Hitler and Speer
 

Grey Wolf

Donor
Just a note - Bavaria was not a province, but a sovereign kingdom within the German Empire

Its not just semantics, because there was also the kingdom's government to run. Bavaria out of all the German states had the most reserved rights (it even had ambassadors of its own in Vienna, Saint Petersburg and the Vatican), and which cost money

IIRC that's more or less why the Bavarian powers that be got him declared mad and removed from the position from where he could continue spending money and bankrupt the state

Grey Wolf
 
Hitler was probably too messed up, even fron childhood, to have a "normal" life. Just my guess from what I have heard.
 
I've always wondered about the possibility of the creation of a German Reich but with the Wittelsbachs, rather than the Hohenzollerns, accepting the imperial crown.
 

Grey Wolf

Donor
David S Poepoe said:
I've always wondered about the possibility of the creation of a German Reich but with the Wittelsbachs, rather than the Hohenzollerns, accepting the imperial crown.

Well, I don't see how you can achieve that anytime after 1815

Grey Wolf
 
Grey Wolf said:
Well, I don't see how you can achieve that anytime after 1815

Grey Wolf

Well, you are absolutely right there.

What I think may be workable, tho not in any realistic sense, would be to think about how about a semistable Napoleonic Empire that doesn't collapse until 1815. There's no invasion of Russia in 1812, but in 1813 relations between Paris and St. Petersburg deteriorate that war breaks out which leads to an Anglo-Russian alliance. Much of the war is fought in Western and Central Europe. The Austrians and Prussians also join in. In the end Napoleon is defeated and captured at Waterloo (could be any place really) in 1815.

What I'm thinking about now is something in 1815-1816 similar to the 1947+ Cold War. Tsar Alexander decides to occupy vast tracts of Poland. And installs a Hohenzollern puppet in Prussia (probably figures out how to keep the mentally instable on the throne). Britain and Austria agree to keep Maximilian I on the throne of Bavaria. They turn to his son-in-law Eugene Beauharnais to King of Italy. Fairly well liked by the populace he will be a perfect foil against any revolutionary ideas in Italy.

Prussia doesn't receive any lands from Napoleonic Westphalia. Weary of the possibility of a Russia-Prussia coalition Westphalia is incorporated into the Kingdom of Hannover.

Various nations of Europe by 1860

Kingdom of Italy

King Eugene I 1816-1837
King Eugene II 1837-1848
King Maximilian I 1848-1852

For a brief while the crowns of Portugal and Italy are linked by the marriage of Karl Eugene (Eugene II) and Maria II of Portugal. The revolutions of 1848 forced Eugene to abdicate in favor of his brother Maximilian.

Kingdom of Bavaria

King Maximilian I 1805-1825
King Ludwig I 1825-1848
King Maximilian II 1848-1874

Undoubtedly no additional time to mature as a prince under the lengthened time of an extended reign of his father will benefit Ludwig.

Kingdom of Portugal

King John VI 1816-1826
King Pedro IV 1826-1834
Queen Maria II 1834-1865

Brazil is not granted independence, but becomes a sort of Porugese dominion. Lisbon appoints a viceroy, perhaps the Kings of Portugal are also Emperors of Brazil, so that one has an King-Emperor title.

This ATL takes too much stretching, tho it is interesting how close the House of Beauharnais came to being some what like Saxe-Coburg.
 

Grey Wolf

Donor
Interesting timeline - true, it is stretching things but then again so does OTL for example with Napoleon himself

It does raise the prospect of the Portuguese monarch being King of Portugal and Emperor of Brazil, so basically an emperor in the same way as the British later became emperors through being Emperor of India

Grey Wolf
 
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