How did Ludwig II die? The ruling, the findings, and the dispute
The three days before
The death is unintelligible without the deposition, and the deposition took two attempts.
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| 10 June 1886, 4am | A government commission arrives at Neuschwanstein with a document deposing him, and is turned back |
| 12 June 1886, early hours | A second commission comes; he is seized after midnight and is at Berg Castle by 4am |
| 13 June 1886, afternoon | He walks by Lake Starnberg with Dr Bernhard von Gudden |
| 13 June 1886, about 18:30 | The two men are last seen |
| 13 June 1886, about 22:30 | Both bodies are found in shallow water |
Four days from a commission at the door to two bodies in a lake. Whatever happened on the evening of the thirteenth happened to a man who had been deposed and detained within the previous thirty-six hours, and any account that leaves that out is leaving out the context that makes every version of it plausible.
The ruling
Suicide by drowning. That is the official finding, it was made at the time, and it has never been formally replaced. Anyone telling you the record says something else is telling you what they think, not what the record says.
What the physical findings show
And this is why the ruling has never settled. Two things sit awkwardly against it, both documented:
- The autopsy found no water in his lungs. A man who drowns generally has water in his lungs.
- Gudden’s body showed blows to the head and neck, and marks consistent with strangulation. Whatever happened, it was not quiet and it was not one-sided.
The competing accounts
Several explanations circulate and each fits some of the evidence. Heart failure or a stroke in cold water would account for a death without water in the lungs. Death during an escape attempt would account for a struggle involving both men. And the ruling of suicide is what the state recorded and is the only account with an official document behind it.
Each of those has holes and each of them has support. I am not going to arrange them into a story that resolves, because they do not resolve, and a page that resolves them is telling you about its author.
Was King Ludwig assassinated?
I do not know, and neither does anybody writing confidently on either side. Here is the whole of what can be said honestly: the official ruling is suicide by drowning; the physical findings include no water in his lungs and injuries to the other man’s body; the dispute between those two things has never been closed. That is an unsatisfying answer and it is the correct one.
You will find pages that call it murder and pages that call it settled. Ask both of them the same question: which document changed? None has.
If you want to stand somewhere that makes the timeline real, it is not Linderhof. He was seized at Neuschwanstein, held at Berg and died in the Starnberger See, none of which is in this valley. What Linderhof gives you is where he actually lived from 1876 to the last weeks — which is a different and, I think, better thing to see.
What this has to do with Linderhof
Everything and nothing. Nothing, in that he did not die here and none of the events above happened in the Graswangtal. Everything, in that his death is the reason the palace stopped when it did and passed out of the family — and it is the reason you can walk into it. Who owns it now follows the building from 1886 to the 1923 settlement and the state; the three palaces covers what happened to the two he never finished.
Read next
- Ludwig II: the documented life.
- His three palaces, and which were finished.
- Who owns Linderhof now.
- What to see at Linderhof.
Frequently asked questions
Was King Ludwig assassinated?
That is disputed and this site leaves it disputed. The official ruling was suicide by drowning. Against it: the autopsy found no water in his lungs, and Dr von Gudden’s body showed blows to the head and neck and marks consistent with strangulation. No document has replaced the ruling.
How did Ludwig II die?
He walked by Lake Starnberg with Dr Bernhard von Gudden on the afternoon of 13 June 1886. The two were last seen about 18:30 and both bodies were found in shallow water about 22:30. The death was officially ruled suicide by drowning.
Why is Ludwig II’s death still argued about?
Because the physical findings and the official ruling do not sit easily together. Competing accounts include heart failure or a stroke in cold water and death during an escape attempt. Each fits part of the evidence and none has replaced the ruling.