Ludwig II of Bavaria, more commonly known by his nicknames the Swan King or the Dream King, is a legendary figure – the handsome boy-king, loved by his people, betrayed by his cabinet and found dead in tragic and mysterious circumstances. He spent his life in pursuit of the ideal of beauty, an ideal that found expression in three of the most extraordinary, ornate architectural schemes imaginable – the castle of Neuschwanstein and the palaces of Linderhof and Herrenchiemsee. Today, these three buildings are among Germany’s biggest tourist attractions. Dan Cruickshank explores the rich aesthetic of Ludwig II – from the mock-medievalism of Neuschwanstein, the iconic fairytale castle that became the inspiration for the one in Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty, to the rich Baroque splendour of Herrenchiemsee, Ludwig’s answer to Versailles. Dan argues that Ludwig’s castles are more than flamboyant kitsch and are, in fact, the key to unravelling the eternal enigma of Ludwig II.
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The story of the fascist conman Fritz Julius Kuhn is as unknown as it is terrifying: Kuhn is a German immigrant who pretends to be Hitler’s deputy in the USA during the 1930s. He is at the top of the German-American Bund, a fascist organization of Americans of German origin. The followers of this association march in goose-step with swastika flags and in Nazi-uniforms thru New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles. They gather in thousands in stadiums and sing the Horst-Wessel-song.
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