in the halls of insanity

Today we were tourists at what my dad refers to quite correctly as a tourist trap.  Happy Fathers Day, by the way.

On the way to Neuschwannstein

 But it has been my dream for many years to see Neuschwannstein, and today we made it up to mad King Ludwig's favorite castle.  True, as we were waiting at the base of the castle for our tour to begin, it felt just like being at Universal, waiting to get into the Harry Potter ride.  Except there are no mountains or Alpine lakes at Universal.  And fewer people speaking German.

A view from the trail up to the castle

But the story of the castle itself is a kind of morality play.  Obsessed with the mystical operas of Richard Wagner, he had this castle built as a shrine to this musicians works.  In a way, this is no more a real castle than the Hogwarts at Universal.  Not built to defend the land or to lead a nation, this place was really just one very fancy and expensive work of art.



Another view from the trail to Neuschwannstein

On the tour we passed through amazingly ornate rooms decorated with scenes from Wagner operas, including a majestic golden throne room lined in gold, simulating a Greek Orthodox cathedral, a cave-like grotto complete with stalactites, and the kings bedroom lined with secret doors, where 4 wood carvers worked for 14 years to complete the work.  In her thick German accent, the tour guide carefully explained that it was in that bedroom that the king received news that he had been declared mentally ill and unfit to rule.  Ludwig had many enemies who saw him bleeding the coffers of the nation in order to build his fantasy castles.  Most likely, one of them did him in, for days later his dead body, along with that of his psychiatrist, were found in a nearby lake.

Nearby stands Neuschwannstein's sister Swan castle

Today this is one the most visited places in Germany.  Days later, we would be in Berlin and meet a group of bicycling Berliners who asked us what we'd seen in Germany.  When we mentioned this castle, they laughed and said, "Of course."  This is an almost-obligatory stop for foreign tourists who want to see how extreme the indulgence of one powerful madman can become. 

Not that we were looking, but back in Munich (so close to Dachau) we expected to see remnants from another, far more dangerous madman.  We found there only one lonely memorial to the Hitler's victims, tucked away in an overgrown corner that was being surrounded by a parking lot.  In Berlin we would see signs that Germans are dealing with their Nazi past that were harder to avoid.

On Unter den Linden in Berlin --

a monument to Jews who were affected by World War II

Is it always mad to want to escape the world, like Ludwig; or re-shape it, like Hitler?  When our desire to control reality impacts others in a negative way, the sin inside of us becomes a force of evil that can take on a life of its own.