He hated war, but led two armed conflicts. He saw himself as a King by Divine Right, but made himself subordinate to an Emperor. He preferred to be alone, but was constantly searching for a confidant. King Ludwig II of Bavaria (1845-1886) reacted to his own times with an archaic, religiously transfigured understanding of kingship. His insistence on the "true, real" royal office had precisely the opposite effect: Ludwig II became lost in the reality of a moderately powerful state and was deprived of both his throne and his life in 1886. This biography takes the latest research on Ludwig into account but still succeeds in presenting