[Was the expert medical opinion rendered by B. von Gudden regarding King Ludwig II of Bavaria correct?].

Even today the deaths of King Ludwig II of Bavaria and the Munich-based psychiatrist Bernhard von Gudden on 13 June 1886 remain something of a mystery. In his psychiatric expertise von Gudden had rated Ludwig as insane and incapable of governing. Ludwig was placed under tutelage, deposed and interned under the supervision of guards. After the catastrophe witnesses and the press were silenced by strict censorship under threat of heavy penalties. Even today obstacles to free information still exist, aiding and abetting the birth of legends and the preservation of leading traditional views. We report on the results of a 5-year research project conducted at the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and based on information derived from private and public archives in Germany and abroad. Reference is made to comparable analyses. Neither von Gudden's expertise nor Ludwig's behaviour provide reliable cues to his alleged insanity. The reasons and motives behind the king's deposition are discussed. Apart from von Gudden's tragic death, this was not a singular case of a psychiatric expertise commissioned in the monarchist culture of the nineteenth and the early twentieth century.