Operation Honor: Neuschwanstein Castle, Part 1—The History

On May 29th we had a chance to see the amazing Bavarian castle, Neuschwanstein! This spectacular castle has both amazing history and breath-taking views. This visit was special to us in several ways. First, being a place that our grandparents visited during their trip to Germany, a picture of this castle has hung in their home for years.  As a little girl I would stand and stare at it, thinking how beautiful the "Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang" castle was. (Please tell me someone else is old enough to have grown up watching that wonderful old movie!) What a treat it was to see in person the castle that I had spent years looking and wishing to see! There is so much to see and learn at Neuschwanstein...because of that, we have decided to break it up into two blog posts. This first post will go over the history of the castle, what it looks like today, and why we wanted to see it. Our next post will go into the personal adventure we had while there (ahem... interesting), and our pictures. 

This picture is almost identical to the one I grew up looking at. Beautiful! 

Secondly, the castle Neuschwanstein has a strong connection to our great-grandfather. Papa was one of the very first people to discover this castle as the Nazis fled it in 1945. Our Uncle Gary was able to relate to us the story the Papa told him about discovering Neuschwanstein. 

Papa's division was always one step ahead of the troops, as they were responsible for clearing roads, building bridges, and dismantling bombs or booby traps (which were sometimes dead German soldiers, as Papa wrote in one of his war albums). When they entered the Germany village of Fussen, Papa looked up and saw Neuschwanstein castle, hidden among the alpine trees high on the hillside. He immediately drove up the hill to investigate and entered the castle. The Nazis had just left, and the only people at the castle were the two elderly curators, who had remained there for the duration of the war. They spoke to him and showed him around the castle. 

Neuschwanstein Castle, as photographed by Colonel McCollam in 1945

As has been made more widely known through the recently released film "Monuments Men", Neuschwanstein Castle was the location for one of the biggest caches of stolen Nazi art. Its obscure and hidden location, plus its proximity to the Austrian border, made it an ideal location for hiding the art which they planned to soon move into the "Fuhrer Museum". When Papa arrived in spring of 1945, the castle was full to bursting with art which had been stolen from Jews, private collections, and museums across Europe.  After seeing the castle (which itself had an incredible collection of historically and intrinsically valuable goods) and the jewelry, art, and carvings that the Nazis had left behind, Papa ordered a group of military police to protect the great quantities of art and history inside. As we wandered the beautiful, richly decorated halls of Neuschwanstein Castle, we were so proud to know that Papa's exploration and decisive action helped preserve and protect the castle for generations of people to see and enjoy. Also, we are so glad that his efforts helped protect the stolen art! The real-life Monuments Men would spend 6 weeks in the castle, tagging and removing the stolen art, and then years attempting to find out where it went and who it belonged to. Below are some pictures of the real Monuments Men cataloging and removing treasure from Neuschwanstein Castle.

Our tour guide, a very kind young German woman, was able to tell us about how much art was hidden in the castle—over 8,000 pieces—and told us that in 1945 there was not a room in the enormous castle that was not filled with art. She was very interested to find out whether or not Papa would have known anything more about what happened to art or valuables in the years following the war. She said that not all of the art or treasure held in the castle has been accounted for, and (thanks to the Monuments Men film) there has been a renewed interest in searching for the missing treasure. There has apparently been quite a bit of scuba diving and searching the lakes around the castle lately! Plenty of hopeful people are trying to locate the missing Nazi treasures that were once hidden in Neuschwanstein. 

Today, Neuschwanstein Castle is one of the most visited castles in Germany, and one of the more popular tourist destinations in Europe. We learned some interesting things about the castle on our tour, one of which being that the castle was built by the very eccentric but brilliant King Ludwig II of Bavaria. Thanks to his imagination and creation of this fairy-tale castle, he is known as the "Fairy Tale King". King Ludwig was an avid admirer and strong supporter of Richard Wagner, the world-renowned composer, and Ludwig built Neuschwanstein in Wagner's honor (Anyone who admires me is more than welcome to build me a castle. I'll accept it!) Most of the murals in the castle are inspired by characters from Wagner's musical operas; Wagner himself spent a great deal of time at the castle. 


The castle's throne room is filled with painting and murals depicting scenes of the apostles and Jesus Christ. Above the area where the throne is seated is a large painting of Jesus Christ being crowned king of heaven. Ludwig, a deeply reverent Catholic, wanted it to be perfectly clear that Jesus was king of everything. 

The throne room...

Other areas of the castle, (particularly the third floor) predominately display Ludwig's admiration of Wagner's operas. The Singer's Hall (built for theater performances) occupies the entire fourth floor of Neuschwanstein, and it's walls are covered with characters from Wagner's operas. Our personal favorite was the beautiful carving of a unicorn that hung high on the walls. The name of the castle also reflects the slight obsession the young king had with his favorite composer; Neuschwanstein translates to "New Swan Castle". This is a reference to the "Swan Knight", a musical character of Wagner's for whom Ludwig held a special sense of camaraderie and similarity.  

Singers Hall

The king's bedroom is a particularly amazing place. Wood carvers worked constantly in that one room for over four years, painstakingly creating the breath-taking woodwork within. Talk about a job! Aside from the intricate carvings that cover the walls, ceilings, and furniture, the workers fashioned an ornate and beautiful cathedral above the king's bed (check it out in the picture below). The cathedral was so intricate that you couldn't help but stand and stare. How someone could manage to create it from a block of wood is unbelievable, and we were all truly impressed.  The king's water system was also a truly impressive feat for the 1800s. 200 feet above the castle was an alpine spring, which was channeled through pipes into the king's room. A swan carved from silver stands on a table in the room, and the water flowed directly through the pipes and into the swan, pouring constantly out of the swan's mouth and wing tips. The king had fresh water whenever he felt like it, coming out of a silver swan just for him (you can see the swan in the lower left hand side of the picture). We're pretty sure we need a swan water fountain like that in our bathroom!  

Ludwig's bedroom...

Another private room for the king...

Well, that is it for Neuschwanstein, Part 1! We hope you enjoyed learning about the history behind this amazing place, and we look forward to sharing Part 2 with you all as soon as we get a chance...

*Because personal photography is strictly forbidden inside Neuchwanstein Castle, we were not able to take any pictures ourselves. Thankfully, we are allowed to use the pictures of the castle's interior from the official website, which is what you see above.