From September 17, 2023, the Historical Museum of the Palatinate is dedicating an exhibition to a ruler who is as multifaceted as he is important: "King Ludwig I - Longing for the Palatinate".
Throughout his life, Ludwig I had close ties to the Palatinate, which had belonged to Bavaria since 1816. Even as a child, he spent time in various places such as Mannheim and Rohrbach. He left behind cultural monuments such as the neo-classical Villa Ludwigshöhe in Edenkoben. In Speyer, he commissioned the painting of Speyer Cathedral in the Nazarene style and shortly afterwards the construction of the western transept with the two front towers. He was largely responsible for the expansion of industry and created the first east-west rail link through the Palatinate. Last but not least, the current spelling of "Speyer" with a ypsilon goes back to him. Politically, his regency, which he held from 1825, was characterized by numerous upheavals. The dissatisfaction of the Palatine population with the Bavarian government was expressed at the Hambach Festival in 1832, before the bourgeoisie rose up across the board against the conservative-reactionary government in the revolutionary years of 1848/1849 and brought about Ludwig's abdication. Works of art from the 18th and 19th centuries are complemented in the exhibition by excerpts from poems written by Ludwig I and from correspondence with his contemporaries, which provide a very private insight into the king's life.
The show is part of a series of cultural-historical exhibitions that place the regional history of the Palatinate in a European context.
September 17, 2023 to March 31, 2024
