Ludwig III von Bayern

Ludwig III. Wittelsbach King of Bavaria
(7.1.1845 - 18.12.1921)
place of birth: Munich (Bavaria)
Generalfeldmarschall: 26 June 1915

Eldest son of Prince Luitpold of Bavaria. On the death of his father in 1912, Ludwig briefly acted as Prince Regent for his insane cousin Otto and then deposed him by constitutional amendment and proclamation, with assent of parliament. He then ruled as Bavaria's last king from 1913 to 1918.

During World War One, Ludwig was ceremonially promoted to the rank of general field marshal (August 1916). He actually had been a military commander, having fought against the Prussians in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 and becoming wounded at Helmstadt. Both his son, Crown Prince Rupprecht, and his younger brother Leopold were was also German field marshals and respected army commanders during the Great War.

In 1918 on the eve of revolution, Ludwig and his family fled Munich, signing a paper that Kurt Eisner's government termed an abdication. Thus ended 738 continuous years of rule by the Wittelsbach dynasty. When Eisner died in 1919, Ludwig fled to Vaduz, Liechtenstein and from there to Schloß Nádasdy in Sárvár, Hungary, where he died in October 1921.