The Barbarians of Tomorrow
If I were to build castles and
stone towers
Here I would bring ancient masters
In the centuries past forgotten
Those ones the only skillful to predict
Here I would bring ancient masters
In the centuries past forgotten
Those ones the only skillful to predict
My intentions, the right measure
The precise angle
Of sunrise and sunset and the position of the moon
Opposite infinity in the foam, air by air, stone
On stone. Only they will be told who
The precise angle
Of sunrise and sunset and the position of the moon
Opposite infinity in the foam, air by air, stone
On stone. Only they will be told who
And how will inhabit future
settlements, those
Houses of Heaven. And whose bride will lose
Her virginity with the abysmal foundations
Houses of Heaven. And whose bride will lose
Her virginity with the abysmal foundations
For only they will be
able, the
ancient
masters,
Winds of wild to subjugate and summon
New sunlight. Those barbarians of tomorrow.
Winds of wild to subjugate and summon
New sunlight. Those barbarians of tomorrow.
--tr. Danijela Trajkovic
Sketch for Falkenstein Castle -- Christian Jank
According to the composer Richard Wagner, speaking of king Ludwig II of Bayern, “Alas, he is so handsome and wise, soulful and lovely, that I fear that his life must melt away in this vulgar world like a fleeting dream of the gods." To others he was “der Märchenkönig“ (the Fairy Tale King). After his kingdom was incorporated within the Empire of the Germans in 1871 he increasingly withdrew from day-to-day affairs of state and concentrated on extravagant artistic and architectural projects, personally approving every detail of the architecture, decoration, and furnishing of his proposed castles inspired by Wagner’s operas. The most notorious of these was the one he planned to construct on Falkenstein ("falcons' stone"), near Pfronten in the Allgäu. The original stronghold, known as Castrum Pfronten until the 15th century, was built in the 1270s by count Meinhard II of Tyrol on the borders of his land. At 1,277 m (4,190 ft) above sea level, Germany’s highest, it was regarded as a symbol of opposition to Bayern. In the 17th century it fell into ruins. Ludwig bought it in 1883, and by 1885, had built a road and water supply, but the old ruins remained untouched. The 1st architect he hired for the project was Christian Jank, a scenic painter and stage designer who had been employed on the scenery for Wagner's “Lohengrin”(based on the traditions of the medieval Swan Knight who traveled by swan-drawn boat). Jank had already designed Schloss Neuschwanstein ("New Swan-on-the-Rock castle") on an Alpine crag above Ludwig's childhood home, Hohenschwangau (approximately, "High Swan Region"), which the king’s parents had purchased. For Falkenstein, Jank first created a restrained design but later envisioned the castle in a dramatic, High Gothic style, and Georg von Dollmann , who had completed the design for Neuschwanstein, was employed to produce plans and elevations based on Jank's design, but Ludwig rejected this approach as too restrained. The next architect was Max Schultze, who simplified Jank’s sketch to create a castle in robber baron's style. But he withdrew from the project in 1885 and was replaced by Julius Hofmann and Eugen Drollinger, who devised spectacular and impractical designs. Although Ludwig paid for his projects out of his own funds and not state coffers, by 1885, he king was 14 million marks in deb and had borrowed heavily from his family; rather than economizing, as his financial ministers advised him, he planned further opulent designs and demanded that loans be sought from all of Europe's royalty. On 10 June 1886 he was deposed on the supposition that he was insane, and on 13 June his corpse was discovered along the shore of lake Starnberg. His death was officially ruled a suicide by drowning, but the official autopsy report indicated that no water was found in his lungs, and his body was found in water that was only waist deep. An autopsy on the body of his doctor showed blows to the head and neck and signs of strangulation.
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