Ludwigsburg kompakt: Geschichte & Wissenswertes

Ludwigsburg kompakt: Geschichte & Wissenswertes

Hello and welcome to my video through Ludwigsburg. For an immersive experience, there is a second audio track in German, which contains exclusively the original city sounds without music and additional information. We start our walk in Ludwigsburg and are now walking directly towards the first highlight, the Evangelical City Church. A modern water feature. The fountains come directly out of the ground and invite the city’s children to play, especially in summer. When we walk through these perfectly laid-out alleys, one immediately feels that this city is different. It did not grow over centuries, but was created in a unique act of will. Because Ludwigsburg is a planned city. Its creator was Duke Eberhard Ludwig of Würtenberg. In the early 18th century, he looked enviously at absolutist France and decided: “Stuttgart is no longer enough. I will build my own greater symbol of my power, a German Versailles.” In the year 1704, the construction of the Residential Palace began, which today, with its over 450 rooms, counts among the largest originally preserved Baroque complexes in Europe. Behind the Baroque splendor hides a much more human, spicy truth. The actual trigger for this move was the Duke’s great but forbidden love, his mistress, Wilhelmine von Grävenitz. At the Stuttgart court, she was unwanted and a scandal. The Duke decided radically: “If I cannot bring my love to Stuttgart, then I will bring Stuttgart to my love.” He created a new world here, a kind of refuge of passion. To fill this ambitious project, he had to lure citizens. He offered settlers 15 years of tax exemption and free building material. Ludwigsburg received city rights in 1718. It is a city that arose for the intrigue and ambition of a single man. The market square itself, with its Italian atmosphere, is the meeting point of the city, the pulsating heart of today’s Ludwigsburg with over 93 000 inhabitants. The Evangelical City Church embodies the Baroque order perfectly. Built between 1718 and 1726 by master builder Donato Giuseppe Frisoni, it is a prime example. Pay attention to the two 44 m high towers that mirror each other. Take a look across the square. Directly opposite the Evangelical City Church stands its Catholic counterpart, the Catholic Church of the Holy Trinity. This deliberate symmetrical placement shows the dual structure of the city that Duke Eberhard Ludwig created here. In the center of the market square, we see the market fountain with the statue of the city founder, Duke Eberhard Ludwig. This figure was created around 1724 by sculptor Carlo Ferretti. Striking here is the complex rotation, the so-called Figura Serpentinata. The Residential Palace is geographically located in the northeast, i.e., at the back of the statue. The Duke turns his body and the marshal’s baton to the west instead, directly towards the Evangelical City Church. His gaze, however, goes over his left shoulder strictly to the south, exactly in the direction of the old residence, Stuttgart. Thus, the statue forms the political compass in the middle of this urban planning masterpiece. It is framed by the symmetrical arcaded houses and the two opposing churches, which define the strict Baroque grid of the planned city. The first Federal President Theodor Heuss once called the Ludwigsburg Market Square the proudest square that Württemberg has. This quote is used in almost all city tours to underscore the importance of the complex. Now we are walking towards the palace. Ludwigsburg bears the nickname City of Three Palaces and not without reason. Right here in the immediate vicinity are three of these majestic complexes. The Residential Palace we are approaching is the most dominant, a massive Baroque complex with over 450 rooms. It counts among the largest Baroque structures in Europe that are preserved in their original condition. Added to this is the hunting and pleasure palace Favorite, which lies in a direct line of sight. And the ensemble is complemented by the idyllic Lake Palace Monrepos. This density of residences in a very small space still impressively demonstrates the claim to power of the Dukes of that time. This is the Schlossstraße in Ludwigsburg. Originally, this axis was designed as a wide promenade for horse-drawn carriages to give the palace a worthy setting. Today, however, two worlds collide here. On the one side, the Baroque tranquility of the palace, on the other side, one of the toughest traffic junctions in Baden-Württemberg. The current counts prove the madness. Daily, 55 600 vehicles thunder through here. Thus, this historical street today has to bear a load of which the city planners of the 18th century had no idea in their wildest dreams. Here we see a classic of German traffic planning, the separated footpath and cycle path. The white line in the middle actually ensures clear conditions here. Left is the lane for the cyclists, right the area for the pedestrians. Basically, one should of course try to stay on one’s side to avoid conflicts. But one doesn’t have to overdo it. If there isn’t much going on or enough space is available, it is usually not a big deal if one crosses the line briefly. The most important thing is always that one simply shows consideration for others. Around the Residential Palace stretches the Blühendes Barock (Blooming Baroque), one of the oldest and most beautiful permanent garden shows in Germany. But this historical place also holds a modern world record. Every autumn, the park becomes the stage for the largest pumpkin exhibition in the world. Hundreds of thousands of pumpkins are processed here into huge sculptures and attract visitors from all over the world. It is an exciting contrast. The geometric garden art of the 18th century meets a lively international spectacle of the present here. So, now we are making our way back towards the center. We are now reaching the Holzmarkt (Wood Market). As the name suggests, construction and firewood were formerly traded on this octagonal square. Today, an obelisk stands in its center. It commemorates four famous intellectual greats who were closely connected with the city. The poets and thinkers Mörike, Kerner, Vischer, and Strauss. So Ludwigsburg honors its literary sons here. Now a few infos on the most famous personalities of the city. Friedrich Schiller, a life for freedom. Friedrich Schiller was born on November 10, 1759, in Marbach am Neckar. But he spent his formative youth years here in the region, in Ludwigsburg. In the year 1766, the family moved to the Baroque city, as his father worked for the Duke as an officer and garden administrator. Initially, the young Friedrich attended the Latin school and had a comparatively carefree time. But fate turned when Duke Karl Eugen became aware of the gifted boy. Against the will of his parents and against his own wish, Schiller had to enter the ducal military academy in 1773. The famous Hohe Karlsschule. What followed were years of strict drill. Schiller initially studied law, later medicine, and finally became a regimental doctor. But he felt in the uniform like in a prison. The resistance did not take long to come. Secretly and under constant danger, he read forbidden books and began to write at night. Thus his first great work came into being, The Robbers. When the play premiered in Mannheim in 1782, it was a sensation, especially for the rebellious youth. To be present at this triumph, Schiller left the troops without permission. The Duke’s punishment was harsh: 14 days of arrest and a strict ban on ever writing comedies or similar things again. That was the breaking point. In the night from September 22 to 23, 1782, Schiller fled together with his friend Andreas Streicher. He left his home and his family behind to be able to live as a free artist. Hard years in exile followed, marked by financial hardships and illnesses. He found temporary refuge in Bauerbach in Thuringia, where he completed the drama Intrigue and Love. Later in Leipzig, in a happy moment, he wrote the now world-famous Ode to Joy. The decisive turning point came with his move to Weimar. Here he met Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Initial skepticism turned into one of the most famous friendships in German literary history. Together they shaped the epoch of Weimar Classicism. In this productive time, Schiller created his great historical dramas like Mary Stuart, the Wallenstein trilogy, and finally his last completed work, William Tell. But his life remained a race against illness. On May 9, 1805, Friedrich Schiller died in Weimar of severe pneumonia. He was only 45 years old. What remains is the work of a man who learned in Ludwigsburg what coercion means and who fought for the freedom of thought all his life like no other. Eduard Mörike, between parsonage and poetry. Eduard Mörike is the most tender and probably also the most human among the great sons of Ludwigsburg. He was born here on September 8, 1804. While other poets of his time demanded the great political overthrow, Mörike sought the miracle in the small, in the everyday. He is considered today the most significant lyricist of the Biedermeier. His childhood in Ludwigsburg was overshadowed by the early death of his father. The family fell into financial distress and the young Eduard had to learn early to submit to modest circumstances. This experience shaped him for a lifetime. He was a sensitive, often sickly man who avoided the loud and hectic nature of the world. Professionally, he led a double life that nearly tore him apart internally. To secure his livelihood, he studied theology and became a pastor. But he suffered under the office, the sermons, the pastoral care, the expectations of the congregation. All that he felt as a shackle on his creativity. He was a poet in a robe who wished for nothing more fervently than retirement in order to be able to write. And when he wrote, magic was created. His poem “Er ist’s” with the famous line “Frühling lässt sein blaues Band wieder flattern durch die Lüfte”, is to this day the epitome of German nature poetry. But Mörike also had a dark, passionate side. His unhappy love for the mysterious Maria Meyer he processed in the Peregrina poems. Works full of pain and flaming longing. Later, with the novella, Mozart’s Journey to Prague, he created a masterpiece of narrative art in which he set a literary monument to the brilliant composer. Mörike died on June 4, 1875, in Stuttgart. He was not a fighter on the barricades, but a wanderer between worlds. A man who had his roots in Ludwigsburg and showed the world that even in the quiet blowing of the wind, there can lie a tremendous force. Justinus Kerner, the doctor who called the spirits. Justinus Kerner was one of the most dazzling figures of German Romanticism. Born on September 18, 1786, in Ludwigsburg, he united in himself two souls that could hardly be more opposite: that of the rational doctor and that of the mystical seer of spirits. His youth in Ludwigsburg was not easy. He began an apprenticeship in the ducal cloth factory, a job he deeply detested. He took refuge in poetry and later studied medicine. As a doctor, he was popular and appreciated. He cared self-sacrificingly for his patients, often without a fee if they were poor. He was one of the first to recognize the deadly danger of spoiled sausages, the so-called botulism poisoning, and thus saved many lives. But his heart beat for the dark and mysterious. His home in nearby Weinsberg, the Kernerhaus, became a place of pilgrimage for Romanticism. Poets like Ludwig Uhland or Nikolaus Lenau went in and out here. People drank wine, discussed, and got spooked together. For Kerner was obsessed with the supernatural. He took in a seriously ill woman, the so-called Seeress of Prevorst. For years, he logged her visions, her conversations with spirits, and her states between life and death. His book about it became a bestseller, even if scientists only shook their heads. Furthermore, he was a pioneer of psychology, rather accidentally. He was fascinated by random inkblots on paper, folded them, and interpreted figures into them. These klecksographies later inspired the famous Rorschach test. Justinus Kerner died in 1862. He left behind the image of a man who accepted no boundaries. Neither those between scientific disciplines nor those between this world and the hereafter. David Friedrich Strauss, the scandal theologian. David Friedrich Strauss, born on January 27, 1808, in Ludwigsburg, caused an intellectual earthquake in the 19th century, the tremors of which are still felt today. He was a brilliant mind, a model student who studied theology. But instead of defending the teachings of the church, he dissected them with the scalpel of reason. In the year 1835, at just 27 years old, he published his main work: The Life of Jesus, Critically Examined. What was in it was unheard of. Strauss claimed the Gospels were not historical reports, but myths. The miracles of Jesus, like walking over water or the resurrection, did not really happen, but were pious poetry of the early Christians to glorify the Messiah. He did not deny the existence of Jesus, but he turned him from a Son of God into a purely historical human. The reaction was massive. Strauss became famous overnight, but also the most hated man of the church. He was insulted as Judas and Antichrist. His academic career was instantly destroyed. A professorship already promised in Zurich could never be taken up because of massive citizen protests. He lost his work, his reputation, and many friends. His private life was also turbulent. He married the famous opera singer Agnese Schebest. But the marriage was a disaster and ended in a dirty separation. At that time, another scandal. Despite all hostilities, Strauss remained unbowed. He continued writing, fought for liberalism and a religion of reason. He died in 1874 in his birthplace, Ludwigsburg. Today the city honors him not as a heretic, but as one of its sharpest and bravest thinkers, who dared to challenge faith through knowledge. Friedrich Theodor Vischer, the man who hated things. The fourth big name on the Ludwigsburg Obelisk is Friedrich Theodor Vischer, born on June 30, 1807. He was the son of a city pastor and, like his friend David Friedrich Strauss, he was also a rebel of the spirit, albeit in a completely different, often humorous way. Vischer was a universal scholar, literary scholar, philosopher, and politician. He was a man of the word who did not mince matters. His lectures were legendary, feared and loved at the same time for his rhetorical sharpness. But Vischer was not just a theorist. When the Revolution of 1848 broke out, he got involved. He was elected as a deputy to the Frankfurt National Assembly, which met in St. Paul’s Church. There he argued passionately for a democratic, united Germany. He belonged to the political left, which later brought him much trouble with the authorities and temporarily drove him into exile in Switzerland. But his lasting legacy is a philosophical term that we still use in everyday life today, often without knowing it. The malice of the object. In his novel “Auch Einer”, he describes wonderfully comically, how inanimate things conspire against humans. The button that rips off exactly when one is in a hurry. The key that hides itself. For Vischer, this was a symbol for the eternal struggle of the spirit against the resistant matter. Friedrich Theodor Vischer died in 1887. He was a brilliant aesthetician who taught us that philosophy does not have to be dry and that one can think about the small annoyances of everyday life with great intellect. But Ludwigsburg defines itself not only through its architecture or great personalities. No, there are also two very special figureheads that have made the name of the city known far beyond the state borders. It is the story of two manufactories that are separated by centuries, but both stand for absolute world class. The white gold. Glory and End of the Porcelain Manufactory. The first chapter deals with the so-called white gold. We go back to the year 1758. Duke Karl Eugen was a ruler who loved splendor and in the Baroque there was hardly anything more precious than porcelain. The great courts in Meissen, Vienna, or Paris already had their own production sites. Karl Eugen wanted that too. By decree, he founded the Ludwigsburg Porcelain Manufactory. From the beginning, it was a technical and artistic gamble. The secret of production, the so-called Arcanum, was guarded like a state secret. Finding the right mixture of kaolin, feldspar, and quartz was a science in itself. But the Ludwigsburgers succeeded. What made this manufactory so special was its unique style. The Ludwigsburg porcelain was not pure white, but had a very fine grayish shimmer. What initially sounded like a flaw became a trademark, because exactly this tone harmonized perfectly with the pastel-colored glazes of the Rococo. The artists of the manufactory created masterpieces. Famous above all was the so-called scale pattern, which was painted on the dishes in the most elaborate handwork. Every cup, every plate, and every one of the famous animal figures went through many hands. But as artistic as the pieces were, economically the manufactory was almost always a problem child. Even the Duke constantly had to inject money. For over 250 years, production took place in the palace. But this era is now finally over. After a long tough struggle, the traditional manufactory had to close its gates forever a few years ago. The kilns are cold, the production has ceased. There will be no new Ludwigsburg porcelain anymore. This is a painful loss for cultural history, but it makes every existing piece, bearing the blue ducal crown, an irretrievable treasure today. But when one door closes, another often opens. The spirit here in Ludwigsburg to create things that deceive and enchant the eye has not disappeared. It has only moved. Where brush and kiln once ruled, today stand high-performance computers and cameras, the dream factory, the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. We jump into the modern age to the year 1991. On the grounds of a former barracks, the Mathildenhöhe, a new kind of manufactory was founded, the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. The place is symbolic. Where soldiers once exercised and rigid obedience prevailed, young free spirits moved in. The goal was ambitious. They wanted to create a film school that does not just teach dry theory, but places the craft of filmmaking at the center. Learning by Doing, as it is called in English. The concept worked, and massively so. Today, a good 30 years later, the Ludwigsburg Academy is considered one of the best film schools in the entire world. Renowned industry papers like the Hollywood Reporter regularly list the school in their top rankings, often as the only German institution. Especially the Animation Institute located here is a global figurehead. Here students learn how to create digital worlds, that are indistinguishable from reality. The successes speak for themselves. The showcases of the academy are filled with trophies. Regularly the graduation films of the students win the coveted Student Oscars in Los Angeles. And the graduates, one finds them today everywhere where great cinema is made. When you sit in the cinema and read the names of the visual effects artists in the credits of a Marvel blockbuster, a Star Wars film, or a great drama, the probability is high that some of them learned their craft here in Ludwigsburg. The secret of success is similar to that of the porcelain back then. It is about precision, patience, and the unconditional will to make an artistic vision a reality. Thus the circle closes. The hand-painted porcelain from the year 1760 is a closed chapter, a precious heritage in the museum. But the digital worlds from the here and now show that the creative power of the city is more alive than ever. Ludwigsburg was and is a city of creators. With that, we have arrived at the end of our tour through Ludwigsburg. I hope you enjoyed this mixture of history and present. Thank you very much for being there until the end. If you have remarks on the facts, know additions, or have requests for changes for future videos, please definitely write it to me in the comments below. I read your feedback regularly and usually answer it too. And if you liked the video, I would be very happy about a thumbs up. Also don’t forget to subscribe to the channel so you don’t miss any more videos. See you next time.

Ludwigsburg ist mehr als nur eine hübsche Barockstadt. Zwischen dem prachtvollen Residenzschloss und der idyllischen Innenstadt verbirgt sich eine Geschichte voller Extreme und überraschender Widersprüche.

In diesem Video nehmen wir die Stadt des „Schwäbischen Versailles“ genau unter die Lupe. Wir starten im Herzen der Stadt. Dort thront der Stadtgründer, Herzog Eberhard Ludwig, auf seinem Brunnen. Wer genau hinsieht, entdeckt an der Statue ein spannendes Detail: Ich zeige euch im Video, in welche Richtung der Herzog seinen Blick tatsächlich wendet und was das zu bedeuten hat – denn nicht jeder Reiseführer liegt dabei richtig.

Nur wenige Meter weiter prallen Geschichte und Gegenwart ungebremst aufeinander. Barocke Ruhe …? Falsch gedacht! Was sich vor den historischen Schlossmauern abspielt, ist wirklich erschreckend.

Doch die Stadt hat auch ihre stillen, geistreichen Seiten. Auf dem Holzmarkt begegnen uns vier weitere „große Köpfe“, die hier in Stein verewigt sind. Ich verrate euch, welche bedeutenden Dichter und Denker sich diesen Platz teilen und warum sie die Geschichte der Stadt so geprägt haben.

Außerdem lebte hier jemand, der heute weltberühmt ist. Er hatte es in Ludwigsburg allerdings besonders schwer: Friedrich Schiller. Für ihn war die Stadt nicht nur Heimat, sondern ein Ort, an dem er seine vielleicht dunkelsten Stunden erlebte. Ich verrate euch warum er sich hier so gefangen fühlte, dass er am Ende nur noch einen Ausweg sah.

Schließlich schlagen wir die Brücke in die heutige Zeit. Ludwigsburg war einst weltberühmt für sein zerbrechliches Porzellan – eine Tradition, die mittlerweile Geschichte ist. Doch wir zeigen euch, wie die Stadt es geschafft hat, sich neu zu erfinden: Anstelle von Tassen und Tellern wird hier heute etwas völlig anderes erschaffen, das ebenfalls um die ganze Welt geht und Millionen Menschen begeistert.

Komm mit auf einen Stadtrundgang, der hinter die schöne Fassade blickt!