Washington Journal., 1943-02-19
Prince Otto Of WitteIsbach

we were GOlu IHdL young 1AmO0 OeeOy Wiz" VIZ
he reached the portal of the Frauenkirche,
was so overcome with religious f%ervor, that
he left his brothers. side, rushed into the
church, brushing aside the priests and AGO.
lvtes and cast himself sobbing at the feet OF
the Archbishop, demanding then and there to
confess his sins, so he might be shrlven on
the spot. Though the King, who had hurried
after him in his headlong rush, pleaded with
his brother to rise from where he lay face
downward on the stone flags, Otto would not
do so, but had to be lifted up by force and
led away by an escort of clergymen and high
officers.
In awestruck tones it was whispered that
the spot in the Frauenkirche, where Prince
Otto had cast himself down, was the notorious
stone flag on which the Devil, after the erec-
ton Of the dome, several centuries ago, had
left the imprint of. his clOven hOof, when he
had stamped down his foot in wrath at the
discovery that none of the painted windows
of the vast church could be seen by him stand
ing there.
Though the devils mark had been suffered
to remain as a curiosity, it was held to be i'm
pious for any Christian believer to stand
there. And now Prince Otto had gone so far
as to lie down o n that very spot, pressing
his face into the unholy footprint.
Later we learned that Prince Otto, having
been declared crazy by the court physicians,
was taken to Forstenried, a royal country
estate near Munich, there to live under the
care of keepers.
On our bicycles my brother George and I
one summer day rode to FOrstenried and
peered through the gate that barred entrance
tc the castle. Nobody was to be seen. George
said he had been told the crazy prince was
kept close in a padded cell. His keepers, so
George had been told, had to feed their ward
like a wild beast by showing mealtrays toward
him through a trap wicket in the door Of
his cell.
Lohengrin
In the winter Of 1881, when I was eleven
years old, / was allowed to go to a gala per-
Torrance of "Lohengrin'' at the Court Thea
tire. The King was to be there, so it had
been hard to get tickets. Mine was for a seat
in the topmost gallery.
When | got to my seat after a mad rush up
many flights Of stairs / found it far away
from the center row, giving me but a side
wise view of the stage curtain witt it's
imanense picture of Phoebus Apollo driving
his sun chariot, around which lowered the
Nine Muses.. On the other hand / had all the
better view Of the empty royal box in the
center Of the first gallery.
Into the pit below the uniformed ushers
were admitting a throng Of persons in full
dress, while the side aisle were lined with
young officers in full uniform, who stood with
their backs to the lower tiers Of boxes, level
ling their opera glasses at the ladies in the
opposite tiers.
A long-haired gentleman beside me, who
had spread ON the ramp before him a script
of the musical score, told me that Richard
Wagner, the composer of the opera, was eX-
pected to be present, not as the leader in the
orchestra, but in the audience. 1t would be
the first return Of the master to this theatre,
since the time when he and the King we're
Kissed here some twelve years ago. This
time, the gentleman said, it would be differ
ent. Wagner was too great a genius to be
Kissed again. Anyway it was not so much
Wagner who had been Kissed then, as. it had
been a petty demonstration against the young
King, contrived by a cabal in his cabinet Of
ministers.
Ny seat neighbor knew all about it, being
q retired court musician, who from his
fddler's seat in the orchestra had witnessed
all Of that scandal in December 1869. Wag-
ner then was to have conducted his newest
opera and the King meant openly to approve
the work Of the master.
The people Of Munich were aroused against
Wagner by Vaccinations of the Kings. mini
sters, Pfstermeister and v. d. Pfordten (the
old gentlemen derisively called than "Pf"
and "Pfo" for shorty, who were jealous Of
the masters influence over the young King.
Because Of the Kings generous financial sup
port toward Wagner's productions, the min
listers caused stories to be spread among the
populace that Wagner and his lady-love Co.
sima were looting the royal treasury.
A few days before the Kings return from
a horseback jaunt in Switzerland, the .MGn-
chener Neueste Nachrichten'' published an
unsigned letter, understood to have been
written or inspired by Cosima Won Bulow,
wherein it was suggested that the King could
ont fhrn1nh tho mnh Of lioc hoinn told ahnnt