Taking On Neuschwanstein
August 3, 2007
Neuschwanstein isn't exactly tourist-friendly. It takes a good 90-minute car ride from Munich and a strenuous hike up a steep hill to reach the fairy-tale castle of Bavaria's "Mad" King Ludwig II that rises majestically in front of the Alps.
Nevertheless, some 1.3 million annual visitors flock to the relatively young palace, which had not been completed by the time of Ludwig's death in 1886. A far smaller number of people, however, seem interested in nearby Hohenschwangau Castle, where the king spent part of his childhood.
"Most people visit Neuschwanstein and leave again," said Hanspeter Beisser, the legal counsel for the WAF fund that was established to compensate Bavaria's Wittelsbach dynasty after the abolition of the monarchy in 1918.
Broadening the spectrum
While the Bavarian state owns Neuschwanstein, Hohenschwangau is still WAF property and Ludwig's descendants are now looking for ways to get more people to add a second stop on their trip.
"Tourists need a broad spectrum of attractions on offer," Beisser said, adding that a traffic congestion problem in the area sparked WAF officials to think of ways to spread out the crowds.
"Every day we see visitors who are struggling to get through traffic," he said. "They want to see Neuschwanstein and spend a nice day there, but the 'nice day' part doesn't always work out."
Connecting the dots
That's why the WAF, which also owns a hotel in the area, has proposed establishing a museum on the Wittelsbach family history at Hohenschwangau.
"Neuschwanstein wouldn't be possible without Hohenschwangau," said Elisabeth von Hagenow, an art historian with the Hamburg architectural firm Studio Andreas Heller that WAF officials hired to come up with a new tourism concept for the region. "A Wittelsbach museum would connect the two points."
Other ideas that are up for discussion include construction of an arena for events and concerts as well as a panoramic train that would transport people up the hill to the castles.
Pleasing UNESCO
The train in particular hasn't been well received by local critics and Bavaria's Finance Minister Kurt Faltlhauser, who oversees state-owned palaces.
"Bavaria will categorically reject any proposals that endanger plans to turn the royal palaces into UNESCO world heritage sites," Faltlhauser said in a statement on Thursday, adding that the state had learned its lesson from Dresden, which could still lose the UNESCO seal because of plans to build a modern bridge across the city's Elbe River.
But Faltlhauser also said that he did welcome any other improvements for tourists in the area as long as they did not infringe on Neuschwanstein's integrity.
Focus on history
Hagenow said that the finance minister and others had no reason to worry.
"What we've done so far should make it clear that we're not planning to build an entertainment park," she said, adding that the German Emigration Center in Bremerhaven, which was designed by her firm, had just won the 2007 European Museum of the Year Award.
"Our aim is to convey history in a way that's scientifically sound and attractive for tourists at the same time," she said.
Town council members of Schwangau, where both castles are located, are expected to decide on the proposals in late October.