Dr. Von Gudden's Drowning with King Ludwig Foretold in Dreams.

Psychic Adventures of Noted Men and Women
Dr. Von Gudden's Drowning with King Ludwig Foretold in Dreams.

BY J. P. GLASS.

in Evening Star,  Wahington, Monday December 29, 1930

It is thought that while they were strolling along the shore of Lake Starnburg [sic, for Starnberg], Ludwig, with an unexpected dash, threw himself into the water, and that the doctor jumped after him to save him. If Dr. von Gudden had made any interpretation of his dream about struggling with a man in water, could it possibly have influenced him in a way that would have obviated his death? The dream came to the doctor at his home in Munich. If he had suspected that it was prophetic, he certainly would have kept away from the insane King of Bavaria. Ludwig II. And he certainly never would have gone near the Lake of Starnburg. However, to him the dream was just a dream. And he did not identify the man in it as Ludwig II.

Dr. von Gudden. a specialist in mental diseases, was in Munich preparing to depart for Hohenchwangau, where Ludwig was under surveillance, when he had his strange nocturnal experience.

The question of Ludwig’s disposal was then in abeyance. It had been proposed to transfer him to the Castle of Berg, but this had not yet been decided upon.

One morning Dr. von Gudden came down to breakfast looking badly and in an ill humor. 

" I had a most annoying dream last night.” he told his wife. "It tormented me the whole night long. I thought I | was struggling with a man in the water. It persisted. I thought, for hours and hours. I could not wake. Really I am quite exhausted.”

Dr. von Gudden joined Ludwig II at Hohenschwangau and assisted in his transfer to Berg. It was no easy matter looking after his royal patient. The King, after indulging in all sorts of extravagances, was now moody and seized with a desire for self-destruclion. He had to be watched constantly. !

To be kept in the open air was the best treatment possible. After his transfer to the Castle of Berg, Dr. von Gudden went walking with him frequently.

Just how the double tragedy of death came about is not known. It is thought that while they were strolling along the shore of Lake Starnburg, Ludwig, with an unexpected dash, threw himself into the water and that the doctor jumped after him to save him. A terrific struggle followed. That much is certain. Though considerably younger than the King, von Gudden found himself unable to cope with the maniac. Instead of saving him. he found himself caught in a grip he could not shake off. Though they were near the shore and the depth of the water was not great, both were drowned.

The story of von Gudden’s dream came out when a deputation from the Munich Anthropologic Society, of which he had been a distinguished member, went to take the society's condolences to the widow.

" Ah.” said Frau von Gudden, "if we had only known what that dream meant, mv husband might still be with us today ”

"What dream was that?” some one asked.

And then the widow told the story,

In taking Dr. von Gudden with him into the other world it is imaginable that Ludwig got a certain satisfaction. It was von Gudden who had brought the news to him that, because of his mental condition, he would have to be put under restraint. This and the fact that the dortor was his chief keeper at Berg must have aroused the hatred of the royal madman, who had never known what it meant to have his slightest fancy forbidden. He dissimulated, however, up to the hour of his death. When the bodies were found in the water the face of Ludwig, the conqueror in the struggle, wore an expression of demoniacal vindictiveness, while that of von Gudden had a smile of resignation.