Famous Bavarians

The Notorious Lola Montez

The sensational career of Lola Montez (1820-61) was hot copy in the newspapers all over the world during her lifetime, and she has even resurfaced more recently in a famous song by the Kinks. A woman who behaved as she pleased in the Victorian age, her liaison with Bavaria's king, Ludwig I, led to his forced abdication.

She was born in Limerick, Ireland, as Eliza Gilbert and grew up in India. An outstanding beauty with jet-black hair and alabaster skin, one admirer wrote of her, "Mrs. James looked like a star among the others." Her marriage to Lieutenant Thomas James had broken up in scandal (both she and her husband frequently cheated on each other, but she could never divorce him, since she couldn't find him to serve papers to), and she was forced to leave India. She went to Spain and then to London, where she reinvented herself as the dancer Lola Montez. Though she was a mediocre performer, her erotic "spider dance" catapulted her to notoriety. Subsequently, she went through dozens of lovers, including pianist Franz Liszt and novelist Alexandre Dumas.

When Lola arrived in Munich in 1846, she was refused an engagement at the Hof Theatre. Fighting her way past security guards, she stormed the palace of Ludwig I and demanded an audience with the king. Barging into his chambers, she slit the front of her dress open. Upon looking at her body, Ludwig asked his security guards and his chief aide to leave his chambers. Thus, began one of the most romantic and scandalous royal adventures of all time.

Although married to Princess Therese of Saxonia since 1810, the old, deaf, yet romantic, Ludwig came under Lola's spell. Ludwig indulged her every whim, bestowing the treasures of his kingdom upon her. In return, she catered to his sexual needs, including a foot fetish he had, as widely reported by his biographers. Lola was called "the Bavarian Pompadour," but Richard Wagner dubbed her a "demonic beast."

Ludwig gave her the titles of baroness of Rosenthal and countess of Lansfeld. Her enemies (Lola was deeply resented in Munich) suspected that she meddled in politics -- it was rumored that she virtually ran the Bavarian government. Public sentiment against the king's infatuation and her outlandish behavior was so powerful that it contributed to the Revolution of 1848 and ultimately to the king's abdication.

Fleeing to London in the wake of the king's abdication, Lola settled into her next adventures. By July 19, 1849, she'd married George Trafford Heald, scion of a wealthy, aristocratic family. There was a problem, however: She'd never been granted a divorce from Lt. James. Learning that the state planned to arrest her on a bigamy charge on August 6, she fled first to Mexico, then to California, where she ended her days as a cigar-smoking, stage-strutting artiste who entertained miners during the California Gold Rush. An amazing life came to an end when she retired, found religion, and devoted the rest of her life to helping wayward women. She died in poverty in Brooklyn.

François Cuvilliés: Dwarf with a Big Talent

In the 17th and 18th centuries, Bavaria's rulers were determined to rival Rome itself. In the cutthroat competition for commissions that followed, an unlikely candidate emerged for the role of Munich's most brilliant master of the rococo style.

François Cuvilliés (1695-1768) was a dwarf born in Belgium. Like many of his peers, he was first a pageboy and later court jester to Max Emanuel, elector of Bavaria. When the elector was exiled, François accompanied him; in St-Cloud near Paris, he absorbed his patron's interest in the aesthetics of French baroque architecture. Ambitious and witty, he won Max Emanuel's friendship and support. When the elector was reinstated with pomp and ceremony as ruler of Bavaria, François became a craftsman for the court's chief architect.

Cuvilliés proved himself so talented that in 1720 Max Emanuel sent him for a 4-year apprenticeship to one of the leading architects of Paris, Jacques-François Blondel. After his return to Munich, his work soon eclipsed that of his master. By 1745, the former jester had been elevated to chief architect to the Bavarian court.

His commissions between 1726 and his death in 1768 include some of southern Germany's most important rococo monuments, such as the interior of the Amalienburg Pavilion in the park of Nymphenburg Palace and the facade of the Theatinerkirche. His most famous creation is the remarkable Altes Residenztheater, familiarly called by his name. All his work is notable for a flamboyant sinuousness.

Cuvilliés' son, François Cuvilliés the Younger (1731-77), also became an architect, although he never achieved the greatness of his father. Most notably, he put the finishing touches on the facade of the Theatinerkirche, which his father had left unfinished at his death.