– English Lyrics

Lyrics & Translation

[English]

There it is – Neuschwanstein, Germany's most beloved castle.

But what makes it so fascinating?

Is it the stunning setting?

The fairy-tale towers?

Or maybe its dramatic history?

Neuschwanstein is famous around the world as the castle

of the fairy-tale king Ludwig II of Bavaria.

And now it has finally been named

a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Every year about 1 million people come to Bavaria just to see this place.

But what exactly awaits them?

And who was King Ludwig II,

the man behind this magical creation?

Let's find out.

Follow me on a tour of the castle from the public facing pomp to the

king's most private quarters.

I'll show you all you need to know before a visit.

Neuschwanstein castle is located

near Hohenschwangau in Bavaria

in southern Germany,

about 2 hours by car from Munich.

The crowds are huge year round, even in the village below.

Here you'll find souvenirs – from swans

to figurines of the king.

You can buy tickets here,

but it's better to book them online in advance.

You can only go inside the castle as part of a guided tour

at a specific time.

Now you just have to get up to the castle.

And then you have two options to get up.

You can either walk, which takes about 30 minutes.

Or you can take a horse-drawn carriage

for a more romantic and relaxed ride.

From Zimmermansplatz, located just below the castle,

you get a first stunning close-up view.

On the last stretch you have no choice.

The only way in is on foot.

But before I go in, I want to know what brought the other visitors here.

I think this is a must-see in Germany.

It's very great, with a long history,

a very magnificent building.

Very good.

Love it. Like this is crazy.

The castle with the cliffs behind it and the ravine.

We saw the bridge across that,

that's a beautiful scenario.

And then from the other way,

with the lake – two completely different scenarios.

I think it's a perfect location.

Now I finally get to go in.

We had to wait until all the visitors were gone because filming is only

allowed outside opening hours.

I get to enter through the courtyard.

Patrick Korb is going to guide me through the fairy-tale king's castle.

Would that have been in his interest, to have

millions of people walk through his dream castle?

Not at all.

There's an anecdote that he actually said on his last stay here.

He's said to have said to his personal servant: "Please, Fritz,

never let anybody go through here."

So they were effectively disrespecting his last wish.

They were.

Not a good omen for a visit.

Ludwig II grew up not far from here.

Even after he became king, he preferred to stay in the Bavarian

mountains rather than in his residence in Munich.

What kind of a person was he?

What was his personality?

Do we know?

We know quite a lot.

He was a deep and contrasting character.

He was a dreamer, certainly, an eccentric, certainly,

becoming even more eccentric the longer he lived.

He liked art.

He loved theatre and music.

He was not himself an artist.

He liked to watch it.

He didn't like a lot of the things

that other young noblemen were meant to like –

hunting, soldiery, army, he didn’t care much about that.

Which set him apart from his peers of his time.

And that might have been another reason why he wanted

to get out and build his own world, where he could be just himself.

Neuschwanstein castle was never completed.

Many rooms remain empty to this day.

The unfinished nature is visible even here

in the richly decorated throne hall.

So this is the throne room.

But there is no throne.

There is no throne.

What's going on here?

The throne tragically was one of the pieces

that were never done when the king died.

The royal family stopped investment right after the king died,

thought about what to do with it, and made it a museum.

But anything not yet started at that point was never done.

They just finished up things.

One of the main things missing

is the throne that should be standing there.

When you look left and right of the staircase,

the 12 apostles, 6 sainted kings above the platform,

where the throne would have been standing.

And above them all,

Jesus Christ pointing to Ludwig II’s view of kingship,

sent by God to rule over certain people.

Not the kingship he experienced in his time,

but the old kingship, the old idea.

There's a big symbol for that too,

kind of hidden in its meaning but not to be overlooked:

a giant chandelier here in the center of the room,

weighing nearly a ton, made of brass,

96 candles alone on it.

It’s modeled on a Byzantine imperial crown.

It’s meant as a symbol for the old kings

because the crown hangs between a cupola, sun and stars –

heaven – and the mosaic floor, animals, plants, earth,

showing where the old king stood in their societies—

between their subjects on earth and God in heaven.

Ludwig's fairy-tale castle is full of contradictions.

On one hand, it was an escape from the present

into an idealized Middle Ages.

On the other hand it was equipped

with all the perks of the technical progress of its time.

From the kitchen, a small paternoster lift brought food to the king.

There was running water – warm water even –

and a telephone line to the servants.

And this is where he slept?

This is where he slept.

This is the king’s bedroom.

It's not a king size mattress though.

It isn't.

It's a single bed though.

He was never married.

He had a fiancé in his youth, but they never married.

So this was always intended as a place for one person.

And also makes the bed a bit smaller than it would have been.

No wife, a fiancé back in the day.

Any love interests that we might know about today?

He was very likely homosexual

without living it out.

Because he was also very likely a true deep Catholic believer,

which made him not a very happy person, I guess.

So there’s stories and were stories.

But there’s no real thing in the open.

The fact that he had to hide that very substantial part of himself:

Do you think that contributed to him

wanting to build this kind of fairy-tale world

for him where he could hide from the real world?

Might well be one of the aspects that led to that.

Together though with all the other aspects:

not really having the power he liked to,

not having a lot of friends or peers that he connected to.

Not liking the city, just plain as that.

He liked the countryside.

So it’s one aspect out of many aspects, in my view,

that made him search for a place where he could build his own reality.

One person Ludwig II felt close or kindred to,

at least temporarily, was the composer Richard Wagner.

It's noticeable all around,

but mostly in the so-called singer's hall.

The room in total is again a kind of stage set.

Because the king here tried to rebuild the singer’s hall of Wartburg Castle.

Wartburg Castle, a famous medieval castle in Germany,

appears in one of Richard Wagner’s operas, "Tannhäuser".

So Ludwig II wanted to have a similar room for himself on his own castle.

Again, this kind of a dream world.

Unfortunately, a dream world that he himself never really got to enjoy.

He did spend only two months here before he was aged 40.

He was declared insane and thus unfit to rule

by a commission of the Bavarian government.

Here's a tip for you.

King Ludwig also had two other magnificent castles built.

They too have recently been declared UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

And both are open to the public.

Shortly after construction began on Neuschwanstein,

Ludwig had Schloss Linderhof built

in the Ammergau Alps, a rather small rococo-style castle.

And then there is Schloss Herrenchiemsee,

a baroque palace complex modeled after Versailles.

The Hall of Mirrors is even 2 meters longer than the original in France.

But back to Neuschwanstein.

I absolutely have to show you the balcony.

As I said, that’s exactly what I mean, that connection.

I think a visit to Neuschwanstein is not complete

if you can’t appreciate the surroundings.

Walk around the castle, come out here, enjoy that,

spend some time in the surrounding landscape and enjoy.

That was my day at Neuschwanstein already.

So what is it that keeps enchanting people to this day?

I think it's of course the beautiful scenery, the whimsical architecture,

the dreamlike interiors,

and maybe also to some extent,

that tragic, mysterious king behind it all.

What about you?

What did you like best?

Key Vocabulary

Vocabulary	Meanings
castle /ˈkæsəl/ A2	noun - a large building formerly occupied by a ruler or noble
king /kɪŋ/ A1	noun - a male ruler of a country
fascinating /ˈfæsɪneɪtɪŋ/ B2	adjective - extremely interesting or charming
historic /hɪˈstɒrɪk/ B2	adjective - important in history
heritage /ˈherɪtɪdʒ/ B2	noun - property or traditions passed down from ancestors
tour /tʊər/ A2	noun - a journey or trip around a place for sightseeing verb - to visit different places on a trip
crowd /kraʊd/ B1	noun - a large number of people gathered together
souvenir /ˌsuːvəˈnɪər/ B2	noun - an object kept as a reminder of a place or event
carriage /ˈkærɪdʒ/ B2	noun - a vehicle with wheels pulled by horses
scenario /sɪˈnɑːri.oʊ/ C1	noun - a description of possible events or situations
magnificent /mæɡˈnɪfɪsənt/ B2	adjective - very beautiful and impressive
eccentric /ɪkˈsɛntrɪk/ C1	adjective - unconventional and slightly strange
throne /θroʊn/ B2	noun - a ceremonial chair for a sovereign
imperial /ɪmˈpɪəriəl/ C1	adjective - relating to an empire or emperor
contradiction /ˌkɒntrəˈdɪkʃən/ C1	noun - a situation in which two things oppose each other
eccentricity /ˌɛksɛnˈtrɪsɪti/ C2	noun - the quality of being unconventional and unusual
composer /kəmˈpoʊzər/ B2	noun - a person who writes music