Schloss Ringberg

Schloss Ringberg (Ringberg Castle) is located in the Bavarian Alps, 50 km south of Munich, on a foothill overlooking the Tegernsee. Not open to the general public, it is a property of the Max Planck Society and used for conferences.

Schloss Ringberg was the creation of Luitpold Emanuel Ludwig Maria, Duke in Bavaria (1890-1973) and his friend Friedrich Attenhuber (1877-1947), a Munich painter. The Duke was a member of the Wittelsbach family, former rulers of Bavaria.

Like his famous relative, King Ludwig II, the Duke was obsessed with building fantastical structures. Indeed, Ludwig's Schloss Neuschwanstein inspired Schloss Ringberg. The Duke dedicated his life to building the castle.

The two men met at Munich University, where from 1910-14 the Duke studied philosophy and the history of art. Attenhuber first gave painting lessons to the Duke, then traveled through Europe with him. What may have been a love affair developed into something more, with Attenhuber agreeing to supervise the building of the Duke's dream castle. The result was Schloss Ringberg.

Everything at Ringberg was designed and crafted by Attenhuber himself, from the architecture to the interior decoration, including the paintings.

In 1930, Attenhuber closed his Munich studio, took permanent residence at the castle and changed his painting style (apparently under pressure from the Duke) from post-impressionist to a realistic style close to the Blut und Boden style favoured by the Nazis, though it is not clear that the change was driven by political or ideological motives. He found his models in the farmhouses around the Tegernsee. Many of his paintings in this style hang in the ground and first floor rooms of the castle; on the second floor, paintings in his earlier style are on display. They include, however, his last self-portrait, which shows a reversion to his earlier style

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