Golden Fleece - Knights: Austrian Branch

• Ludwig Karl Maria von Bayern
• Prince Ludwig of Bavaria (German: Ludwig Karl Maria Anton Joseph Prinz von Bayern) ( 22 June 1913 – 17 October 2008) was a member of the Bavarian Royal House of Wittelsbach.

Early life

Prince Ludwig was born at Nymphenburg Palace, Munich, Kingdom of Bavaria. He was the eldest son of Prince Franz of Bavaria and his wife Princess Isabella Antonie of Croÿ. After graduating from the Maximilians-Gymnasium (located in Schwabing, Munich), Ludwig studied forestry at a university in Hungary. In 1939, as most young German men of his age, he was drafted into the military, serving as a Gebirgsjäger. However, his career in the German Army was short lived. In early 1941, Ludwig was relieved from all combat duties as a result of the Prinzenerlass which prohibited members of Germany's royal houses from participating in military operations. He spent the rest of the war at Sarvar in Hungary where his family owned a castle. In 1945 his family fled Hungary and settled at Leutstetten near Starnberg in Bavaria.

Marriage

On 19 July 1950, Ludwig married his first cousin Princess Irmingard of Bavaria, the daughter of Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria and Princess Antonia of Luxembourg. The civil wedding took place at Leutstetten and the religious ceremony followed a day later at Schloss Nymphenburg in Munich. The couple had three children:

• Prince Luitpold of Bavaria (born 1951)
• Princess Irmingard Maria of Bavaria (1953 - 1953)
• Princess Philippa of Bavaria (1954 - 1954)

Later life

After the death of Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria in 1955, Ludwig and Irmingard moved into Schloss Leutstetten where Irmingard continued to live.

• Ludwig was a Grand Prior of the Bavarian Order of Saint George,
• Knight of the Order of Saint Hubert,
• and from 1960 a Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece.
• Ludwig died of pneumonia at Schloss Leutstetten, 17 October 2008, aged 95. On Wednesday, 22 October at 10:00 a.m., there was a Mass of Christian Burial in the abbey church at Andechs. After mass the body was buried in the Wittelsbach cemetery on the abbey grounds.