Duke Eberhard Ludwig of Württemberg and the Schloss, or ‘Swabian Versailles’

And the Minister... Pangs of conscience did not seem to have troubled the Duke and he’d gone through no less than 14 head preachers. With Samuel Urlsperger, things were fine for a time until Urlsperger’s pietist friend, Francke, influenced him to admonish the Duke and remind him that he was responsible for being a good example for his people. This made the Duke furious and he had Urlsperger taken to death row to be executed if he would not retract all statements considered treasonous. Urlsperger’s wife stated that she would rather be the widow of a martyr than live with a traitor to his beliefs, whereupon the Duke signed the execution order. He needed a second signature to enforce the order of execution, but could find nobody willing. By this stroke of luck, Urlsperger remained alive, but secretly, and with a prohibition against any and all lecturing in effect.

Eberhard Ludwig was born in Stuttgart in 1676, the third child of Duke Wilhelm Ludwig. After his father’s early death in 1677, his uncle was awarded his guardianship until Emperor Leopold I named him “Duke of Württemberg” at his mother’s request in 1693. Even then, the young duke was described as vain and superficial and he showed no interest in government. His court council pretty much ran things while the duke traveled and went hunting. Eberhard Ludwig married Johanna Elisabeth von Baden-Durlach in 1697. Soon after, he went to visit Louis XIV at Versailles and was so impressed by the pomp and grandeur of the French court that he decided to turn Württemberg into a similar state. That took lots of money, and immediately the Duke raised taxes. In 1704, he laid out plans for his ostentatious Ludwigsburg Palace, a new hunting retreat north of Stuttgart. To save money, he allowed the builders and workers to reside tax-free around the palace for 15 years, and the city of Ludwigsburg would later develop out of their neighborhood, below.

Eberhard Ludwig was field marshall of the Swabian troops in the War of the Spanish Succession in 1707, acquiring glory under Prince Eugen. Once home, he illicitly married his mistress, Wilhelmine von Grävenitz. He spent most of his time in Ludwigsburg in Wilhelmine’s company, leaving his real wife alone in the Altes Schloß (Old Palace) in Stuttgart. Because of pressure from the emperor, the marriage to the mistress had to be quickly dissolved, and Wilhelmine went into exile in Switzerland. Eberhard Ludwig followed her, and there they stayed until 1710.

In 1718, he moved back to Ludwigsburg with his entire royal household in order to live together undisturbed with his mistress away from the Old Palace in Stuttgart. She was only allowed to return to the royal court once she had married another man, Graf von Würben. The influential mistress, nicknamed “Die Grävenitz,” was not notoriously beautiful but she was strong of mind and will, and for over two decades had a strong influence on the Württemberg court. She resided in the suite of rooms directly below that of the Duke in the Alter Hauptbau (Old Main Building), and the two were linked by a small staircase.

Because his only legal heir, Prince Friedrich Ludwig, died in 1731, the power threatened to shift into Catholic hands, a situation which captured the attention of Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm I. He influenced Eberhard Ludwig to end his 25-year-old relationship with Wilhelmine von Grävenitz and reconcile with his long-ignored wife in hopes of producing a legitimate heir, but she was fifty-three years old by then, and no child was conceived. He died in Ludwigsburg of a stroke on October 31, 1733. Eberhard Ludwig’s greatest legacy was his “Dritte Steuer-Instruktion” (Third Tax Directive) intended to achieve a more just tax legislation. He also attempted to promote the state economy.

The Schloss, called the “Swabian Versailles,” is the largest preserved Baroque residence in Germany and one of the few German castles which was not destroyed by Allied bombs in WW Two. Its architecture is Austrian and its decor Baroque, and the palace is comprised of eighteen buildings containing 452 rooms. Duke Carl Alexander von Württemberg was the next royal occupant after Eberhard Ludwig, then it became home to Duke Carl Eugen who, while adding apartments in the French Rococo style, moved the royal residence back to Stuttgart in 1775. Even later, Duke Friedrich II wanted to use Ludwigsburg as his summer palace, and when Napoleon made the duke “king” in 1803, Friedrich redecorated many of the palace rooms in the Empire style.