Duke Ludwig in Bavaria, brother of Sisi, has died

November 10, 1920

Duke Ludwig in Bavaria, "the senior member of the House of Wittelsbach, has died, according to a dispatch from Basle, Switzerland.  He was 89 years old.

The duke, a brother of the late Empress Elisabeth of Austria, was born in Munich on June 21, 1831.  He had been married twice.  Both marriages were morganatic.  Two years ago, he received a divorce from his second wife.
As a young man, "he served in the Bavarian Cavalry and had attained the rank of General."  In 1859, he caused a scandal in his family, when he renounced his dynastic rights to "contract a morganatic marriage" with an actress, Henriette Mendel, who was created Baroness de Wallersee.  She died in 1891, and a year later, Ludwig married again.  His second wife was a Munich ballet dancer named Barth, "later called Frau von Bartolf."

The Bavarian Royal family "were moderately cordial" to Ludwig's first wife, but never accepted his second wife, who was forty-two years his junior."

Duke Ludwig was often in "financial difficulties."  He once was "compelled to sell a piece of royal property to a Munich brewery."  On several occasions, his sister, Empress Elisabeth, "warded off his creditors.