Kaiserbrief

Ludwig II gave the impetus to the emperor's proclamation of William I in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles with this letter, which the Prussian King William I proposed to the imperial dignity of the newly founded German Empire, where, during the Siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War, representatives of the free cities congregated on 18 January 1871.

This document, which is important for the founding of the German Empire, could well be regarded as the result of a state of doubtful behaviour, and thus perhaps even a form of corruption.

On the one hand, the southern German princes were not necessarily willing to accept Wilhelm's desire to call himself "Emperor of Germany", since they did not want to recognise a new sovereign.

Finally, it was both William's and Bismarck's concerns to make the act of conferring and establishing the new dignity appear as one of the German princes and not the parliaments.

He had not wounded the defeat of the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, in which Bavaria, together with Saxony, Baden, Württemberg, Hanover, Hesse-Darmstadt, Electoral Hesse and Nassau, had stood as an ally to Austria.

[3] Under this command, with the enthusiastic consent of the population, 55,000 Bavarian soldiers, led by Prussian Prince Frederick William, were drawn into the war against France in 1870.

He was also absent from the victory celebrations at Versailles and had rejected the request of his own government and on the orders of Bismarck, to make the Prussian King a German Emperor.

This had a tradition in his family, his great-grandfather Maximilian I and grandfather Ludwig I had already used large parts of the state budget to the representative development of Munich as residence, but also to the promotion of art, education and science.

He had also begged the Austrian Emperor, the kings of Belgium and Sweden to ask the (Turkish) Sultan and the Shah of Persia for money.

The purpose of Count Holnstein's journey is to speak with Your Excellency.As early as 20 November 1870, Bismarck telegraphed to the head of the Federal Chancellery in Berlin, Delbrück: "I hope to come to a conclusion with Bavaria.

Bismarck made major concessions to Bavaria (its own post and telecommunication systems, its own railways and its own army during peace time).

On 26 November 1870, Bismarck announced this, albeit in a somewhat alienated form, to his co-workers, when, in a confidential memorandum, which he had sent to the head of the Staatskanzlei Delbrück on contract negotiations with the Bavarian government representatives on 23 November 1870, notes that "Following my letter today, I still keep in confidence that I have also discussed the imperial question with the Bavarian Ministers and have stated their willingness to initiate the same by stimulating Bavaria.

[10] Concerning the German imperial question, it is important, in my opinion, that their suggestion should not proceed from any other side, such as Your Majesty, and especially from popular representation.

[11] On 30 November 1870, Holnstein arrived at the Hohenschwangau Castle, where Ludwig was staying and was received by the King when he was informed that he had to return to Versailles at 6 pm.

He then told the King that he would go back to Versailles, either with or without result, but it was to be expected that the troops in front of Paris would exclaim William I as Emperor.

The difficulties on account of the Treaties, which I am hoping for, will be over come.Count Maximilian von Holnstein (born 19 October 1835) knew Ludwig from his childhood.

[8] Since neither Emperor William nor Parliament could know of the agreement, Bismarck deducted the amounts of Welfs funds confiscated after the Prussian victory in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 which corresponded to the King's House of Hanover, estimated at 42 million guilders, identical of which to the English and Hanoverian throne.

[23] On the other hand, the Bavarian government had already declared itself ready to join the German Empire at the time of the telegram sent by Count Werthern and could not have succeeded in carrying out its repayment of reparations.

Bismarck was only able to fulfil his guaranteed money payments on the basis of the fact that larger withdrawals from the Welfs' fund would not have been noticeable, but would also have attacked his stock, which would have contradicted the conditions of seizure.

This was also confirmed by his official announcement of 26 November 1870 on Ludwig's change of meaning – after he had secretly agreed with Holnstein – to the head of the Federal Chancellery, Delbrück.

Ludwig also had to be held to the effect that from his point of view, the separation of state power from royal private wealth was by no means self-evident.

At the end of the monarchy of 1918, this question was still to be highly disputed among lawyers and led to the Bavarian law on the Wittelsbach Equalisation Fund.