Schloss Ringberg

The castle was the creation of Luitpold Emanuel Ludwig Maria, Duke in Bavaria (1890-1973) and his friend Friedrich Attenhuber (1877-1947), a Munich painter.

After his death, Duke Luitpold continued to devote all his energies to the construction of the castle, selling family estates like Possenhofen Castle to pay for the building and travelling the more than 50 kilometres from his home in the Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten in Munich to supervise the progress of the work.

He requested the Bavarian authorities to grant his castle the status of a historical monument as a way of avoiding heavy tax duties, but his application was rejected.

He was therefore confronted with the choice of either selling Schloss Ringberg to the Confederation of German Trade Unions or leaving it as gift to the Max Planck Society.

The contract was signed in 1967 and after the Duke's death in 1973 the castle passed into the hands of the Max Planck Society.