King
Ludwig I of Bavaria
and
Boniface Wimmer, O.S.B.
The majority of the German-American church artists came from southern Germany, and many of them had been associated with the Royal Bavarian Academy of Art in Munich. The Bavarian king Ludwig I played an important role in the introduction of Catholic religious art to North America. The historical developments leading to his involvement are the focus of this chapter.
The nineteenth century brought dramatic changes to Western Europe through wars and revolutions. In the early century the horrors of the French Revolution and Napoleon's bloody wars of conquest left their imprint on many institutions, among them the Catholic Church. The leaders of the French Revolution had celebrated Reason over Faith, and the Church became their target. Napoleon followed suit by suppressing monastic orders and confiscating Church properties wherever his occupying armies were in command. In Germany he distributed such properties to the German secular rulers who supported him.
The Duchy of Bavaria was governed by Max Joseph of the Wittelsbach family. He had allied himself with the French Emperor against the Austrians. Hence the Bavarian ruler received a significant number of religious art works and church possessions from the grateful French. [1] Many of them found their way to the newly established Catholic missions in North America through the generosity of Ludwig I, the son of Max Joseph.
In 1805 Napoleon had elevated Bavaria to a kingdom, and Max Joseph became Maximilian I. After Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo in 1815, Maximilian signed an alliance with the Vatican. To affirm his family's return to the folds of the Catholic Church, he chose a Benedictine tutor for his son Ludwig. The future king established a close bond with the Benedictine Order, which established German religious art in North America after 1846, and relied on Ludwig for spiritual and financial support in this undertaking.[2] Under Maximilian I the Catholic Church was reinstated, and the Bavarian constitution gave the state the right to supervise Church activities and to approve ecclesiastical appointments.[3]
Maximilian I died in 1825, and with the ascension to the Bavarian throne
of his heir Ludwig I, Catholic religious life underwent an astounding rebirth.
(Figure 1, Joseph Stieler, Portrait of King Ludwig I in Royal Robes, c.1826).
By this time in history a Christian revival had swept over the entire
European continent in reaction to the anticlerical policies of Napoleon. In
Germany this restoration movement gained its greatest strength in Bavaria.
Young King Ludwig brought Catholic theologians and philosophers to Munich. By
1831 he had restored forty-three monasteries and built a large number of new
seminaries. The Bavarian capitol became the center of German Catholicism.[4]