From Riches to Rags: The Decline and Fall of Royal Stuttgart

Abstract

When Württemberg — then one of the major powers amongst the German states — was elevated to the status of a kingdom in 1806, King Friedrich I firmly intended to fill his capital with royal splendour. His successors, however, pursued another strategy, up to the abrupt abolition of the monarchy in 1918. In a sense, they can be said to have prompted the relative decline and fall of royal Stuttgart. In order to gain popularity, they wore ‘rags’ rather than putting riches on display in sumptuous palaces. To a certain extent, the later kings of Württemberg made their monarchy fit for the democratic age by means of architecture and city planning — and won the support of the population by investing in charities rather than in conspicuous consumption. It was not enough, however, to save even this popular monarchy from being pulled down with the rest of the Imperial edifice in November 1918.