Ludwigsthal is a village in the municipality of

Lindberg Lindberg is a municipality in the district of Regen in Bavaria in Germany in the immediate neighbourhood of the larger town Zwiesel. Location Lindberg lies in the Danube Forest (''Donau-Wald'') region in the middle of the Bavarian Forest on ...

in the

Lower Bavaria Lower Bavaria (, ; ) is one of the seven administrative regions of Bavaria, Germany, located in the east of the state. It consists of nine districts and 258 municipalities (including three cities). Geography Lower Bavaria is subdivided into two ...

n district of

Regen Regen (; Northern Bavarian: ''Reng'') is a town in Bavaria, Germany, and the district town of the district of Regen. Geography Regen is situated on the great Regen River, located in the Bavarian Forest. Divisions Originally the town consiste ...

Location

Ludwigsthal lies on the B 11 federal highway between

Zwiesel Zwiesel () is a town in the lower-Bavarian district of Regen (district), Regen, and since 1972 is a Luftkurort with particularly good air. The name of the town was derived from the Bavarian word stem which refers to the form of a fork. The fork ...

and

Bayerisch Eisenstein Bayerisch Eisenstein, until 1951 just Eisenstein () is a village and a Municipalities of Germany, municipality in the Regen (district), Regen district, in Bavaria, Germany. Geography Bayerisch Eisenstein is located within the Bavarian Forest, Ba ...

. It also has a halt on the

Bavarian Forest Railway The Bavarian Forest Railway (''Bayerische Waldbahn'' often just called the ''Waldbahn'') () links the heart of the Bavarian Forest around Regen and Zwiesel to Plattling and the Danube valley on one side, and the Czech Republic through Bayerisch E ...

History

In 1826 master glassworker, Georg Christoph Abele from Neuhurkenthal, founded a glassworks in the

Bohemian Forest The Bohemian Forest, known in Czech as () and in German as , is a low mountain range in Central Europe. Geographically, the mountains extend from Plzeň Region and the South Bohemian Region in the Czech Republic to Austria and Bavaria in Germ ...

and named it one year later after

King King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

Ludwig I of Bavaria Ludwig I or Louis I (; 25 August 1786 – 29 February 1868) was King of Bavaria from 1825 until the German revolutions of 1848–49, 1848 revolutions in the German states. When he was crown prince, he was involved in the Napoleonic Wars. As ki ...

. In 1830, Abele had a mansion built by the royal architect and building foreman, Lexa, to plans drawn up by Prague master builder, von Zobel. From 1828 to 1848, white, then green, mirror glass was produced at the factory. In March 1860, all the property was auctioned off due to insolvency. It was sold for 44,000

guilders Guilder is the English translation of the Dutch and German ''gulden'', originally shortened from Middle High German ''guldin pfenninc'' (" gold penny"). This was the term that became current in the southern and western parts of the Holy Rom ...

to butcher, Josef Pauli, and brewer, Josef Kammermeier, both from Zwiesel. At the end of the 19th century, the company switched to bottle glass manufacture. The glassworks, which still employed about 200 people after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, was closed in 1981. At the beginning of 2006, the empty building collapsed under masses of snow. The mansion of the glassworks owners, which was leased by the association ''Pro National Park'' in January 2008, and the glassmakers' houses are still standing. The firm of ''Krystallglasmanufaktur Ludwigsthal'' has continued the tradition of glass art in Ludwigsthal since 2001 with demonstration glassworks. On 1 June 1876, Prince

Otto Otto is a masculine German given name and a surname. It originates as an Old High German short form (variants '' Audo'', '' Odo'', '' Udo'') of Germanic names beginning in ''aud-'', an element meaning "wealth, prosperity". The name is recorded fr ...

arrived at the mansion house to spend several weeks in Ludwigsthal. On the advice of his doctors, he often walked in the forest, and his favorite path along the

to Regenhütte still bears the name ''Prinzensteig'' or "Prince's Trail". The

chapelry A chapelry was a subdivision of an ecclesiastical parish in England and parts of Lowland Scotland up to the mid 19th century. Status A chapelry had a similar status to a Township (England), township, but was so named as it had a chapel of ease ...

of Ludwigsthal was established in 1894; this was followed in 1912 by its elevation to a

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

. Near Ludwigsthal there is the information centre, "Haus zur Wildnis", of the

Bavarian Forest National Park The Bavarian Forest National Park () is a national park in the Eastern Bavarian Forest immediately on Germany's border with the Czech Republic. It was founded on 7 October 1970 as the first national park in Germany. Since its expansion on 1 Aug ...

and an animal enclosure covering 65 hectares. In 1950, the Ludwigsthal Dog Sports Association was founded, in 1977, Ludwigsthal Tennis Club and, in 1981, the Ludwigsthal Fishing Club. In 1989 the parish of Ludwigsthal counted 947 Catholics. The old railway station building at Ludwigsthal station, 1.5 kilometres from the village, is now privately owned and not open to the public. One kilometre closer to the village - directly next to the National Park Visitor Centre - a new Ludwigsthal halt was established in 2003.

Sights

The

Neo-Romanesque Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended t ...

parish church of the

Sacred Heart The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus () is one of the most widely practised and well-known Catholic devotions, wherein the heart of Jesus Christ is viewed as a symbol of "God's boundless and passionate love for mankind". This devotion to Christ is p ...

built in 1893/94 to plans by Johann Baptist Schott. It has a unique Neo-Romanesque décor by Munich artist, Franz Xaver Hofstötter (1871–1913). An unusual feature is the rich painting of the interior rooms. In the vicinity of Ludwigsthal is the information centre of ''Haus zur Wildnis'' ("House of the Wilderness") which belongs to the

and was built in 2006. There is also a 65-hectare animal enclosure in which a covered wooden

observation tower An observation tower is a tower used to view events from a long distance and to create a full 360 degree range of vision to conduct long distance observations. Observation towers are usually at least tall and are made from stone, iron, and woo ...

stands.Haus zur Wildnis Ludwigsthal
on the website of the ''Tourismusmarketing Bayerischer Wald''

Clubs

*TSV Ludwigsthal (tennis) *

Freiwillige Feuerwehr A volunteer fire department (VFD) is a fire department of volunteers who perform fire suppression and other related emergency services for a local jurisdiction. Volunteer and retained (on-call) firefighters are expected to be on call to respond ...

Ludwigsthal (volunteer fire brigade) *Fischereiverein Ludwigsthal (fishing) *

Schützenverein A Schützenverein (German for "marksmen's club") is a local voluntary association found in German-speaking countries revolving around shooting as a sport, often target shooting to Olympic rules or with historic weapons. Although originating as ...

Ludwigsthal (shooting) *ESV Zwiesel am Bahnhof Ludwigsthal

References

External links

{{authority control 1826 establishments in Bavaria Populated places established in 1826 Villages in Bavaria Regen (district) Ludwig I of Bavaria