No Swan Song for Baron Justus von Liebig

Giessen Professor Justus Liebig was elevated to Freiherr (Baron) in 1845, the year that Bavaria’s future “Swan King”, Prince Ludwig II, was born. The prince’s parents, King Maximilian II and Queen Marie are depicted (right) formally receiving Liebig 7 years later, in 1852, after the Baron had accepted their royal invitation to a professorship at the University of Munich. A pioneering professor of organic and agricultural chemistry, Justus von Liebig would also curate Germany’s oldest continuously maintained botanical gardens and consult on other royal gardens. He passed away in 1873, about 11 years before the Swan King (now known as “Mad King” Ludwig II) could have used Liebig’s expert advice–for it was in 1884 that King Ludwig II began moving into Neuschwanstein (“new swan stone”), the fantastic fortress after which many Disney theme park castles have been patterned. (Copyright © the American Society of Anesthesiologists, Inc.)