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THE WITTELSBACHER AUSGLEICHSFONDS – BOUND TO OUR ROYAL HERITAGE
Since 1923 a foundation – the Wittelsbacher Ausgleichsfonds – has been dealing with the financial and legal affairs of the former Bavarian Royal House. The fund was set up to ensure that the private assets of the Wittelsbach family, which were put into Bavarian state ownership during the monarchy, could be decentralised. These assets include castles and palaces, real estate, agricultural and forestry holdings, as well as extensive art collections.
In return, the House of Wittelsbach ceded large parts of its assets to the Bavarian state, including numerous properties in Munich, such as the Munich Residenz, the Court Garden, the palaces of Nymphenburg and Schleißheim, as well as the Ludwig castles and palaces of Neuschwanstein, Herrenchiemsee and Linderhof.
By ceding numerous monuments, castles and palaces, as well as works of art, the majority of which are still today publicly-accessible in the art collections of the Bavarian state, the cornerstone was laid for the Free State of Bavaria to become a first-class region of art and culture.
The Wittelsbacher Ausgleichsfonds acts as a kind of guarantor for the undiminished preservation of the unique art treasure-trove which the Wittelsbach family has amassed during more than eight hundred years of uninterrupted regency.
