Luitpold, Prince Of Bavaria, was born in 1951 as the great-grandson of Ludwig III, the last ruling king of Bavaria. He is a member of the Wittelsbach family, a prominent European dynasty that ruled Bavaria without interruption from 1180 until 1918, when, upon the defeat of the German Empire in World War I, all German monarchies were abolished. Almost from the start, the House of Wittelsbach has been involved in brewing and, over the centuries, has left an indelible mark on beer history: In 1269 Duke Ludwig (Louis) II started the first brewery in Munich, in 1516 the Wittelsbach Duke Wilhelm IV (1493–1550) proclaimed the Bavarian Beer Purity Law (Reinheitsgebot), in 1810 the wedding celebrations of Crown Prince Ludwig I and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen became the first Munich Oktoberfest, and in 1868 King Ludwig II of Bavaria established what is still one of the world’s foremost brewing universities, Weihenstephan, outside Munich, where young Prince Luitpold went to study brewing science. See wittelsbacher family.

Prince Luitpold at the Kaltenberg castle and brewery in Bavaria. After studying brewing science at the Weihenstephan brewing university, Prince Luitpold became the CEO of the König Ludwig GmbH & Co. KG Schlossbrauerei Kaltenberg, the Bavarian royal family’s ancestral brewery. photograph by denton tillman

In 1976 Luitpold became the CEO of the König Ludwig GmbH & Co. KG Schlossbrauerei Kaltenberg, the Wittelsbach’s ancestral brewery, which was opened in 1870 in Kaltenberg Castle. By 2001 Schlossbrauerei Kaltenberg formed a financial, licensing, and distribution partnership with Haus Cramer KG, one of Germany’s largest brewing groups, which is best known for its Warsteiner brand. With this increased access to national and international markets, Kaltenberg’s annual production grew to about 350,000 hectoliters (298,258 US bbl), and its flagship brand, König Ludwig dunkel, became Germany’s top-selling dunkel. In German statistics, dunkel represents about one-third of the broader dark lager category of “dunkel/schwarzbier,” which covers roughly 1.7% of the approximately 100 million hl/year (85,216,790 US bbl) German beer market. Kaltenberg’s other key brands are König Ludwig weissbier and König Ludwig hell.

See also bavaria.