Departures of note

Princess Alexandra Amalie of Bavaria, a daughter of King Ludwig I, spent much of her adult life convinced that as a child she had swallowed a grand piano made of glass, which she believed remained inside her. The delusion, which took hold in her early twenties, coexisted with a literary career that produced numerous volumes of stories, translations, and essays. She also developed a fixation with cleanliness and wore only white clothes.

Born at Schloss Johannisburg in Aschaffenburg in 1826, Alexandra was the eighth child of the Bavarian royal couple. Her father commissioned her portrait for his Gallery of Beauties at Schloss Nymphenburg. In the 1850s, Prince Louis Lucien Bonaparte sought her hand, but King Ludwig refused, citing her delicate health; the prince had been previously married and divorced. Alexandra never married and instead became abbess of the Royal Chapter for Ladies of Saint Anne in Munich and Würzburg, a religious community for noblewomen.

Her writing began in 1852 with Weihnachtsrosen, followed by Souvenirs, pensées et essais (1853), Feldblumen (1856), and Phantasie- und Lebensbilder (1858). She donated the proceeds of Feldblumen to the Maximilian Orphanage. Later works included translations from French and English, such as Das Kindertheater (1870) and Der erste des Monats (1870), as well as original collections like Thautropfen (1863) and Maiglöckchen (1873). She also contributed to the periodical Jugendblätter.

Alexandra died on 21 September 1875 at Schloss Nymphenburg, the same day as her brother Prince Adalbert, and was buried in the Wittelsbach crypt in the Theatinerkirche in Munich. Her glass-piano delusion later inspired a 2010 BBC Radio 3 programme and a 2019 play.