Reizenstein, Ludwig von

Ludwig von Reizenstein (July 14, 1826 - August 19, 1885) was a Bavarian civil engineer, architect, journalist, amateur naturalist, author, and publisher active in New Orleans in the mid to late 19th century. Reizenstein was born in Bavaria to an august noble family that, by this time, has fallen on hard times and scandal - apparently, his mother was a lesbian temptress who seduced her own 7 daughters. Young Ludwig was a bright but troubled child who bounced between schools and could not commit to a career. There are suggestions in family writings that he may have had homosexual relationships. While Ludwig was not directly involved with the Revolutions of 1848, he claimed to be a close friend of Lola Montez, the Irish dancer, actress, and courtesan who became a mistress of King Ludwig I and whose unpopularity may have contributed to his abdication. Convinced his son had to leave Bavaria, Ludwig's father sent him to America, where he was to run a farm for one 'Herr Steinberger of Bayreuth.' Steinberger died en route to America, and on arrival, Ludwig was left without funds or work.

At the outset, he split oysters on the shore, watched cows for a farmer, then he also edited a newspaper for a time, an undertaking which he soon gave up, since he lacked capital... then he traveled through most of the American states selling birdcages, coming finally to St. Louis, Missouri, where he met a relative, a Baron Egloffstein [Frederick Wilhelm von Egloffstein (May 18, 1824 - February 18, 1885)], who ran a surveying office. He finally felt more suited to this occupation than to any of the others he had yet tried, and he soon learned it and established himself in New Orleans as a civil engineer and architect, a business that brought him sufficient income to raise him to the level where he could obtain a house and garden in his last place of residence. (Reizenstein, L. von, The Mysteries of New Orleans, (Longfellow), page XVII-XVIII.)

He took to civil engineering with an unusual dedication, settled down, and even married, to the delight of his father back in Germany. At the same time, Ludwig turned away from his noble heritage, naming himself simply 'Ludwig Reizenstein'. Around 1851, he briefly got involved in publishing, launching a German weekly called the Alligator. In 1852 he was living in Pekin, Illinois, where he announced the intuition to publish his now infamous novel Die Geheimnisse von New Orleans. Sometime in late 1852, he relocated to New Orleans, where he remained until his death. In New Orleans, he supported himself as a civil engineer and draftsman, mostly preparing property maps for auctions. He was also a hobbyist entomologist, fascinated with the local insect life. He served in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War (1861 - 1865) but was, at best, a reluctant supporter of the Confederacy and, being useless in combat, was ultimately attached to the medical corps. His name appears as draftsman on several maps related to the war, most of which were published on behalf of Union General N. H. Banks, likely after the war. Reizenstein is best known as the author of Die Geheimnisse von New Orleans [Mysteries of New Orleans], an occult urban-goth novel published serially from 1854 to 1855 in the German-language newspaper Louisiana Staats-Zeitung. The novel offers a scathing critique of antebellum slavery through a bloody, retributive justice at the hands of 'Hiram the Freemason' - a nightmarish, 200-year-old, proto-Nietzschean übermensch. The work features a black messiah, the son of a mulatto prostitute and a decadent German aristocrat, and includes a vividly depicted lesbian romance. It also openly criticized prestigious New Orleans citizens. All told, Mysteries shocked even New Orleans' famously libertarian sensibilities and was quickly censured. Reizenstein went on to publish other works and continue his study of insects. He died young, in his late 50s, of unknown causes.