The rebellious cabinet minsters of Ludwig II of Bavaria, seeking a cause to depose the king by constitutional means, decide on the rationale that he is mentally ill, and unable to rule.

They have asked Ludwig's uncle, Prince Luitpold, to step into the royal vacancy once Ludwig is deposed.

Luitpold had agreed, so long as the conspirators produce reliable proof that the king is in fact hopelessly insane.

Between January and March 1886, the conspirators assemble the Ärztliches Gutachten, or Medical Report, on Ludwig's fitness to rule.

Most of the details in the report are compiled by Count von Holnstein, who is disillusioned with Ludwig and actively seeks his downfall.

Holnstein uses his high rank and bribery to extract a long list of complaints, accounts, and gossip about Ludwig from among the king's servants.

The litany of supposed bizarre behavior includes his pathological shyness, his avoidance of state business, his complex and expensive flights of fancy, dining out of doors in cold weather and wearing heavy overcoats in summer, sloppy and childish table manners; dispatching servants on lengthy and expensive voyages to research architectural details in foreign lands; and abusive, violent threats to his servants.

The conspirators approach the Imperial Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, who doubts the report's veracity, calling it "rakings from the King's wastepaper-basket and cupboards." (Blunt, Wilfred; Petzet, Michael. The Dream King: Ludwig II of Bavaria. p. 216 (1970))

Bismarck comments after reading the Report that "the Ministers wish to sacrifice the King, otherwise they have no chance of saving themselves," and suggests that the matter be brought before the Bavarian Diet and discussed in a session of Parliament, but does not stop the ministers from carrying out their plan.

Although Ludwig had paid for his pet projects out of his own funds and not the state coffers, that had not necessarily spared Bavaria from financial fallout.

By 1885, the king was fourteen million marks in debt, had borrowed heavily from his family, and rather than economizing, as his financial ministers had advised him, he has undertaken new opulence and new designs without pause.

He had demanded that loans be sought from all of Europe's royalty, and had remained aloof from matters of state.

Feeling harassed and irritated by his ministers, he had considered dismissing the entire cabinet and replacing them with fresh faces.

The cabinet had decided to act first.