Ludwig von Lahnstein

Background

Ludwig is first mentioned in late 2007, when his eldest son Sebastian comes back to Königsbrunn, leading Ludwig's younger brother Johannes to come clean about the troubled past with his brother. Ludwig left the family and Castle when his father Dietrich disapproved of his choice to marry a maid. Dietrich disowned Ludwig and Johannes became his successor. Johannes wanted to make right by the mistake his father made. After his death, Johannes wanted Ludwig to come back and become a part of the family again. He even wanted to give Ludwig his heritage, but he refused and has already started a new life with his family overseas. When Ludwig supposedly died in the Atlantic with his sailing boat, his friend Adrian Degenhardt took care of his family. He became their foster father and financed them their education, after Ludwig's wife Madeline died.

Character

As older brother of Johannes, Ludwig owns the right to the family empire. With his children all back in Castle Königsbrunn, Ludwig has to find his way back in a life he once gave up and never thought of getting back. Ludwig becomes the patriarch of the family and soon has to find out that some people in the family disapproves of his new role. With his nephew Ansgar he has a dangerous enemy, who sees himself as head of the empire as Johannes' eldest child.

Alive, Maria's true identity and rejoining the Lahnstein empire

When Andi Fritzsche returns after two years to Düsseldorf, he meets the young and beautiful Helena von Lahnstein. By chance she shows him a photo from her supposedly dead father. Andi is shocked, because he thinks he knows the man in the picture and that he isn't dead for fifteen years but alive and in jail in Patagonia. Andi shows Helena a drawing from the man, who once was his cellmate and looks like Ludwig von Lahnstein. Helena is confused and isn't sure what to believe. But since no body was found after his sailing boat accident, Helena gets in to Andi's idea and the both decide to fly to Brazil to find the man Andi is thinking must be Ludwig. Helena's twin-brother Tristan finds out about their traveling plans and follows them. When Tristan finds out the reason for Andi and Helena's trip, he thinks that Andi is lying, but later has to see for himself that the possibility is there. The trio tries to find out more about Andi's cellmate as they speak with the prison director. He confesses that the man in the cell would be Ludwig von Lahnstein, but the man died just a few weeks ago. Helena and Tristan are shocked and confused as the director has no idea where the body was buried, if at all. Andi does a little digging and finds out that the prison director was lying. Ludwig is still alive. As Tristan tries to pay the director off, he gets imprisoned himself. Now Helena tries everything to get her brother free and find out the truth about her father by making a dangerous deal with the prison director. If she wins a game of chess, he has to let her brother and father go. If he wins, he can spend one night with Helena. She eventually can make him lose and they return with Ludwig to Königsbrunn. With his return, the identity of the mysterious Maria Galdi, who's posing as Johannes' late wife Francesca, is discovered as Ludwig tells his family that the woman claiming to be Francesca is her mentally ill sister Maria di Balbi. After first not wanting to have anything to do with the family business, his niece Carla and Johannes' widow Elisabeth can convince Ludwig to join the company, much to the anger of his nephew Ansgar.

Crimes committed