Duke Albrecht

Duke Albrecht of Bavaria was the first to be the head of the House Wittelsbach without having an institutional function in the state. After the experiences of both world wars and his internment in a concentration camp in 1944, he abstained from making political statements. In the same year as his 75th birthday, in 1980 he celebrated the 800th anniversary of the Wittelsbach family. In 1975 Nymphenburg was taken over by the Wittelsbach Compensation Fund and since then has returned to the patronage of the Wittelsbachers, whose love of art made their founding, their rise to power and their survival possible. From this time onward, each piece has been adorned with the initials of the head of the Wittelsbach family: an "A" for His Royal Highness Duke Albrecht of Bavaria, and since Albrecht's death an "F" for His Royal Highness Duke Franz of Bavaria.