Louis I, Grand Duke of Baden

Ludwig I, Grand Duke of Baden (February 9,1763 – March 30, 1830) became Grand Duke on December 8, 1818.He was the uncle of his predecessor Karl Ludwig Friedrich , and when he died the Zähringen line of the Baden house came to an end. He was succeeded by his half brother Leopold.

He secured the continued existence of the University of Freiburg in 1820, after which the University to be called the Albert-Ludwig University. He also founded the Polytechnic Hochschule Karlsruhe in 1825. The Hochschule is the oldest technical school in Germany.

Ludwig's death in 1830 led to many rumors. His death also meant the death of his line of the Baden family. The succession then went to the children of the morganatic second marriage of Grand Duke Karl Friedrich and Luise Karoline Geyer von Geyersberg. She became Countess of Hochberg in the Austrian nobility at the personal request of Karl Friedrich.

After Ludwig's death, there was much discussion about a mysterious seventeen year old young man named Kaspar Hauser, who appeared seemingly out of nowhere in 1828. Seventeen years previously the first son of the future Grand Duke Karl Ludwig Friedrich and his wife Stephanie died under what were later portrayed as mysterious circumstances. There was at the time and still is today (in 2007) speculation that Hauser, who was ostensibly murdered in 1833, was that child.

Working together with architect Friedrich Weinbrenner, Louis is responsible for most of the classical revival buildings in the city center and for building the pyramid.