`nĭk), Ger...... Click the link for more information. is the capital. The largest state of Germany, Bavaria is bordered by the Czech Republic on the east, by Austria on the southeast and south, by Baden-Württemberg on the west, by Hesse on the northwest, and by Thuringia and Saxony on the north.
Land
A region of rich, softly rolling hills, it is drained by several rivers (notably the Main, Danube, Isar, and Inn) and is bounded by mountain ranges (especially the Bavarian Alps and the Bohemian Forest). Bavaria is divided into seven administrative districts: Upper and Lower Bavaria; Upper, Middle, and Lower Franconia Lower Franconia, Ger. Unterfranken, 3,277 sq mi (8,487 sq km), is a hilly region in NW Bavaria, famous for the forested Spessart hills. It is traversed by the Main River.
..... Click the link for more information. ; Swabia Swabia (swā`bēə), Ger. Schwaben, historic region, mainly in S Baden-Württemberg and SW Bavaria, SW Germany.
..... Click the link for more information. ; and the Upper Palatinate Rhenish or Lower Palatinate (Ger. Rheinpfalz or Niederpfalz), often called simply the Palatinate, is a district (c.2,100 sq mi/5,440 sq km) of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate (Ger. Rheinland-Pfalz).
..... Click the link for more information. . Until the early 19th cent. Bavaria did not include Swabia and Franconia, which have separate histories. Upper Bavaria, with Munich as its capital, rises to the Bavarian Alps, along the Austrian border, and culminates in the Zugspitze Zugspitze (ts
..... Click the link for more information. , Germany's highest peak. Between the Alps and the Bohemian Forest Bohemian Forest, Czech Český Les, Ger. Böhmerwald, mountain range, extending c.150 mi (240 km) along the S Czech-German border and extending into Austria. The Czech name for its southern section is Sumava.
..... Click the link for more information. , which forms the border with the Czech Republic, lies the Franconian Jura plateau, traversed by the Danube. Lower Bavaria comprises part of this plateau and part of the Bohemian Forest. Franconia, in N Bavaria, includes the Frankenwald, the Fichtelgebirge Fichtelgebirge (fĭkh`təlgəbĭr'gə)
..... Click the link for more information. , and the Main valley. Swabia, in SW Bavaria, is part of the Danubian plateau. The Upper Palatinate, in NE Bavaria, is separated from the Czech Republic by the Bohemian Forest.
Economy and People
Forestry and agriculture account for about 10% of the state's economic output; wheat, barley, sugar beets, and dairy goods are the leading products. Since World War II, Bavaria has had the highest rate of industrial growth in Germany. Industry produces more than half of the state's gross output and is centered in Munich, Nuremberg, Augsburg, Hof, Ingolstadt, Erlangen, and Schweinfurt. Leading industries are electronics, computers, machinery, chemicals, automobiles, clothing, and foodstuffs. Bavarian beer is world famous. Toys and musical instruments are made by artisans. Salt, graphite, iron ore, and lignite are the chief mineral resources. The scenic beauties and the picturesque local customs and costumes of the Bavarian Alps attract many tourists. Among the resorts are Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Berchtesgaden, and the spas Bad Kissingen and Bad Reichenhall. Bayreuth is a cultural center, and Augsburg, Nuremberg, Bamberg, and Würzburg are historic and artistic centers. There are universities at Munich, Regensburg, Würzburg, and Erlangen-Nuremberg. A majority of Bavarians are Roman Catholic.
History
From the Romans to the Wittelsbachs
The borders of Bavaria have varied considerably in its history. The region was inhabited by Celts when Drusus conquered it (15 B.C.) for Rome. The Baiuoarii (see Germans Germans, great ethnic complex of ancient Europe, a basic stock in the composition of the modern peoples of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, N Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, N and central France, Lowland Scotland, and
..... Click the link for more information. ) invaded it (6th cent. A.D.) and set up the duchy to which they gave their name. It was one of the five basic or stem duchies of medieval Germany. Irish and Scottish monks began the Christianization of the area, and it was completed (8th cent.) by St. Boniface. In 788, Charlemagne defeated Duke Tassilo III and added Bavaria to his empire. From 817 to 911, Bavaria was ruled by the Carolingians Louis the German Louis the German, c.804–876, king of the East Franks (817–76). When his father, Emperor of the West Louis I , partitioned the empire in 817, Louis received Bavaria and adjacent territories.
..... Click the link for more information. , Carloman Carloman (kär`lōmän'), d.
..... Click the link for more information. (d. 880), Arnulf Arnulf (är`nəlf), c.850–899, Carolingian emperor (896–99), king of the East Franks (887–99), illegitimate son of
..... Click the link for more information. , and Louis the Child Louis the Child, 893–911, German king (900–911), son and successor of King Arnulf. He was the last of the German line of the Carolingians. The archbishop of Mainz was regent for him.
..... Click the link for more information. .
In 911 the duchy (then comprising, roughly, Bavaria proper, present-day Austria, and part of the Upper Palatinate) came under indigenous rulers. Frequent Magyar inroads were stopped (955) by Emperor Otto I Otto I, 1848–1916, king of Bavaria (1886–1913). Although incurably insane after 1872, he succeeded his brother King Louis II under the regency of his uncle Luitpold (1886–1912) and Luitpold's son Louis (1912–13).
..... Click the link for more information. , who in 947 had given Bavaria to his brother Henry. Henry's grandson was duke of Bavaria when he was elected (1002) German king as Henry II. After his accession Bavaria was ruled by various houses, but in 1070 Emperor Henry IV gave the fief to Welf, or Guelph, d'Este IV (see Este Azzo d'Este II, 996–1097, lord of Este and the founder of his family's greatness, was invested with Milan by the emperor. Azzo's son,
Guelph d'Este IV or Welf IV, d.
..... Click the link for more information. ), who began the dynasty of the Guelphs Guelphs (gwĕlfs), European dynasty tracing its descent from the Swabian count Guelph or Welf (9th cent.
..... Click the link for more information. .
From the 9th to the 12th cent. the Bavarian dukes, of whatever house, were at the center of the rebellions of the great German princes against the imperial authority. To reduce their power Emperor Otto II Otto II, 955–83, Holy Roman emperor (973–83) and German king (961–83), son and successor of Otto I. He was crowned joint emperor in 967. Shortly after his father died Otto faced a rebellion by his cousin, Henry the Wrangler, duke of Bavaria, who
..... Click the link for more information. in 976 stripped the duchy of all but present-day Upper and Lower Bavaria and the Tyrol. When in 1137 the Guelph Henry the Proud Henry the Proud, c.1108–1139, duke of Bavaria (1126–38) and of Saxony (1137–38). A member of the Guelph family, he inherited the duchy of Bavaria and enormous private wealth.
..... Click the link for more information. acquired Saxony in addition to Bavaria, Conrad III Conrad III, c.1093–1152, German king (1138–52), son of Frederick, duke of Swabia, and Agnes, daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV; first of the Hohenstaufen dynasty.
..... Click the link for more information. deposed him and gave Bavaria to the Babenberg Babenberg (bä`bənbĕrk), ruling house of Austria (976–1246).
..... Click the link for more information. rulers of Austria. Frederick II restored (1156) Bavaria to Henry the Lion Henry the Lion, 1129–95, duke of Saxony (1142–80) and of Bavaria (1156–80); son of Henry the Proud . His father died (1139) while engaged in a war to regain his duchies, and it was not until 1142 that Henry the Lion became duke of Saxony.
..... Click the link for more information. but in 1180 deposed the rebellious Guelph and bestowed the duchy (from which he detached considerable territory in what is now Austria) on Otto of Wittelsbach. The political history of Bavaria, much reduced in importance, became that of the Wittelsbach Wittelsbach (vĭ`təlsbäkh), German dynasty that ruled Bavaria from 1180 until 1918.
..... Click the link for more information. family, which ruled until 1918.
Bavaria under the Wittelsbachs
The Wittelsbach fiefs, including the Rhenish Palatinate (acquired in 1214), were almost always divided among the numerous branches of the dynasty. Under the Wittelsbach emperor Louis IV (reigned 1328–47), Bavaria was briefly reunited. Duke Albert IV (1467–1508), who again united Bavaria (except the Rhenish Palatinate), introduced the law of primogeniture; thus Bavaria entered the Reformation period much strengthened. The triumph of Catholicism in Bavaria proper was crucial for its later history. Duke Maximilian I (1597–1651) headed the Catholic League in the Thirty Years War and was rewarded with the Upper Palatinate and the rank of elector.
The agricultural wealth and the strategic position of Bavaria made it a coveted prize and a frequent battleground then and later. Bavaria was overrun by foreign armies, notably in the War of the Spanish Succession Spanish Succession, War of the, 1701–14, last of the general European wars caused by the efforts of King Louis XIV to extend French power. The conflict in America corresponding to the period of the War of the Spanish Succession was known as Queen Anne's War
..... Click the link for more information. , the War of the Austrian Succession 2)) was signed. Prussia gained Silesia and thus emerged as a major European power; the Hapsburgs thenceforth looked to the east for resources to develop their state.
Bibliography
See biography by E. Crankshaw, Maria Theresa (1970); C. A.
..... Click the link for more information. , the War of the Bavarian Succession (1778, by which Bavaria lost the Inn Quarter to Austria), and the French Revolutionary Wars. Elector Maximilian IV Joseph, who in 1799 united all Wittelsbach lands, allied himself with Napoleon I, joined the Confederation of the Rhine Confederation of the Rhine, league of German states formed by Emperor Napoleon I in 1806 after his defeat of the Austrians at Austerlitz . Among its members were the newly created kingdoms of Bavaria and Württenberg (see Pressburg, Treaty of ), the grand duchies
..... Click the link for more information. , and in 1806 was proclaimed king of Bavaria as Maximilian I Maximilian I, 1756–1825, king (1806–25) and elector (1799–1806) of Bavaria as Maximilian IV Joseph. His alliance with French Emperor Napoleon I earned him the royal title and vast territorial increases at the Treaty of Pressburg (1805) and made him
..... Click the link for more information. . In 1813 Maximilian abandoned Napoleon and joined the allies, who at the Congress of Vienna (1814–15) left him in possession of virtually all of present-day Bavaria, including the Rhenish Palatinate.
During the period of reaction that followed in Europe, Bavaria stood out for its relatively liberal government. The liberal constitution of 1818 lasted exactly a century. King Louis I (1825–48), dethroned by the mild revolution of 1848, was succeeded by the able Maximilian II Maximilian II, 1811–64, king of Bavaria (1848–64), son and successor of Louis I . He had liberal tendencies and was a patron of art and learning.
..... Click the link for more information. (1848–64) and the brilliant but insane Louis II Louis II, 1845–86, king of Bavaria (1864–86), son and successor of King Maximilian II. Much was hoped from the handsome, talented, and liberal young prince at his accession, but his prodigality and eccentricity soon alienated his subjects.
..... Click the link for more information. (1864–86). All three rulers had a passion for the arts, science, and architecture. The reputation of Bavaria, particularly Munich, as a cultural center dates from their reigns. The abolition in 1848 of guild restrictions opened the way for industrialization.
At the same time, the rural prosperity of Bavaria and the strong influence of the Catholic Church (which predominates except in the Upper Palatinate and in Middle Franconia) accented the hostility of Bavaria toward the rising power of Prussia. Bavaria sided with Austria in the Austro-Prussian War (1866). Defeated in that war, it acknowledged Prussian leadership, sided with Prussia against France in 1870–71, and joined (1871) the German Empire. As the chief German state after Prussia, Bavaria retained separatist tendencies.
Bavaria since World War I
King Louis III Louis III, 1845–1921, last king of Bavaria (1913–18). He succeeded (1912) his father, Luitpold , as regent for the insane Otto I but proclaimed himself king in 1913. He was overthrown in the Bavarian revolution of Nov., 1918.
..... Click the link for more information. , successor to the mad Otto I, was dethroned in Nov., 1918, by Kurt Eisner Eisner, Kurt (k
rt` īs`nər), 1867–1919, German socialist.
..... Click the link for more information. , who established a socialist republic. The assassination (Feb., 1919) of Eisner led to a Communist revolution (Apr., 1919), which was bloodily suppressed by the German army. Bavaria then joined the Weimar Republic. In the early 1920s, Munich became the center of the National Socialist (Nazi) movement; in 1923 the National Socialists made an abortive attempt (Beer Hall Putsch) in that city to seize power. Catholic Bavaria as a whole gave little support to the movement until Adolf Hitler came to national power in 1933. Under the National Socialist regime Bavaria lost its autonomy.
After World War II, Bavaria became part of the American occupation zone. The Rhenish Palatinate was separated from Bavaria and was later made part of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate (rīn`lănd pəlăt`ĭnĭt'), Ger. Rheinland-Pfalz, state (1994 pop.
..... Click the link for more information. . A new constitution for Bavaria was drawn up in 1946. Since the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949, the conservative Christian Social Union, allied nationally with the Christian Democratic Union, has been the strongest Bavarian political party.
Bavaria
German BayernState (pop., 2002 est.: 12,330,000), southern Germany. Conquered by the Romans in the 1st century BC (see Noricum; Raetia), the area was taken by Charlemagne and incorporated into his empire in 788. It became one of the great duchies of the Holy Roman Empire. Under Maximilian I, Bavaria led the Catholic League in the Thirty Years' War. It was overrun repeatedly in the context of larger wars in the 18th century. It joined the German Empire in 1871, while remaining a kingdom. The king was overthrown in 1918; after a brief period of instability, Bavaria joined the Weimar Republic in 1919. Adolf Hitler had his first power base in Bavaria in the 1920s. It adopted a new constitution in 1946 and became a state of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949. It has long been Germany's most Roman Catholic area. Its largest cities are Munich (its capital), Augsburg, and Nürnberg. Notable regions include the Bavarian Alps, the Black Forest, and the Bohemian Forest. Bavaria is famous for the beauty of its rolling landscape and the charm of its villages.
Bavaria
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