Bavaria

Template:Infobox German state The Free State of Bavaria (Template:Lang-de, pronounced [ˈfʁaɪʃtaːt ˈbaɪ.ɐn] ^ⓘ), is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of 70,548 square kilometres (27,200 sq mi), it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany. Bavaria is Germany's second most populous state (after North Rhine-Westphalia), with 12.5 million inhabitants, more than any of the three sovereign nations on its borders. Bavaria's capital and largest city is Munich, the third largest city in Germany.

One of the oldest states of Europe, it was established as a duchy in the mid first millennium. In the 17th century, the Duke of Bavaria became a Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. The Kingdom of Bavaria existed from 1806 to 1918, and Bavaria has since been a free state (republic). Modern Bavaria also includes parts of the historical regions of Franconia, Upper Palatinate and Swabia.

History

Prehistoric *Heunischenburg*, in the vicinity of Kronach

The Bavarians emerged in a region north of the Alps, originally inhabited by the Celts, which had been part of the Roman provinces of Raetia and Noricum. The Bavarians spoke Old High German but, unlike other Germanic groups, probably did not migrate from elsewhere. Rather, they seem to have coalesced out of other groups left behind by Roman withdrawal late in the 5th century. These peoples may have included the Celtic Boii, some remaining Romans, Marcomanni, Allemanni, Quadi, Thuringians, Goths, Scirians, Rugians, Heruli. The name "Bavarian" ("Baiuvarii") means "Men of Baia" which may indicate Bohemia, the homeland of the Celtic Boii and later of the Marcomanni. They first appear in written sources c. 520. Saint Boniface completed the people's conversion to Christianity in the early-8th century. Bavaria was, for the most part, unaffected by the Protestant Reformation that happened centuries later.

From about 554 to 788, the house of Agilolfing ruled the Duchy of Bavaria, ending with Tassilo III who was deposed by Charlemagne.

Three early dukes are named in Frankish sources: Garibald I may have been appointed to the office by the Merovingian kings and married the Lombard princess Walderada when the church forbade her to King Chlothar I in 555. Their daughter, Theodelinde, became Queen of the Lombards in northern Italy and Garibald was forced to flee to her when he fell out with his Frankish overlords. Garibald's successor, Tassilo I, tried unsuccessfully to hold the eastern frontier against the expansion of Slavs and Avars around 600. Tassilo's son Garibald II seems to have achieved a balance of power between 610 and 616.

After Garibald II little is known of the Bavarians until Duke Theodo I, whose reign may have begun as early as 680. From 696 onwards he invited churchmen from the west to organize churches and strengthen Christianity in his duchy (it is unclear what Bavarian religious life consisted of before this time). His son, Theudebert, led a decisive Bavarian campaign to intervene in a succession dispute in the Lombard Kingdom in 714, and married his sister Guntrud to the Lombard King Liutprand. At Theodo's death the duchy was divided among his sons, but reunited under his grandson Hucbert.

At Hucbert's death (735) the duchy passed to a distant relative named Odilo, from neighbouring Alemannia (modern southwest Germany and northern Switzerland). Odilo issued a law code for Bavaria, completed the process of church organisation in partnership with St. Boniface (739), and tried to intervene in Frankish succession disputes by fighting for the claims of the Carolingian Grifo. He was defeated near Augsburg in 743 but continued to rule until his death in 748.

Middle Ages

Tassilo III (b. 741 - d. after 794) succeeded his father at the age of eight after an unsuccessful attempt by Grifo to rule Bavaria. He initially ruled under Frankish oversight but began to function independently from 763 onwards. He was particularly noted for founding new monasteries and for expanding eastwards, fighting Slavs in the eastern Alps and along the River Danube and colonising these lands. After 781, however, his cousin Charlemagne began to pressure Tassilo to submit and finally deposed him in 788. The deposition was not entirely legitimate. Dissenters attempted a coup against Charlemagne at Tassilo's old capital of Regensburg in 792, led by his own son Pépin the Hunchback, and the king had to drag Tassilo out of imprisonment to formally renounce his rights and titles at the Assembly of Frankfurt in 794. This is the last appearance of Tassilo in the sources and he probably died a monk. As all of his family were also forced into monasteries, this was the end of the Agilolfing dynasty.

For the next 400 years numerous families held the duchy, rarely for more than three generations. With the revolt of duke Henry the Quarrelsome in 976, Bavaria lost large territories in the south and south east. Among them a mark called "Ostarrichi" which was elevated to a duchy out of own right and given to the Babenberger family. This event marks the birth of Austria. The last, and one of the most important, of these dukes was Henry the Lion of the house of Welf, founder of Munich, de facto the second most powerful man in the empire as the ruler of two duchies. When in 1180, Henry the Lion was deposed as Duke of Saxony and Bavaria by his cousin, Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor (aka "Barbarossa" for his red beard), Bavaria was awarded as fief to the Wittelsbach family, counts palatinate of Schyren ("Scheyern" in modern German), which ruled from 1180 to 1918. The Electorate of the Palatinate by Rhine ("Kurpfalz" in German) was also acquired by the House of Wittelsbach in 1214.

The first of several divisions of the duchy of Bavaria occurred in 1255. With the extinction of the Hohenstaufen in 1268 also Swabian territories were acquired by the Wittelsbach dukes. Emperor Louis the Bavarian acquired Brandenburg, Tirol, Holland and Hainaut for his House but released the Upper Palatinate for the Palatinate branch of the Wittelsbach in 1329. In 1506 with the Landshut War of Succession the other parts of Bavaria were reunited and Munich became the sole capital.

17th and 18th centuries

In 1623 the Bavarian duke replaced his relative of the Palatinate branch, the Electorate of the Palatinate in the early days of the Thirty Years' War and acquired the powerful prince-electoral dignity in the Holy Roman Empire, determining its Emperor thence forward, as well as special legal status under the empire's laws. The country became one of the Jesuit supported counter-reformation centers. During the early and mid-18th century the ambitions of the Bavarian prince electors led to several wars with Austria as well as occupations by Austria (Spanish succession, election of a Wittelsbach emperor instead of a Habsburger). From 1777 onwards and after the old Bavarian branch of the family had died out with elector Max III Joseph, Bavaria and the Electorate of the Palatinate were governed once again in personal union, now by the Palatinian lines.

Kingdom of Bavaria

When Napoleon abolished the Holy Roman Empire, Bavaria became a kingdom in 1806, and its area doubled. Tirol was temporarily united, Salzburg temporarily reunited with Bavaria but finally ceded to Austria. In return the Rhenish Palatinate and Franconia were annexed to Bavaria in 1815. Between 1799 and 1817 the leading minister count Montgelas followed a strict policy of modernisation and laid the foundations of administrative structures that survived even the monarchy and are (in their core) valid until today. In 1808 a first and in 1818 a more modern constitution (by the standards of the time) was passed, that established a bicameral Parliament with a House of Lords (Kammer der Reichsräte) and a House of Commons (Kammer der Abgeordneten). The constitution would last until the collapse of the monarchy at the end of World War I.

Bavaria as a part of the German Empire

After the rise of Prussia to prominence Bavaria managed to preserve its independence by playing off the rivalries of Prussia and Austria. Allied to Austria, it was defeated in the 1866 Austro-Prussian War and did not belong to the North German Federation of 1867, but the question of German unity was still alive. When France attacked Prussia in 1870, the south German states Baden, Württemberg, Hessen-Darmstadt and Bavaria joined the Prussian forces and ultimately joined the Federation, which was renamed Deutsches Reich (German Empire) in 1871. Bavaria continued as a monarchy, and it even had some special rights within the federation (such as an army, railways and a postal service of its own).

When Bavaria became part of the newly formed German Empire it became very controversial to Bavarian nationalists who rejected the idea that Bavaria should have joined the German Empire. As they did not want to be ruled by a Protestant Prussian state as Bavaria is primarily Catholic, as a direct result of the Bavarian-Prussian feud within the German Empire many parties were formed to try and make Bavaria break away and remain an independent separate German state.^[1] Although the idea of Bavarian separatism was popular in the late 19th and early 20th century, apart from a small minority such as the Bavaria Party, most Bavarians are accepting that Bavaria is part of Germany.^[2]

In the early-20th century Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Henrik Ibsen, and other notable artists were drawn to Bavaria, notably to the Schwabing district of Munich, later devastated by World War II.

20th century

On November 12, 1918, Ludwig III signed a document, the Anif declaration, releasing both civil and military officers from their oaths; the newly-formed republican government of Socialist premier Kurt Eisner interpreted this as an abdication. To date, however, no member of the house of Wittelsbach has ever formally declared renunciation of the throne. On the other hand, none has ever since officially called upon their Bavarian or Stuart claims. Family members are active in cultural and social life, including the head of the house, HRH Duke Franz in Bavaria. They step back from any announcements on public affairs, showing approval or disapproval solely by HRH's presence or absence.

Eisner was assassinated in February 1919 ultimately leading to a Communist revolt and the short-lived Bavarian Socialist Republic being proclaimed 6 April 1919. After violent suppression by elements of the German Army and notably the Freikorps, the Bavarian Socialist Republic fell in May 1919. The Bamberg Constitution (Bamberger Verfassung) was enacted on 12 or 14 August 1919 and came into force on 15 September 1919 creating the Free State of Bavaria within the Weimar Republic. Extremist activity further increased, notably the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch led by the National Socialists, and Munich and Nuremberg became Nazi strongholds under the Third Reich. As a manufacturing center, Munich was heavily bombed during World War II and occupied by U.S. troops. The Rhenish Palatinate was detached from Bavaria in 1946 and made part of the new state Rhineland-Palatinate. During the Cold War, Bavaria was part of West Germany.

Since World War II, Bavaria has been rehabilitated from a poor agrarian province into a prosperous industrial hub. A massive reconstruction effort restored much of Munich's and other places' historic cores. The state capital hosted the 1972 Summer Olympics and matches of the Football World Cups of 1974 and 2006 as well as European Track & Field championships. More recently, former state minister-president Edmund Stoiber was the CDU/CSU candidate for chancellor in the 2002 federal election which he lost, and native son Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected Pope Benedict XVI in 2005.

Bavarian identity

Historically, although Bavarians are Germans, Bavarians have often emphasized a separate national identity and considered themselves as "Bavarians" first, "Germans" second.^[3] This feeling started to come about more strongly among Bavarians when the Kingdom of Bavaria joined the Protestant Prussian-dominated German Empire whilst the Bavarian nationalists wanted to keep Bavaria as Catholic and an independent German state. Besides the minority Bavaria Party, most Bavarians accept that Bavaria is part of Germany.

Coat of arms

The modern coat of arms of Bavaria was designed by Eduard Ege in 1946, following heraldic traditions.

The Golden Lion: At the dexter chief, sable, a lion rampant Or, armed and langued gules. This represents the administrative region of Upper Palatinate.
The "Franconian Rake": At the sinister chief, per fess dancetty, gules and argent. This represents the administrative regions of Upper, Middle and Lower Franconia.
The Blue Panther: At the dexter base, argent, a panther rampant azure, armed Or and langued gules. This represents the regions of Lower and Upper Bavaria.
The Three Lions: At the sinister base, Or, three lions passant guardant sable, armed and langued gules. This represents Swabia.
The White-And-Blue inescutcheon: The inescutcheon of white and blue fusils askance was originally the coat of arms of the Counts of Bogen, adopted in 1247 by the Wittelsbachs House. The white-and-blue fusils are indisputably the emblem of Bavaria and these arms today symbolize Bavaria as a whole. Along with the People's Crown, it is officially used as the Minor Coat of Arms.
The People's Crown: The coat of arms is surmounted by a crown with a golden band inset with precious stones and decorated with five ornamental leaves. This crown first appeared in the coat of arms to symbolize sovereignty of the people after the royal crown was eschewed in 1923.

Geography

Bavaria shares international borders with Austria and the Czech Republic as well as with Switzerland (across Lake Constance). Because all of these countries are part of the Schengen Area, the border is completely open. Neighbouring states within Germany are Baden-Württemberg, Hesse, Thuringia and Saxony. Two major rivers flow through the state, the Danube (Donau) and the Main. The Bavarian Alps define the border with Austria, (including the Austrian federal-states of Vorarlberg, Tyrol and Salzburg) and within the range is the highest peak in Germany, the Zugspitze. The Bavarian Forest and the Bohemian Forest form the vast majority of the frontier with the Czech Republic and Bohemia.

The major cities in Bavaria are Munich (München), Nuremberg (Nürnberg), Augsburg, Regensburg, Würzburg, Ingolstadt, Fürth and Erlangen.

Population and area

Administrative region	Capital	Population (2011)		Area (km²)		No. municipalities
Lower Bavaria	Landshut	1,192,641	9.48%	10,330	14.6%	258	12.5%
Lower Franconia	Würzburg	1,315,882	10.46%	8,531	12.1%	308	15.0%
Upper Franconia	Bayreuth	1,067,988	8.49%	7,231	10.2%	214	10.4%
Middle Franconia	Ansbach	1,717,670	13.65%	7,245	10.3%	210	10.2%
Upper Palatinate	Regensburg	1,081,800	8.60%	9,691	13.7%	226	11.0%
Swabia	Augsburg	1,788,729	14.21%	9,992	14.2%	340	16.5%
Upper Bavaria	Munich	4,418,828	35.12%	17,530	24.8%	500	24.3%
Total		12,583,538	100.0%	70,549	100.0%	2,056	100.0%

Major cities

City	Region	Inhabitants 31 December 2000	Inhabitants 31 December 2005	Inhabitants 31 December 2008
Munich	Upper Bavaria	1,210,223	1,259,677	1,326,807
Nuremberg	Middle Franconia	488,400	499,237	503,638
Augsburg	Swabia	254,982	262,676	263,313
Regensburg	Upper Palatinate	125,676	129,859	133,525
Würzburg	Lower Franconia	127,966	133,906	133,501
Ingolstadt	Upper Bavaria	115,722	121,314	123,925
Fürth	Middle Franconia	110,477	113,422	114,071
Erlangen	Middle Franconia	100,778	103,197	104,980
Bayreuth	Upper Franconia	74,153	73,997	72,935
Bamberg	Upper Franconia	69,036	70,081	69,989
Aschaffenburg	Lower Franconia	67,592	68,642	68,747
Landshut	Lower Bavaria	58,746	61,368	62,606
Kempten (Allgäu)	Swabia	61,389	61,360	62,135
Rosenheim	Upper Bavaria	58,908	60,226	60,711
Neu-Ulm	Swabia	50,188	51,410	53,866
Schweinfurt	Lower Franconia	54,325	54,273	53,588
Passau	Lower Bavaria	50,536	50,651	50,717
Hof	Upper Franconia	50,741	48,723	47,275
Freising	Upper Bavaria	44,167	45,827	45,654
Straubing	Lower Bavaria	44,014	44,633	44,496

Administrative divisions

Regierungsbezirke (administrative districts)

Bavaria is divided into 7 administrative districts called Regierungsbezirke (singular Regierungsbezirk).

Upper Franconia (Template:Lang-de)
Middle Franconia (Mittelfranken)
Lower Franconia (Unterfranken)
Swabia (Schwaben)
Upper Palatinate (Oberpfalz)
Upper Bavaria (Oberbayern)
Lower Bavaria (Niederbayern)

Bezirke

Bezirke (districts) are the third communal layer in Bavaria; the others are the Landkreise and the Gemeinden or Städte. The Bezirke in Bavaria are territorially identical with the Regierungsbezirke (e.g. Regierung von Oberbayern), but are a different form of administration, having their own parliaments, etc.

In the larger states of Germany (including Bavaria), there are Regierungsbezirke which are only administrative divisions and not self-governing entities as the Bezirke in Bavaria.

Landkreise/kreisfreie cities

These administrative regions consist of 71 administrative districts (called Landkreise, singular Landkreis) and 25 independent cities (kreisfreie Städte, singular kreisfreie Stadt).

Landkreise:

Kreis-free Cities:

Gemeinden (municipalities)

The 71 administrative districts are on the lowest level divided into 2031 municipalities (called Gemeinden, singular Gemeinde). Together with the 25 independent cities (kreisfreie Städte, which are in effect municipalities independent of Landkreis administrations), there are a total of 2056 municipalities in Bavaria.

In 44 of the 71 administrative districts, there are a total of 215 unincorporated areas (as of January 1, 2005, called gemeindefreie Gebiete, singular gemeindefreies Gebiet), not belonging to any municipality, all uninhabited, mostly forested areas, but also four lakes (Chiemsee-without islands, Starnberger See-without island Roseninsel, Ammersee, which are the three largest lakes of Bavaria, and Waginger See).

Government and politics

Government

Bavaria has a unicameral Landtag, or state parliament, elected by universal suffrage. Until December 1999, there was also a Senat, or Senate, whose members were chosen by social and economic groups in Bavaria, but following a referendum in 1998, this institution was abolished.

The Bavarian State Government consists of the Minister-President of Bavaria, 11 Ministers and 6 Secretaries of State. The Minister-President is elected for a period of 5 years by the State Parliament and is head of state. With the approval of the State Parliament he appoints the members of the State Government. The State Government is composed of the:

Ministry of the Interior (Staatsministerium des Innern)
Ministry of Education and Culture (Staatsministerium für Unterricht und Kultus)
Ministry of Finance (Staatsministerium der Finanzen)
Ministry of Economic Affairs, Infrastructure, Transportation and Technology (Staatsministerium für Wirtschaft, Infrastruktur, Verkehr und Technologie, MWIVT)
Ministry of Environment and Health (Staatsministerium für Umwelt und Gesundheit)
Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, Family and Women (Staatsministerium für Arbeit und Sozialordnung, Familie und Frauen)
Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection (Staatsministerium der Justiz und für Verbraucherschutz)
Ministry of Science, Research and Art (Staatsministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst, MWFK)
Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Forestry (Staatsministerium für Ernährung, Landwirtschaft und Forsten)
Ministry of Federal and European Affairs (Staatsminister für Bundes- und Europaangelegenheiten)

Political processes also take place in the 7 regions (Regierungsbezirke / Bezirke) in Bavaria, in the 71 administrative districts (Landkreise) and the 25 towns and cities forming their own districts (kreisfreie Städte), and in the 2,031 local authorities (Gemeinden).

In 1995 Bavaria introduced direct democracy on the local level in a referendum. This was initiated bottom-up by an association called Mehr Demokratie (More Democracy). This is a grass-roots organization which campaigns for the right to citizen-initiated referendums. In 1997 the Bavarian Supreme Court aggravated the regulations considerably (e.g. by introducing a turn-out quorum). Nevertheless, Bavaria has the most advanced regulations on local direct democracy in Germany. This has led to a spirited citizens' participation in communal and municipal affairs—835 referenda took place from 1995 through 2005.

The current 2008-2013 governing cabinet is Cabinet Seehofer.

Politics

12th and current Minister-President of Bavaria Horst Seehofer

Bavaria has a multi-party system where the biggest parties are the conservative Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU), which has dominated politics since 1945 and won every election since then, and the center-left Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). The German green party, Alliance '90/The Greens is represented in the parliament as well. Since 2008 Germany's liberal party, the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and the Free Voters are represented in Bavaria's parliament as well. CSU and FDP agreed in October 2008 to form a coalition, while SPD, Free Voters and the Greens form the opposition.

In the 2003 elections the CSU won more than two thirds of the seats in Landtag—something no party had ever achieved in post-war German history. In the following 2008 elections the CSU lost its absolute majority in the Landtag for the first time in 46 years.^[4]

This loss is probably attributed to its push for an anti-smoking law, the most stringent in Germany, which became one of the most controversial laws ever enacted in Bavaria. As result, the CSU changed its stance and weakened the anti-smoking law to allow some more loopholes. However, the citizens held a successful petition drive in November–December 2009 to call for a total smoking ban. The CSU dismissed the petition and demands as unnecessary and frivolous, but the referendum proceeded and the voters voted for the smoking ban.

Minister-presidents of Bavaria since 1945

Minister-presidents of Bavaria
No.	Name	Born-Died	Party affiliation	Begin of Tenure	End of Tenure
1	Fritz Schäffer	1888–1967	CSU	1945	1945
2	Wilhelm Hoegner	1887–1980	SPD	1945	1946
3	Hans Ehard	1887–1980	CSU	1946	1954
4	Wilhelm Hoegner	1887–1980	SPD	1954	1957
5	Hanns Seidel	1901–1961	CSU	1957	1960
6	Hans Ehard	1887–1980	CSU	1960	1962
7	Alfons Goppel	1905–1991	CSU	1962	1978
8	Franz Josef Strauß	1915–1988	CSU	1978	1988
9	Max Streibl	1932–1998	CSU	1988	1993
10	Edmund Stoiber	*1941	CSU	1993	2007
11	Günther Beckstein	*1943	CSU	2007	2008
12	Horst Seehofer	*1949	CSU	2008	incumbent

Economy

Bavaria has long had one of the largest and healthiest economies of any region in Germany, or Europe for that matter.^[5] Its GDP in 2007 exceeded 434 billion Euros (about 600 bn US$).^[6] This makes Bavaria itself one of the largest economies in Europe and only 17 countries in the world have higher GDP.^[7] Some large companies headquartered in Bavaria include BMW, Siemens, Rohde & Schwarz, Audi, Munich Re, Allianz, Infineon, MAN, Wacker Chemie, Puma, and Adidas. Bavaria has a GDP per capita of over $48 000 US, meaning that if it were its own independent country it would rank 7th or 8th in the world.

Company names

The motorcycle and automobile makers BMW (Bayerische Motoren-Werke, or Bavarian Motor Works) and Audi, Allianz, Grundig (consumer electronics), Siemens (electricity, telephones, informatics, medical instruments), Continental (Automotive Tire and Electronics), Adidas, Puma, HypoVereinsbank (UniCredit Group), Infineon and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann have (or had) a Bavarian industrial base.

Bavaria has also given its name to the largest Colombian brewery (Cervecería Bavaria) and a major Dutch brewery (Bavaria Bier).

Culture

Religion in Bavaria - 2010
religion			percent
Roman Catholics			54.4%
Protestants			20.4%
Muslims			4.0%
Other or none			21.2%

Some features of the Bavarian culture and mentality are remarkably distinct from the rest of Germany^{[citation needed]}. Noteworthy differences (especially in rural areas, less significant in the major cities) can be found with respect to:

Religion

Bavarian culture (Altbayern) has a long and predominant tradition of Roman Catholic faith. Pope emeritus, Benedict XVI (Joseph Alois Ratzinger), was born in Marktl am Inn in Upper Bavaria and was Cardinal-Archbishop of Munich and Freising. Otherwise, the culturally Franconian and Swabian regions of the modern State of Bavaria are historically more diverse in religiosity, with both Catholic and Protestant traditions.

As of 2010 54.4% of Bavarians still adhere to Roman Catholicism though the number is on the decline (they were 70.4% in 1970, 56.3% in 2007).^[8] 20,4% of the population adheres to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria, and their number is declining too.^[8] Muslims make up 4.0% of the population of Bavaria.^[9] 21.2% of Bavarians are irreligious or adhere to other religions.

Traditions

Bavarians commonly emphasize pride in their traditions. Traditional costumes collectively known as Tracht are worn on special occasions and include in Altbayern Lederhosen for males and Dirndl for females. Centuries-old folk music is performed. The Maibaum, or Maypole (which in the Middle Ages served as the community's yellow pages, as figurettes on the pole represent the trades of the village), and the bagpipes in the Upper Palatinate region bear witness to the ancient Celtic and Germanic remnants of cultural heritage of the region. There are a lot of traditional Bavarian sports disciplines, e.g. the Aperschnalzen is an old tradition of competitive whipcracking.

Whether actually in Bavaria, overseas or full of citizens from other nations they continue to cultivate their traditions. They hold festivals and dances to keep their traditions alive. In New York the German American Cultural Society is a larger umbrella group for others such as the Bavarian organizations, which represent a specific part of Germany. They proudly put forth a German Parade called Steuben Parade each year. Various affiliated events take place amongst its groups, one of which is the Bavarian Dancers.

Food and drink

Bavarians tend to place a great value on food and drink. In addition to their renowned dishes, Bavarians also consume many items of food and drink which are unusual elsewhere in Germany; for example Weißwurst ("white sausage") or in some instances a variety of entrails. At folk festivals and in many beer gardens, beer is traditionally served by the litre (in a Maß). Bavarians are particularly proud of the traditional Reinheitsgebot, or purity law, initially established by the Duke of Bavaria for the City of Munich (e.g. the court) in 1487 and the duchy in 1516. According to this law, only three ingredients were allowed in beer: water, barley, and hops. In 1906 the Reinheitsgebot made its way to all-German law, and remained a law in Germany until the EU struck it down recently as incompatible with the European common market. German breweries, however, cling to the principle. Bavarians are also known as some of the world's most beer-loving people with an average annual consumption of 170 litres per person, although figures have been declining in recent years.

Bavaria is also home to the Franconia wine region, which is situated along the Main River in Franconia. The region has produced wine (Frankenwein) for over 1,000 years and is famous for its use of the Bocksbeutel wine bottle. The production of wine forms an integral part of the regional culture, and many of its villages and cities hold their own wine festivals (Weinfeste) throughout the year.

Language and dialects

Three German dialects are spoken in Bavaria: Austro-Bavarian in Old Bavaria (South-East and East), Swabian German (an Alemannic German dialect) in the Bavarian part of Swabia (South West) and East Franconian German in Franconia (North).

Ethnography

Bavarians consider themselves to be egalitarian and informal. Their sociability can be experienced at the annual Oktoberfest, the world's largest beer festival, which welcomes around six million visitors every year, or in the famous beer gardens. In traditional Bavarian beer gardens, patrons may bring their own food but only buy beer from the brewery that runs the beer garden.^[10]

In the United States, particularly among German Americans, Bavarian culture is viewed somewhat nostalgically, and many "Bavarian villages", most notably Frankenmuth, Michigan, Helen, Georgia and Leavenworth, Washington, have been founded. Since 1962, the latter has been styled with a Bavarian theme; it is also home to "one of the world's largest collections of nutcrackers" and an Oktoberfest celebration it claims is among the most attended in the world outside of Munich.^[11]