Part 18

BAVARIA (Ger. _Bayern_), a kingdom of southern Germany, next to Prussia the largest state of the German empire in area and population. It consists of two distinct and unequal portions. Bavaria proper, and the Palatinate of the Rhine, which lie from 25 to 40 m. W. apart and are separated by the grand-duchies of Baden and Hesse.

_Physical Features._--Bavaria proper is bounded on the S. by the Alps, on the N.E., towards Bohemia, by a long range of mountains known as the Bohmerwald, on the N. by the Fichtelgebirge and the Frankenwald, which separate it from the kingdom of Saxony, the principality of Reuss, the duchies of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and Meiningen and the Prussian province of Hesse-Cassel. The ranges seldom exceed the height of 3000 or 4000 ft.; but the ridges in the south, towards Tirol, frequently attain an elevation of 9000 or 10,000 ft. On the W. Bavaria is bounded by Wurttemberg, Baden and Hesse-Darmstadt. The country mainly belongs to the basins of the Danube and the Main; by far the greater portion being drained by the former river, which, entering from Swabia as a navigable stream, traverses the entire breadth of the kingdom, with a winding course of 200 m., and receives in its passage the Iller, the Lech, the Isar and the Inn from the south, and the Naab, the Altmuhl and the Wornitz from the north. The Inn is navigable before it enters Bavarian territory, and afterwards receives the Salzach, a large river flowing from Upper Austria. The Isar does not become navigable till it has passed Munich; and the Lech is a stream of a similar size. The Main traverses the northern regions, or Upper and Lower Franconia, with a very winding course and greatly facilitates the trade of the provinces. The district watered by the southern tributaries of the Danube consists for the most part of an extensive plateau, with a mean elevation of 2390 ft. In the mountainous parts of the country there are numerous lakes and in the lower portions considerable stretches of marshy ground. The smaller or western portion, the Palatinate, is bounded on the E. by the Rhine, which divides it from the grand-duchy of Baden, on the S. by Alsace, and on the W. and N. by a lofty range of hills, the Haardtgebirge, which separate it from Lorraine and the Prussian Rhine province.

The climate of Bavaria differs greatly according to the character of the region, being cold in the vicinity of Tirol but warm in the plains adjoining the Danube and the Main. On the whole, the temperature is in the winter months considerably colder than that of England, and a good deal hotter during summer and autumn.

_Area and Population._--Bavaria proper, or the eastern portion, contains an area of 26,998 sq. m., and the Palatinate or western, 2288 sq. m., making the whole extent of the kingdom about 29,286 sq. m. The total population, according to the census of 1905, was 6,512,824. Almost a quarter of the inhabitants live in towns, of which Munich and Nuremberg have populations exceeding 100,000, Augsburg, Wurzburg, Furth and Ludwigshafen between 50,000 and 100,000, while twenty-six other towns number from 10,000 to 50,000 inhabitants.

Ethnographically, the Bavarians belong to various ancient tribes; Germanized Slavs in the north-east, Swabians and Franks in the centre, Franks towards the west, and, in the Palatinate, Walloons. Politically, the country is divided into eight provinces, as follows:--

+------------------+------------+----------------+---------+ | | |Pop. of Province| Area in | | Provinces. | Capital. | in 1905. | sq. m. | +------------------+------------+----------------+---------+ | Upper Bavaria | Munich | 1,410,763 | 6,456 | | Lower Bavaria | Landshut | 706,345 | 4,152 | | Upper Palatinate | Regensburg | 573,476 | 3,728 | | Upper Franconia | Bayreuth | 637,239 | 2,702 | | Middle Franconia | Ansbach | 868,072 | 2,925 | | Lower Franconia | Wurzburg | 680,769 | 3,243 | | Swabia | Augsburg | 750,880 | 3,792 | | The Palatinate | Spires | 885,280 | 2,288 | | | +----------------+---------+ | | Total | 6,512,824 | 29,286 | +------------------+------------+----------------+---------+

_Religion._--The majority of the inhabitants (about 70%) are Roman Catholics. The Protestant-Evangelical Church claims about 29%, while Jews, and a very small number of other sects, account for the remainder.

The districts of Lower Bavaria, Upper Bavaria and the Upper Palatinate are almost wholly Roman Catholic, while in the Rhine Palatinate, Upper Franconia, and especially Middle Franconia, the preponderance is on the side of the Protestants. The exercise of religious worship in Bavaria is altogether free. The Protestants have the same civil rights as the Roman Catholics, and the sovereign may be either Roman Catholic or Protestant. Of the Roman Catholic Church the heads are the two archbishops of Munich-Freising and Bamberg, and the six bishops of Eichstatt, Spires, Wurzburg, Augsburg, Regensburg and Passau, of whom the first three are suffragans of Bamberg. The "Old Catholic" party, under the bishop of Bonn, has failed, despite its early successes, to take deep root in the country. Among the Protestants the highest authority is the general consistory of Munich. The numbers of the different religions in 1900 were as follows:--Roman Catholics, 4,357,133; Protestants, 1,749,206; Jews, 54,928.

_Education._--Bavaria, formerly backward in education, has recently done much in this connexion. The state has two Roman Catholic universities, Munich and Wurzburg, and a Lutheran, Erlangen; in Munich there are a polytechnic, an academy of sciences and an academy of art.

_Agriculture._--Of the total surface of Bavaria about one-half is under cultivation, one-third forest, and the remaining sixth mostly pasture. The level country, including both Lower Bavaria (extending northwards to the Danube) and the western and middle parts of Franconia, is productive of rye, oats, wheat, barley and millet, and also of hemp, flax, madder and fruit and vines. The last are grown chiefly in the vicinity of the Lake of Constance, on the banks of the Main, in the lower part of its course, and in the Palatinate of the Rhine. Hops are extensively grown in central Franconia; tobacco (the best in Germany) round Nuremberg and in the Palatinate, which also largely produces the sugar-beet. Potatoes are cultivated in all the provinces, but especially in the Palatinate and in the Spessart district, which lies in the north-west within a curve of the Main. The southern divisions of Swabia and Upper Bavaria, where pasture-land predominates, form a cattle-breeding district and the dairy produce is extensive. Here also horses are bred in large numbers.

The extent of forest forms nearly a third of the total area of Bavaria. This is owing to various causes: the amount of hilly and mountainous country, the thinness of the population and the necessity of keeping a given extent of ground under wood for the supply of fuel. More than a third of the forests are public property and furnish a considerable addition to the revenue. They are principally situated in the provinces of Upper Bavaria, Lower Bavaria and the Palatinate of the Rhine. The forests are well stocked with game, deer, chamois (in the Alps), wild boars, capercailzie, grouse, pheasants, &c. being plentiful. The greater proportion of the land throughout the kingdom is in the hands of peasant proprietors, the extent of the separate holdings differing very much in different districts. The largest peasant property may be about 170 acres, and the smallest, except in the Palatinate, about 50.

_Minerals._--The chief mineral deposits in Bavaria are coal, iron ore, graphite and salt. The coal mines lie principally in the districts of Amberg, Kissingen, Steben, Munich and the Rhine Palatinate. Salt is obtained on a large scale partly from brine springs and partly from mines, the principal centres being Halle, Berchtesgaden, Traunstein and Rosenheim. The government monopoly which had long existed was abolished in 1867 and free trade was established in salt between the members of the customs-union. Of quicksilver there are several mines, chiefly in the Palatinate of the Rhine; and small quantities of copper, manganese and cobalt are obtained. There are numerous quarries of excellent marble, alabaster, gypsum and building stone; and the porcelain-clay is among the finest in Europe. To these may be added emery, steatite, barytes, felspar and ochre, in considerable quantities; excellent lithographic stone is obtained at Solenhofen; and gold and silver are still worked, but to an insignificant extent.

_Manufactures and Trade._--A great stimulus was given to manufacturing industry in Bavaria by the law of 1868, which abolished the last remains of the old restrictions of the gilds, and gave the whole country the liberty which had been enjoyed by the Rhine Palatinate alone. The chief centres of industry are Munich, Nuremberg, Augsburg, Furth, Erlangen, Aschaffenburg, Regensburg, Wurzburg, Bayreuth, Ansbach, Bamberg and Hof in Bavaria proper, and in the Palatinate Spires and the Rhine port of Ludwigshafen. The main centres of the hardware industry are Munich, Nuremberg, Augsburg and Furth; the two first especially for locomotives and automobiles, the last for tinfoil and metal toys. Aschaffenburg manufactures fancy goods, Augsburg and Hof produce excellent cloth, and Munich has a great reputation for scientific instruments. In Franconia are numerous paper-mills, and the manufacture of wooden toys is largely carried on in the forest districts of Upper Bavaria. A considerable quantity of glass is made, particularly in the Bohmerwald. Brewing forms an important industry, the best-known breweries being those of Munich, Nuremberg, Erlangen and Kulmbach. Other articles of manufacture are leather, tobacco, porcelain, cement, spirits, lead pencils (Nuremberg), plate-glass, sugar, matches, aniline dyes, straw hats and baskets. The commerce of Bavaria is very considerable. The exports consist chiefly of corn, potatoes, hops, beer, wine, cloth, cotton goods, glass, fancy wares, toys, cattle, pigs and vegetables. The seat of the hop-trade is Nuremberg; of wool, Augsburg. The imports comprise sugar, tobacco, cocoa, coffee, oils, silk and pig iron.

_Communications._--Trade is served by an excellent railway system and there are steamboat services on the navigable rivers, to the east by way of Passau on the Danube, and to the west by Ludwigshafen. The high roads of Bavaria, many of which are military roads laid out at the beginning of the 19th century, extend in all over about 10,000 m. There were 4377 m. of railways in operation in 1904, of which about 3800 were in the hands of the state, and about 440 m. belonged to the private system of the Palatinate. The principal canal is the Ludwigskanal, which connects the Rhine with the Danube, extending from Bamberg on the Regnitz to Dietfurt on the Altmuhl. There is an extensive network of telegraph and telephone lines. All belong to the government post office, which forms an administrative system independent of the imperial German post office.

_Constitution and Administration._--By the treaty of Versailles (23rd November 1870) and the imperial constitution of the 16th of April 1871, Bavaria was incorporated with the German empire, reserving, however, certain separate privileges (_Sonderrechte_) in respect of the administration of the army, the railways and the posts, the excise duties on beer, the rights of domicile and the insurance of real estate. The king is the supreme chief of the army, and matters requiring adjudication in the adjutant-general's court are referred to a special Bavarian court attached to the supreme imperial military tribunal in Berlin. Bavaria is represented in the Bundesrat by six votes and sends forty-eight deputies to the imperial diet. The Bavarian constitution is mainly founded on the constitutional act of the 26th of May 1818, modified by subsequent acts--that of the 9th of March 1828 as affecting the upper house, and those of the 4th of June 1848 and of the 21st of March 1881 as affecting the lower--and is a limited monarchy, with a legislative body of two houses. The crown is hereditary in the house of Wittelsbach, according to the rights of primogeniture, females being excluded from succession so long as male agnates of equal birth exist. The title of the sovereign is king of Bavaria, that of his presumptive heir is crown-prince of Bavaria, and during the minority or incapacity of the sovereign a regency is declared, which is vested in the nearest male agnate capable of ascending the throne. Such a regency began on the 10th of June 1886, at first for King Louis II., and after the 14th of the same month for King Otto I., in the person of the prince regent Luitpold. The executive power resides in the king and the responsibility for the government of the kingdom in his ministers. The royal family is Roman Catholic, and the seat of government is Munich, the capital.

The upper house of the Bavarian parliament (_Kammer der Reichsrate_) is composed of (1) the princes of the blood royal (being of full age), (2) the ministers of the crown, (3) the archbishops of Munich, Freising and Bamberg, (4) the heads of such noble families as were formerly "immediate" so long as they retain their ancient possessions in Bavaria, (5) of a Roman Catholic bishop appointed by the king for life, and of the president for the time being of the Protestant consistory, (6) of hereditary counsellors (_Reichsrate_) appointed by the king, and (7) of other counsellors appointed by the king for life. The lower house (_Kammer der Abgeordneten_) or chamber of representatives, consists, since 1881, of 159 deputies, in proportion of one--reckoned on the census of 1875--to every 31,500 inhabitants. A general election takes place every six years, and, under the electoral law of 1906, is direct. Qualifications for the general body of electors are full age of twenty-five years, Bavarian citizenship of one year at least, and discharge of all rates and taxes. Parliament must be assembled every three years, but as the budget is taken every two years, it is regularly called together within that period. No laws affecting the liberty or property of the subject can be passed without the sanction of parliament.

_Revenue._--The following is a fairly typical statement of the budget estimates (1902-1903), in marks (= 1 shilling sterling):--

Receipts. Mks. Direct taxes 38,199,000 Customs and indirect taxes 50,900,990 State railways 184,551,000 Posts and telegraphs 41,665,100 Forests and agricultural dues 37,395,000 Imperial assignments 62,571,605 ------------ 415,282,695 =========== = L20,764,135

Disbursements. Mks. Civil list 5,402,475 State debt 51,323,200 Ministry of the Royal house and of Foreign dept. 688,398 Ministry of Justice 20,615,299 Ministry of interior 30,055,338 Public worship and education 34,667,673 Minister of finance 6,696,780 Constribution to imperial exchequer 72,647,090 ------------ 222,296,253 =========== = L11,114,813

The public debt amounts to about L95,000,000, of which over 75% was incurred for railways.

_Army._--The Bavarian army forms a separate portion of the army of the German empire, with a separate administration, but in time of war is under the supreme command of the German emperor. The regulations applicable to other sections of the whole imperial army are, however, observed. It consists, on a peace footing, of three army corps, 1st, 2nd and 3rd Royal Bavarian (each of two divisions), the headquarters of which are in Munich, Nuremberg and Wurzburg respectively. The Bavarian army comprises sixty-seven battalions of infantry, two battalions of rifles, ten regiments of cavalry (two heavy, two Ulan and six Chevauxlegers), a squadron of mounted infantry (_Jager-zu-pferde_), twelve field- and two foot-artillery regiments, three battalions of engineers, three of army service, and a balloon section; in all 60,000 men with 10,000 horses. In time of war the total force is trebled. (P. A. A.)

HISTORY

The earliest known inhabitants of the district afterwards called Bavaria were a people, probably of Celtic extraction, who were subdued by the Romans just before the opening of the Christian era, when colonies were founded among them and their land was included in the province of Raetia. During the 5th century it was ravaged by the troops of Odoacer and, after being almost denuded of inhabitants, was occupied by tribes who, pushing along the valley of the Danube, settled there between A.D. 488 and 520. Many conjectures have been formed concerning the race and origin of these people, who were certainly a new and composite social aggregate. Most likely they were descendants of the Marcomanni, Quadi and Narisci, tribes of the Suevic or Swabian race, with possibly a small intermixture of Gothic or Celtic elements. They were called _Baioarii, Baiowarii, Bawarii_ or _Baiuwarii_, words derived most probably from _Baja_ or _Baya_, corruptions of _Bojer_, and given to them because they came from _Bojerland_ or _Bohemia_. Another but less probable explanation derives the name from a combination of the old high German word _uuara_, meaning league, and _bai_, a Gothic word for both. The Bavarians are first mentioned in a Frankish document of 520, and twenty years later Jordanes refers to them as lying east of the Swabians. Their country bore some traces of Roman influence, and its main boundaries were the Enns, the Danube, the Lech and the Alps; but its complete settlement was a work of time.

Frankish influence.

The Bavarians soon came under the dominion of the Franks, probably without a serious struggle; and were ruled from 555 to 788 by dukes of the Agilolfing family, who were possibly of Frankish descent. For a century and a half a succession of dukes resisted the inroads of the Slavs on their eastern frontier, and by the time of Duke Theodo I., who died in 717, were completely independent of the feeble Frankish kings. When Charles Martel became the virtual ruler of the Frankish realm he brought the Bavarians into strict dependence, and deposed two dukes successively for contumacy. Pippin the Short was equally successful in maintaining his authority, and several marriages took place between the family to which he belonged and the Agilolfings, who were united in a similar manner with the kings of the Lombards. The ease with which various risings were suppressed by the Franks gives colour to the supposition that they were rather the outcome of family quarrels than the revolt of an oppressed people. Between the years 739 and 748 the Bavarian law was committed to writing and supplementary clauses were afterwards added, all of which bear evident traces of Frankish influence. Thus, while the dukedom belongs to the Agilolfing family, the duke must be chosen by the people and his election confirmed by the Frankish king, to whom he owes fealty. He has a fivefold wergild, summons the nobles and clergy for purposes of deliberation, calls out the host, administers justice and regulates finance. There are five noble families, possibly representing a former division of the people, after whom come the freeborn, and then the freedmen. The country is divided into _gaus_ or counties, under their counts, who are assisted by judges responsible for declaring the law.

Christianity.

Christianity had lingered in Bavaria from Roman times; but a new era set in when Rupert, bishop of Worms, came to the country at the invitation of Duke Theodo I. in 696. He founded several monasteries, and a similar work was also performed by St Emmeran, bishop of Poitiers; with the result that before long the bulk of the people professed Christianity and relations were established between Bavaria and Rome. The 8th century witnessed indeed a heathen reaction; but it was checked by the arrival in Bavaria about 734 of St. Boniface, who organized the Bavarian church and founded or restored bishoprics at Salzburg, Freising, Regensburg and Passau.

Frankish conquest.

Tassilo III., who became duke of the Bavarians in 749, recognized the supremacy of the Frankish king Pippin the Short in 757, but soon afterwards refused to furnish a contribution to the war in Aquitaine. Moreover, during the early years of the reign of Charlemagne, Tassilo gave decisions in ecclesiastical and civil causes in his own name, refused to appear in the assemblies of the Franks, and in general acted as an independent ruler. His position as possessor of the Alpine passes, as an ally of the Avars, and as son-in-law of the Lombard king Desiderius, was so serious a menace to the Frankish kingdom that Charlemagne determined to crush him. The details of this contest are obscure. Tassilo appears to have done homage in 781, and again in 787, probably owing to the presence of Frankish armies. But further trouble soon arose, and in 788 the duke was summoned to Ingelheim, where on a charge of treachery he was sentenced to death. He was, however, pardoned by the king; and he then entered a monastery and formally renounced his duchy at Frankfort in 794. The country was ruled by Gerold, a brother-in-law of Charlemagne, till his death in a battle with the Avars in 799, when its administration was entrusted to Frankish counts and assimilated with that of the rest of the Carolingian empire, while its condition was improved by the measures taken by Charlemagne for the intellectual progress and material welfare of his realm. The Bavarians offered no resistance to the change which thus abolished their dukedom; and their incorporation with the Frankish dominions, due mainly to the unifying influence of the church, was already so complete that Charlemagne did not find it necessary to issue more than two capitularies dealing especially with Bavarian affairs.

Union with Carolingian Empire.

Part of the German Kingdom.

The duchy passes to the Welfs.