Bavaria (Bayern) is the
original home of many of Germany's
best-known clichés: beer-swilling
Lederhosen-clad men, sausage dogs,
cowbells and Alpine villages,
Sauerkraut and Wurst and the
fairy-tale castle of Neuschwanstein.
Yet all this is only a small part of
the Bavarian picture, and one that's
restricted to the southern areas in
and around the Alps.
Historically and politically
, Bavaria has always occupied a
special position within Germany.
Although a wealthy duchy within the
Holy Roman Empire, its rulers
preferred artistic patronage to the
territorial expansionism and
dynastic feuding characteristic of
the rest of the nation. A
fundamental change in Bavaria's
status occurred at the beginning of
the nineteenth century, when it
profited from Napoleon's decision to
re-order the map of Germany: it was
doubled in size, and promoted to the
rank of a kingdom. Thereafter, it
retained much of its independence
and its own monarch, even after the
union of Germany in 1871. Following
the demise of the monarchy at the
end of World War I, Bavaria briefly
became a free state, but quickly
degenerated into a hotbed of
right-wing extremism where Hitler
had his first successes. This
reputation for reactionary politics
continues to the present day:
Bavaria has continuously been ruled
since World War II by the
ultra-conservative CSU, whose
stranglehold on power seems
unshakeable.
Bavaria is made up of four
distinct regions, each with its own
identity and culture, and its cities
are equally varied in character. In Munich
the Land has a cosmopolitan, if
conservative, capital that ranks as
one of Germany's star attractions.
The city lies at the centre of Upper
Bavaria , the state's heartland,
a region that ranges from the
snow-capped peaks of the Alps
to gentle hop-growing farmland. It's
a traditional, deeply Catholic area
whose rural traditions continue in
spite of the inroads of mass
tourism.
West of here is Bavarian
Swabia . Detached by Napoleon
from the rest of its traditional
province (thereafter officially
known as Württemberg), it remains
stubbornly Swabian in culture - most
obviously in its distinctive
pasta-based cuisine. Even so, it is
home to the most outrageous of the
Romantic castles which form such a
crucial part of the Bavarian
stereotype. Outside of the
mountainous Allgäu area in
the south, this is a region of
undulating agricultural country,
ideal for walking and cycling
holidays. The pristine local capital
of Augsburg has been a place
of importance since the days of the
Romans, and its resplendent
Renaissance buildings give it a
highly distinctive appearance.
To the north lies Franconia
, which was likewise absorbed into
Bavaria in 1803. The most obvious
evidence of its distinctiveness can
be seen in the wine-growing area
around Würzburg in the
northwest, where a culture quite at
odds with the beer-loving rest of
Bavaria exists. In the northeast of
Franconia the difference can be seen
most obviously in the elegantly
plain Baroque architecture of the
Lutheran strongholds of Ansbach
and Bayreuth : the
Reformation left Franconia more or
less split down the middle along
religious lines. Nürnberg ,
a place risen from the rubble of
wartime destruction and restored to
the splendour of its Middle Ages
heyday, was another city which
quickly embraced Protestantism. The
same is true of Rothenburg ob der
Tauber , the most famous of the
medieval towns on the Romantic
Road , one of Germany's most
famous tourist routes. Yet Bamberg
, whose magnificently varied
architectural legacy is unsurpassed
in all of Germany, remained, like Würzburg,
staunchly Catholic.
Eastern Bavaria ,
incorporating the provinces of Lower
Bavaria and the Upper Palatinate, is
the state's backwater: a rustic,
relatively poor region where life in
the highlands revolves around
logging and workshop industries such
as traditional glass production.
However, the region also has a
number of urban attractions, most
notably the wonderfully
well-preserved medieval cities of Regensburg
and Landshut , and the border
town of Passau , which is
notable for its harmonious Baroque
layout.
Travel is made easy by a
generally good network of trains and
regional buses, though public
transport is sometimes a little thin
on the ground in Bavarian Swabia and
Eastern Bavaria - having a car makes
life easier here. Cycling is an
excellent and very popular way to
get around, and is facilitated by a
great many marked cycling paths
throughout the state. Accommodation
is uniformly good; it's normally not
too difficult to find a bed, though
problems may occasionally be
experienced in the mountain resorts
and some of the more popular tourist
towns. An unfortunate restriction
for travellers over 27 is that
they're barred from using youth
hostels, though reasonably priced
private rooms in most places should
compensate.
