History History

Celtic tribes settled in the Danube valley: the Rhètes, the Vendéliques, the Boïens, the Helvètes.

The Romans cross the natural border north of the Alps. Creation of the Raetia, whose main towns and legionary camps are Ratisbona(Regensburg), Augusta Vindelicorum(Augsburg) and Boiodurum(Passau).

The Roman emperor Hadrian had the Limes River built, cutting what is now Bavaria into two parts: the Roman Empire to the south of the Danube, and the Barbarian lands to the north.

The Agilolfinges dynasty ruled the Duchy of Bavaria, with Regensburg as its principal residence. Duke Tassilo III was deposed by Charlemagne in 788, and the dynasty died out.

Irish, Anglo-Saxon and Franconian monks and priests preached and spread Christianity in Central Europe.

Saint Boniface and Duke Odilo found the Bavarian religious order. Six bishoprics: Eichstätt, Freising, Passau, Regensburg, Salzburg and Würzburg.

Near Augsburg, the German king Otto ^I put an end to the Hungarian invasions by inflicting a historic defeat on the Magyars, who had been ravaging Bavaria for decades.

Bavarian Duke Henry IV (later Emperor Henry II) founds the bishopric of Bamberg.

Foundation of Nuremberg.

Emperor Frederick Barbarossa cedes the Duchy of Bavaria to his cousin Henry the Lion (Heinrich der Löwe), Duke of Saxony of the Guelph dynasty.

Henry the Lion founded the city of Munich on the banks of the Isar.

Count Otto ^I of Wittelsbach was awarded the territory of the Duchy of Bavaria by Emperor Frederick Barbarossa after Henry the Lion had been removed from power. This event marked the beginning of the hegemony of the Wittelsbach dynasty, which ruled Bavaria for 738 years until 1918.

Duke Otto II of Bavaria marries Agnes, heiress of the Palatinate (Heidelberg region). Through this marriage, the House of Wittelsbach inherited the Rhine Palatinate, which remained in their possession until 1918.

Ludwig "the Bavarian", a Wittelsbach, is crowned emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. His court is in Munich.

This text, one of the most important of the Holy Roman Empire, was drawn up in Nuremberg. It defines the functioning of the elective monarchy: seven German princes are granted the right to elect the emperor. The Golden Bull also granted Nuremberg a privileged status. Once a new emperor had been elected, he was to hold his first Reichstag (Imperial Diet) here.

Duke Louis le Riche founds the University of Ingolstadt.

Marriage of Louis le Riche to the Polish princess Hedwig. Today, every four years, the people of Landshut re-enact this sumptuous wedding in the streets of their town.

Painter, engraver and illustrator, Albrecht Dürer was the artistic genius of the German Renaissance. He was born, lived and died in Nuremberg, where many of his works can still be seen today.

The theses of the reformer Martin Luther spread rapidly through Franconia, Bavaria and Swabia. This was the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, which shook the Catholic Church in Germany.

Nuremberg was the first free city in the Empire to adopt the Protestant Reformation.

The Peace of Augsburg put an end to several years of conflict between Catholics and Protestants. The princes reached an agreement: each prince was to choose the denomination of his subjects. The principle is called Cujus regio eius religio: To each region, its religion.

The disastrous consequences of the Thirty Years' War in Germany cannot be overstated. This conflict, which initially pitted Protestant and Catholic princes against each other, then sovereigns from all over Europe for various reasons, brought the country to the brink of destruction. The Duke of Bavaria, a devout Catholic, faithfully followed the Emperor. His loyalty was rewarded in 1623, when the Emperor granted him electoral dignity. In 1628, the Upper Palatinate became part of Bavaria. In 1648, the Peace of Westphalia restored the Electorate of the Palatinate and confirmed Bavaria's right to vote. From 1648 onwards, there were 8 Electors in the Holy Roman Empire.

In the War of the Spanish Succession, Maximilian-Emmanuel's Bavaria sides with Louis XIV's France, supporting Philip V as heir to the Spanish throne. Austrian troops occupy Bavaria and crush a popular Bavarian revolt: 1,100 Bavarian insurgents are massacred at Sendling, south of Munich.

The Elector of Bavaria Charles-Albert (Karl Albrecht) does not recognize the Pragmatic Sanction, which will allow Maria Theresa of Austria (Maria Theresia) to succeed her father Emperor Charles VI (Karl). Charles-Albert of Bavaria sided with Prussia against the Habsburgs in the War of the Austrian Succession and, in 1742, succeeded in having himself crowned Holy Roman Emperor in Frankfurt am Main. He was the last of the Wittelsbachs to achieve imperial dignity. On his death in 1744, his son and successor in Bavaria - Max III Joseph - concluded peace with Austria and gave his vote to Franz Stephan, husband of Maria Theresa of Austria.

Max III Joseph dies without an heir, and Bavaria reverts to Charles-Theodore (Karl Theodor), Count Palatine of the Rhine, who leaves Mannheim for Munich. Bavaria and the Palatinate were thus united. The two regions remained linked until the end of the Second World War, when the states of Bavaria and Rhineland-Palatinate were created.

Thanks to a policy of secularization, Bavaria was able to acquire a large amount of land in the former episcopal principalities of Würzburg, Bamberg, Augsburg and Freising.

The Bavarians fight alongside Napoleon at the Battle of Austerlitz in Moravia, and together inflict a defeat on the Austro-Russian army. Bavaria receives the county of Tyrol as spoils of war.

Duke and Elector Maximilian is elevated to the rank of king by Napoleon. He became the first ruler of the Kingdom of Bavaria, under the name Maximilian ^I (or simply Max ^I). The city of Nuremberg became part of the kingdom.

Munich celebrates the marriage of the Crown Prince (the future Ludwig ^I) to Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen with a popular festival that has continued to this day: the Oktoberfest.

Bavaria follows Napoleon into the Russian Campaign. It was a bitter failure, costing 30,000 Bavarian soldiers their lives.

Bavaria, which had previously supported Napoleon, changed its mind and joined the European coalition against the French emperor.

Bavaria loses Tyrol but gets Aschaffenburg in return.

The Congress of Vienna reshapes the European landscape after Napoleon's defeat. Bavaria joins the German Confederation (Deutscher Bund).

The Kingdom of Bavaria adopts a constitution with a two-chamber parliament.

The university moves from Ingolstadt to Munich. Today, it remains Bavaria's leading university.

Over 20,000 citizens demonstrate in Hambach (Palatinate) for freedom, democracy and German unity.

Germany's first steam train ran between Nuremberg and Fürth: a small revolution that radically transformed modes of transport and enabled the country's industrial development.

Starting in Paris, where King Louis-Philippe had been deposed, the revolution brought several cities in the German Confederation to a boil. Unlike in Berlin and Vienna, the demonstrations in Munich were peaceful. King Ludwig ^I of Bavaria was forced to abdicate after becoming embroiled in a series of affairs (notably his affair with the sultry dancer Lola Montez). He left the throne to his son Maximilian II. The demonstrators succeeded in pushing through a number of key demands, including electoral reform and press freedom.

This king, the most famous of Bavarian sovereigns, is known as an enigmatic music lover whose life and death continue to fuel fantasies.

Bavaria, which had sided with Austria against Prussia, had to give up certain territories after the defeat.

The Kingdom of Bavaria became part of the Empire (Kaiserreich), which Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck had succeeded in unifying under the authority of the Hohenzollerns.

Ludwig II and his brother Otto, declared unfit to reign, were replaced by their uncle Leopold (Luitpold von Bayern). This was a prosperous period for Bavaria: Munich reached 600,000 inhabitants, Nuremberg 300,000. Industrialization accelerated. Trade unions were formed. Socialists enter parliament. Direct, secret and universal suffrage (from which women were excluded) was introduced.

On November 7, journalist, writer and leader of the Independent Socialist Party (USPD) Kurt Eisner leads a revolutionary movement that succeeds in bringing Bavaria out of the war, abolishing the monarchy and making Bavaria a free state. The sixth and last king of Bavaria - Ludwig III - is ousted from the throne. This marked the end of the House of Wittelsbach's 738-year reign. On February 21, Eisner is shot dead by a young monarchist in front of Palais Montgelas. A popular uprising broke out in Munich. On the 22nd, a state of siege was declared in Munich, with newspapers occupied and their publications banned for ten days. On the night of April 6 to 7, 1919, the Communist-inspired "Republic of Councils" was proclaimed. The elected government of Socialist Minister-President Johannes Hoffmann was forced to flee to Bamberg. On May¹, government troops and Corps Francs entered Munich, putting an end to the Republic of Councils. The result: over 600 dead, thousands of sentences handed down, including death sentences.

On the evening of November 8, Hitler and his clique attempt a coup d'état by storming the Bürgerbräukeller brewery, where several high-ranking members of the Bavarian administration are present. Hitler extracted from them a promise to start a conservative revolution, a promise extorted by force, which they had no intention of honoring. The next day, Hitler and 2,000 supporters set off on a march to mobilize the population, inspired by the Italian fascists' march on Rome a year earlier. AtOdeonsplatz, the march was stopped by armed police. After the failed putsch, Hitler is sentenced to 5 years' imprisonment in Landsberg (west of Munich), where he writes Mein Kampf. Choosing the legal route to impose his vision of the world, he succeeded in becoming Chancellor ten years later. Less than a year after his conviction, his sentence was commuted... for good behavior...

Near the center of Dachau, the Nazis built the first major concentration camp of the ^Third Reich to intern political opponents.

A series of laws, applied throughout Germany, transposed the NSDAP's anti-Semitic theories into the legislative system.

The "Munich Accords" between Hitler, Daladier, Chamberlain and Mussolini allow Germany to annex the predominantly German-populated regions of Czechoslovakia. Between 150,000 and 250,000 Czechs were forced to leave the newly German-occupied territories.

Georg Elser's failed attempt on Adolf Hitler's life in Munich's Bürgerbräukeller.

A movement of resistance to Nazi barbarism - the White Rose (die Weisse Rose) - is organized at the University of Munich. Its main members were students Hans and Sophie Scholl, Christoph Probst, Alexander Schmorell and Professor Kurt Huber. The White Rose was wiped out by the Nazis, who tolerated no opposition. The members of the network were executed.

The Second World War wreaked havoc in Bavaria: over 80% of Munich, Nuremberg and Würzburg were destroyed by Allied bombing raids. Bavaria was liberated by Allied troops and became an American zone of occupation. More than 2 million refugees arrived, mainly from Poland and Czechoslovakia.

24 high-ranking Nazi officials are tried for conspiracy, crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity. The concept of "crimes against humanity" makes its appearance in international law.

The Rhineland Palatinate is detached from Bavaria and included in a new Land called Rhineland-Palatinate (Rheinland-Pfalz). On December^1, 1946, the Free State of Bavaria was proclaimed: the state adopted a new constitution by referendum. From 1946 onwards, Bavaria had the borders it still has today.

The Bavarian capital hosts the ^20th Olympiad and shows the world a new face: brand-new sports facilities and a subway railway line are inaugurated for the Games. Unfortunately, the Games were hit by a terrorist attack: on September 5, 1972, a commando made up of 8 terrorists from the Palestinian organization Black September broke into the Olympic Village, killed two athletes and took 9 other members of the Israeli delegation hostage. The ill-prepared rescue attempt ended in a bloodbath at Fürstenfeldbruck airbase. None of the hostages survived.

A far-right bomb attack is carried out in Munich during the Oktoberfest, killing 13 people and injuring hundreds more.

Bavaria becomes the first Land to enshrine environmental protection in its constitution. Two years later, the Greens enter the Landtag, Bavaria's parliament.

Electroshock in the Bavarian state elections: the CSU loses the absolute majority it has held since 1962, i.e. ten consecutive legislatures! Horst Seehofer becomes Minister-President at the head of a coalition with the FDP (Liberals).

This time, the CSU won an absolute majority in the Bavarian parliamentary elections, and Horst Seehofer confirmed his power as head of state.

The conservative CSU party loses its absolute majority in the last regional elections to the growing power of the Greens. Markus Söder (CSU) is elected Minister-President.

Germans go to the polls to elect a new Bundestag. While the Union (CDU and CSU) lost ground, the Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens (die Grünen) and the Liberals (FDP) emerged stronger from the elections. These three parties form a new federal government with Olaf Scholz as Chancellor. Of the various ministries, only one is headed by a Bavarian, Claudia Roth.