Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
boundaries at the Congress of Vienna (1814-15) and Bavaria got to keep most of the ter-
ritory it had obtained with Napoleon's help.
Reluctant Reformers
During the 18th century, the ideas of the En-
lightenment that had swept through other parts
of Europe had largely been ignored in Bavaria.
Until Elector Maximilian III Joseph (r
1745-77) arrived on the scene, that is. Tired of
waging war like his predecessors, he made
peace with Austria and busied himself with re-
forming his country from within. He updated the legal system, founded the Bavarian
Academy of Sciences and made school attendance compulsory. Max Joseph's reign also
saw the creation of the Nymphenburg porcelain factory and the construction of the
Cuvilliés-Theater at the Munich Residenz.
Now that the reforms had begun, there was no going back, especially after Bavaria be-
came a kingdom in 1806. The architect of modern Bavaria was King Maximilian I's min-
ister, Maximilian Graf von Montgelas. He worked feverishly to forge a united state from
the mosaic of 'old Bavaria', Franconia and Swabia, by introducing sweeping political, ad-
ministrative and social changes, including the secularisation of the monasteries. The re-
forms ultimately led to Bavaria's first constitution in 1808, which was based on rights of
freedom, equality and property ownership, and the promise of representative government.
Ten years later Bavaria got its first
Landtag
(two-chamber parliament).
Under Max I's son, Ludwig I (r 1825-48),
Bavaria flourished into an artistic and cultural
centre, an 'Athens on the Isar'. Painters, poets
and philosophers gathered in Munich, where
Leo von Klenze and Friedrich von Gärtner
were creating a showcase of neoclassical archi-
tecture. Königsplatz with the Glyptothek and
Propyläen, flashy Ludwigstrasse with the Siegestor triumphal arch, and the Ludwig Max-
imilian University were all built on Ludwig I's watch, as was the Alte Pinakothek. The
king was also keen on new technology and heavily supported the idea of a nationwide
railway. The first short line from Nuremberg to Fürth opened during his reign in 1835.
Politically though, Ludwig I brought a return to authority from the top as revolutionary
rumblings in other parts of Europe coaxed out his reactionary streak. An arch-Catholic, he
restored the monasteries, introduced press censorship and authorised arrests of students,
At economic odds today, Bavaria and Greece once
shared a ruler when Otto I of Bavaria became mod-
ern Greece's first monarch in 1832. The biggest
headache of his reign - Greece's ailing economy.
Ludwig,
a 1973 flick directed by Luchino Visconti,
is a lush, epic and sensitive Oscar-nominated por-
trayal of the life of Ludwig II, a highly emotional
and tormented king out of step with his time.
