Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
solini and France's Édouard Daladier, in an attempt to avoid another war, continued their
policy of appeasement by handing Hitler control over large portions of Czechoslovakia in
the Munich Agreement. Chamberlain's naive hope that such a move would bring 'peace in
our time' was destroyed on 1 September 1939 when Nazi troops marched into Poland,
kicking off WWII.
A State Apart
Modern Bavaria may be integrated thoroughly within the Ger-
man political construct, but its people take great pride in their
distinctiveness. Its history, traditions, attitudes, political prior-
ities and culture are, in many ways, quite different from the
rest of Germany.
After WWII Bavaria became part of the American occupa-
tion zone and was allowed to pass its own constitution in
December 1946. In 1949 it became the only German state that
didn't ratify the German constitution because, in its opinion, it
put unacceptable limitations on state powers. Bavaria did,
however, agree to honour and abide by the federal constitution
and has always done so. However, to underscore its independ-
ent streak it calls itself 'Freistaat' (free state) Bayern, even
though this has no political meaning.
Since 1946 a single party, the archconservative Christlich-Soziale Union (CSU; Christi-
an Social Union) has dominated Bavarian politics at every level of government, from
communal to state. Although peculiar to Bavaria, it is closely aligned with its national sis-
ter party, the Christlich-Demokratische Union (CDU; Christian Democratic Union).
Powerful CSU figures include Franz-Josef
Strauss, who served as Bavarian
Minister-
präsident
(minister-president, ie governor)
from 1978 until his death in 1988, and his
protégé, Edmund Stoiber, who clung to the job
from 1999 until 2007. Although hugely popu-
lar and successful in Bavaria, both failed in
their attempts to become federal chancellor:
Strauss when losing to Helmut Schmidt in 1980, and Stoiber when outmanoeuvred by
Gerhard Schröder in 2002. Since October 2008, Bavaria has been led by Horst Seehofer.
No other German state has been more successful in its postwar economic recovery than
Bavaria. Within decades, it transformed from an essentially agrarian society into a pro-
Bavaria's Top
Five Nazi Sites
» Eagle's Nest, Berchtesgaden
» Dachau concentration camp
» Reichsparteitagsgelände,
Nuremberg
» Nuremberg Trials courtroom,
Nuremberg
» Dokumentation Ober-
salzberg, Berchtesgaden
In
Massacre in Munich: The Manhunt for the
Killers Behind the 1972 Olympics Massacre
(2005)
Michael Bar Bar-Zohar and Eitan Haber describe
the events in haunting detail and in a style as fast-
paced and engrossing as a novel.
