Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
gressive, high-tech state. The upturn was at least in part fuelled by the arrival of two milli-
on ethnic German expellees mainly from the Sudetelands of Bohemia and Moravia, who
brought much-needed manpower.
TIMELINE
15 BC
Nero Claudius Drusus and Tiberius Claudius Nero, stepsons of Roman emperor
Augustus, conquer the Celtic tribes north of the Alps, calling their new colony Raetia.
Augusta Vindelicorum (today's Augsburg) is capital.
AD 555-788
The Agilofinges dynasty founds the first Bavarian duchy with Garibald I (r 555-91) its
first-known duke. They remain in power until absorbed into the Frankish Empire in
788 by Charlemagne.
7th-8th centuries
Christianity takes hold as roving missionaries arrive in Bavaria from Ireland, Scotland
and the Frankish Empire. In 738 St Boniface creates the dioceses of Salzburg, Freising,
Passau and Regensburg.
962
The pope crowns the Saxon King Otto I to
Kaiser
(emperor), marking the beginning of
the Holy Roman Empire, which remains a major force in European history until 1806.
1158
Duke Heinrich der Löwe establishes Munich as a market town in a bid to take control
of the lucrative central European trade in salt, known then as 'white gold'.
1180
The Wittelsbachs' 738-year reign begins with Otto von Wittelsbach's appointment as
duke of Bavaria by Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa, marking the transition from tribal
duchy to territorial state.
1214
