Elector of Bavaria

“ The torrent of war now poured into Bavaria. Like the banks of the Rhine, those of the Lecke and the Donau were crowded with Swedish troops. Creeping into his fortresses, the defeated Elector abandoned to the ravages of the foe his dominions, hitherto unscathed by war, and on which the bigoted violence of the Bavarians seemed to invite retaliation. Munich itself opened its gates to the invincible monarch, and the fugitive Palatine, Frederick V., in the forsaken residence of his rival, consoled himself for a time for the loss of his dominions. ”

“ With whatever motive he may act, there is not one, not that of the mildest resentment, that can blind him to this degree, of himself perishing in the ruin he is bringing upon others. With his concurrence, the French will, in less than six weeks, be masters of the German Empire. The weak Elector of Bavaria is but their instrument: Prague and Vienna may, and probably will, be taken in that short time. ”

“ In 1632 it was invaded by the Swedes, and, when Maximilian violated the treaty of Ulm in 1647, was ravaged by the French and the Swedes. After repairing this damage to some extent, the elector died at Ingolstadt in September 1651, leaving his duchy much stronger than he had found it. The recovery of the Upper Palatinate made Bavaria compact; the acquisition of the electoral vote made it influential; and the duchy was able to play a part in European politics which intestine strife had rendered impossible for the past four hundred years. ”

“ She recognized the title of King now bestowed by Napoleon on the Electors of Bavaria and Würtemberg, a change which was not to invalidate their membership of the "Germanic Confederation." To those potentates and to the Elector (now Grand Duke) of Baden, the Hapsburgs ceded all their scattered Swabian domains, while Bavaria also gained Tyrol and Vorarlberg. As a slight compensation for these grievous losses, Austria gained Salzburg, whose Elector was to receive from Bavaria the former principality of Würzburg. ”

“ The members of the latter, 397 in number, are elected for a space of five years by universal suffrage. Vote is by ballot, and one member is elected by (approximately) every 150,000 inhabitants.
As regards its legislative functions, the empire has supreme and independent control in matters relating to military affairs and the navy, to the imperial finances, to German commerce, to posts and telegraphs, and also to railways, in so far as these affect the common defence of the country. Bavaria and Württemberg, however, have preserved their own postal and telegraphic administration. ”

“ The Bavarians themselves long for annexation to Austria, for they know that it is their only road to prosperity. They look with hope and confidence to Maria Theresa, whose goodness and greatness may compensate them for all that they have endured at the hands of their pusillanimous little rulers. The only man in Germany who will oppose the succession of Austria to Bavaria, is Frederick, who is as ready to enlarge his own dominions as to cry 'Stop thief!' when he sees others doing likewise. ”

“ The goal of the uprising was the elimination of the Reichsregierung, including the Parliament in its present state, because in the eyes of the defendants it was completely bewitched by Marxism. They intended to form a national government that would represent the völkische interests as defined by the defendants. The elimination of the Bavarian government, and the appointment of Kahr and Pöhner as the holders of Bavarian power, was only a means to an end--it was to enable them to fight the Reichsregierung effectively from Bavaria. ”

“ Every Bavarian who is qualified to vote and is 40 years old is eligible for election. (3) The Minister-President is free to resign from his office at any time. He must resign if the political situation makes cooperation between him and the Landtag impossible. The resignation of the Minister-President involves the resignation of the Cabinet. Until another election of a Minister-President has taken place, the Landtag President represents Bavaria in its external relations. During this interim, the Landtag President is not subject to recall by the Landtag. ”

“ In time of peace the army was under the command of the King of Bavaria, but in time of war under that of the Emperor of Germany, as commander-in-chief of the whole German army.
As a result of the revolutionary movement in Nov., 1918, the Bavarian dynasty was deposed and a republican form of government set up. The provisional constitution, made public on 7th Jan., 1919, established a Socialist Republic in Bavaria. The supreme power lies with the people; the Diet consists of one chamber; the suffrage is universal ”

“ The new constitution has stood the test. The number of states of which the empire consists has remained unaltered;3 occasional disputes have been settled harmoniously in a legal manner. The special rights reserved to Bavaria and The empire and the states. Württemberg have not proved, as was feared, a danger to the stability of the empire. Much apprehension had been caused by the establishment of a permanent committee for foreign affairs in the Bundesrat, over which the Bavarian representative was to preside; but the clause remained a dead letter. ”

“ Prince von Bülow, in his Imperial Germany, asserts that the German race, although richly endowed with great qualities, has no talent for politics. This charge is quite unfair, the real motive for it being the dread with which a Prussian statesman views the prospect of a parliamentary system. The Germans are late-comers in the field of political life. Those of the South entered it much earlier than the Prussians; Bavaria received a written constitution from its ruler in 1818, Baden in the same year, Würtemberg in 1819, and Hesse-Darmstadt in 1820. ”

“ The Catholic majority in Bavaria is but one sign of many of opposition to the one-sided policy of which Prince Bismarck is the author and expounder. Who knows but that the threatened dissolution of an empire erected on so false and narrow a basis has not already begun in Bavaria? All the sacrifices made to establish the empire—not the least of which were made by Bavaria—the German chancellor, by his determined and senseless religious persecution, would now seem foolishly to ignore. ”

“ It would be an injustice not to own that in Bavaria the sovereign in no way interferes unconstitutionally with the business of government or the progress of affairs. But monarchs yield most unwillingly to certain necessities which a new régime imposes. Though outwardly they cede with a good grace, the forms they have to go through are at heart repugnant to them ”

“ To complete his embarrassment, a dangerous insurrection broke out in the territory of the Ens, where the ill-timed religious zeal of the government had provoked the Protestants to resistance; and thus fanaticism lit its torch within the empire, while a foreign enemy was already on its frontier. After so long a continuance of good fortune, such brilliant victories and extensive conquests, such fruitless effusion of blood, the Emperor saw himself a second time on the brink of that abyss, into which he was so near falling at the commencement of his reign. If Bavaria should embrace the neutrality ”

“ He appointed Berks to the Department of the Interior, and to Prince Wallerstein, lately Bavarian representative at Paris, he gave the portfolio of foreign affairs. The new Cabinet was composed entirely of men wholly in sympathy with the views of both sovereign and favourite. By its opponents it was derisively dubbed the Lola Ministry. The Münchner Zeitung welcomed its frank and whole-hearted Liberalism as a guarantee of the solution of all the problems of Bavaria’s internal and foreign policy. ”

“ This idyllic life at Possenhofen was interrupted for a time, however, by the political agitations in Munich. All over Europe the spirit of revolution was stirring, a spirit that was soon to find expression in a general outbreak. Nowhere did the royal power seem more secure than in Bavaria. No monarch was more beloved than Ludwig the First, no people so universally loyal to the crown as his good-natured, easy-going subjects. ”

“ Amid the quietness of death, the great man announced to us that he was now the great representative of the Great Revolutionary Party, and that the Great People of the Greater State of Bavaria had had a greatest revolution—not a bloody revolution like the Russians, but a quiet, orderly revolution, for realizing that the old government had failed to take care of the needs of the common people, the soldiers and the workmen of Bavaria had gotten together and had overthrown the monarchy. ”

“ Thanks to the hatred of the Germans against their German brethren, thanks to the hatred of the Bavarians against the Austrians, this proclamation had been received with joyful acclamations throughout the whole state, and Bavaria felt proud and happy that she should fight under the Emperor of the French, her “natural ally,” against the Emperor of Germany. ”

“ Under Prussia one must either be a soldier or a slave, the democrats of Munich say. Bavaria has the most liberal constitution in Germany, except that of Wurtemberg, and the people are jealous of any curtailment of liberty. It seems odd that anybody should look to the house of Hapsburg for liberality. The attitude of Prussia compels all the little states to keep up armies, which eat up their substance, and burden the people with taxes. This is the more to be regretted now, when Bavaria is undergoing a peaceful revolution, and throwing off the trammels of galling customs in other respects. ”

“ At Vienna and afterwards Maximilian sturdily opposed any reconstitution of Germany which should endanger the independence of Bavaria, and it was his insistence on the principle of full sovereignty being left to the German reigning princes that largely contributed to the loose and weak organization of the new German Confederation. The Federal Act of the Vienna congress was proclaimed in Bavaria, not as a law but as an international treaty. ”

“ In the election to the customs parliament in 1868, Württemberg did not return a single deputy who was favourable to the national cause; in Bavaria the anti-nationalists had a large majority; and even in Baden and Hesse-Darmstadt, where the opposition to Prussia was less severe, a powerful minority of the deputies had no liking for Bismarck and his ways. Thus the customs parliament was kept rigidly to the objects for which it was founded, greatly to the disappointment of patriots who had not doubted that it would become an effective instrument for the attainment of far larger purposes. ”

“ These explanations also disprove another defense argument. Namely, the assertion that the action of the defendants was legal because it was initiated by Herr Kahr. Changes of the Constitution are legal only if they have been agreed upon in a constitutional manner--that is, under the law. In the Reich, this can be done only by the Reichstag, and in Bavaria only by the Landtag, or if necessary, through a plebiscite according to Article 10 of the Bavarian Constitution. They cannot be decided upon by one minister, by the Cabinet, or by a person with ministerial powers. ”

“ Nowhere is red-tape more absurd than when it is being wound by a defeated nation after a great war.
Bavaria is encouraged to think of herself as a separate country. French policy foreshadows an independent State of Southern Catholics. With that in view a French minister plenipotentiary has been sent to Munich, and we British have just followed the French suit by appointing our diplomatic representative also. Bavaria is not supposed to enter into foreign relationships except through the Reich. ”

“ On the 19th of January Hohenlohe declared in the Chamber that a state of the second rank, like Bavaria, could only exist as allied to another kingdom, and that that kingdom could only be Prussia, under whose leadership the people of Bavaria must be prepared to fight in the event of war. ”

“ In the Revolution the reactionary or Ultramontane party of Bavaria saw their chance, however, and gained the King’s ear. They dwelt on the natural alliance of throne and altar, and the identity of liberalism in religion with liberalism in politics. Only in a religious people, they argued, could a king place his trust. Secure of royal protection and encouragement, friars, nuns, and ecclesiastics of all kinds came flocking into Bavaria. Monasteries, convents, and church schools threatened to become as numerous as they are now in England. ”

“ The proclamation of the Empire was to take place at Versailles on the 18th of January, 1871. Three days before this date the future emperor summoned the court chaplain to him. He spoke of Ludwig II.’s idealism, and added: “Whatever his abilities may be, he must at any rate be very highly considered.” Bismarck at an entertainment rose to his feet, and made the following speech:—“I drink to the health of his Majesty the King of Bavaria, and to the prosperity of his dynasty, which has extended through a thousand years! ”

“ Bavaria is governed by the people. State power is vested in the people. (2) The people express their will by vote through elections and referenda. The majority decides.
Article 3 Bavaria is a constitutional, cultural, and social state. It serves the common welfare.
Article 4 The state power is exercised by the citizens who are qualified voters, by representatives elected by them, and by the executive authorities and judges directly or indirectly appointed by these representatives. ”