The franconian, Swabian and old-Bavarian areas that form the state of Bavaria constitute a peculiar admixture that since „time immemorial“ has been politically articulated by the sole governing party, the CSU (Christian Social Union). But this is the more obvious part of the party’s successful strategy directed toward the broader public that brings in regular election returns of over fifty percent. The other, less obvious, but equally important part of the strategy is the consistent realization of a bureaucrat’s dream, namely reform and progress via administrative measures. The transformation of this dream can be attributed to quiet, but radical, structural change over the past forty years: the onetime agricultural poorhouse has been transmuted into an attractive company base for financial service providers and hightech industries. Bavaria’s economy is now stronger than that of Belgium or Sweden, and a quarter of the state’s produce is exported. Bavaria ranks 20th on the list of the world’s largest export countries.

This evolution shows how Bavaria saw its underdevelopment as an opportunity and made a leap from being an agricultural state straight into high technology, avoiding the traditional, heavy industrial phase en route. Of course, this approach had its own hidden risks, as the example of Martinsried near Munich goes to show. This is where, with a generous helping of financial fertilizer from the Bavarian government, a veritable plantation of bio-technology companies was cultivated as a unique project in Germany. But as the New Economy cooled down, the frost took its toll here, nipping overoptimistically high hopes in the bud. But Bavaria’s image is shaped less by the concentration in and around Munich of hitech computer and aerospace industries or even Siemens, than by companies such as automobile producers BMW or Audi in Ingolstadt and of course Munich’s three major breweries with their beer monopoly at the city’s annual Oktoberfest that ranks as the world’s largest public festival. And another major player in this context is the football team FC Bayern Munich that not only ranks high in the federal German league but is regularly among the stars of European football.

We are now touching on a sore point as Bavarians are not particularly pleased when Munich is always seen as the centre of attention. Thank goodness then for culture. Even members of the Bavarian diaspora can feel a sense of pride here. Which other federal state can boast an orchestra equalling the Bamberger Symphoniker or an event like the Richard Wagner festival in Bayreuth where celebrities meet at the annual rendezvous at the famous opera house on the „Green Hill.“ Somewhat more unusual, but just as famous, are the Passion Plays at Oberammergau, while visitors from all over the globe are attracted throughout the year to Ludwig II’s fairytale castles, Neuschwanstein, Herrenchiemsee and Linderhof, and the Baroque churches, castles and monasteries scattered throughout the state. This rich heritage is an obligation that has to be tended, and when Munich receives a third art museum of world stature in the shape of the „Pinakothek der Moderne,“ then the least that can be expected as compensation for this image promoter is the establishment of a state gallery or collection in Aschaffenburg, Nuremberg or Bernried.

Of course, this cannot alter the fact that Munich is the shining star around which the remaining parts of Bavaria revolve. It is not just the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra that makes the music or the stages of the Bavarian State Opera or the Kammerspiele that „mean the world“. But even the people of Nuremberg, Würzburg or Augsburg have to admit that without Munich, Bavaria as it now is would not be a viable state, and most certainly not a „free state.“