Landshut (German: [ˈlantshuːt];[2] Bavarian: Landshuad) is a town in Bavaria in the south-east of Germany. Situated on the banks of the River Isar, Landshut is the capital of Lower Bavaria, one of the seven administrative regions of the Free State of Bavaria. It is also the seat of the surrounding district, and has a population of more than 70,000. Landshut is the largest city in Lower Bavaria, followed by Passau and Straubing, and Eastern Bavaria's second biggest city.

Owing to its characteristic coat of arms, the town is also often called "City of the three Helmets" (German: Dreihelmenstadt). Furthermore, the town is popularly known for the Landshuter Hochzeit (Landshut Wedding), a full-tilt medieval festival.

Due to its proximity and easy access to Munich and the Franz Josef Strauss International Airport, Landshut became a powerful and future-oriented investment area. The town is one of the richest industrialized towns in Bavaria and has East Bavaria's lowest unemployment rate.

History

The city of Landshut and Trausnitz castle were founded in 1204 by Duke Louis I. Landshut was already a Wittelsbach residence by 1231, and in 1255, when the duchy of Bavaria was split in two, Landshut also became the capital of Lower Bavaria. Duke Henry XVI was the first of the three famous rich dukes who ruled Bayern-Landshut in the 15th century. The wedding of Duke George with the Polish Princess Royal Jadwiga Jagiellon in 1475 was celebrated in Landshut with one of the most splendid festivals of the Middle Ages (called "Landshuter Hochzeit"). After his death and the Landshut War of Succession, Bavaria-Landshut was reunited with Bavaria-Munich.

Louis X, Duke of Bavaria built the Landshut Residence 1537–1543 after his visit to Italy. Louis built the first Renaissance palace constructed north of the Alps after the Palazzo Te in Mantua. William V, Duke of Bavaria ordered to upgrade Trausnitz Castle from a gothic fortification into a renaissance complex when he lived in Landshut as crown prince for ten years until 1579. Afterwards Landshut lost most of its importance until the University of Ingolstadt was moved to Landshut in 1800. But already in 1826 the university was transferred to Munich.

In 1634, during the Thirty Years' War, the city was taken and plundered by Swedish forces under the command of Bernard of Saxe-Weimar.[3]

Napoleon fought and won the Battle of Landshut in 1809 against an Austrian army as part of the War of the Fifth Coalition.

During World War II, a subcamp of Dachau concentration camp was located in the city to provide slave labour for local industry.

The U.S. Army maintained facilities in Landshut, including Pinder Kaserne and a dependent housing area, until 1968.

Since the opening of Munich Airport close to Landshut in 1992, the town has become an attractive business location.

Main sights and culture

Coat of arms, depicted in 1605

The town is of national importance because of its predominantly Gothic architecture within the historic town centre, especially Trausnitz Castle and the Church of Saint Martin featuring the world's tallest brick tower. Among other Gothic architecture are the churches of St. Jodok and Holy Spirit, but also the Town Hall and the Ländtor, the only still existing gate of the medieval fortification.

Landshut is also known for a festival celebrated every four years called the Landshuter Hochzeit, commemorating the 1475 marriage of George of Bavaria and Jadwiga Jagiellon.

The renaissance era produced in particular the decorated inner courtyard of the Trausnitz Castle and the ducal Landshut Residence in the inner town. Baroque churches are represented by the Jesuit church St. Ignatius, the Dominican church St. Blasius and the church of St. Joseph. Also the medieval churches of the Seligenthal convent and of the Cistercians were redesigned in baroque style. Many old middle-class houses of the past in the Old Town still represent the history of the town from the Gothic times to the Neo-Classicism.

Bavaria (/bəˈvɛəriə/; German and Bavarian: Bayern [ˈbaɪɐn]), officially the Free State of Bavaria (German and Bavarian: Freistaat Bayern [ˈfʁaɪʃtaːt ˈbaɪɐn]), is a landlocked state (Land) in the south-east of Germany. With an area of 70,550.19 square kilometres (27,239.58 sq mi), Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total land area of Germany. With 13 million inhabitants, it is Germany's second-most-populous state after North Rhine-Westphalia but due to its large size, it is one of the least densely populated states. Bavaria's main cities are Munich (its capital and largest city and also the third largest city in Germany),[4] Nuremberg, and Augsburg.

The history of Bavaria includes its earliest settlement by Iron Age Celtic tribes, followed by the conquests of the Roman Empire in the 1st century BC, when the territory was incorporated into the provinces of Raetia and Noricum. It became a stem duchy in the 6th century AD following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. It was later incorporated into the Holy Roman Empire, became an independent kingdom after 1806, joined the Prussian-led German Empire in 1871 while retaining its title of kingdom, and finally became a state of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949.[5]

Bavaria has a unique culture, largely because of the state's large Catholic plurality and conservative traditions.[6] Bavarians have traditionally been proud of their culture, which includes a language, cuisine, architecture, festivals such as Oktoberfest and elements of Alpine symbolism.[7] The state also has the second largest economy among the German states by GDP figures, giving it a status as a rather wealthy German region.[8]

Contemporary Bavaria also includes parts of the historical regions of Franconia and Swabia.

History

Main article: History of Bavaria

Historical population

Year Pop. ±% p.a.

1840 3,802,515 —    

1871 4,292,484 +0.39%

1900 5,414,831 +0.80%

1910 6,451,380 +1.77%

1939 7,084,086 +0.32%

1950 9,184,466 +2.39%

1961 9,515,479 +0.32%

1970 10,479,386 +1.08%

1987 10,902,643 +0.23%

2011 12,397,614 +0.54%

2019 13,124,737 +0.71%

source:[9] 2019 data[1]

Prehistoric Heunischenburg, in the vicinity of Kronach

Antiquity

The Bavarians emerged in a region north of the Alps, previously inhabited by Celts, which had been part of the Roman provinces of Raetia and Noricum. The Bavarians spoke a Germanic dialect which developed into Old High German during the early Middle Ages, but, unlike other Germanic groups, they probably did not migrate from elsewhere. Rather, they seem to have coalesced out of other groups left behind by the Roman withdrawal late in the 5th century. These peoples may have included the Celtic Boii, some remaining Romans, Marcomanni, Allemanni, Quadi, Thuringians, Goths, Scirians, Rugians, Heruli. The name "Bavarian" ("Baiuvarii") means "Men of Baia" which may indicate Bohemia, the homeland of the Celtic Boii and later of the Marcomanni. They first appear in written sources circa 520. A 17th century Jewish chronicler David Solomon Ganz, citing Cyriacus Spangenberg, claimed that the diocese was named after an ancient Bohemian king, Boiia, in the 14th century BC.[10]

Middle Ages

Further information: Duchy of Bavaria

From about 554 to 788, the house of Agilolfing ruled the Duchy of Bavaria, ending with Tassilo III who was deposed by Charlemagne.[11]

Three early dukes are named in Frankish sources: Garibald I may have been appointed to the office by the Merovingian kings and married the Lombard princess Walderada when the church forbade her to King Chlothar I in 555. Their daughter, Theodelinde, became Queen of the Lombards in northern Italy and Garibald was forced to flee to her when he fell out with his Frankish overlords. Garibald's successor, Tassilo I, tried unsuccessfully to hold the eastern frontier against the expansion of Slavs and Avars around 600. Tassilo's son Garibald II seems to have achieved a balance of power between 610 and 616.[12]

After Garibald II, little is known of the Bavarians until Duke Theodo I, whose reign may have begun as early as 680. From 696 onward, he invited churchmen from the west to organize churches and strengthen Christianity in his duchy. (It is unclear what Bavarian religious life consisted of before this time.) His son, Theudebert, led a decisive Bavarian campaign to intervene in a succession dispute in the Lombard Kingdom in 714, and married his sister Guntrud to the Lombard King Liutprand. At Theodo's death the duchy was divided among his sons, but reunited under his grandson Hugbert.

The Kingdom of Bavaria in 900

Bavaria in the 10th century

At Hugbert's death (735) the duchy passed to a distant relative named Odilo, from neighboring Alemannia (modern southwest Germany and northern Switzerland). Odilo issued a law code for Bavaria, completed the process of church organization in partnership with St. Boniface (739), and tried to intervene in Frankish succession disputes by fighting for the claims of the Carolingian Grifo. He was defeated near Augsburg in 743 but continued to rule until his death in 748.[13][14] Saint Boniface completed the people's conversion to Christianity in the early 8th century.

Tassilo III (b. 741 – d. after 796) succeeded his father at the age of eight after an unsuccessful attempt by Grifo to rule Bavaria. He initially ruled under Frankish oversight but began to function independently from 763 onward. He was particularly noted for founding new monasteries and for expanding eastwards, fighting Slavs in the eastern Alps and along the Danube and colonizing these lands. After 781, however, his cousin Charlemagne began to pressure Tassilo to submit and finally deposed him in 788. The deposition was not entirely legitimate. Dissenters attempted a coup against Charlemagne at Tassilo's old capital of Regensburg in 792, led by his own son Pépin the Hunchback. The king had to drag Tassilo out of imprisonment to formally renounce his rights and titles at the Assembly of Frankfurt in 794. This is the last appearance of Tassilo in the sources, and he probably died a monk. As all of his family were also forced into monasteries, this was the end of the Agilolfing dynasty.

The Bavarian duchies after the partition of 1392

For the next 400 years numerous families held the duchy, rarely for more than three generations. With the revolt of duke Henry the Quarrelsome in 976, Bavaria lost large territories in the south and south east. The territory of Ostarrichi was elevated to a duchy in its own right and given to the Babenberger family. This event marks the founding of Austria.

The last, and one of the most important, of the dukes of Bavaria was Henry the Lion of the house of Welf, founder of Munich, and de facto the second most powerful man in the empire as the ruler of two duchies. When in 1180, Henry the Lion was deposed as Duke of Saxony and Bavaria by his cousin, Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor (a.k.a. "Barbarossa" for his red beard), Bavaria was awarded as fief to the Wittelsbach family, counts palatinate of Schyren ("Scheyern" in modern German). They ruled for 738 years, from 1180 to 1918. The Electorate of the Palatinate by Rhine (Kurpfalz in German) was also acquired by the House of Wittelsbach in 1214, which they would subsequently hold for six centuries.[15]

The first of several divisions of the duchy of Bavaria occurred in 1255. With the extinction of the Hohenstaufen in 1268, Swabian territories were acquired by the Wittelsbach dukes. Emperor Louis the Bavarian acquired Brandenburg, Tyrol, Holland and Hainaut for his House but released the Upper Palatinate for the Palatinate branch of the Wittelsbach in 1329. In the 14th and 15th centuries, upper and lower Bavaria were repeatedly subdivided. Four Duchies existed after the division of 1392: Bavaria-Straubing, Bavaria-Landshut, Bavaria-Ingolstadt and Bavaria-Munich. In 1506 with the Landshut War of Succession, the other parts of Bavaria were reunited, and Munich became the sole capital. The country became one of the Jesuit-supported counter-reformation centers.

Bavarian herald Joerg Rugenn wearing a tabard of the arms around 1510

Electorate of Bavaria

Further information: Electorate of Bavaria

In 1623 the Bavarian duke replaced his relative of the Palatinate branch, the Electorate of the Palatinate in the early days of the Thirty Years' War and acquired the powerful prince-electoral dignity in the Holy Roman Empire, determining its Emperor thence forward, as well as special legal status under the empire's laws.

During the early and mid-18th century the ambitions of the Bavarian prince electors led to several wars with Austria as well as occupations by Austria (War of the Spanish Succession, War of the Austrian Succession with the election of a Wittelsbach emperor instead of a Habsburg). From 1777 onward, and after the younger Bavarian branch of the family had died out with elector Max III Joseph, Bavaria and the Electorate of the Palatinate were governed once again in personal union, now by the Palatinian lines. The new state also comprised the Duchies of Jülich and Berg as these on their part were in personal union with the Palatinate.

Kingdom of Bavaria

Main article: Kingdom of Bavaria

Bavaria in the 19th century and beyond

When Napoleon abolished the Holy Roman Empire, Bavaria became a kingdom in 1806 due, in part, to the Confederation of the Rhine.[16] Its area doubled after the Duchy of Jülich was ceded to France, as the Electoral Palatinate was divided between France and the Grand Duchy of Baden. The Duchy of Berg was given to Jerome Bonaparte. Tyrol and Salzburg were temporarily reunited with Bavaria but finally ceded to Austria by the Congress of Vienna. In return Bavaria was allowed to annex the modern-day region of Palatinate to the west of the Rhine and Franconia in 1815. Between 1799 and 1817, the leading minister, Count Montgelas, followed a strict policy of modernisation; he laid the foundations of administrative structures that survived the monarchy and retain core validity in the 21st century. In May 1808 a first constitution was passed by Maximilian I,[17] being modernized in 1818. This second version established a bicameral Parliament with a House of Lords (Kammer der Reichsräte) and a House of Commons (Kammer der Abgeordneten). That constitution was followed until the collapse of the monarchy at the end of World War I.

After the rise of Prussia to power in the early 18th century, Bavaria preserved its independence by playing off the rivalry of Prussia and Austria. Allied to Austria, it was defeated along with Austria in the 1866 Austro-Prussian War and was not incorporated into the North German Confederation of 1867, but the question of German unity was still alive. When France declared war on Prussia in 1870, all the south German states (Baden, Württemberg, Hessen-Darmstadt and Bavaria) aside from Austria, joined the Prussian forces and ultimately joined the Federation, which was renamed Deutsches Reich (German Empire) in 1871. Bavaria continued as a monarchy, and it had some special rights within the federation (such as an army, railways, postal service and a diplomatic body of its own) but the diplomatic body postal service railways were later undone by Wilhelm II who declared them illegal and got rid of the diplomatic service first.

Part of the German Empire

Bavaria within the German Empire

When Bavaria became part of the newly formed German Empire, this action was considered controversial by Bavarian nationalists who had wanted to retain independence from the rest of Germany, as had Austria. As Bavaria had a majority-Catholic population, many people resented being ruled by the mostly Protestant northerners of Prussia. As a direct result of the Bavarian-Prussian feud, political parties formed to encourage Bavaria to break away and regain its independence.[18] Although the idea of Bavarian separatism was popular in the late 19th and early 20th century, apart from a small minority such as the Bavaria Party, most Bavarians accepted that Bavaria is part of Germany.[citation needed]

In the early 20th century, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Henrik Ibsen, and other artists were drawn to Bavaria, especially to the Schwabing district of Munich, a center of international artistic activity. This area was devastated by bombing and invasion during World War II.

Free State of Bavaria

A memorial to soldiers who died in the two World Wars in Dietelskirchen (Kröning), Bavaria

Free State has been an adopted designation after the abolition of monarchy in the aftermath of World War I in several German states. On 12 November 1918, Ludwig III signed a document, the Anif declaration, releasing both civil and military officers from their oaths; the newly formed republican government, or "People's State" of Socialist premier Kurt Eisner,[19] interpreted this as an abdication. To date, however, no member of the House of Wittelsbach has ever formally declared renunciation of the throne.[20] On the other hand, none has ever since officially called upon their Bavarian or Stuart claims. Family members are active in cultural and social life, including the head of the house, Franz, Duke of Bavaria. They step back from any announcements on public affairs, showing approval or disapproval solely by Franz's presence or absence.

Eisner was assassinated in February 1919, ultimately leading to a Communist revolt and the short-lived Bavarian Soviet Republic being proclaimed 6 April 1919. After violent suppression by elements of the German Army and notably the Freikorps, the Bavarian Soviet Republic fell in May 1919. The Bamberg Constitution (Bamberger Verfassung) was enacted on 12 or 14 August 1919 and came into force on 15 September 1919 creating the Free State of Bavaria within the Weimar Republic. Extremist activity further increased, notably the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch led by the National Socialists, and Munich and Nuremberg became seen as Nazi strongholds under the Third Reich of Adolf Hitler. However, in the crucial German federal election, March 1933, the Nazis received less than 50% of the votes cast in Bavaria.

As a manufacturing centre, Munich was heavily bombed during World War II and was occupied by U.S. troops, becoming a major part of the American Zone of Allied-occupied Germany (1945–47) and then of "Bizonia".

The Rhenish Palatinate was detached from Bavaria in 1946 and made part of the new state Rhineland-Palatinate. During the Cold War, Bavaria was part of West Germany. In 1949, the Free State of Bavaria chose not to sign the Founding Treaty (Gründungsvertrag) for the formation of the Federal Republic of Germany, opposing the division of Germany into two states, after World War II. The Bavarian Parliament did not sign the Basic Law of Germany, mainly because it was seen as not granting sufficient powers to the individual Länder, but at the same time decided that it would still come into force in Bavaria if two-thirds of the other Länder ratified it. All of the other Länder ratified it, and so it became law.[21]

Bavarian identity

Expression of Bavarian (linguistic) identity in a shop window in the town of Regensburg, Upper Palatinate

Bavarians have often emphasized a separate national identity and considered themselves as "Bavarians" first, "Germans" second.[22] This feeling started to come about more strongly among Bavarians when the Kingdom of Bavaria joined the Protestant Prussian-dominated German Empire while the Bavarian nationalists wanted to keep Bavaria as Catholic and an independent state. Nowadays, aside from the minority Bavaria Party, most Bavarians accept that Bavaria is part of Germany.[23] Another consideration is that Bavarians foster different cultural identities: Franconia in the north, speaking East Franconian German; Bavarian Swabia in the south west, speaking Swabian German; and Altbayern (so-called "Old Bavaria", the regions forming the "historic", pentagon-shaped Bavaria before the acquisitions through the Vienna Congress, at present the districts of the Upper Palatinate, Lower and Upper Bavaria) speaking Austro-Bavarian. In Munich, the Old Bavarian dialect was widely spread, but nowadays High German is predominantly spoken there. Moreover, by the expulsion of German speakers from Eastern Europe, Bavaria has received a large population that was not traditionally Bavarian. In particular, the Sudeten Germans, expelled from neighboring Czechoslovakia, have been deemed to have become the "fourth tribe" of Bavarians.

Administrative districts

Altbayern:

Upper Palatinate (German: Oberpfalz)

Upper Bavaria (Oberbayern)

Lower Bavaria (Niederbayern)

Franconia:

Upper Franconia (Oberfranken)

Middle Franconia (Mittelfranken)

Lower Franconia (Unterfranken)

Swabia:

Swabia (Schwaben)

Population and area

Administrative region Capital Population (2011) Area (km2) No. municipalities

Lower Bavaria Landshut 1,192,641 9.48% 10,330 14.6% 258 12.5%

Lower Franconia Würzburg 1,315,882 10.46% 8,531 12.1% 308 15.0%

Upper Franconia Bayreuth 1,067,988 8.49% 7,231 10.2% 214 10.4%

Middle Franconia Ansbach 1,717,670 13.65% 7,245 10.3% 210 10.2%

Upper Palatinate Regensburg 1,081,800 8.60% 9,691 13.7% 226 11.0%

Swabia Augsburg 1,788,729 14.21% 9,992 14.2% 340 16.5%

Upper Bavaria Munich 4,418,828 35.12% 17,530 24.8% 500 24.3%

Total 12,583,538 100.0% 70,549 100.0% 2,056 100.0%

Districts

Bezirke (districts) are the third communal layer in Bavaria; the others are the Landkreise and the Gemeinden or Städte. The Bezirke in Bavaria are territorially identical with the Regierungsbezirke, but they are self-governing regional corporation, having their own parliaments. In the other larger states of Germany, there are Regierungsbezirke which are only administrative divisions and not self-governing entities as the Bezirke in Bavaria.

Counties

The second communal layer is made up of 71 rural districts (called Landkreise, singular Landkreis) that are comparable to counties, as well as the 25 independent cities (Kreisfreie Städte, singular Kreisfreie Stadt), both of which share the same administrative responsibilities .

Map of the Landkreise of Bavaria

Rural districts:

Aichach-Friedberg

Altötting

Amberg-Sulzbach

Ansbach

Aschaffenburg

Augsburg

Bad Kissingen

Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen

Bamberg

Bayreuth

Berchtesgadener Land

Cham

Coburg

Dachau

Deggendorf

Dillingen

Dingolfing-Landau

Donau-Ries

Ebersberg

Eichstätt

Erding

Erlangen-Höchstadt

Forchheim

Freising

Freyung-Grafenau

Fürstenfeldbruck

Fürth

Garmisch-Partenkirchen

Günzburg

Hassberge

Hof

Kelheim

Kitzingen

Kronach

Kulmbach

Landsberg

Landshut

Lichtenfels

Lindau

Main-Spessart

Miesbach

Miltenberg

Mühldorf

München (Landkreis München)

Neuburg-Schrobenhausen

Neumarkt

Neustadt (Aisch)-Bad Windsheim

Neustadt an der Waldnaab

Neu-Ulm

Nürnberger Land

Oberallgäu

Ostallgäu

Passau

Pfaffenhofen

Regen

Regensburg

Rhön-Grabfeld

Rosenheim

Roth

Rottal-Inn

Schwandorf

Schweinfurt

Starnberg

Straubing-Bogen

Tirschenreuth

Traunstein

Unterallgäu

Weilheim-Schongau

Weissenburg-Gunzenhausen

Wunsiedel

Würzburg

Independent cities:

Amberg

Ansbach

Aschaffenburg

Augsburg

Bamberg

Bayreuth

Coburg

Erlangen

Fürth

Hof

Ingolstadt

Kaufbeuren

Kempten

Landshut

Memmingen

Munich (München)

Nuremberg (Nürnberg)

Passau

Regensburg

Rosenheim

Schwabach

Schweinfurt

Straubing

Weiden

Würzburg

Municipalities

The 71 administrative districts are on the lowest level divided into 2,031 regular municipalities (called Gemeinden, singular Gemeinde). Together with the 25 independent cities (kreisfreie Städte, which are in effect municipalities independent of Landkreis administrations), there are a total of 2,056 municipalities in Bavaria.

Munich

Nuremberg

Augsburg

Regensburg

In 44 of the 71 administrative districts, there are a total of 215 unincorporated areas (as of 1 January 2005, called gemeindefreie Gebiete, singular gemeindefreies Gebiet), not belonging to any municipality, all uninhabited, mostly forested areas, but also four lakes (Chiemsee-without islands, Starnberger See-without island Roseninsel, Ammersee, which are the three largest lakes of Bavaria, and Waginger See).

Major cities and towns

City Region Inhabitants

(2000) Inhabitants

(2005) Inhabitants

(2010) Inhabitants

(2015) Change

(%)

Munich Upper Bavaria 1,210,223 1,259,677 1,353,186 1,450,381 +11.81

Nuremberg Middle Franconia 488,400 499,237 505,664 509,975 +3.53

Augsburg Swabia 254,982 262,676 264,708 286,374 +3.81

Regensburg Upper Palatinate 125,676 129,859 135,520 145,465 +7.83

Ingolstadt Upper Bavaria 115,722 121,314 125,088 132,438 +8.09

Würzburg Lower Franconia 127,966 133,906 133,799 124,873 +4.56

Fürth Middle Franconia 110,477 113,422 114,628 124,171 +3.76

Erlangen Middle Franconia 100,778 103,197 105,629 108,336 +4.81

Bayreuth Upper Franconia 74,153 73,997 72,683 72,148 −1.98

Bamberg Upper Franconia 69,036 70,081 70,004 73,331 +1.40

Aschaffenburg Lower Franconia 67,592 68,642 68,678 68,986 +1.61

Landshut Lower Bavaria 58,746 61,368 63,258 69,211 +7.68

Kempten Swabia 61,389 61,360 62,060 66,947 +1.09

Rosenheim Upper Bavaria 58,908 60,226 61,299 61,844 +4.06

Neu-Ulm Swabia 50,188 51,410 53,504 57,237 +6.61

Schweinfurt Lower Franconia 54,325 54,273 53,415 51,969 −1.68

Passau Lower Bavaria 50,536 50,651 50,594 50,566 +0.11

Freising Upper Bavaria 40,890 42,854 45,223 46,963 +10.60

Straubing Lower Bavaria 44,014 44,633 44,450 46,806 +0.99

Dachau Upper Bavaria 38,398 39,922 42,954 46,705 +11.87