: LAND OF BAROQUE AND BEE

Largest Land

Bavaria is the largest of the Federal = &A~ Republic's ten Laender, with 70,550 /:=: ~-.6Jilobflttn:$ square kilometers; and second (af­ J ter North Rhine-Westphalia) in mai n poputation, with 10.5 million persons. Its capital, cultural center and main population center is , Ger­ many's third largest city.

The state is divided into two halves, north and south, l:>y .t!_le Riv­ er . I ts sout hern b"Or der; w1tl'l"""A11s­ tr ia, is formed by the Alps, a re- gion of tourism and dairy farmin§. Extending away from the Alps, to t he Danube, is a broad, relatively revel stretch of land, containing the cit ies of Munich and Augsburg; a number of lsrge lakes (Ammersee, Starnberger See, ) and, in the west, the former duchy of Swabia. North of the Danube is the picturesque for mer duchy of Fran­ conia, with the popular Romantic Road, and the cities of Nuernberg and Wuerzburg. The northern and eastern border is formed by a series of quiet, forested hills: the Frank­ enwald, Fichtelgebirge, Oberpfael­ zer Wald and Bavarian Forest. Ba­ varia borders here on Thuringia, now in East ; and Bohe­ mia, which is part of Czechoslovakia.

T he typical Bavarian- if there is Deep Conservatism Off In the Corner one- lives in the area south of the Danube and east of Swabia. He The two groups have something·ln ~ Bavaria is a major center of both ,.,,.ars a costume that developed common: a deep conservatism that Germa·ny's aerospace and electrical manifest s it self i n Bavaria's own f r om hunting clothing, comes from industries, and also produces preci­ political par ty, the CSU. T his party, a f arming background and has a sion instruments, chemical products long headed by Franz Josef St rauss, per sonality that is deeply rooted and automobiles. It suffers econom• is the most conservative of the four in the soil. He is pictured as being ical ly by bei ng way off in a corner of represented in t he Bonn Parliament, an easy going fellow, with an air the Common Market bloc, with long and has governed without of beery friendliness about him. Bavaria shipping distances for its products. coa I ition dur::i ng nearly all of the T he Swabians and Franconians, by M ost of it borders w ith three non· y ears si nee the war. The CSU does · contrast, are thought to be people Market areas: East Germany, not exist outside Bavaria. It allies of diligence and shrewd business Czechoslavakia and Austria.· itself nationa lly w i t h the CDU, which, acumen. i n t urn, does not f ield candidates in This isolation is felt mos-t keenly in Bavaria. the border areas, east of Nuernberg and Munich, but this region w ill Munich has a population of 1.3 mil­ As in other Laender, the Bavarian eventua lly be opened by a f ine n~w lion, and is t he center of a met ro• government is headed by an execu• Autobahn system: with one super­ politan area of 2.1 million. Bavaria' s tive off icer known as a M inister• highway covering the Nuernberg• second center of population is around President. The current M i nister­ Regensburg_-Passau route, and an• Nurenberg, where there are 479,000 President is Dr. Alfons Goppel, a persons. Ot her cities of more than CSU whose party received 56.5 per• ot he_r coming out of Munich connect• 100,000 are Augsburg, Regens burg cent of t he vote i n the 1970 regional ing the Nuernberg-Passau Autoba hn and Wuerzburg. Bavaria has 48 election. The leg islative f unct ion i s at Dec;gendorf. It is also in this area communities officially desig nated handled by a regional parliament t hat we find a· dredging and canal as cities and, since July l, has had called t he . Other L aenders project to connect the M a in and 71-rvra-l distr icts catted Landkr eise~ - have La ndtags also, but Bavaria is Danube Rivers. By 1981 , this small Previously, t here were 143 Land• but im por tant link should allow river krelse, but the number has been u~1que i n that it also has an Upper boats t o go all t he way from the reduced for administr ative efficien• Cnamber, called the senate. Nort h Sea to the Black Sea. cy.