A Brief History of Bavaria by Gertrude Norman

A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA BY GERTRUDE NORMAN rma 1 MUNICH 1906 HEINRICH JAFFE Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from Microsoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/briefhistoryofbaOOnormiala A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA BY GERTRUDE NORMAN <2© MUNICH 1906 HEINRICH JAFFE NOTE. The authoress begs to acknowledge her gratitude and indebtedness for the invaluable help afforded her by the following authors and their works Dr. William Preger, Dr. Winter, the Rev. S. Baring Gould, Mr. Cecil Headlam and Miss Frances Gerard. VT $01 DEDICATED BY KIND PERMISSION TO H. R. H. PRINCE GEORGE OF BAVARIA. „A humble token of esteem and admiration to the beautiful, ardent, progressive and artistic Kingdom of Bavaria from a sojourner in her midst." FOREWORD FOREWORD. There have been innumerable scholarly and scientific histories written on Bavaria, in German, and several excellent works on various phases of her remarkable history, and of the vivid per- sonalities which so invade her past, in English. The guide books which are to be found in all her more important towns and cities are very adequate, although of necessity much has to be left untold, owing to their size, and concentrated as they chiefly are on the one place in question. For instance Mr. Headlam's "Nuremberg", a truly significant and exquisite little work, and Miss Frances Gerard's "Romance of Ludwig II." (although the latter does contain several interesting details of the unfortunate Monarch's Kingdom, apart from Munich and the curious castles which he built). There are various other works, too, dealing with the stories of Bayreuth, Oberammer- gau, Munich &c. ; but a want has been expressed for a small work which would contain as it were, and concentrate into a small edition, outlines of all these various subjects and places. It is there- fore the aim and object of this little volume to give as clearly and concisely as possible the chief VI FOREWORD points and periods of interest in the rather compli- cated history of Bavaria, the salient features most interesting to visitors to her more important cities and towns, dwelling shortly on their churches, museums, galleries, monuments, most notable men, their lives and work, and in fact endea- vouring to give some impression of their atmosphere, past and present. A study of her four Kings will of course be given; her gift to the world of many great artists and art works, and her three chief Festival towns, Munich, Bayreuth and Oberammergau. There are innumerable festi- vals, both religious and otherwise, often in memory of some legend or historical event, in almost all of the smaller towns and mountain or lake villages, and of course being a Roman Catholic country, the holidays everywhere are very fre- quent. The lives of the upper classes (political, social or military), the customs and existences of the peasants, the absorbing life of the university students, which latter plays such an important part in the education of the youth of Bavaria, and many other interesting subjects and customs must be omitted for lack of space. Bavaria is indeed pregnant with an all em- bracing interest ; her cities, towns, villages, mountain ranges and peaks so full of the romance of folk-lore, legend and the eternal tragedies of the past. The very atmosphere in which they exist is potent with an aroma of the most fascinating and awesome periods of the world's external and spiritual developement. Great tragedies indeed FOREWORD VII halo her, as the setting sun haloes the silent peaks, lifting her to heights of infinite grandeur in the annals of the strange and inscrutable ways of Destiny. Her country is so varied in its many sided beauties, her influence, artistically, theologically, musically and literary so wide spread and progressive, that one cannot hope to give but the barest outline of her infinite storehouse of treasures. One of her most significant and noble of spirits, Professor von Dollinger, said of Germany (and the saying is especially and curiously applicable to that part of the Empire wherein he was born, lived and worked), "Germany is the centre from which proceed the great ideas which sway the world. She attracts all thought within her scope, shapes it and sends it forth into the Universe clothed with a power which is her own. Her's is the battlefield upon which all the great in- tellectual contests have been fought." Let us consider for a moment in our heart's most serious and unprejudiced crypt, what we do indeed owe to her, this little Kingdom of Bavaria. She is the welcome home and haven of the student, a place of comprehension and aspiration to the artist, a well of eternal knowledge to the most erudite scholar, a Mecca and place of glory to the musician. All coming here find the com- pletest satisfaction, whether the following of history be the goal, literature, painting, sculpture or music, or merely sought as a retreat from the VIII FOREWORD too strenuous life of our Anglo-Saxon civilization, to a life where one can economically find and enjoy all the stored up riches, from the arts and sciences of all the ages, and meditatively culti- vate one's desire for a better and higher knowledge. It would take volumes to interpret rightly, fully and justly the glories of Bavaria, the heri- tage of her past, and the manifold attractions of her magnetic centre, Munich, so advanced with modern improvements, so fraught with mediaeval charm. One's praise must ever seem insufficient, and one's gratitude poor to the bounteous arms held out to us by a new country. There is as intense an element of mystery about it as great as the most mysterious event of one's life; before it one must bow. If this little work can be an incentive to dwell in Bavaria for a while, and an encouragement to study, from more profound sources, her beautiful and in-dwelling spirit, thus trending to a fuller, deeper, and wider comprehension of her place in the foremost ranks of the nations, we shall be more than repaid. G. N. CONTENTS IX CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Page Prehistoric Bavaria. The days of Celts and Romans. The Migrations. Developement under Agiiosinger, Carolingian, Saxon, Saliern and Welf rule .... I —29 CHAPTER II. Historical outline of the most salient events, and most illustrious Rulers of the Wittelsbach Dy- nasty 31 —64 CHAPTER III. Study of Bavaria's three Kings 65— 122 CHAPTER IV. Epics, Literature, Art, Architecture and Religion.. 123— 156 CHAPTER V. Bavaria's chief cities and characteristics. — Munich, Bayreuth, Nuremberg, Oberammergau, Augsburg, Regensburg, Rothenburg &c 157—215 I. "What is History, but a Fable agreed on." Napoleon. A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAVARIA "DEALING WITH PREHISTORIC BAVA- RIA, THE DAYS OF CELTS AND ROMANS, AND IT'S DEVELOPEMENT UNDER AGILOSINGER, CAROLINGIAN, SAXON, SALIERN AND WELF RULE." "The curtains of yesterday drop down; the curtains of tomorrow roll up; but yesterday and tomorrow both are; pierce into the Time-Element; glance into the Eternal." Carlyle. Mystery enshrouds the beginnings of all Eu- ropean countries! But in the Southern Germanic lands perhaps, the silence is the most profound. For "there is no beginning in our memory of the Celtic race". One's imagination must make a vast sweep to go back over the peaks of time, one thousand four hundred years before Christ, and even farther still, to the prehistoric period of Bavaria. But we must attempt this momentary vision, for it is only thus that we can trace her upward fluc- tuations and developement through the long centuries. , lifts. Slowly, slowly . the great veil Painfully, as if with reluctance. And through the enormous thick weaving mists, so long impenetrable, vast primeval shapes evolve, take indistinct form, draw i* 4 A BRIEF HISTORY OF BA VARIA silently near. Forbidding, ominous, as though full of a terrible wrath at being awakened from so long a sleep. The sleep of aeons! We peer through the well nigh inscrutable fogs of antiquity, expecting, yet fearing to hear some sound. But the vast shadows move in slow silence. Tradition will not speak behind that veil of illimitable age. The merest glimpse is vouchsafed of mighty prehistoric forms, creeping towards cre- puscular caves. Gigantic antediluvian creatures, silent witnesses to the still greater Power, indo- mitably onward moving, which controlled them. A horror enwraps us, such as that which sud- denly grips the soul when looking, on some deep isolated night, filled with a vague comprehension of cosmic space, into the dark infinities of the heavens. The great curtains descend! Leaving us im- pregnated with awe, mystery, wonder, and with also a key perhaps to certain depths of vision, primeval sensations, primitive energies, resistless powers, latent in the consciousness and which in these days, through the purification of ages, evolve themselves through thought, into ac- complishments of art, literature, carvings in stone, or the guiding forces of empires and democracies. Again a long silence. The ages move sombrely by ; like distant, dark and dominating clouds. Another curtain, more ephemeral, almost invisible, rises ; revealing a less dense mist, a clearer horizon . through it we PREHISTORIC BAVARIA see more movement, as of a vast mass of beings beginning to bestir themselves, and "carrying with them presentiments of uncreated forms". Above on granite peaks the symbolic Norns are tossing more swiftly the threads of Human Destiny. The air vibrates with the germinating of huge forces in motion. A subdued, but tremendous hum penetrates over the distances. Dull impotency, mere brute force, life without any looking upward, begins to vanish.

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