Bavaria ~ Detailed History ~ Weimar and the Third Reich

Bavaria ~ Detailed History ~ Weimar and the Third Reich

Bundesarchiv Bild 152-08-35, Dachau, Konzentrationslager, Besuch Himmlers (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As the Great War ended the German monarchies fell, and Bavaria became a Free State in a federal Germany.   Bavaria lost some territory when, under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, 1919, the western districts of the Pfalz region were added to the Saar District, the coal mining region that was detached from Germany, at least for fifteen years, and its economic output added to the French economy.   In the north Coburg opted to join Bavaria rather than the united Land of Thüringen when it was formed in 1920.

Many Bavarian politicians disliked the Weimar Republic as too Red, and a conservative, monarchical separatism was widespread there, but Bavaria remained in the Republic.   With the Nazi takeover in 1933 not only was a more virulently right-wing regime in power than most Bavarian conservatives wanted but it was also one that utterly rejected the separatism so many conservative Bavarians desired.

In Nazi Germany the state government survived in Bavaria simply for administrative purposes, but without self-rule, being placed under a Governor appointed by Hitler.   Had the Third Reich lasted rather more of its intended thousand years the probability is that the Nazi Party Gaue (those in the Bavarian region were Bayerische Ostmark, München-Oberbayern, Schwaben, Franken, Main-Franken, and Pfalz, which joined up with the Saarland to form the Gau of Saarpfalz), which were the centres of such local political power as existed, would also have become the administrative units into which the country was divided.   Old Bavaria would have been abolished.