Bavaria celebrated the 75th anniversary of the Bavarian constitution on Wednesday in Munich with a ceremony that largely had to take place without an audience present. State Parliament President Ilse Aigner (CSU) praised the constitution as an “excellent building plan” for the Free State of Bavaria. “It is incredibly well written, it is still up to date and a very good basis for our life together.” “A constitution is written law. But it has to be fulfilled by the people,” said Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) at the ceremony.
The President of the Federal Constitutional Court, Stephan Harbarth, pointed out that the Constitution of the Free State of Bavaria, enacted in 1946 before the Basic Law of the Federal Republic and conceived as a full constitution, contains a large catalog of basic rights and also elements of direct citizen democracy. For 75 years the constitution has formed the “foundation of the values of the Free State of Bavaria,” said Harbarth. In fact, at least some of the passages seem surprisingly up-to-date: the 188-article text, which was directly legitimized by the people after its creation, contains, for example, an obligation to volunteer, but also the right to a suitable apartment – a burning one in times of housing shortage daily political problem. The constitution also has something in store for the hungry: Article 141 stipulates that “the appropriation of wild forest fruits to a local extent” is permitted to everyone.