On December 1, 1946, the Bavarian constitution was adopted in a referendum. It was thanks to the American military government that the democratic reorganization of Bavaria succeeded shortly after the end of the war. She quickly set the course for elections to be held and a constitution drawn up. This is what the American Consul General Timothy Liston pointed out in a speech on Constitutional Day. He praised the American occupation of Bavaria in the post-war period as a unique success story. That was not a matter of course after the Nazi atrocities and the hardship that prevailed in the country. If Henry Morgenthau’s plan to turn Germany into a decentralized agricultural state had come into effect, Germany would have been treated as a defeated, not a liberated, country, Liston said. Instead, the military government left it to the Bavarians themselves to shape a new democracy at all levels, which proved successful in the long term. The economic miracle and democratization didn’t come by themselves, Liston continued. Without American influence, the republic would look very different today. The population managed the country’s upswing. But the most important prerequisite was to create the right framework conditions. All of Liston’s speech can be heard at the virtual constitution ceremony on the Internet (www.bayerische-einigung.de).
Constitution Day: How enemies became friends – Bavaria
