Exchange of blows between the parties
“Bavaria is unique, Bavaria is a paradise” – the origins of Political Ash Wednesday
Political Ash Wednesday of the CSU 2015: Horst Seehofer raises his beer mug in the Dreiländerhalle in Passau
© Sebastian Widmann / Imago Images
The party meetings on so-called Political Ash Wednesday go back to a centuries-old tradition. Things have always been hearty, downright rowdy.
In 2017, the Bavarian Prime Minister and CSU chairman said Horst Seehofer on Political Ash Wednesday: “Bavaria has the highest mountain in Germany and the lowest debt. Bavaria is unique, Bavaria is a paradise.” The main goal in the following months will be the motto “Bayern first”. And at least the last part is also true for the origin of Political Ash Wednesday: it was celebrated for the first time in Bavaria.
The event dates back to 1888, according to a chronicle in the Historical Lexicon of Bavaria (HLB). That year, the Vilshofen district beekeepers’ association held a “(political) meeting” on the sidelines of the annual livestock market. In addition to numerous farmers, this also attracted many “normal visitors”.
Political Ash Wednesday after the November Revolution
The first real political Ash Wednesday, which was exclusively about politics, took place on March 5, 1919 in the “ongoing turmoil following the consequences” of the November Revolution of 1918. The Bavarian Farmers’ Association invited people to a public meeting on Ash Wednesday. The fight between the “Central Council of the Republic of Bavaria” and the state parliament for power in Bavaria also took place here, with the farmers’ association campaigning for a council system.
Between 1933 and 1937, it was no longer just the Farmers’ Union that held a rally, but also the KPD and NSDAP. And after the National Socialists were brought into line, only the NSDAP remained.
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After the founding of the Federal Republic, the Bavarian Party and the CSU in particular got into trouble on Ash Wednesday. The meeting finally gained media notoriety through Franz Josef Strauss (CSU). From 1953 to 1988 he was “the Ash Wednesday speaker” who “caused enormous popularity.” With him, the legendary speech battles that established the reputation of the political spectacle developed.
In 1976, for example, Strauss said: “Away with the red idiots,” referring to the social democratic opponent. From then on, a number of Ash Wednesday speakers took their example from this crass style. Andreas Scheuer (CSU) also gave his opinion about social democrats in 2018: “The socialist is actually not stupid in principle. He just has a lot of bad luck when it comes to thinking.”
Beyond Bavaria’s borders
But it’s not just the CSU and the Bavarian Party that maintain or maintain the Ash Wednesday tradition, and it’s not just in Bavaria that people rumble on this day. The SPD, FDP, Greens, ÖDP, Free Voters, AfD, Republicans, Pirate and Left parties have also invited people to a rhetorical exchange on this date in the past.
Over the years, the once purely Lower Bavarian Ash Wednesday tradition has spread to large parts of Germany. There are countless large and small events and rallies up and down the country that day.
For 2024, the DPA news agency quotes the words of former Bundestag President Norbert Lammert, who was invited to speak, from the Saxon CDU’s invitation: “The stability of a democratic system is not – and certainly not alone – guaranteed by a successful constitutional text, but by the determination of its citizens and citizens, to consider the validity of this constitutional order and its rules to be even more important than the enforcement of their own interests.”
It remains to be seen whether all democratic parties and their speakers will join this appeal. This year too, there will be no shortage of contentious controversies in the exchange of blows on Political Ash Wednesday.
Sources: HLB, “Southgerman newspaper”