With an area of 70,550 square kilometers, the Free State of Bavaria is the largest state in the Federal Republic of Germany. Even in a European comparison, Bavaria ranks quite high. Switzerland, for example, but also countries such as the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, Slovakia and Croatia are significantly smaller in terms of area than the German state of Bavaria.
Surprisingly, Bavaria’s land area has hardly changed in the past 200 years. The historical borders have remained largely stable, although Europe has been ravaged by many wars, which have resulted in border shifts in many places. The largest territorial changes in Bavaria’s recent history resulted from the accession of the Free State of Coburg in 1920. Secondly, after the Second World War, the Rhine Palatinate was lost, i.e. the area on the left bank of the Rhine around Speyer and Zweibrücken. The Palatinate is now part of the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
Today, the Free State of Bavaria extends over a maximum of 260 kilometers from west to east and almost 370 kilometers from north to south. If you want to follow the Bavarian state border on foot, by bike or by car, you should have a lot of stamina. In this case you have to cover a distance of 2705 kilometers.
If you look back at the early days of Bavaria, i.e. up to the first tribal duchy a good 1500 years ago, it is striking how often the borders have shifted since then. However, it should be noted that there were hardly any visible national borders in the Middle Ages. At that time, historians explain, there were no closed territories, but there was a strong mixture of different sovereign rights. The significance of the national borders only grew with the consolidation of statehood in the early modern period.
The first Bavarian dukes from the Agilolfinger tribe extended their rule to South Tyrol and to the Enns. In the 10th century, the Bavarian duchy, which stretched far into today’s Austria, reached down to the Adriatic Sea.
With the Wittelsbachs came the territorial state
After the Wittelsbach dynasty came to power in 1180, the transition from tribal duchy to territorial state took place. The country then experienced a strong increase in power during the time of the Counter-Reformation in the 16th and 17th centuries. Bavaria did not only emerge from the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) with territorial growth. In 1623 it was also rewarded with promotion to the electorate.
In the Napoleonic era, Bavaria initially sided with France, which rewarded the vassal with territorial expansion. When the electorate became a kingdom in 1806, it reached its greatest extent. In addition to the newly added Franconian and Swabian areas, Bavaria now also included Tyrol and the principalities of Brixen and Trento.
By switching to the side of Napoleon’s opponents, Bavaria was able to largely preserve its possessions. Although it ceded the Hausruck and Inn districts, parts of Tyrol and a large part of the Prince-Bishopric of Salzburg to Austria in 1816, Bavaria received the Rhine Palatinate on the left bank of the Rhine in return. All in all, a closed Bavarian state area consisting of two blocks was created, which was even larger than today’s Free State. Minister Maximilian Graf von Montgelas (1759-1838) laid the foundations for a modern state in it.