Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of 70,550.19 km2 (27,239.58 sq mi), Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total land area of Germany. With over 13 million inhabitants it is the second most populous German state behind North Rhine-Westphalia, but due to its large physical size its population density is below the German average. Major cities include Munich, Nuremberg, and Augsburg.
The Landtag of Bavaria, officially known in English as the Bavarian State Parliament, is the unicameral legislature of the German state of Bavaria. The parliament meets in the Maximilianeum in Munich.
The Bavarian People's Party was a Catholic political party in Bavaria during the Weimar Republic. After the collapse of the German Empire in 1918, it split away from the national-level Catholic Centre Party and formed the BVP in order to pursue a more conservative and particularist Bavarian course. It consistently had more seats in the Bavarian state parliament than any other party and provided all Bavarian minister presidents from 1920 on. In the national Reichstag it remained a minor player with only about three percent of total votes in all elections. The BVP disbanded shortly after the Nazi seizure of power in early 1933.
In the fourteen years the Weimar Republic was in existence, some forty parties were represented in the Reichstag. This fragmentation of political power was in part due to the use of a peculiar proportional representation electoral system that encouraged regional or small special interest parties and in part due to the many challenges facing the nascent German democracy in this period.
Georg Ratzinger was a German Catholic priest, political economist, social reformer, author and politician. He saw the gospel and Catholic social teaching as a means of empowering the poor.
The Kingdom of Bavaria was a German state that succeeded the former Electorate of Bavaria in 1806 and continued to exist until 1918. With the unification of Germany into the German Empire in 1871, the kingdom became a federated state of the new empire and was second in size, power, and wealth only to the leading state, the Kingdom of Prussia.
Hans Schemm was an educator who became a prominent Nazi Party official. He served as Gauleiter of Gau Bayreuth and Bavarian State Minister for Education and Culture until his death in an airplane accident.
The Bayernliga is the highest amateur football league and the second highest football league in the state of Bavaria and the Bavarian football league system. It is one of fourteen Oberligas in German football, the fifth tier of the German football league system. Until the introduction of the 3. Liga in 2008 it was the fourth tier of the league system, until the introduction of the Regionalligas in 1994 the third tier.
The Bavarian football league system of the Bavarian Football Association ranks within the German football league system. Its highest division, the Regionalliga Bayern, is currently the fourth tier of German football. The lowest league in Bavaria is currently the C-Klasse, which is the 12th tier of German football.
Heinrich Held was a German Catholic politician and Minister President of Bavaria. He was forced out of office by the Nazi takeover in Germany in 1933.
The Gauliga Bayern was the highest association football league in the German state of Bavaria from 1933 to 1945. Shortly after the formation of the league, the Nazis reorganised the administrative regions in Germany, and the five GaueBayreuth, Munich-Upper Bavaria, Swabia, Main Franconia and Franconiade facto replaced the state of Bavaria which remained only as a symbolic region.
Bavarian branch lines comprised nearly half the total railway network in Bavaria, a state in the southeastern Germany that was a kingdom in the days of the German Empire. The construction era for branch lines lasted from 1872, when the first route, from Siegelsdorf to Langenzenn, was opened, to 1930, when the last section of the branch from Gößweinstein to Behringersmühle went operational.
The Bayernliga, the fifth tier of the German football league system and highest football league in the state of Bavaria, has had four teams annually promoted to the league, the champions of the three Landesligas, and a fourth club, determined by an annual promotion round. It involved the runners-up from the three Landesligas and the team in the Oberliga placed right above the relegation ranks.
The Under 15 Bayernliga is the highest level of competition for under 15 football teams in Bavaria and the second tier of the Southern German league system, set below the Under 15 Regionalliga Süd.
The Kreisliga Bayern was the highest association football league in the German Kingdom of Bavaria and, later, the state of Bavaria from 1909 to 1923. The league was disbanded with the introduction of the Bezirksliga Bayern in 1923.
The 2. Amateurliga Bayern was a set of eleven regional leagues in Bavaria existing from 1951 to 1963 as the fourth tier of football in the state.
Anton Memminger (1846–1923) was a German author, publisher and politician. In his Swiss period he used the alias "Oswald Stein".
The Bavarian Order of Merit is the Order of Merit of the Free State of Bavaria. It is awarded by the Minister-President of Bavaria as a "recognition of outstanding contributions to the Free State of Bavaria and the Bavarian people".
The Bavarian Football Association, the BFV, is one of 21 regional organisations of the German Football Association, the DFB, and covers the state of Bavaria. It was formed as an independent association on 4 February 1949 but its origins date back to 1945.
Johann Baptist Sigl (1839–1902) was a Bavarian journalist, publicist and politician. He was a co-founder of the Bavarian Peasants' League and a member of the Reichstag and the Landtag of Bavaria. He also founded the Catholic-Bavarian newspaper Das Bayerische Vaterland in 1869.
