A tale of mountains and intrigues – Bavarian-German relations and the quest of finding a chancellor candidate

Germany is a state located in central Europe, a country known for customs like punctuality, seriousness (often confused with absence of humour), using Mozilla Firefox as their browser or constantly talking about the weather – and also a federal parliamentary republic, consisting of 16 federal states. Being the geographically biggest of those states and with long- and far-reaching historical roots, Bavaria has always sought to occupy an exceptional position in the country’s system – politically and culturally – often accompanied by tensions with the rest of Germany. The complicated process of finding a chancellor candidate for the federal elections in 2025 that the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) experienced is a revealing example of the unique dynamics between both sides not only evident in the political sphere.

Tilman Voss

Disclaimer: What is the first image that comes to your mind when you think about German culture? Might it be people dressed in funny costumes drinking beer from large glasses standing in a huge tent? If yes, this text might be interesting for you!

United in conservatism – or not?

„Friedrich Merz is doing it. I am fine with that and strongly support it“. With this statement during a joint press conference in September, Bavarian Minister-President and leader of the Christian Social Union (CSU) Markus Söder ended what had been a covert dispute stretching for months about who would represent the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and run for the post of chancellor in the 2025 German federal elections. With these elections casting their shadows ahead, parties all over the political spectrum are starting to announce their frontrunners. As the incumbent government – the “traffic light” coalition, consisting of the Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen) and the Liberals (FDP) – experiences record-high disapproval ratings among the German public, more radical parties like the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) or the newly founded left-wing populist Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) are soaring in polls. 

However, the party that will most likely come out strongest is the CDU, the party of chancellor Angela Merkel that was last in power between 2005 and 2021. With more than a 10-percent-lead in current polls, the conservative party is preparing for its return to office. This is, however, under the precondition that both the CDU and CSU will be able to harmoniously agree on a candidate and support this person – unlike 2021.

That year, five months before the elections, the CDU was still closing in on a person to take on the heir of Merkel. The stage seemed set for a continuation of the party’s success, as it enjoyed an almost astronomical lead of more than 20 per cent in polls, with an estimated 38 per cent of votes. Two candidates had publicly voiced their interest in the post of chancellor candidate: Armin Laschet, minister-president of the western federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, and, already then, Markus Söder. As there was naturally only one spot for both of them, both candidates started an intra-party campaign – which only lasted nine days, until Laschet was officially announced as candidate.

Söder, believed by many to have a bigger chance of being successful in the elections, however refused to submit and offer his support to Laschet. Instead, he repeatedly attacked his competitor, questioning his suitability as a chancellor and his chances of success. From backhanded compliments to direct attacks, Söder used the whole range of his vicious rhetorical toolbox. Consequently, Laschet saw himself on the defensive throughout his campaign – also due to several incidents that were rightfully met with public criticism, opening him up to further attacks by rival parties. One of these scandals occurred in July 2021, when after the tragic flooding catastrophe in the Ahr Valley that took more than 150 lives, Laschet was seen laughing it off with a couple of firemen in the background of German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who was giving a speech mourning the victims. 

The persisting intra- and inter-party quarrels that accompanied Laschet’s candidacy severely hampered the CDU’s campaign, which saw voters' trust plummeting together with poll results. In an unexpected comeback, the SPD around candidate Olaf Scholz, who had been largely lagging behind in polls with only 15 per cent, managed to overtake the conservatives in the last weeks before the vote. Scholz’s 2021 strategy of being publicly temperate and cautious about commenting on most political issues and promoting basic moral values like “respect” turned out to be the right one, contrasting the overheated debates around the CDU candidate with what then seemed like a calm and confident persona. While the Social Democrats came out strongest in the elections, the CDU and CSU stood defeated – and slightly fooled.

Maybe this is the moment where a reader not familiar with the intricacies of German politics might pose the following questions: Why does a member of the CSU even have the opportunity to run as a CDU candidate – and why is there “naturally” only one spot? For that, one has to look into the past: both CDU and CSU were founded shortly after World War II, when the Western Allied Forces allowed the rebuilding of a German political party landscape inside their occupation zones – a landscape which had been a totalitarian wasteland between 1933 and 1945. The CDU founded regional associations in most West German regions – except for Bavaria, where the CSU was established as the “main” conservative party. When the CDU united its branches and founded itself on a state level in 1950, it also invited the CSU to join, which refused. Due to their strong thematic coherence, both parties still entered into a cooperative arrangement, which involved the CDU not being politically active inside Bavaria and the CSU only being politically active there. The parties also agreed to support only one chancellor candidate in elections. This approach has repeatedly been contested by the CSU, but ultimately remained intact until today.

The federal system of Germany naturally gives the 16 states a considerable amount of autonomy and power to influence national politics. The reason why especially Bavaria, the geographically largest federal state located in south-east Germany, repeatedly finds itself at the centre of political and cultural disputes, and why some even wish it to be “kicked out of Germany”, can be found in the eventful history of both Bavaria and Germany, which traces back a long time.

A differing yet intertwined history

Both contemporary Germany and Bavaria stem from one historic predecessor: the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, which existed between the 9th and the beginning of the 19th century. This “empire” was not a unitary state, but rather a decentralised amalgamation of monarchies, free cities and theocratic polities with only a few common institutions, determined to secure peace and stability in Central Europe. Inside the polity, people would find different time zones, currencies, languages, or armies. When the empire collapsed after France invaded it under emperor Napoleon in 1806, five kingdoms remained – among them the newly proclaimed Kingdom of Bavaria under the reigning dynasty of the Wittelsbach Family who, for a certain period, even assumed power over the Kingdom of Greece: after its creation in 1832, Bavarian prince Otto I. became the country's first king, leading it for thirty years to come. 

However, just like Otto’s reign in Greece, Bavaria’s time as an independent kingdom was limited. The northern kingdom of Prussia, in union with other kingdoms and under the leadership of Bismarck, began to move militarily, economically and politically towards ever closer cooperation and integration. It saw itself as the representative of the ´German nation´, a sentiment fuelled by the nationalistic revolution of 1848, and promoted a “reunification” of German-speaking state entities. After the Franco-Prussian-war of 1870/71, which saw the Prussian side come out victorious, Bavaria, who had previously been aligned with France on foreign policy and military issues but in that war already supported the Prussian side by independently declaring war on the Second French Empire – to the surprise of the emperor in Paris – was given no other chance than to join the newly founded, Prussian-led “German Empire” as a federal state. 

King Ludwig II., under whose reign the subjugation was lashed down, is said to have fallen into a deep depression over said decision. In the coming years, until his mysterious death in a lake south of Munich in 1886, he would turn to only realising architectural projects in the Bavarian Alps (and financially ruining himself in doing so). These projects are today known under names such as “Neuschwanstein,” “Herrnchiemsee,” or “Linderhof”, and attract millions of tourists. 

CAPTION: Schloss Neuschwanstein near Füssen (Bavaria). Today, the castle attracts more than 1.4 million visitors per year

Bavaria saw its own “national” awakening during the 19th century, fostered by the kings in order to stabilise the new kingdom and justify their rule. This was done through promoting traditional costumes (the “Tracht”), which were increasingly visible in the public sphere, and the re-appropriation of old customs to create their own national identity. During the same time, cities like the capital Munich would become cosmopolitan cultural hotspots, while the initially very rural kingdom would transform into an economic powerhouse and already started to gain traction as a tourist destination for those wanting to experience the beautiful and rough nature of the Bavarian Alps – be it in hiking shoes in summer or on skies in winter.

Bavaria would officially exist as a kingdom until the end of World War I in 1918, when the reigning king Ludwig III. gave up the crown. After a brief and violent socialist intermezzo of the “People’s Republic of Bavaria” and later “Bavarian Soviet Republic”, Bavaria became a part of the Weimar Republic as a “Free State” in 1919 – and a hotbed for national socialism. That year, the National Socialist Workers Party (NSDAP) was founded in Munich – the party, which under Hitler would seize power in 1933. It was also in Munich in 1923 that Hitler’s first, and unsuccessful coup, the Beer Hall Putsch, took place. Back then, its organisers only received short prison sentences thanks to Bavarian judges sympathising with their cause. Hitler himself would only spend around two years in prison for the attempted coup – still enough time for him to draft his racist and inhumane manifesto “Mein Kampf”. During the Third Reich, Bavaria was assigned a special role as the “homeland” of the Nazi party. Munich and Nuremberg stood out in their propaganda – Munich as the “Hauptstadt der Bewegung” (capital of the movement) and Nuremberg as the place where the racial laws of 1935 that would lay the groundwork for the murder of millions during the Holocaust were promulgated. 

After the end of World War II and the fall of the Nazi regime, Bavaria became part of the American Occupation Zone and saw the establishment of the CSU. The party, although winning every state election in Bavaria since 1957, only twice set a chancellor candidate. The first one was Franz-Josef Strauss, one of the most well-known CSU politicians in Germany and party leader from 1961 until his death in 1988. He competed in the 1980 federal elections against SPD candidate Helmut Schmidt – and lost. This, however, didn’t torpedo his sainthood as “Father” of Bavaria, which he acquired and curated during his life. The second CSU politician to run was Edmund Stoiber in 2002, who lost against SPD candidate Gerhard Schröder. 

It’s not only politics, dear! 

As we know from nationalist studies, the creation of a national identity fosters pride for and a strong connection of people to their “homeland”. This also applies to Bavaria, where many consider themselves as local patriots. Among other things, this implies that tensions between Bavaria and Germany are not limited to the political sphere. Culturally, differences in tradition persist – and so do prejudices. Both sides like to point out the negative about each other: while Bavarians are often said to be arrogant and snobby while being very conservative and old-fashioned (not in a good way), the image of the rest of Germany inside Bavaria is no more positive. Coining them as “Prussians” (in Bavarian: “die Preissn”), Bavarians like to describe the rest of Germany as poor, uncultured, and stupid.

An example of how different perceptions can be is the case of Germany’s most popular festival: While most Bavarians are very proud of the 200-year-long history of the Oktoberfest, which attracts millions of visitors each year and seems to have become an internationally accepted signifier of Germany (an assumption confirmed by the (Bavarian) author who often hears the sentence “Oh wow, I would love to go to the Oktoberfest” after revealing himself as a German to internationals), the rest of Germany looks with despair at the infamous alcohol excesses. The animosity continues in other fields such as football, where the FC Bayern München, as the country’s record league champion, embodies for many the true “southern arrogance”. Surely, most of these disputes and accusations are ultimately ironic, but does irony not always have a true core?

Regardless of all the quarrelling, Bavaria enjoys a huge popularity as a tourist destination for Germans – something that ultimately surely contributes to this “Bavarian arrogance” – because how could they be humble, they live in the most beautiful part of Germany where everybody wants to go on vacations, right?

Oh wait, it’s actually always politics

Markus Söder, minister-president since 2018, seems to be the perfect embodiment of this “Bavarian” spirit and someone keen to further fuel it. Trying to put himself in line with the “father” Franz-Josef Strauss, he is frequently emphasising his strong connection to Bavaria. His opinion of Bavaria is no less glorious – for him, it is “the most beautiful country, the strongest country,…” – the list goes on. He has repeatedly stressed that he would always want to stay in Bavaria, a statement not really in line with his ambitions to take on office in Berlin. In general, Söder is quite flexible when it comes to his political positions, which can be adjusted at any moment – but the interests of Bavaria unquestionably always come out on top. One of Söder’s favourite topics is the equalisation payments between German federal states aiming to foster regional development. Indeed, he never tires of pointing out that Bavaria is the biggest donor in that scheme and calling for a systemic reform.

Söder’s political style can be described as populist and very much tailored to himself. He puts a lot of work into his own social media presence, where he can be observed posting his food, singing with ABBA holograms in Stockholm, cutting up kebab, giving away T-shirts that show him serve kebab, or – of course – posting pictures of him in what he calls “the most beautiful country in the world”. 

CAPTION: Markus Söder, Minister-President of Bavaria, at a public meeting

In his discourses, Söder does play with elements of nationalism, but does this imply that he is a nationalistic leader, maybe even keen on secession? While complaints about equalisation payments might remind one of Catalonian separatists (“espanya ens roba”), readers should not worry. Bavaria is certainly not looking to secede from Germany. It rather takes the German approach to revolutions, which was described by Lenin in the poignant sentence: “If Germans want to storm a train station, they will buy a ticket beforehand”, as a blueprint. Furthermore, the German Constitutional Court ruled in 2017 that it would be illegal for Bavaria to leave Germany anyway – and of course, one abides by law! Still, a 2017 survey undertaken in all German federal states that asked about attitudes towards a possible separation from Germany concluded its highest positive turnout in Bavaria (32 per cent).

Concluding this piece and turning back towards the upcoming elections and the prospects of the CDU, it is obvious that Söder and the CSU will play their role in this campaign. For now, he is supporting Merz, and it seems that he decided to direct his attacks towards the Greens - almost no day goes by without him making the party responsible for virtually anything not going to plan in Germany. However, his extraordinary flexibility when it comes to fine-tuning his own political positions when offered a chance to profit from it certainly has the potential to again jeopardise the CDU's hopes of re-entering government. Regardless of Söder, what remains certain is that the relationship between Germany and Bavaria will continue to produce – sometimes more, sometimes less – enjoyable drama and keep the public on their toes.