Bavaria, << buh VAYR ee uh, >> is a state in southeastern Germany. It covers 27,240 square miles (70,550 square kilometers) and has a population of 12,397,614. The German name for Bavaria is Bayern.
Munich is Bavaria’s largest city and its capital. Nuremberg, the second largest Bavarian city, is famous for its toys and gingerbread. Other important Bavarian cities include Augsburg, Wurzburg, and Regensburg. Some of the famous towns in Bavaria include Bayreuth, Oberammergau, Berchtesgaden, and Dachau.
Most of the state is a plateau surrounded and broken by mountains. The Bavarian Alps blend into the Tirolese Alps at the Austrian border. The Zugspitze, Germany’s highest peak, stands in these mountains. It rises 9,721 feet (2,963 meters) above sea level. Bavaria is drained by the Danube and Main rivers.
Bavaria has a strong and varied economy. Its businesses manufacture electronic products, optical instruments, and many other products. Munich is a center for printing and publishing. Tourism contributes much to the state’s economy. Many thousands of people visit its beautiful mountains and lakes each year.
Bavaria is Germany’s leading agricultural region. Farms in Bavaria produce such crops as barley, hay, hops, oats, potatoes, rye, and wheat. Hops are used in the production of beer, an important product of Bavaria.
Bavaria has been a duchy, a kingdom, a republic, and a state at various times in its history. The region was first inhabited by the Celts. It became a duchy of Germany after Germanic tribes invaded it in the 500’s. Bavarian dukes ruled the duchy from 911 to 1180, when it came into the hands of the Wittelsbach family. The French leader Napoleon Bonaparte made Bavaria a kingdom in 1806. It became a state of the German Empire when Germany was unified in 1871. After World War I (1914-1918), it was briefly a republic, and then part of Germany again. The Allies invaded Bavaria in World War II (1939-1945), and United States troops occupied it after Germany surrendered. Later, Bavaria became a West German state. West Germany and East Germany unified in 1990.
