Munich in the Cobwebs of Berlin, Washington, and Moscow: Foreign Political Tendencies in Bavaria, 1917-1919

In the later phases of World War I, Bavaria became diplomatically active. Berlin’s wartime centralization threatened the federative constitutional structure of 1870-71 and placed severe socio-economic burdens on Bavaria. The professors and Bohemians of Munich looked towards Washington and then Moscow to escape the cobwebs of Berlin. Yet, in their efforts to end the war and build a new society they neglected to preserve Bavaria’s historic rights which vanished in the centralization of the Weimar Constitution.