On Thursday 23rd February 2023, was the small exhibition “1623” in the Bavarian Main State Archive. Bavaria is opening up Kurfürstentum.

The award of the Kurwürde to Herzog Maximilian I. von Bayern 400 years ago, on 25. February 1623, was the result of difficult negotiations and a compromise: The Bavarian Duke was only for his person, not for his whole house. In a secret supplementary agreement, Emperor Ferdinand II confirmed the inheritance of the Bavarian Wittelsbacher.

The origins of the Bavarian pursuit after this ranking date back to the late middle age. In the house contract of Pavia, in 1329 between the Bavarian and the Celtic line of the Wittelsbacher, an alternating exercise of the Kurwürde had been agreed; the Golden Bull of 1356 tied the Kurwürde to the Celtic territory.

On 8 October 1619, Duke Maximilian I of Bavaria and Emperor Ferdinand II concluded the Munich Treaty. A subsidiary agreement to this agreement marks the beginning of the efforts of Maximilians to transfer the Palatinate Kurwürde to Bavaria. After Friedrichs V's battle from the Palatinate 1621, a secret stretching was first carried out, and in 1623 the transfer of the Kurwürde to life time was finally carried out. Only the Westphalian peace in 1648, which ended the Thirty Years War, confirmed the Kurwürde for Bavaria.

The small exhibition explains the most important stages of the ascent of Bavaria to the Kurfürstentum and the taught discussions that were held in the courts involved. The exhibition will be seen in other state archives during the course of 2023 and was therefore planned as a flexible presentation on roll-ups. At the opening the document of 25th February 1623 in original.

A small catalogue appears on the exhibition:
1623. Bavaria will be the princess. An exhibition of the Bavarian Main State Archives. Conception and editing: Gerhard Immler, with the collaboration of Sarah Hadry, Elisabeth Lukas-Götz, Claus Mannsbart, Genoveva Rausch, Alexandra Scharmüller, Monika von Walter, Elisabeth Weinberger, Susanne Wolf (State Archives of Bavaria - Small exhibitions 70), Munich 2023, ISBN 978-3-938831-66-3, 60 pages, 5,00 Euro.

The exhibition at the Bayerischer Hauptstaatsarchiv, Munich, Schönfeldstr. 5, stairwell, can be seen from 24 February to 26 May 2023.

The entrance is free.

Opening hours: Mo–Do 8.30–18.00 hrs., Fr 8.30–13.30 hrs. (closed: May 1 (Feiertag), May 17 and 18.5 (Christi Ascension).

Guided tours for groups can be booked free of charge at e-mail: poststelle@bayhsta.bayern.de.

Published on 23.02.2023.