Striving for independence in Germany

An election poster for the Bavarian Party promotes an independent Republic of Bavaria

Since the establishment of the German nation-state in 1871, there have been attempts at independence in Germany , which are aimed at (re-) attaining the state sovereignty of a country or region.

Striving for independence from 1945

Austria

With the declaration of independence in 1945, the annexation of Austria to Germany in 1938 was declared "null and void " and an independent state of Austria was restored. In the period that followed, there was also a change in Austrian identity . While most Austrians felt themselves to be part of the German people up to the Second World War - and a few years after that, almost half -, in 2008 more than 80 percent of Austrians were convinced of the existence of an independent Austrian nation. German national ideas no longer play a political or social role in Austria today.

Saarland

After the Second World War, efforts to separate from Germany arose in Saarland , which were promoted by the French occupying power. Between 1947 and 1956 , a Saarland state, independent of Germany, existed under French protection .

An agreement between France and the Federal Republic of Germany provided for “Europeanization” ( Saar Statute ). An autonomous Saar state should be placed under the protection of the Western European Union and common European institutions should be located in Saarland. In the referendum in 1955, one third voted for the proposal and two thirds against, which was interpreted by the Germans and the French as a majority desire to reintegrate into Germany.

GDR

The GDR initially held as the Federal Republic firmly to the idea of a unified Germany, but stressed especially from the late 1960s, the independence of the GDR as a state and its citizens as a separate nation. In 1967 the citizenship of the GDR was introduced and the formerly uniform German citizenship was given up by the GDR. The constitution passed in 1968 and revised in 1974 no longer spoke of the German people, but only of the "people of the German Democratic Republic".

Thuringia

In 1991, the Left List / PDS parliamentary group called for Thuringia's right to leave the Federal Republic of Germany in its draft state constitution . However, the parliamentary group was unable to prevail with its draft.

Bavaria

Efforts for independence are most pronounced in Bavaria today .

The Bavarian Party , founded in 1946 , campaigns for Bavaria to leave the Federal Republic of Germany and was involved in the Bavarian government for several years in the 1950s. After several decades of weakness, the Bavarian party has regained membership and increasing election results in recent years. In the 2013 state elections , she achieved her best result since 1966 with 2.1%.

In 2009, according to the “generation study” by the CSU- affiliated Hanns Seidel Foundation, when asked whether Bavaria should be an independent state, 23 percent answered with “yes” and 16 percent with “partly / partly”. In 2017, according to the YouGov survey, the proportion of independence advocates in Bavaria was 32 percent (“agree”: 18 percent; “somewhat agree”: 14 percent).

A constitutional complaint by a citizen about the implementation of a Bavarian independence referendum was not accepted for decision in 2016. The Federal Constitutional Court does not see the states as “masters of the Basic Law ”. There is therefore no room for secession efforts by individual countries.

Share of independence advocates in the German states

According to a representative YouGov survey with 2067 participants from 2017, between 8 and 32 percent of citizens tend to agree with the statement that their respective federal state should be independent of Germany:

rank	country	rather agreement		rank	country	rather agreement
1.	Bavaria	32%		9.	Bremen	15%
2.	Saarland	22%		10.	North Rhine-Westphalia	14%
3.	Thuringia	22%		11.	Hamburg	13%
4th	Saxony	21%		12.	Berlin	13%
5.	Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania	21%		13.	Hesse	10%
6th	Saxony-Anhalt	20%		14th	Lower Saxony	8th %
7th	Baden-Württemberg	19%		15th	Schleswig-Holstein	8th %
8th.	Brandenburg	19%		16.	Rhineland-Palatinate	8th %

See also

• Rhenish separatism
• List of current secession efforts in Europe

literature

• Wilfried Scharnagl : Bavaria can do it alone: ​​a plea for its own state . Bastei Lübbe (Quadriga), 2012, ISBN 978-3-86995-048-8 .
• Andreas Marquart , Philipp Bagus : We can do it - alone! FinanzBook Verlag , 2017, ISBN 978-3-95972-043-4 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Austrians today feel like a nation - February 1934 - derStandard.at ›Science. Retrieved August 19, 2017 . 
2. ↑ Thuringian State Parliament , printed matter 1/678
3. ↑ Generation study 2009. Feeling at home and living in Bavaria. Generation-specific and regional differences of attitudes towards politics and homeland. ( PDF ) Hanns Seidel Foundation , archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; accessed on August 26, 2017 . 
4. ↑ ^{a b Comparison of} federal states: Every third Bavarian for independence from Germany. Retrieved August 19, 2017 . 
5. ↑ BVerfG, decision of December 16, 2016 - 2 BvR 349/16
6. ↑ Patrick Bahners: Stayed here! Bavaria remains German FAZ , January 4, 2017
7. ↑ Miriam Sahli-Fülbeck: Bayxit? Every third Bavarian wants to get out of Germany, a survey shows: Politics. Retrieved August 26, 2017 .