Bavarian citizenship does exist

Just had an interesting (off-line) discussion about a topic that few people seem to know about.

Did you know that there is a "Bavarian citizenship" (as opposed to a German citizenship)? Actually, the Bavarian constitution (yes, Bavaria has a separate constitution that exists alongside the German constitution) explicitly provides for it in articles 6 and 7. Specifically, you become a Bavarian citizen by birth, by marriage or by being naturalized. Details were supposed to be clarified by a separate law, which was never enacted. Therefore, there are no naturalization procedures, but "birth" and "marriage" are clear enough even without further definition. Article 8 adds that German citizens may not be discriminated against, i.e. have the same rights and responsibility (though they are explicitly not Bavarian citizens).

Now for the interesting bit:

Article 7 says that every Bavarian citizen is entitled to vote once he reaches the age of 18 and has lived in Bavaria for at least one full year.

Now, there are definitely lots of people born in Bavaria or married to a Bavarian that are not German citizens. Under article 7 of the Bavarian constitution, they should be eligible to vote. Maybe not in the federal elections (since these have nothing to do with Bavaria), but surely in the Landtag elections and in the municipal elections. But apparently, they can't. Nobody seems to have noticed that this is a violation of the Bavarian constitution...

Kind of weird, ain't it?

Some links (in German):

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayerische_St...eh%C3%B6rigkeit

http://www.bayern.landtag.de/bayer_verfass...auptteil.html#6.

Damn, I wish they had sorted out the naturalization thing. I'd love to have Bavarian citizenship.

Very interesting. Any chance that you might research this further? I can try to help with it but currently I barely have time to breathe and won't really have any time to myself for another 2 months. It's definitely an avenue worth exploriong for rights to vote and possible dual nationality -- a citizen of Bavaria must also be a citizen of Germany, and while taking German citizenship requires renouncing US (and most other) citizenships, Bavarian citizenship may not require this.

Cheers for this.

woof.

Cool... can someone help me to find out (my german still too poor) whether can I get a Bavarian Passport for my daughter who was born here 6 months ago...

Sorry to disappoint you, but there is no such thing as a Bavarian passport. The Bavarian citizenship is something that works only within Bavaria as a "virtual concept", and has no international relevance (at least that's what Wikipedia says).

then does she qualify for a German passport based on the point of being a Bavarian citizen?

Hmmm. I do not really know how to research further. From the limited web search that I've done, it seems that nobody's ever raised the issue before.

I have no clue. I've really only stumbled across this by accident and brought it up as an item for discussion. Don't know if it is just "curious trivia", or something that could actually be legally enforced if somebody is so inclined.

OK, did a little more reading up on this.

Whenever the Bavarian constitution and the German constitution clearly contradict each other, the German constitution prevails (principle of "Bundesrecht bricht Landesrecht"). Therefore, the idea to get to German citizenship via Bavarian citizenhip cannot fly, because federal law defines who can get German citizenship.

However, from a logical point of view I don't see why Bavarian and municipal elections should be governed by federal law - after all, these are not federal bodies, so the Bavarian constitution might still apply. No clue what the courts would say to that sort of argument though.

It was just pointed out to me that the German Constitutional Court has apparently ruled as follows: Foreign vote on the state or municipal level is not compatible with the German constitution. Therefore, the Bavarian constitution is implicitly overruled on this matter.

The weird thing is that EU nationals do have the right to vote on the municipal level (as stipulated by the EU), a right which presumably is not stated in the German constitution either. It all doesn't seem very logical to me...

http://www.drehscheibe.org/leitfaden-artik...LeitfadenID=197

Bavaria anyway is the the biggest opponent of and does its best to block joint citizenship even where federal law allows it...

er..whats the point? It seems to be a virtual concept without actually having much in the way of benefits or legal standing, apart from perhaps allowing voting in Landtag elections and in the municipal elections (which EU citizenship provides anyway) and the debatable benefit of being 'cool'. We could probably establish a Neuhausen citizenship too

Oooh, I'll spring for a stamp and charge the very cheap price of one beer per citizenship.

Virtual it may be but... Ethnic Germans (and their descendents) who lived in what is now the Czech Republic were / are legally defined as a "new tribe" of Bavarians and as such, their "Volkskultur" (a time capsule that died at 1938 at the latest) is promoted and susidised by government.