The Bayerischer Wald, or Bavarian Forest, is a region of low mountains, rivers and pastures; of wolves, wild cats and owls; of quiet towns and late-Baroque Catholic churches; and of woodcutters and small businessmen who double as mayors for Bavaria’s main political party, the conservative Christian Social Union.
The forest, tucked in a corner of south-eastern Germany, lies between the Czech Republic and Austria. The Danube rolls slowly by.
On a recent weekend I visited the Bavarian Forest for personal reasons and in the hope of placing modern Germany’s past in a context wider than that of Berlin, where I live. Berlin, five-and-a-half hours away by train, is a dynamic, sprawling city; in political terms, Europe’s most important capital; in cultural and geographical terms, a world away from the Bavarian Forest.