Bavaria is a federal state of Germany, occupying its southeastern corner. With its capital at Munich, Bavaria is the largest state of Germany, occupying a fifth of the country's total land area, and it is Germany's second-most-populous state (after North Rhine-Westphalia) with a population of 12,900,000. The Duchy of Bavaria was founded in 555, and a Kingdom of Bavaria existed from 1806 to 1918, when the German Empire and its constituent monarchies were abolished and replaced by federal states of the new "Weimar Republic". In 1946, the Free State of Bavaria reorganized itself on democratic lines after World War II. Bavaria has a unique culture because of the state's Catholic majority (50.5% of the population) and conservative traditions, and Bavarian culture includes the Oktoberfest and Alpine symbolism. Modern Bavaria also includes the old regions of Franconia and Swabia.
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