Aiwanger farewell gives Bavaria a restrained role

Bavaria’s planned farewell to Hubert Aiwanger will give the state a more restrained presence than the elaborate ceremonies for Franz Josef Strauss in 1988, BR reports. Aiwanger, the state’s economics minister, died while in office.

The ceremony will include a Pontifical Requiem at Munich Cathedral, followed by a state mourning ceremony there. Mountain riflemen will accompany the proceedings, which will conclude with a reception at the Residenz, a former royal palace.

The State Chancellery’s protocol department is organising the farewell, taking into account the wishes of Aiwanger’s family, the bishop’s ordinariate and funeral traditions. The scale and form of tributes to politicians are not set by fixed rules, BR’s Achim Wendler writes.

When Strauss died in October 1988, Bavaria held five days of events. His coffin was carried through Munich on a gun carriage drawn by six black horses, while tens of thousands lined Ludwigstrasse. The programme included lying in state in Regensburg and at Munich’s Prinz-Carl-Palais, a Pontifical Requiem at the cathedral and a state ceremony at the Residenz.

Strauss’s death gave Bavaria a chance to honour the former CSU leader, who had shaped the state and Germany, while also presenting the state through ceremony and symbols. The programme brought together a vigil, a state ceremony, a church service, a funeral procession and a military commemoration. The term state funeral is often used for such events; more strictly, it applies when the official proceedings include the burial itself.

Aiwanger was the first cabinet member to die in office since Minister-President Strauss. The last minister to do so was CSU Justice Minister Hans Eisenmann in 1987. The article says an unexpected death while in office can lead to a more elaborate state tribute, but notes that Aiwanger and Strauss had different levels of influence on Bavaria.

Holding the state ceremony inside Munich Cathedral, a symbol of the Catholic Church and the city, makes the state appear more like a guest of the Church, Wendler argues. At Strauss’s funeral, the Requiem was held at the cathedral and the state ceremony took place separately at the Residenz. The planned Aiwanger ceremony will still represent Bavaria through police officers carrying the coffin and the Bavarian diamond-patterned flag draped over it.