In 1949 Bavaria was not only the largest and best known but also the
poorest, most agricultural, and most industrially backward region of
Germany. It was further its most politically conservative region. The
largest political party in Bavaria was the Christian Social Union (CSU),
an extremely conservative, even reactionary, regional party. In the
ensuing twenty years, the leaders of the CSU's small liberal wing (in
particular Franz Josef Strauss, long-time party chair and the most
colorful and polarizing politician in postwar Germany) broke with the
anti-industrial traditions of Bavarian Catholic politics and made
themselves useful to industry. With tactical brilliance the politicians
pursued their individual political ambitions, rather than a coherent
modernization strategy, which, by 1969, had turned Bavaria into a
prosperous Land, the center of Germany's new aerospace, defense, and
energy industries, with a disproportionate share of its research
institutes.