Corps Palatia Munich

Palatia's colors are high red, king's blue and silver-white. High red represents the city of Regensburg, the capital city of Upper Palatinate, where Palatia's founding members originated. King's blue and silver-white are the colors of Bavaria.[3]

Palatia's members can be recognized at formal events by sashes with the corp's colors of high red, king's blue and silver-white enclosed within silver trim on the borders. On many occasions members also wear traditional hats with the high red color.

New members generally remain a pledge (known as “Fuchs” in German) for a period of around one year, in which they wear sashes with high red and king's blue, but without the third color, silver-white.

Palatia's coat of arms since 1813

Palatia's coat of arms can be found on several objects belonging to the Corps, such as stained glass windows of the corps house, beer mugs, pipes or paintings.

It contains four quadrants with the motto of the coat of arms in the upper-right corner: „Sit ensis noster vindex!“ (Latin for “Let the sword be our vindicator!”).

In the lower-right corner, the Corp's emblem can be found, which contains the letters “c,” “f,” “p” and “v.” Derived from these letters, Palatia's emblem mottos are “circulus fratrum Palatiae vivat” (Latin for “the circle of Pfälzer brothers lives”) or “vivat, crescat, floriat” (Latin for “live, grow, blossom”).[4]

In the lower-left corner is the date and place of Palatia's founding.

Palatia played a significant role in the unfolding of the revolutions of 1848 in Bavaria, due to its involvement in the scandal revolving around a young dancer named Lola Montez. Montez came to Munich in 1846 and quickly became the mistress of aging King Ludwig I of Bavaria.[6] Despite her relationship with the king, she was rejected by Munich's citizens, who despised her arrogance towards the city's population and influence on the King.

King Ludwig I of Bavaria

In 1847 it became clear that Montez was having a sexual relationship with the president of Palatia at the time, Elias Peissner. Consequently, Palatia expelled Peissner and several other members of the corps due to their allegiance to the unpopular woman.[7]

King Ludwig I ordered that the banned students be re-admitted to Palatia, putting further pressure on the strained relationship between students and the king, who had tried to abolish student corporations on several occasions in the past.

Consequently, Karl von Schrenck von Notzing, Bavarian attorney general at the time and alumnus of Palatia, signed a petition against Lola Montez and resigned from his public office along with all other Bavarian ministers.[8]

In an effort to subdue tensions, the king closed the university temporarily in February 1848 and ordered all students to leave the city. This led to riots not only from the students, but also the general population, who were financially dependent on income from the affluent students.

On February 10, 1848, the students and other citizens of Munich gathered before the king's residence and riots broke out throughout the city. In an effort to appease the population, Ludwig I reopened the university the next day and exiled his publicly loathed mistress, who fled to Switzerland on February 11.

The anti-establishment sentiment growing across the German Confederation and much of Europe within the context of the March Revolution continued to intensify in Bavaria. On March 16, 1848 riots escalated again, after Montez returned to the city despite her banishment. Finally, the king resigned under public pressure on March 20, 1848, handing over power of the state to his son, Maximillian II.