Order of Initialisation *********************** Statics ======= From http://www.codeguru.com/java/tij/tij0072.shtml The point of first use is also where the static initialization takes place. All the static objects and the static code block will be initialized **in textual order** (that is, the order that you write them down in the class definition) at the point of loading. The statics, of course, are initialized only once.