Binding to static property

If the binding needs to be two-way, you must supply a path.

There's a trick to do two-way binding on a static property, provided the class is not static : declare a dummy instance of the class in the resources, and use it as the source of the binding.

<Window.Resources>
    <local:VersionManager x:Key="versionManager"/>
</Window.Resources>
...

<TextBox Text="{Binding Source={StaticResource versionManager}, Path=FilterString}"/>

You can't bind to a static like that. There's no way for the binding infrastructure to get notified of updates since there's no DependencyObject (or object instance that implement INotifyPropertyChanged) involved.

If that value doesn't change, just ditch the binding and use x:Static directly inside the Text property. Define app below to be the namespace (and assembly) location of the VersionManager class.

<TextBox Text="{x:Static app:VersionManager.FilterString}" />

If the value does change, I'd suggest creating a singleton to contain the value and bind to that.

An example of the singleton:

public class VersionManager : DependencyObject {
    public static readonly DependencyProperty FilterStringProperty =
        DependencyProperty.Register( "FilterString", typeof( string ),
        typeof( VersionManager ), new UIPropertyMetadata( "no version!" ) );
    public string FilterString {
        get { return (string) GetValue( FilterStringProperty ); }
        set { SetValue( FilterStringProperty, value ); }
    }

    public static VersionManager Instance { get; private set; }

    static VersionManager() {
        Instance = new VersionManager();
    }
}

<TextBox Text="{Binding Source={x:Static local:VersionManager.Instance},
                        Path=FilterString}"/>

As of WPF 4.5 you can bind directly to static properties and have the binding automatically update when your property is changed. You do need to manually wire up a change event to trigger the binding updates.

public class VersionManager
{
    private static String _filterString;        

    /// <summary>
    /// A static property which you'd like to bind to
    /// </summary>
    public static String FilterString
    {
        get
        {
            return _filterString;
        }

        set
        {
            _filterString = value;

            // Raise a change event
            OnFilterStringChanged(EventArgs.Empty);
        }
    }

    // Declare a static event representing changes to your static property
    public static event EventHandler FilterStringChanged;

    // Raise the change event through this static method
    protected static void OnFilterStringChanged(EventArgs e)
    {
        EventHandler handler = FilterStringChanged;

        if (handler != null)
        {
            handler(null, e);
        }
    }

    static VersionManager()
    {
        // Set up an empty event handler
        FilterStringChanged += (sender, e) => { return; };
    }

}

You can now bind your static property just like any other:

<TextBox Text="{Binding Path=(local:VersionManager.FilterString)}"/>

Right variant for .NET 4.5 +

C# code

public class VersionManager
{
    private static string filterString;

    public static string FilterString
    {
        get => filterString;
        set
        {
            if (filterString == value)
                return;

            filterString = value;

            StaticPropertyChanged?.Invoke(null, FilterStringPropertyEventArgs);
        }
    }

    private static readonly PropertyChangedEventArgs FilterStringPropertyEventArgs = new PropertyChangedEventArgs (nameof(FilterString));
    public static event PropertyChangedEventHandler StaticPropertyChanged;
}

XAML binding (attention to braces they are (), not {})

<TextBox Text="{Binding Path=(yournamespace:VersionManager.FilterString)}" />

Leanest answer (.net 4.5 and later):

    static public event EventHandler FilterStringChanged;
    static string _filterString;
    static public string FilterString
    {
        get { return _filterString; }
        set
        {
            _filterString= value;
            FilterStringChanged?.Invoke(null, EventArgs.Empty);
        }
    }

and XAML:

    <TextBox Text="{Binding Path=(local:VersionManager.FilterString)}"/>

Don't neglect the brackets

Another solution is to create a normal class which implements PropertyChanger like this

public class ViewProps : PropertyChanger
{
    private string _MyValue = string.Empty;
    public string MyValue
    {
        get { 
            return _MyValue
        }
        set
        {
            if (_MyValue == value)
            {
                return;
            }
            SetProperty(ref _MyValue, value);
        }
    }
}

Then create a static instance of the class somewhere you wont

public class MyClass
{
    private static ViewProps _ViewProps = null;
    public static ViewProps ViewProps
    {
        get
        {
            if (_ViewProps == null)
            {
                _ViewProps = new ViewProps();
            }
            return _ViewProps;
        }
    }
}

And now use it as static property

<TextBlock  Text="{x:Bind local:MyClass.ViewProps.MyValue, Mode=OneWay}"  />

And here is PropertyChanger implementation if necessary

public abstract class PropertyChanger : INotifyPropertyChanged
{
    public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;

    protected bool SetProperty<T>(ref T storage, T value, [CallerMemberName] string propertyName = null)
    {
        if (object.Equals(storage, value)) return false;

        storage = value;
        OnPropertyChanged(propertyName);
        return true;
    }

    protected void OnPropertyChanged([CallerMemberName] string propertyName = null)
    {
        PropertyChanged?.Invoke(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName));
    }
}

Suppose you have a class as follow:

public static class VersionManager 
{
    public static string FilterString;
}

You can bind your static variable in this way:

<TextBox Text = {x:Static local:VersionManager.FilterString }/>