If you speak German and/or live in Germany, you’ll notice that anything “American” (food, decoration, etc) is a wild mumbo-jumbo of regions that a lot of people are not familiar with and thus mix up constantly. Hollywood signs next to Mississippi steamboats, Maine lighthouses paired with Tex-Mex, and BBQ next to a scenery from Montana. For reference, a restaurant named Louisiana I went to sold NY cheesecake next to chili con carne. For many Germans, there are basically 3 states: New York (east coast), California (west coast) and Texas (all in between).
I was wondering if on the other hand you had any knowledge or experiences with regional differences in the much smaller country of Germany (i don’t blame you if you don’t)? All anecdotes welcome.
EDIT: i am not quite sure what this question did wrong to receive a majority of downvotes, but if you know please tell me so i can formulate my questions better, thank you.
19 comments
I know some, having the benefit of having traveled there a good bit but the average American would know very little. We could possibly bring up the differences between East and West Germany since the fall of Communism. Other than that, Bavaria and Oktoberfest are about as in depth as Americans know about Germany culturally.
Edit: spelling
Everything I know about Germany I learned from YouTuber Feli from Germany
I know a few differences but recognize a lot more exist.
I lived in Germany briefly, one of the bigger cultural differences between us is that Americans are generally more comfortable admitting they don’t know much about Germany. Americans can admit they know there are probably differences between Saxony and Bavaria but not exactly what they are. Germans will consider themselves experts on the differences between Maine and Montana without knowing much about either.
Bavaria and not-Bavaria….
I know Bavarian independence and the east/west poverty split
There’s Bavaria, Swabia, and some foreign land up north with dragons.
East/West split on wealth. Bavaria and everywhere else split.
That’s pretty much the extent of my knowledge.
And there’s a strange part of Germany up north called Denmark which has a rogue separatist government.
Not a single thing.
Theres one thing I know and love from Germany though, the Dirndl. Other than that my knowledge of Germany is Hitler, Beethoven, Einstein, Oktoberfest/beer, sausage, and cars.
The rest of the world seems to think Americans are bad at geography because we can’t Identify the location of every country in Europe, but I’d bet the majority of them couldn’t identify 1/4 of the US states, which is basically the same thing.
They are roughly the same size and Europe has something like 50 sovereign states that make up the EU, America has 50 united states that make up the union.
I could locate every state in America and have knowledge of each region’s individual culture, geography, weather, food…
I’ve traveled throughout most of the US in my life, I’ve never been to Europe or really ever had the desire to go, so there is little reason to retain geographical or cultural knowledge of the place.
I could probably accurately identify 1/4 of EU countries.
About all I know about the regions of Germany is that they have them. Honestly,I don’t know much about any German culture. The stereotypes are all beer, sausage, and pretzels, which is about as thorough a description as calling America lobster and jambalaya.
Quite a bit, but only because I was stationed there. Otherwise I never would have known about the dialect differences such as “High” and “Low” German, or that Bavaria views itself as basically a country unto itself within Germany (kind of like Texas in the US).
a decent amount, but I also study in Germany
Not really. Know there’s an East/West difference still. But other than that my knowledge of “German” things is primarily from Bavarian immigrants to the US.
On average no, the typical American will not know anything about regional differences in Germany. Half of them probably can’t even point it out on a map tbh.
Bavarians like drinking and Prussians like fighting.
That’s… That’s about it
I could recognize the names of most German states and place some major cities on a map of Germany, but beyond that I couldn’t tell you much about regional differences in culture.
I know that they exist. Not all German dialects are mutually intelligible. Southern Germany tends to be more catholic, northern Germany is more protestant. Bavaria is supposedly its own thing, I think. I knew a German guy who was Swabian and he told me that Swabians were stereotyped to be practical (or dull) and thrifty (or cheap). I am also aware that living standards and the economy are somewhat worse in the states that comprised the former DDR, and there is some nostalgia (or Ostalgie, if you like) among some people there. That’s about all I know. I’m sure there are a lot more, but like I said my knowledge mostly ends after “regional differences exist”.
Bavaria makes a cream that’s good inside a doughnut.
But in all seriousness, I think Bavaria and Saxony would be the only regions I could name. I love Weihenstephaner, which I know is Bavarian. I know there’s a cultural split between East/West due to the Cold War, and there are high and low countries.
I know Bavaria used to make good cars…
There’s an old north/south split between Protestants and Lutherans but I don’t know who is north or south.
There’s the Black Forest and the Alps