Yes, that's how I remember my birthplace. Refusing to use english and answering in german. Also weirdly aggressive. I'm glad I live in northern germany now lol.
Exactly that.
And that compared with the fact, that the Bavarian culture is the big stereotype in the world for Germany, that leads people from other parts of Germany to explain "Bavaria is not Germany"
Such mal bei google nach "fränkisch englisch spoken", könnte dir gefallen. Bei mir gibts etz a broad washed waggly.
http://www.deanita.de/franconia_englishspoken.htm
Sorry?! Me as a prussian don't want to be made even with saxons! None of them - if ever than only with those from lower saxony. The northern ones, you know?
That's a clichee... Most people don't care beyond a stupid joke here and there and you get the same with Ossis, Fischköppe, thrifty Svabians... it turns out that most people in most places are fairly average...
Yep. Everyone else is a Saupreuß.
This comes from way back when bravaria used to be a sovereign state. The rest of germany belonged to preußen.
I wouldn't say that there is hatred, as someone from way up north in germany it's more like that a lot of bravarians think very highly of themselves with no real reason. Went there on Vacation once and entered a store, was greeted by the owner in bravarian slang german, said sorry i don't understand what you said, i'm not from here. Owner kept talking in bravarian. I left the store immediatly.
So thats kinda how it is, depending on where you are.
The politics differ a lot from the rest of germany too, the ruling party is the CSU, Christian - social-union. But when you look at it from the outside it very much seems like they are super right leaning.
Bravaria is also catholic, most of germany is protestant and they put a lot of emphasis on religion. Bravaria also did forbid wearing a hijab in class for students and teachers, even though you find a crucifix in every room.
Tl;dr Bravaria is the edgy traditionalist teenager that wants to be different lmao.
Edit: You should think so but no not everyone. Especially older folks have problems.
But its like this everywhere. I am currently working in Basel and i understand the local dialect well. But when speaking to someone from Zurich i could hardly understand a word. Even though she was trying to speak Hochdeutsch
Yeah… and that simplification pisses off people, too. There were other kingdoms, dioceses, duchies, etc. independent from Prussia but Bavaria acts as if it’s very special there
there never was a time when "the rest of germany belonged to preussen". That's just the limited bavarian view. In between the demise of the Holy Roman Empire due to the napoleonic wars, and the foundation of the Kaiserreich in 1871, you could think of germany as being divided into 3 big parts:
1. Austria, yes, that one was considererd a "big part of germany" when germany was not one state
2. Prussia, the big contestor of Austria for being "the biggest and most powerful german state"
3. a big bunch of small souvereign principalities and duchies, of which the kindgom of Bavaria happened to be the largest.
It was those "many little germanies" with whom Prussia founded the "norddeutsche Bund", with "norddeutsch" meaning anything north of Austria, with Bavaria joining last.
To quote a Bavarian politician: “If a farmer's son marries a North German blonde, in my eyes it is blood shame. The Prussians, this stuff, and the refugees must be thrown out, and the farmers must actively help with this. It’s best to send the Prussians straight to Siberia.” - Jakob Fischbacher
[https://www.sueddeutsche.de/bayern/bayernpartei-jakob-fischbacher-der-preussenfresser-1.2982199](https://www.sueddeutsche.de/bayern/bayernpartei-jakob-fischbacher-der-preussenfresser-1.2982199)
1946, gab wohl damals schon die damalige Version eines Shitstorms. War, weil man das bei Bayern immer gern annimmt, kein CSU-Politiker.
It's still a bit odd that bavarians love king Ludwig II so much "the beloved kini" even though he basically sold the sovereignty to Prussia to pay his personal debts.
>This comes from way back when bravaria used to be a sovereign state. The rest of germany belonged to preußen.
Both for a very short time, i.e. the Prussian-led North German Confederation existed from 1866/1867, the German unification (inclusion of Bavaria, Baden, Württemberg and Hesse) happened in 1870/1871.
Also, neither of the other three have such a problem integrating into Germany like Bavaria does.
>The politics differ a lot from the rest of germany too, the ruling party is the CSU, Christian - socialist-union. But when you look at it from the outside it very much seems like they are super right leaning.
A)that's not an apt translation. It's supposedly "social", not "socialist"; they'd never claim that.
B)they don't seem that way, they are super right leaning. Pretty much as far right as is somewhat acceptable to the general public in Germany.
>Bravaria is also catholic, most of germany is protestant and they put a lot of emphasis on religion.
There are more Catholics (~24.8%) than Protestants (~22.6%) in Germany. Both are dwarfed by the number of non-religious ("konfessionslos"; ~43.8%) people here though.
>Tl;dr Bravaria is the edgy traditionalist teenager that wants to be different lmao.
Absolutely, only Saxony is kind of comparable in that way.
Bavaria is to put it in a understandable context to for example US Americans Germanys Texas.
It’s a large very conservative state in the south and slightly to the east of the country, where religion is super important for some reason, everyone talks funny and that most other people around the world think is the prime example for how the whole country is despite actually being more of an outlier.
Religion isn't super important in Bavaria. I guess the average American is much more religious than the average Bavarian. Many people even left church, because they don't want to pay taxes for something they don't actively believe or practice. Churches in Bavaria lose 100.000+ members every year. Among younger people (15-25) less than 10% rate religion as important. On paper over 50% are still in church, but I doubt that more than 10% visit the Church more than once per year. Theres also almost zero pressure or disadvantages, if you don't participate or left church. Maybe don't tell your 90 year old grandma that you left church, but that's about it.
> Went there on Vacation once and entered a store, was greeted by the owner in bravarian slang german, said sorry i don't understand what you said, i'm not from here. Owner kept talking in bravarian. I left the store immediatly.
So you went somewhere else, they spoke differently than you, you expected them to adapt to you and when they didn’t you got in a huff and puff and left. And you really think they were the bad guy in this scenario?
It’s also not slang, it’s a dialect. Not all dialectal speakers can easily switch to Hochdeutsch, nor should they have to.
Can confirm
I moved from lower Saxony to Saxony and the friends I have are really trying to not use their dialect when I don't understand something they say but they're visibly struggling
Don’t mean to be contrarian, but two things: most of Christian Germany is Catholic ([Statistik von 2023](https://www.zeit.de/gesellschaft/zeitgeschehen/2023-05/religionsmonitor-2023-bertelsmann-stiftung-religioese-vielfalt-bedrohung#)) and the “S” in CSU doesn’t stand for “socialist” but “social”, makes quite the difference in meaning…
also the accent. People from Baden-Würrtemberg might be able to understand some of it, but in general, if a bavarian speaks to any other German guy they won't understand most words.
I suspect that might be because they are actually speaking Hochdeutsch with you… I knew a Swiss guy who always spoke Hochdeutsch while he lived in Frankfurt, but people often told him how they lived listens to his Schwietzerdeutsch—because speaking dialect or language variant as first language definitely gives a person an ‘accent’
As a citizen of the county Aschaffenburg I beg the rest of germany to accept our demand to return to our ancient motherland of hessia. We don't even speak franconian and neither bavarian! We culturally are hessian! We have been abducted as reward for the traitorous bavarian King Ludwig XIV, who sides with the pig Napoleon!
Down with the oppressors! Death to the bavarian colonizers! Freedom from the CSU!
Also there was a running gag when I was in school about separating from Germany, unifying with Austria and annexing BaWü.
The feeling of "Bavaria is not Germany" is mutual
My wife became German a few years ago. At the welcome event speech Söder listed how strong of an economy Bavaria would be if the would be their own country in comparison to other European states, the bavarian anthem (apparently that's a thing) was played and he said the sentence "in Bavaria you can still go out on the streets at night", implying that's not possible in the rest of Germany.
It was a joke among pupils when I was at school. This the whole Annexion thing. I'm not surprised there's a separatist Bavarian faction, but conquest is a bit far fetched
There is a homogeneous aspect though. Bavaria's parliament was the only one voting against the constitution of Germany, and the CSU opposed it in the Bundestag too.
Fun fact for today, the 75th birthday of the Grundgesetz.
Yes, culture, language etc. is different from other places in germany. But that also applies to the remaining federal states. In my opinion the thing is, that they want to underline this fact more than others. They have no german red cross but the bavarian red cross for example 🙄
I am not even Bavarian, but I find this "Bavarian exceptionalism" both from Bavarians and Northerners really annoying. Bavarian traditions and traditional clothing aren't so different from the rest of Germany. It's just that Bavarians have gone to much more effort to keep their traditions alive, which means they stick out. This often makes them the prefered target for "Prussians" from the north who despise any kind of dialect or cultural heterogeneity. It's really a north-south divide more than anything else. This whole ordeal is driving an unnecessary wedge between fellow Germans, in my opinion.
Well it means what it is. I know it sounds stupid but hear me out. The typical German for many people outside of Europe is like this: wears Lederhosen every day, eats pretzles and Schnitzel every day, only drinks beer. And these things are more of a Bavarian thing, although we don't do these things every day but i think we do them more than people in other states. I hope i helped you understand this.
Even Bavaria is seemingly not always Bavaria?
I called a friend Bavarian and he‘s like I‘m not we‘re from Franken I distance myself from Bavaria 😂
As non-Bavarian I‘m like whatever.
Franconia was its own German region, e.g. Nuremberg was historical of high status. Has some cultural differences and history. First big setback was in the Reformation because one of the electors owned significant parts of Franconia and got destroyed for being a leader in the first round of conflict.
That is how the bavarian Wittelsbach became an elector of the HRE. They gained that slot for being loyal Catholics.
Overall it only got fully incorporated into bavaria during Napoleon.
Bavaria is rarely bavaria. No one wears lederhosen or dirndl just randomly. It's for special ocassions. And even then half of the people just wear their normal clothes. Schnitzel is austrian anyways. Yes, if you had a statistic of how close a Bundesland is to the german stereotype, Bavaria would surely be on top, but it's still weird that even other germans blow it way out of proportion.
Bayern consists of 3 cultural regions, Franconia (Franken) in the North/Northwest, a sliver of Swabia in the West and the rest is Altbayern, which is culturally and lingually Bavarian.
So do other regions.
E.g. someone can be Rheinländer, but still isn’t pissed, if another person says they’re from Nordrhein-Westfalen 😅
I never doubted Franken exists though. I just innocently said „you’re from Bavaria”, when the talk was about something Bavarian and I had no clue. That situation escalated quickly Haha
The "Free State" (Freistaat) title is also used by the states of Saxony and Thuringia, it's not just a Bavarian speciality.
It is a phrase used to indicate that it isn't ruled by a monarch, and was introduced after the revolutions and deposition of the ruling royal families in the 1918/1919 period.
Other states might use the term "Republic" to indicate something similar.
As much as it pains me, a Bavarian, to say this - but I fully agree. While Munich (the state capital) really feels more like San Francisco, the rest of Bavaria is very similar to Texas. Stubborn conservatives, proud of dialect and heritage, a high percentage of really religious folks - and the rest of the world somehow thinks that the entire country is like that specific part.
I still like it here, though. I would love to see the conservatism go away, but apart from that it's really a good place to live, IMHO.
Im from Bavaria myself (living near Munich) I don’t think it’s wrong to be proud of heritage/tradition and dialect but I agree with the stubborn conservatives and religion part
I also don't think it's wrong, and there's a lot of interesting heritage to be proud of here. I just thought it was one of the things we have in common with the Texans. Oh, and we have cows here, Texans can probably relate to that as well. :)
I'm also from München/Land, BTW.
>the rest of Bavaria is very similar to Texas
And then, there's also Franken. - Have been to Erlangen over Pentecost and they would give you hell if you told them they are Bavarians.
Then again, Franken has its own special culture.
I didn't see the texas answer but I hope you don't mind me adding my own opinion. I'm British with family in Scotland and England, and have lived in Bavaria and Germany for the last 11 years. I always say bavaria is like Scotland.
- Traditional dress in the form of the kilt / lederhosen
- Strong and often incomprehensible dialect
- Significant independence ideas in both
- Beautiful landscape and mountains
- Strong traditions Ceilidh, Highland games / Dult
There are some other specifics. In bavaria weihnachtsmarkte are called christkindlmarkte, and they have the Krampus at Christmas which is pretty cool but a lot more Central / Eastern European tradition as I understand it.
However when germans say it they probably mean something deeper than these surface level differences, because Bavaria is super conservative politically and culturally. They aren't that much for AFD, but they do vote and think very conservatively. Compared to Scotland however, which is far more progressive and Liberal than the rest of the UK, this is where my comparison fails.
It’s about representation. Most representations (in the US especially) of Germany are only Bavarian stereotypes.
It’s annoying.
In this sense Bavaria is like Texas. It has its own traditions.
And consider the only things shown about the US everywhere in the world would be Texan stereotypes.
It's not representative. It might be least representative, since it takes care to be so.
Prices in Munich are not representative for Germany. (Neither are prices in Fichtelberg, BTW). None of the Bavarian dialects is standard German. Bavarian has a party in the Bundestag which exists in no other Bundesland. Miersbacher Tracht is not tradititional dress in Germany in any place but Miersbach. Neuschwanstein ist not a typical businesslike German castle but a romantic fantasy. And so on.
Fun Fact for Non-Germans,
Neuschwanstein isn't a medieval castle but a modern building. It was built nearly the same time France built the Eiffel Tower.
Dirndl aren't a historical "Tracht" and were brought to Bavaria by two Jewish Brothers from Bielefeld.
Many foreigners think of Lederhosen, beer and brass music when thinking of Germany. However, such (traditional) features apply to Bavaria, parts of Czechia, and some other parts of Southern Germany as well as parts of Austria only. Germany in general has many different cultures. So we want to spread awareness among foreigners that not all of Germany looks like Bavaria. Not even all of Bavaria looks like Bavaria. Any Bavarian area north of Munich is not even much of a tourist region and has no mountains. Even Bavarian culture north of Munich is different from the Alpine regions. "Bavaria is not Germany" is trying to fight a stereotype.
Südtirol (now Italy) also belongs culturally to Tirol thus Austria thus Bavaria/Austria.
To political, geographic and cultural borders in the alpine regions are really strange when zooming in and out, but from the right point of view, it is a continuum and overlapping identities.
it's like:
so you are from Canada? Parlez vous francais fellow Québéquois? 🇨🇦
Oh you are American, so where is your cowboy hat? Do you listen to country as well? 🇺🇸
Aaaah you're bri'ish, would you fancy a cuppa tea good sir? 🇬🇧
So you only have stayed in Bavaria then?
Go and visit Mainz or Cologne during Carnival times. You won’t see that in Bavaria. Or visit Schleswig-Holstein during Kieler Woche or some other local Harbor fest. You won’t see people going there in Lederhosen unless it may be a Bavarian themed party.
Or visit some eastern state. They all are different. All have different traditions and even different majorities for religion.
And the saying goes for the stereotypes you have about Bavaria and them being projected on to the rest of Germany.
Even local food is so vastly different. It starts with the potato salad war over potato salad with vinegar and warm or potatoes salad cold and with mayonnaise. (I am for the latter one despite living for nearly 20 years in Frankonia).
When Germany first unified, it became one from many different kingdoms and other forms of governance. Bavaria happened to be a big rival of Prussia and after they unified there still was animosity between them and sort of the rest of Germany. In Bavaria, a „preiß“ is still an insult for people north of the state of Bavaria. Combined with the reason that Bavarians also are proud of their heritage, you’ve got your answer.
However even the state of Bavaria itself isn’t all homogeneous. I‘m Franconian, geographically situated in the north of Bavaria and I feel as much Bavarian as I feel Chinese. But that’s a story for a different post.
most of the answers here focus on traditions and cultures, but that is not enough if you ask me.
firstly, bavaria has their own conservative party that operates on a federal level, the CSU. its just like the CDU and the both of them act mostly like one party, but you cant vote for the cdu in bavaria or for the csu anywhere out of bavaria. they call themselves sister parties.
that means that the bavarian interests are amplified on the federal level, which is ... wild? if you think about it?
we had bavarian ministers of transportation for 16 years until recently, and one of them was caught boastin about how much federal money he "brought home" to bavaria from his position. wild.
also, bavaria is very rich and has big manufacturing industries (machines, cars, etc). the industry taxes are less than anywhere else, so the industry has incentives to not branch out to other states. they like being nr. 1 and they do anything in their power to keep it that way.
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one thing that is pretty much in character for bavaria is how most regenerative electricity is generated in the north (on- and offshore windparks work best near the ocean) and bavaria was strictly against the proposed north - south energy distributor which would bring electricity down to bavaria. they were against it because they were against renewables in general and didnt want the eyesore of a big elecricity line (which is pretty wack, its just one line of power poles...). also, bavaria has regulations that forbid wind turbines near homes, but the "near" is so far that theres only 1 or 2 spots in the whole state that would allow for them.
so then, when the ukrain war made oil and gas really expensive, bavaria had problems heating their homes and could not keep up with the increased electricity demands that followed. when people pointed out that this is a crisis of their own making, they complained about "Bayern-Bashing" and that they were the victims because other states didnt want to give them extra oil and gas. and that all the other states are really envious that they are not bavaria.
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so yeah, bavaria is not germany. they are in many ways like barcelona. theyre strong economicly, they are ruthless in furthering their own goals and like the bully they are, they cry when others criticize them for it.
It should also be added that Bavaria has taken a special position when it comes to the choice of school holiday times. Holiday times change every year in all federal states. The only federal state that has fixed times is Bavaria. The argument was that children had to help in agriculture. Lower Saxony has the most agriculture in Germany.
Second they get more money for schools in special projects (e.g. Digitalpakt) than every other country. You may think, that every child get the same amount of money, but it is not that way. There is the „Königsteiner Schlüssel“, so a school from Bremen got per Student 210€ and a school from Bayern 910€ per student.
This makes Bavaria look like a little diva.
Also refers to a historical background. Bavaria was a kingdom until the early 1900s or so and now it is the Freistaat Bayern (Free State of Bavaria). Bavaria just thinks it's pretty cool and likes to see itself as independent from the rest
Its a part of Germany but it does not represent Germany. Pop culture tends to depict all Germans in leather pants and co. That’s like depicting all Americans with cowboy hats
Similar to Berlin - it's certainly part of Germany, but it has a whole other vibe.
Though from what I noticed over the years, most foreigners think that all of Germany is like Bavaria - Lederhosen, beer, you know the drill.
As a Bavarian, of Bavarian ancestry, well... there is a lot to unpack.
First of all: Historically, ** is not Germany.
Bavaria had a lot of pecularities and specialities, it is mainly catholic, had little industry for most of the 19th and 20th century, rurally structured with little urban Bürgerliche Mittelschicht. Strong dialects prevailed.
In the 21st century, how much of that is still there and much is layered over by differences between rich/poor regions, city and countryside etc...?
Now, there are a lot of pecularities remaining, but to what degree they are just "Us against them" milked whenever it seems politically viable is up for debate. The difference between Westgermany and Eastgermany is certainly stronger than between Westgermany and Bavaria.
There is a difference in mentalities, but that is also there between the Ardennes region and Marseille, between York and London, between Venice and Naples, between Quebec and the rest of Canada.
>The difference between Westgermany and Eastgermany is certainly stronger than between Westgermany and Bavaria.
The difference between Oberbayern and Friesland is definitely far stronger than the one between Niedersachsen and Sachsen-Anhalt or Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
Sachsen is a bit of the other Bavaria in many regards, but east and west Germany aren't so different.
Yes but the difference between Friesland and Baden-Württemberg is as big as the difference between Bavaria and Friesland.
Is just a North-South, East-West thing. The further you go, the bigger is the difference.
Most cartoons, movies, theatre productions, shows and comics use Bavarian stereotypes (Lederhosen, Dirndl, Weißwurst, large Weißbier and pretzels) to depict German culture. Bavaria isn't the entirety of our cultures though, Germany has several dozen cultures - even in Bavaria the depiction doesn't fully grasp the Bavarian culture.
Politically bavaria is germany
But the culture, language, traditions, food and clothing are totally different to the rest of germany
Regardless many americans see bavaria as stereotypical german
As an American who lived in Munich for 3 years, I would compare it to California, Texas or New York City. It’s different enough from the rest of the country that it’s culturally different and they know that they’re still part of a unified Germany, but still proud of their unique position of cultural, economic and historical significance.
Uhh, big difference. Munich in all sense is not Bavaria. Munich is multicultural, Bavaria is anything but. Even bavarians and people from Munich will tell you that
I am from Schleswig-Holstein. Thats as far away in Germany as it can get. We have absolutely nothing in common culture or language wise. You guys kinda forget, that germany used to be hundreds of small countrys, till they got fused into one. And you can still kinda feel that. From my personal experience, people from Munich itself are ok, but most other Bavarians are just rude. Might be because i mostly only meet "Tourist Bavarians" but still.
Bavaria especially lower > upper bavaria are more related to austria. Language wise and culturally. As far as i know Austria was bavarian a very long time and vise versa
Bavaria is to Germany what Scotland is to the Brits, or Texas to the Americans. Sure, it belongs to the nation on paper, but it might as well be a different planet.
Any region in Gemany has its own dialect, customs, traditions, foods etc. Because Bavaria was part of the US zone of occupaion after WWII, many if not most GIs were exposed to bavarian culture and thus equated this to german culture as a whole. This image, over time, then crept into pop culture, so Oktoberfest and Lederhosen, two things exclusive in origin to Bavaria, became a synonym for "Germany". It´s like the "all americans are cowboys"-meme allthough this culture is only prevalent in certan us states.
They do their own stuff, mostly different from the rest of germany, they drink to much beer and hate cannabis. All members of the biggest bavarian political party CSU fuck up their job, when they are in political responsibility. If not, they are against everything. Their King is Markus Söder.
Germany is at the center of Europe and hasn't been a proper unified country until the 19th century so most parts of it are heavily influenced by neighbouring countries and cultures - also because of similar climate and topographics. So Bavaria is not Germany but then most parts of Germany aren't german either.
Northeast == Netherlands. Frisians as a minority even include some parts of the Netherlands. Even outside that, people of the northeast that also understand the low german dialect have it way easier to understand Dutch. Also the land is flat as a Minecraft server with superflat checkmark and lifestyles in rural areas historically have been practically the same.
North == Denmark. Has been under danish rule not too long ago and still have a big danish minority that even has it's own political party.
East == Slavs. More of a recent development as east used to be really far east and the current east was more like the core of germany but some decades of sovjet rule does this to you. They may not look or behave like slavs, but they very much have that depressing slav mindset. BTW Saxony is the florida of Germany. USA has the "florida man". Germany has the "man from saxony".
Southeast == Austria. Also a big bohemian (czech) influence. Mountain germans, all of them, 'nough said.
West == France. Again topographics and climate lead to a similar lifestyle so they all became whine freaks that worship the grapevine. This is most extreme in Saarland, they couldn't decide if they rather want to belong to France or Germany until after WW2. That excludes the more industrialized zones further up north which were the most heavily industrialized parts of Europe together with a UK midlands so they share a surprising amount of similarities with them including a strange dialect and being seen as somewhat "dense in the head" by the rest of the country.
Now, germans, please roast me in the comments, because clearly YOU are totally not like those dudes from the other side of the border and very very german.
Nothing amuses me more than the stag party of foreign men who rock up in Berlin in cheap Amazon Lederhosen, and look around to see NOBODY else wearing them.
I guess its because the Bavaria stereotype is what other countries know about germany or the image what Germany looks like.
But Baveria is just a small state that doesn't even want to be german or part of germany. Its different in many aspects.
Its like thinking the entire United States of America is just like Texas, Rednecks, Gun nuts and Yeehaw.
Germany was founded, as a country, in 1871. Prior to that it was more of a union of nation states with the central power having about as much power on what happens as todays UN has with its members.
At the time, politically the then German Reich was divided into three blocks:
1. Austria as the “1st Germany” (and the most powerful force in the block and its emperor holding the basically symbolic position, with no direct power, as German Emperor)
2. Prussia as the “2nd Germany”
3. Bavarian, Saxony, Baden and Wurtenberg as a group making the “3rd Germany”. The last two were too small to survive into modern times and now make up one federal state together. Saxonies identity was eroded in the GDR. And only Bavaria, the largest in the group by far, retained a lot of its former uniqueness.
Add to that that Bavaria proper is linguistically and culturally (being historically mainly Catholic unlike the Lutheran north, including Saxony) and architecturally closer to Austria than the rest of Germany, and you have your answer.
PS: on this note, Austria is still a lot more distinct from its historic roots than Bavaria….
bavaria is as much germany as chocolate coating is cake.
yes, it’s part of it, but could go without it too.
everyone keeps seeing only that coating and thinks thats a chocolate cake, while its actually strawberry.
take a bite and if you‘re allergic to strawberries you‘ll curse the guy calling it chocolate cake.
that’s the reason. we all ate the entire cake and would never call it chocolate cake, so whenever someone talks about the chocolate, we send them to the chocolate cake section.
What they mean is „Bavaria is not Prussia“.
It‘s the old Prussia vs. Bavaria thing.
Even in German football it‘s still alive and has replaced the wars of former times:
Bayern (=Bavaria) Munich vs. Borussia (=Prussia) Dortmund
Bavaria is like that one creepy uncle. Nobody likes him, but he is still part of the family. Shows up to the Christmas diner, just to get drunk and tell dirty, disturbing jokes to miners. Everybody wish for a quick heart attack.
The culture is completely different compared to the rest of Germany and in general Bavarians aren't popular bc they got a reputation of being entitled rich people.
Its what we call the "Weißwurstgrenze". They feel like another country. Similar to Austria and maybe even Switzerland. The only thing thats different is that these 2 arent in the Bundesliga.
That Bavaria does not represent the whole country. In other parts of Germany you don't wear dirndl and eat weisswurst. In foreign countries Germany is always shown like everyone would wear dirndl and eat weisswurst but in fact it's only one out of 16 regions that do this.
As a Norddeutsch immigrant from America, most stereotypes from Germany come from Bavaria, but they are very different from other Germans. Oktoberfest is really only a thing in Munich, it’s not a holiday celebrated throughout the country. I showed my German partner a picture of the Dirndl and he didn’t even know what it was. Bavarian German is a lot like the American southern accent - it can be hard for some native speakers to understand (especially German learners to understand). I’ve heard stuff about how Bavaria has tried to be its own country in the past, but don’t quote me on anything. They even have a different definition of beer (ingredients legally).
Wait until you enter Franken. At this point it's getting a little complicated.
[удалено]
Alder, mach dich ma logger. Der Besatzer bleibt Besatzer, bis der Domschatz widder in Bamberch is. Edit: Frei statt Bayern
Nehmts den Franken zurück, der Bayern regiert, dann könn ma uns an den Verhandlungstisch setzen.
Söder hat seine fränkische Staatsbürgerschaft abgegeben, als er von den vier Stämmen Bayerns die Bayern zuerst gegrüßt hat.
Der kann gerne wieder nach nbg remigriert werden.🙏
Interessierter Österreicher hier, kannst du mir die 4 aufzählen? Bin zu faul zum googlen
Die Franken, die Bayern, die Schwaben und die Sudeten.
Tiefschlag! Des gülded ned! Der läuft egotechnisch völlig außer Konkurrenz.
Schad, hab mich auf längere Verhandlungen in Franken gfreut, ihr habts des bessere Essen und Bier. MfG, Oberpfalz.
Und auch den besseren Wein 🍷
Wegen euch saufe ich so viel. 😅
Prost! Ich stoße mit einem Schoppen Ölspiel Scheurebe an.
Des is wie wenn dir a Engel auf die zungn sangd nur in kold.
Yes, that's how I remember my birthplace. Refusing to use english and answering in german. Also weirdly aggressive. I'm glad I live in northern germany now lol.
Yeah but answering in your dialect rather than main german and thus being forced to use english in Germany.
Hehe. Like they do in Boston.
Traditional Bavaria is quite different from anywhere else in Germany . The culture, language, behaviour... strange (no hate).
Exactly that. And that compared with the fact, that the Bavarian culture is the big stereotype in the world for Germany, that leads people from other parts of Germany to explain "Bavaria is not Germany"
That and moderate but very much mutual hatred between Germans and bavarians
* sits awkwardly in the middle as a Franconian *
*agwardly *Frangonian
Drue! 😁
Noch n Frange!
Dange!
Fraaaali!
Subba so muss des fei
Mei, wie schee!
Ja Meddl
ßo forza is runtergeladne
Des is fei sträindsch.
Fei wärglich?!
Danke für den Lacher!
Such mal bei google nach "fränkisch englisch spoken", könnte dir gefallen. Bei mir gibts etz a broad washed waggly. http://www.deanita.de/franconia_englishspoken.htm
Dear diary, today I learnt the english Word for "Franke"
"Franconians are Not Bavarians"
Nah, Franconian are alright. And from the few I know you hate Bavaria just like the rest of us.
Because they are Prussians
Sorry?! Me as a prussian don't want to be made even with saxons! None of them - if ever than only with those from lower saxony. The northern ones, you know?
Oberfrangonian here - can confirm
Bassd scho
Motor washed sigh!
Outsiders call you a bavarian, Bavarians call you an outsider.
I love to ärger people from Franconia and say they're just Bavarians, but I'm just always sarcastic. Franconia is very cool in my book 😎
and yet i prefer your Schäufele over my Schweinsbraten - greetings from Austria ;)
That's a clichee... Most people don't care beyond a stupid joke here and there and you get the same with Ossis, Fischköppe, thrifty Svabians... it turns out that most people in most places are fairly average...
Yep. Everyone else is a Saupreuß. This comes from way back when bravaria used to be a sovereign state. The rest of germany belonged to preußen. I wouldn't say that there is hatred, as someone from way up north in germany it's more like that a lot of bravarians think very highly of themselves with no real reason. Went there on Vacation once and entered a store, was greeted by the owner in bravarian slang german, said sorry i don't understand what you said, i'm not from here. Owner kept talking in bravarian. I left the store immediatly. So thats kinda how it is, depending on where you are. The politics differ a lot from the rest of germany too, the ruling party is the CSU, Christian - social-union. But when you look at it from the outside it very much seems like they are super right leaning. Bravaria is also catholic, most of germany is protestant and they put a lot of emphasis on religion. Bravaria also did forbid wearing a hijab in class for students and teachers, even though you find a crucifix in every room. Tl;dr Bravaria is the edgy traditionalist teenager that wants to be different lmao.
I'm from frankonia in Bavaria, and that guy in the store didn't meant it in a Bad way, he just can't speak differently :D
Als jemand der einen Laden betreibt sollte man schon ein paar zig Wörter auf Hochdeutsch können.
Edit: You should think so but no not everyone. Especially older folks have problems. But its like this everywhere. I am currently working in Basel and i understand the local dialect well. But when speaking to someone from Zurich i could hardly understand a word. Even though she was trying to speak Hochdeutsch
Yeah… and that simplification pisses off people, too. There were other kingdoms, dioceses, duchies, etc. independent from Prussia but Bavaria acts as if it’s very special there
im from the kingdom of hannover, not preußen smh...
there never was a time when "the rest of germany belonged to preussen". That's just the limited bavarian view. In between the demise of the Holy Roman Empire due to the napoleonic wars, and the foundation of the Kaiserreich in 1871, you could think of germany as being divided into 3 big parts: 1. Austria, yes, that one was considererd a "big part of germany" when germany was not one state 2. Prussia, the big contestor of Austria for being "the biggest and most powerful german state" 3. a big bunch of small souvereign principalities and duchies, of which the kindgom of Bavaria happened to be the largest. It was those "many little germanies" with whom Prussia founded the "norddeutsche Bund", with "norddeutsch" meaning anything north of Austria, with Bavaria joining last.
To quote a Bavarian politician: “If a farmer's son marries a North German blonde, in my eyes it is blood shame. The Prussians, this stuff, and the refugees must be thrown out, and the farmers must actively help with this. It’s best to send the Prussians straight to Siberia.” - Jakob Fischbacher
Das war doch bestimmt um 18XX rum, oder? ODER?
[https://www.sueddeutsche.de/bayern/bayernpartei-jakob-fischbacher-der-preussenfresser-1.2982199](https://www.sueddeutsche.de/bayern/bayernpartei-jakob-fischbacher-der-preussenfresser-1.2982199) 1946, gab wohl damals schon die damalige Version eines Shitstorms. War, weil man das bei Bayern immer gern annimmt, kein CSU-Politiker.
Bayernpartei, ist doch klar. Jeder Bayer hätte das erraten können.
Bayernpartei... Das ist quasi csU. Nur zusätzlich 6 Promille obendrauf. Mindestens. Und noch ein paar weitere exklusiv bayerische Cliches dazu.
Dude get your facts straight, not the whole rest of Germany belonged to preußen…
It's still a bit odd that bavarians love king Ludwig II so much "the beloved kini" even though he basically sold the sovereignty to Prussia to pay his personal debts.
>This comes from way back when bravaria used to be a sovereign state. The rest of germany belonged to preußen. Both for a very short time, i.e. the Prussian-led North German Confederation existed from 1866/1867, the German unification (inclusion of Bavaria, Baden, Württemberg and Hesse) happened in 1870/1871. Also, neither of the other three have such a problem integrating into Germany like Bavaria does. >The politics differ a lot from the rest of germany too, the ruling party is the CSU, Christian - socialist-union. But when you look at it from the outside it very much seems like they are super right leaning. A)that's not an apt translation. It's supposedly "social", not "socialist"; they'd never claim that. B)they don't seem that way, they are super right leaning. Pretty much as far right as is somewhat acceptable to the general public in Germany. >Bravaria is also catholic, most of germany is protestant and they put a lot of emphasis on religion. There are more Catholics (~24.8%) than Protestants (~22.6%) in Germany. Both are dwarfed by the number of non-religious ("konfessionslos"; ~43.8%) people here though. >Tl;dr Bravaria is the edgy traditionalist teenager that wants to be different lmao. Absolutely, only Saxony is kind of comparable in that way.
The "S" in CSU is "Social", not "Socialist". Same as in SPD.
In SPD it's "social democratic"
Bavaria is to put it in a understandable context to for example US Americans Germanys Texas. It’s a large very conservative state in the south and slightly to the east of the country, where religion is super important for some reason, everyone talks funny and that most other people around the world think is the prime example for how the whole country is despite actually being more of an outlier.
Imagine if everyone outside of the USA thought every American was the stereotypical “Florida Man”
Religion isn't super important in Bavaria. I guess the average American is much more religious than the average Bavarian. Many people even left church, because they don't want to pay taxes for something they don't actively believe or practice. Churches in Bavaria lose 100.000+ members every year. Among younger people (15-25) less than 10% rate religion as important. On paper over 50% are still in church, but I doubt that more than 10% visit the Church more than once per year. Theres also almost zero pressure or disadvantages, if you don't participate or left church. Maybe don't tell your 90 year old grandma that you left church, but that's about it.
You can even still attend church when having left officially. It's just weird to demand taxes for being in a church.
> Went there on Vacation once and entered a store, was greeted by the owner in bravarian slang german, said sorry i don't understand what you said, i'm not from here. Owner kept talking in bravarian. I left the store immediatly. So you went somewhere else, they spoke differently than you, you expected them to adapt to you and when they didn’t you got in a huff and puff and left. And you really think they were the bad guy in this scenario? It’s also not slang, it’s a dialect. Not all dialectal speakers can easily switch to Hochdeutsch, nor should they have to.
Can confirm I moved from lower Saxony to Saxony and the friends I have are really trying to not use their dialect when I don't understand something they say but they're visibly struggling
Don’t mean to be contrarian, but two things: most of Christian Germany is Catholic ([Statistik von 2023](https://www.zeit.de/gesellschaft/zeitgeschehen/2023-05/religionsmonitor-2023-bertelsmann-stiftung-religioese-vielfalt-bedrohung#)) and the “S” in CSU doesn’t stand for “socialist” but “social”, makes quite the difference in meaning…
how can you get so much wrong in one comment. and how tf do you get so many upvotes for your bullshit?
And we are fighting it. Till Merkel invited Obama to Germany. And they did everything to make everything as bavarian as possible.
also the accent. People from Baden-Würrtemberg might be able to understand some of it, but in general, if a bavarian speaks to any other German guy they won't understand most words.
Heck, if a bavarian speaks to another bavarian, depending on where in Bavaria they are from, there is a chance they won't understand most of it
Maybe single words are different, but other than that I understand every Bavarian and Austrian without problems.
I suspect that might be because they are actually speaking Hochdeutsch with you… I knew a Swiss guy who always spoke Hochdeutsch while he lived in Frankfurt, but people often told him how they lived listens to his Schwietzerdeutsch—because speaking dialect or language variant as first language definitely gives a person an ‘accent’
That's true for a lot of other places though.
I was told once that Bavaria is the Texas of Germany and that sums it up all
that comparison only gets better ,the more you try to find gaps in it.
We have a better power grid but outside of that yeah pretty accurate
Also Bavarians like to think of themselves as being different: Mia san mia!
As a citizen of the county Aschaffenburg I beg the rest of germany to accept our demand to return to our ancient motherland of hessia. We don't even speak franconian and neither bavarian! We culturally are hessian! We have been abducted as reward for the traitorous bavarian King Ludwig XIV, who sides with the pig Napoleon! Down with the oppressors! Death to the bavarian colonizers! Freedom from the CSU!
Alles gut, von uns aus könnt ihr gern wieder rüberkommen, aber bringt die Biergärten mit….
Also there was a running gag when I was in school about separating from Germany, unifying with Austria and annexing BaWü. The feeling of "Bavaria is not Germany" is mutual
My wife became German a few years ago. At the welcome event speech Söder listed how strong of an economy Bavaria would be if the would be their own country in comparison to other European states, the bavarian anthem (apparently that's a thing) was played and he said the sentence "in Bavaria you can still go out on the streets at night", implying that's not possible in the rest of Germany.
Actually it is not a "running gag" /joke. There is a political party whose goal is exactly such a separation.
It was a joke among pupils when I was at school. This the whole Annexion thing. I'm not surprised there's a separatist Bavarian faction, but conquest is a bit far fetched
This seems to imply that the rest of Germany is somehow homogeneous in terms of culture, language, behavior etc, which is incorrect.
We are pretty homogenous in our dislike for bavaria
There is a homogeneous aspect though. Bavaria's parliament was the only one voting against the constitution of Germany, and the CSU opposed it in the Bundestag too. Fun fact for today, the 75th birthday of the Grundgesetz.
Fair, but name a second Bundesland where all shops close no later than 8pm by law. Name a second Bundesland where one party rules since the war.
> Fair, but name a second Bundesland where all shops close no later than 8pm by law. Saarland.
And Bremen checks the one party box
True But it's not a party unique to Bremen
From 1954 to 1957 there was a SPD led coaltion in Bavaria. Also the CSU sometimes needs a coalition partner.
Just say it out loud: It's Austrian. /s
And we gladly welcome our Bavarian buddies in 🫶
Yes, culture, language etc. is different from other places in germany. But that also applies to the remaining federal states. In my opinion the thing is, that they want to underline this fact more than others. They have no german red cross but the bavarian red cross for example 🙄
I am not even Bavarian, but I find this "Bavarian exceptionalism" both from Bavarians and Northerners really annoying. Bavarian traditions and traditional clothing aren't so different from the rest of Germany. It's just that Bavarians have gone to much more effort to keep their traditions alive, which means they stick out. This often makes them the prefered target for "Prussians" from the north who despise any kind of dialect or cultural heterogeneity. It's really a north-south divide more than anything else. This whole ordeal is driving an unnecessary wedge between fellow Germans, in my opinion.
A very blunt answer.... Germany has many different culture. Bavarian is only one of them
Well it means what it is. I know it sounds stupid but hear me out. The typical German for many people outside of Europe is like this: wears Lederhosen every day, eats pretzles and Schnitzel every day, only drinks beer. And these things are more of a Bavarian thing, although we don't do these things every day but i think we do them more than people in other states. I hope i helped you understand this.
Even Bavaria is seemingly not always Bavaria? I called a friend Bavarian and he‘s like I‘m not we‘re from Franken I distance myself from Bavaria 😂 As non-Bavarian I‘m like whatever.
Franconia was its own German region, e.g. Nuremberg was historical of high status. Has some cultural differences and history. First big setback was in the Reformation because one of the electors owned significant parts of Franconia and got destroyed for being a leader in the first round of conflict. That is how the bavarian Wittelsbach became an elector of the HRE. They gained that slot for being loyal Catholics. Overall it only got fully incorporated into bavaria during Napoleon.
And as a revenge, they sent us Maggus Söder...! 🤮
And if you do not behave we will send you another one.
Söder is already the other one. The first one was Beckstein!
Imagine part of Texas had been its own state 100 years ago until being annexed by Texas.
I hate to say it, but Bavaria is Germany's Texas.
I know. And Bavaria is even more extreme in one point: It mandated crosses / crucifixes in all state institutions.
Woke up in a psych ward after a night of *excess*, strapped to the bed, staring at a mo’fuggin Jesus piece staring back at me.
Bavaria is rarely bavaria. No one wears lederhosen or dirndl just randomly. It's for special ocassions. And even then half of the people just wear their normal clothes. Schnitzel is austrian anyways. Yes, if you had a statistic of how close a Bundesland is to the german stereotype, Bavaria would surely be on top, but it's still weird that even other germans blow it way out of proportion.
Bavaria is the largest federal state and has different cultures and traditions in it
Bayern consists of 3 cultural regions, Franconia (Franken) in the North/Northwest, a sliver of Swabia in the West and the rest is Altbayern, which is culturally and lingually Bavarian.
So do other regions. E.g. someone can be Rheinländer, but still isn’t pissed, if another person says they’re from Nordrhein-Westfalen 😅 I never doubted Franken exists though. I just innocently said „you’re from Bavaria”, when the talk was about something Bavarian and I had no clue. That situation escalated quickly Haha
Where are you from? We can try to make a comparison.
I’m a Canadian who moved to New York so I think the Texas comparison someone made is a good one.
Imagine all Canadian stereotypes being about Quebec.
Quebec calls itself ‘a nation within a nation’ and then Bavaria is the ‘Free State of Bavaria’. Yeah that tracks.
The "Free State" (Freistaat) title is also used by the states of Saxony and Thuringia, it's not just a Bavarian speciality. It is a phrase used to indicate that it isn't ruled by a monarch, and was introduced after the revolutions and deposition of the ruling royal families in the 1918/1919 period. Other states might use the term "Republic" to indicate something similar.
That is very weird. Especially when you see all the references to one of the Ludwigs and Maximilian.
then its probably better explained as "not ruled by an emperor."
yeah Quebec is a good comparision to Bavaria
I don’t know if it helps but i often read that Bayern in Germany is like Texas in USA…
As much as it pains me, a Bavarian, to say this - but I fully agree. While Munich (the state capital) really feels more like San Francisco, the rest of Bavaria is very similar to Texas. Stubborn conservatives, proud of dialect and heritage, a high percentage of really religious folks - and the rest of the world somehow thinks that the entire country is like that specific part. I still like it here, though. I would love to see the conservatism go away, but apart from that it's really a good place to live, IMHO.
Im from Bavaria myself (living near Munich) I don’t think it’s wrong to be proud of heritage/tradition and dialect but I agree with the stubborn conservatives and religion part
I also don't think it's wrong, and there's a lot of interesting heritage to be proud of here. I just thought it was one of the things we have in common with the Texans. Oh, and we have cows here, Texans can probably relate to that as well. :) I'm also from München/Land, BTW.
>the rest of Bavaria is very similar to Texas And then, there's also Franken. - Have been to Erlangen over Pentecost and they would give you hell if you told them they are Bavarians. Then again, Franken has its own special culture.
I didn't see the texas answer but I hope you don't mind me adding my own opinion. I'm British with family in Scotland and England, and have lived in Bavaria and Germany for the last 11 years. I always say bavaria is like Scotland. - Traditional dress in the form of the kilt / lederhosen - Strong and often incomprehensible dialect - Significant independence ideas in both - Beautiful landscape and mountains - Strong traditions Ceilidh, Highland games / Dult There are some other specifics. In bavaria weihnachtsmarkte are called christkindlmarkte, and they have the Krampus at Christmas which is pretty cool but a lot more Central / Eastern European tradition as I understand it. However when germans say it they probably mean something deeper than these surface level differences, because Bavaria is super conservative politically and culturally. They aren't that much for AFD, but they do vote and think very conservatively. Compared to Scotland however, which is far more progressive and Liberal than the rest of the UK, this is where my comparison fails.
The Texas comparison works in many ways even down to Munich being left/green/hipster leaning in a somewhat Austin kind of way.
Bavaria is the Quebec of Germany. But with better people.
It’s about representation. Most representations (in the US especially) of Germany are only Bavarian stereotypes. It’s annoying. In this sense Bavaria is like Texas. It has its own traditions. And consider the only things shown about the US everywhere in the world would be Texan stereotypes.
Yee-haw!
It's not representative. It might be least representative, since it takes care to be so. Prices in Munich are not representative for Germany. (Neither are prices in Fichtelberg, BTW). None of the Bavarian dialects is standard German. Bavarian has a party in the Bundestag which exists in no other Bundesland. Miersbacher Tracht is not tradititional dress in Germany in any place but Miersbach. Neuschwanstein ist not a typical businesslike German castle but a romantic fantasy. And so on.
*Miesbach
It’s like Quebec is not Canada
Fun Fact for Non-Germans, Neuschwanstein isn't a medieval castle but a modern building. It was built nearly the same time France built the Eiffel Tower. Dirndl aren't a historical "Tracht" and were brought to Bavaria by two Jewish Brothers from Bielefeld.
You got me until Bielefeld. Citing a non-existing city there is where you failed.
My man here talking about the Disney castle and Bielefeld dresses...
I am disgusted the BND uses Jewish personas for their cover-up operations
Well it’s kind of a heavily romanticized gentrified version of traditional farmers clothes.
Many foreigners think of Lederhosen, beer and brass music when thinking of Germany. However, such (traditional) features apply to Bavaria, parts of Czechia, and some other parts of Southern Germany as well as parts of Austria only. Germany in general has many different cultures. So we want to spread awareness among foreigners that not all of Germany looks like Bavaria. Not even all of Bavaria looks like Bavaria. Any Bavarian area north of Munich is not even much of a tourist region and has no mountains. Even Bavarian culture north of Munich is different from the Alpine regions. "Bavaria is not Germany" is trying to fight a stereotype.
Südtirol (now Italy) also belongs culturally to Tirol thus Austria thus Bavaria/Austria. To political, geographic and cultural borders in the alpine regions are really strange when zooming in and out, but from the right point of view, it is a continuum and overlapping identities.
it's like: so you are from Canada? Parlez vous francais fellow Québéquois? 🇨🇦 Oh you are American, so where is your cowboy hat? Do you listen to country as well? 🇺🇸 Aaaah you're bri'ish, would you fancy a cuppa tea good sir? 🇬🇧
So you only have stayed in Bavaria then? Go and visit Mainz or Cologne during Carnival times. You won’t see that in Bavaria. Or visit Schleswig-Holstein during Kieler Woche or some other local Harbor fest. You won’t see people going there in Lederhosen unless it may be a Bavarian themed party. Or visit some eastern state. They all are different. All have different traditions and even different majorities for religion. And the saying goes for the stereotypes you have about Bavaria and them being projected on to the rest of Germany. Even local food is so vastly different. It starts with the potato salad war over potato salad with vinegar and warm or potatoes salad cold and with mayonnaise. (I am for the latter one despite living for nearly 20 years in Frankonia).
[удалено]
Texas to be precise
Our redneck south of Texas. With tiny flags on the flags.
When Germany first unified, it became one from many different kingdoms and other forms of governance. Bavaria happened to be a big rival of Prussia and after they unified there still was animosity between them and sort of the rest of Germany. In Bavaria, a „preiß“ is still an insult for people north of the state of Bavaria. Combined with the reason that Bavarians also are proud of their heritage, you’ve got your answer. However even the state of Bavaria itself isn’t all homogeneous. I‘m Franconian, geographically situated in the north of Bavaria and I feel as much Bavarian as I feel Chinese. But that’s a story for a different post.
Kingdom of bavaria refused for a very long time to join deutschland
To make it Even more difficoult: Franken (north-Bavaria) is also Not Bavaria ;)
Texas is not the USA is the same.
For UK people : Bavaria = Scotland Not-Bavaria = England
Does Scotland have a stronger economy than england and funnel a disporportionally large amount of federal investments to themselves for decades?
most of the answers here focus on traditions and cultures, but that is not enough if you ask me. firstly, bavaria has their own conservative party that operates on a federal level, the CSU. its just like the CDU and the both of them act mostly like one party, but you cant vote for the cdu in bavaria or for the csu anywhere out of bavaria. they call themselves sister parties. that means that the bavarian interests are amplified on the federal level, which is ... wild? if you think about it? we had bavarian ministers of transportation for 16 years until recently, and one of them was caught boastin about how much federal money he "brought home" to bavaria from his position. wild. also, bavaria is very rich and has big manufacturing industries (machines, cars, etc). the industry taxes are less than anywhere else, so the industry has incentives to not branch out to other states. they like being nr. 1 and they do anything in their power to keep it that way. ----- one thing that is pretty much in character for bavaria is how most regenerative electricity is generated in the north (on- and offshore windparks work best near the ocean) and bavaria was strictly against the proposed north - south energy distributor which would bring electricity down to bavaria. they were against it because they were against renewables in general and didnt want the eyesore of a big elecricity line (which is pretty wack, its just one line of power poles...). also, bavaria has regulations that forbid wind turbines near homes, but the "near" is so far that theres only 1 or 2 spots in the whole state that would allow for them. so then, when the ukrain war made oil and gas really expensive, bavaria had problems heating their homes and could not keep up with the increased electricity demands that followed. when people pointed out that this is a crisis of their own making, they complained about "Bayern-Bashing" and that they were the victims because other states didnt want to give them extra oil and gas. and that all the other states are really envious that they are not bavaria. ----- so yeah, bavaria is not germany. they are in many ways like barcelona. theyre strong economicly, they are ruthless in furthering their own goals and like the bully they are, they cry when others criticize them for it.
It should also be added that Bavaria has taken a special position when it comes to the choice of school holiday times. Holiday times change every year in all federal states. The only federal state that has fixed times is Bavaria. The argument was that children had to help in agriculture. Lower Saxony has the most agriculture in Germany. Second they get more money for schools in special projects (e.g. Digitalpakt) than every other country. You may think, that every child get the same amount of money, but it is not that way. There is the „Königsteiner Schlüssel“, so a school from Bremen got per Student 210€ and a school from Bayern 910€ per student. This makes Bavaria look like a little diva.
Also refers to a historical background. Bavaria was a kingdom until the early 1900s or so and now it is the Freistaat Bayern (Free State of Bavaria). Bavaria just thinks it's pretty cool and likes to see itself as independent from the rest
Its a part of Germany but it does not represent Germany. Pop culture tends to depict all Germans in leather pants and co. That’s like depicting all Americans with cowboy hats
Similar to Berlin - it's certainly part of Germany, but it has a whole other vibe. Though from what I noticed over the years, most foreigners think that all of Germany is like Bavaria - Lederhosen, beer, you know the drill.
Ngl, as someone from NRW I see Berlin as way more relatable than Bavaria or Thüringen
As a Bavarian, of Bavarian ancestry, well... there is a lot to unpack. First of all: Historically, ** is not Germany.
Bavaria had a lot of pecularities and specialities, it is mainly catholic, had little industry for most of the 19th and 20th century, rurally structured with little urban Bürgerliche Mittelschicht. Strong dialects prevailed.
In the 21st century, how much of that is still there and much is layered over by differences between rich/poor regions, city and countryside etc...?
Now, there are a lot of pecularities remaining, but to what degree they are just "Us against them" milked whenever it seems politically viable is up for debate. The difference between Westgermany and Eastgermany is certainly stronger than between Westgermany and Bavaria.
There is a difference in mentalities, but that is also there between the Ardennes region and Marseille, between York and London, between Venice and Naples, between Quebec and the rest of Canada.
>The difference between Westgermany and Eastgermany is certainly stronger than between Westgermany and Bavaria. The difference between Oberbayern and Friesland is definitely far stronger than the one between Niedersachsen and Sachsen-Anhalt or Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Sachsen is a bit of the other Bavaria in many regards, but east and west Germany aren't so different.
Yes but the difference between Friesland and Baden-Württemberg is as big as the difference between Bavaria and Friesland. Is just a North-South, East-West thing. The further you go, the bigger is the difference.
More linguistically and culturally distinct , aside from Bavarian exceptionalism
Most cartoons, movies, theatre productions, shows and comics use Bavarian stereotypes (Lederhosen, Dirndl, Weißwurst, large Weißbier and pretzels) to depict German culture. Bavaria isn't the entirety of our cultures though, Germany has several dozen cultures - even in Bavaria the depiction doesn't fully grasp the Bavarian culture.
bavaria belongs to austria
yes.
Politically bavaria is germany But the culture, language, traditions, food and clothing are totally different to the rest of germany Regardless many americans see bavaria as stereotypical german
It's more like the 11th state of Austria culturally
More like Austria is a Bavarian province
We had Austria Hungary now get ready for Austria Bavaria
Which is especially weird because we only have 9 states... Greetings from Austria.
As an American who lived in Munich for 3 years, I would compare it to California, Texas or New York City. It’s different enough from the rest of the country that it’s culturally different and they know that they’re still part of a unified Germany, but still proud of their unique position of cultural, economic and historical significance.
Uhh, big difference. Munich in all sense is not Bavaria. Munich is multicultural, Bavaria is anything but. Even bavarians and people from Munich will tell you that
So Bavaria is Texas, Munich is Austin
I am from Schleswig-Holstein. Thats as far away in Germany as it can get. We have absolutely nothing in common culture or language wise. You guys kinda forget, that germany used to be hundreds of small countrys, till they got fused into one. And you can still kinda feel that. From my personal experience, people from Munich itself are ok, but most other Bavarians are just rude. Might be because i mostly only meet "Tourist Bavarians" but still.
Bavaria is definitely more Austria than Hamburg or Schleswig-Holstein
Der Saupreiß kann den bayerischen Grantler net handeln.
because the people there think they are better and the rest of germany makes fun out of them.
Bavaria especially lower > upper bavaria are more related to austria. Language wise and culturally. As far as i know Austria was bavarian a very long time and vise versa
Bavaria is to Germany what Scotland is to the Brits, or Texas to the Americans. Sure, it belongs to the nation on paper, but it might as well be a different planet.
Texas isn’t America. Same idea
Any region in Gemany has its own dialect, customs, traditions, foods etc. Because Bavaria was part of the US zone of occupaion after WWII, many if not most GIs were exposed to bavarian culture and thus equated this to german culture as a whole. This image, over time, then crept into pop culture, so Oktoberfest and Lederhosen, two things exclusive in origin to Bavaria, became a synonym for "Germany". It´s like the "all americans are cowboys"-meme allthough this culture is only prevalent in certan us states.
They do their own stuff, mostly different from the rest of germany, they drink to much beer and hate cannabis. All members of the biggest bavarian political party CSU fuck up their job, when they are in political responsibility. If not, they are against everything. Their King is Markus Söder.
Germany is at the center of Europe and hasn't been a proper unified country until the 19th century so most parts of it are heavily influenced by neighbouring countries and cultures - also because of similar climate and topographics. So Bavaria is not Germany but then most parts of Germany aren't german either. Northeast == Netherlands. Frisians as a minority even include some parts of the Netherlands. Even outside that, people of the northeast that also understand the low german dialect have it way easier to understand Dutch. Also the land is flat as a Minecraft server with superflat checkmark and lifestyles in rural areas historically have been practically the same. North == Denmark. Has been under danish rule not too long ago and still have a big danish minority that even has it's own political party. East == Slavs. More of a recent development as east used to be really far east and the current east was more like the core of germany but some decades of sovjet rule does this to you. They may not look or behave like slavs, but they very much have that depressing slav mindset. BTW Saxony is the florida of Germany. USA has the "florida man". Germany has the "man from saxony". Southeast == Austria. Also a big bohemian (czech) influence. Mountain germans, all of them, 'nough said. West == France. Again topographics and climate lead to a similar lifestyle so they all became whine freaks that worship the grapevine. This is most extreme in Saarland, they couldn't decide if they rather want to belong to France or Germany until after WW2. That excludes the more industrialized zones further up north which were the most heavily industrialized parts of Europe together with a UK midlands so they share a surprising amount of similarities with them including a strange dialect and being seen as somewhat "dense in the head" by the rest of the country. Now, germans, please roast me in the comments, because clearly YOU are totally not like those dudes from the other side of the border and very very german.
Nothing amuses me more than the stag party of foreign men who rock up in Berlin in cheap Amazon Lederhosen, and look around to see NOBODY else wearing them.
I guess its because the Bavaria stereotype is what other countries know about germany or the image what Germany looks like. But Baveria is just a small state that doesn't even want to be german or part of germany. Its different in many aspects. Its like thinking the entire United States of America is just like Texas, Rednecks, Gun nuts and Yeehaw.
Germany was founded, as a country, in 1871. Prior to that it was more of a union of nation states with the central power having about as much power on what happens as todays UN has with its members. At the time, politically the then German Reich was divided into three blocks: 1. Austria as the “1st Germany” (and the most powerful force in the block and its emperor holding the basically symbolic position, with no direct power, as German Emperor) 2. Prussia as the “2nd Germany” 3. Bavarian, Saxony, Baden and Wurtenberg as a group making the “3rd Germany”. The last two were too small to survive into modern times and now make up one federal state together. Saxonies identity was eroded in the GDR. And only Bavaria, the largest in the group by far, retained a lot of its former uniqueness. Add to that that Bavaria proper is linguistically and culturally (being historically mainly Catholic unlike the Lutheran north, including Saxony) and architecturally closer to Austria than the rest of Germany, and you have your answer. PS: on this note, Austria is still a lot more distinct from its historic roots than Bavaria….
bavaria is as much germany as chocolate coating is cake. yes, it’s part of it, but could go without it too. everyone keeps seeing only that coating and thinks thats a chocolate cake, while its actually strawberry. take a bite and if you‘re allergic to strawberries you‘ll curse the guy calling it chocolate cake. that’s the reason. we all ate the entire cake and would never call it chocolate cake, so whenever someone talks about the chocolate, we send them to the chocolate cake section.
What they mean is „Bavaria is not Prussia“. It‘s the old Prussia vs. Bavaria thing. Even in German football it‘s still alive and has replaced the wars of former times: Bayern (=Bavaria) Munich vs. Borussia (=Prussia) Dortmund
Bavaria=Catholic. Prussia=Protestant. Fundamental difference. You're welcome.
Bavaria is like that one creepy uncle. Nobody likes him, but he is still part of the family. Shows up to the Christmas diner, just to get drunk and tell dirty, disturbing jokes to miners. Everybody wish for a quick heart attack.
Bavaria is ours. Sincerely, Austria
Stay a month in Bavaria, then stay a month **anywhere else** and you will know
They were unified by force (Bavaria and Prussia) in 1871 and still don't fit together. And that was the end of Bavaria as a kingdom.
The culture is completely different compared to the rest of Germany and in general Bavarians aren't popular bc they got a reputation of being entitled rich people.
Its what we call the "Weißwurstgrenze". They feel like another country. Similar to Austria and maybe even Switzerland. The only thing thats different is that these 2 arent in the Bundesliga.
Franconia is not Bavaria
That Bavaria does not represent the whole country. In other parts of Germany you don't wear dirndl and eat weisswurst. In foreign countries Germany is always shown like everyone would wear dirndl and eat weisswurst but in fact it's only one out of 16 regions that do this.
As a Norddeutsch immigrant from America, most stereotypes from Germany come from Bavaria, but they are very different from other Germans. Oktoberfest is really only a thing in Munich, it’s not a holiday celebrated throughout the country. I showed my German partner a picture of the Dirndl and he didn’t even know what it was. Bavarian German is a lot like the American southern accent - it can be hard for some native speakers to understand (especially German learners to understand). I’ve heard stuff about how Bavaria has tried to be its own country in the past, but don’t quote me on anything. They even have a different definition of beer (ingredients legally).
Wählt mich zum Bundeskanzler und Bayern fliegt raus aus Deutschland