Scandinavia and the World
Scandinavia and the World

Comments #9803960:


North- and Southgermany 19 12, 9:36pm

I'm actually not sure about the North, but what is decripted here as the south is Bavarian - the Shirt colour does give that away.

Now, as a South German, this upsets me quite a bit, because it is not an aft description. The South does consist of multiple different cultures. I can think of at least 4 of them. From West to East we got the Badener (Badenians), followed by the Schwaben (Swabians), then we got the Francs (Franken) and then - and only then - do we got the Bayern (Bavarians).

The Thing is: During history, some of those other cultures were politically put together to form one state. In the case of Bayern (Bavaria), they got some lands of the Swabians and the entirety of the Francs. But that doesn't mean that the Francs gave up their culture, mind you.

The same is true with the Badener (Badenians). You see, Baden as a sovereign state was dissolved after WWII and fused together with the State of Württemberg, to which most of Schwaben (Swabia) belongs to, to form the State of Baden-Württemberg.

Now, one of the most serious mistakes a foreigner can make in South Germany is to mistake one for the other. If you call a Badenian a Swabian, you'll be quickly informed of your error. If you call a Swabian a Badenian, you will be ridiculed. If you call a Franc a Swabian you will simply be ignored.

But if you call any of those three groups a Bavarian you better start running for the hills, because it is most likely that a gang of Swabians, Badenians or Francs will come at you armed to the teeth with knives, axes, and other sharp harmful objects. The only way to be forgiven such a grief and heinous mistake is to quickly drop to the floor begging for mercy while informing the angry mob you caused that you are either a Migrant from Africa, an American Tourist or a member of the AfD. You'll quickly find that all of those three Groups will immediately loose their wish to harm you and instead start teaching you about the differences of those three cultural identities.

Do I need to clarify that the Bavarians aren't really liked amongst South Germans?

If you should make the mistake of calling a Bavarian a Swabian, ah well, you're pretty much shit out of luck. It was nice knowing ya.

Naturally, the differences are quite obviously when you view some examples of folk dresswear.

Bavarian:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayerische_Tracht#/media/File:Stadtgruendungsfest_munich_2013_Paar_in_Tracht_beim_TAnz.JPG

Swabian:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracht_(Kleidung)#/media/File:Nellinger_Heimatmuseum_Tracht.jpg
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blauhemd_(Schw%C3%A4bische_Alb)#/media/File:Dreschen_mit_Flegel.jpg
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracht_(Kleidung)#/media/File:Betzinger_Tracht_Und_i_und_mei_Gretele.jpg

Badenian:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracht_(Kleidung)#/media/File:Bader_Hausteiner_Tracht.jpg
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracht_(Kleidung)#/media/File:Schwarzwaelderin_by_Rudolf_Epp.jpg
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracht_(Kleidung)#/media/File:Klettgauer_Tracht.jpg

Francian:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A4nkische_Tracht#/media/File:F%C3%BCrth_Kirchweih_2013_008.JPG

Now, I assume that you're not from the South so my wish was to educate you instead of harming you. Now that you know better you're off puppy protection. Don't you ever visualize South Germans as being Bavarians. We don't like that very much.