Northern vs Southern Germany culture/people

12 comments

1. [In Wurster Nordseeküste, what is this large construction? Looks like a fusion between a oil plant and lighthouse.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-uQPT72M2o&ab_channel=SkyPlusMovie)

2. – S Germany is more diverse in its geography and geology, while the north is rather flat and and has coastal environments. Also, the north is less warmer, has more rainfall and is cloudier during summer.
   – culturally… its difficult. But one thing that definitely stands out: N Germans are capable of speaking without a dialect.

3. [Biggest cultural difference](https://s3.amazonaws.com/cbi-research-portal-uploads/2017/10/30114809/aldi-divide-map.png)

4. >the small towns really close to the Holland border resemble Dutch architecture or is it vice versa?

   State/ country borders are not the same as cultural borders. Europe has a long history with constantly shifting borders, it’s not like people on both sides developed independently. So you could say that the area on both sides of the Dutch border is one cultural area or at least two rather similar ones, while there are much bigger differences between East Frisia and say Baden, which on the other hand has many cultural ties and similarities to French Alsace.

   >How would you guys compare Northern Germany to Southern? Culturally, weather, anything. Fascinated to know more.

   There is not just South – North and East – West, there are many more distinct cultural regions in Germany. So it’s quite a huge task to compare all of them by such broad strokes. I recommend to just pick a region and explore them independently as they are and not try to compare them to some artificial standard that doesn’t exist anywhere in Germany.

5. South Germany has bretzels and doesn’t put mayonaise into their Kartoffelsalat. Very important.

6. Germany’s north is… complicated.

   The cities you mentioned are among the oldest and richest northern German cities in Lower Saxony, but they only tell half the truth. Northern Germany is not only the riches that have been aquired by the Hansa to build big beautiful cities.

   Northern Germany is also the story of poverty, of ancient roman warfare and of draining swamps.

   An example from my hometown: If you were in Emden, you must’ve heard of Papenburg, maybe even took a visit there to see the new cruise ship that’s being build there. Papenburg is a city in the Emsland that is over 500 years old. And until 70 years ago, it was considered to be one of the poorest regions in Germany. That is until the swamp was finally drained, there wasn’t much to do here except mine turf or build ships.

   This shows how much of a contrast there is on northern Germany, just between two cities that are about 60km apart. The north is very diverse, it just mostly isn’t visible on first sight.

7. I was an exchange student years ago in a small town a little way south of Emden. It is a fascinating area that’s often treated as a backwater by Germans from other regions. The landscape is very flat – the joke is that you can see Sunday’s company coming on Wednesday.

   In my experience the people are less outwardly friendly there than in the south. I always attributed it to the lack of sunshine. They are also much more conservative in how they spend money, and there’s a cultural norm against being flashy with one’s money. The fanciest house I went to when I was there was very nice, and it was obvious these people had more money than most of the others in the area – but it wasn’t a McMansion by any means. It was just somewhat larger than all the other brick houses around.

8. I hope you enjoyed you stay in my hometown Emden. Not many of the older buildings survived the 2nd world war, the [old town was 90%](https://www.emden.de/emden/stadtgeschichte/1933-bis-1945) destroyed. You could say we are culturally more connected in the past with the Dutch than with Germany. [Frisians](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frisia) count as one of the [national minorities](https://www.bmi.bund.de/EN/topics/community-and-integration/national-minorities/national-minorities-node.html#:~:text=Four%20officially%20recognized%20national%20minorities,and%20Roma%2C%20and%20the%20Sorbs.&text=They%20receive%20special%20protection%20and,the%20federal%20and%20state%20governments.) in Germany. Apart from that we all have a somewhat more dry character compared to the south.

   The south has way better weather with a lot more sunny hours. Winters with snow have now become a rarity in the north, even the rivers hardly freeze any more. The plant hardiness here is at 8b on the way to 9a.

9. We lived a year in Stuttgart and then a year in Leipzig and there was a world of difference (besides not understanding Swabish), but that was probably a more East/West cultural divide rather than North/South.

10. Hi OP, what I try to relate to regarding regional cultural aspects in Germany are the Reign divisions prior to a German unification or going even further back to the Middle Ages. The modern state division of Germany does not represent this intricate cultural aspect. In my region I have within 50km radius 4 different cultural groups.

11. As far as I know, Germany borders the Netherlands. Not Holland, which are 2 provinces in the Netherlands, home to the 3 largest cities in the country.

    But true, the upper north in Germany is in many ways connected to the upper north in the Netherlands. The current border wasn’t always like that. And that goes for the entire German-Dutch border for that matter. Many border regions from north to south are well connected in terms of culture, economy, infrastructure, history etc.

12. One of my best friends is from Bamberg and she decided to stay in Hannover after studying here because according to her people are a lot less conservative and judgy here. Could just be anecdotal of course.