Southern Germany

By entering southern Germany is linguistically the Upper German -speaking area outlined (the land in the south of the German language ) and a politically ambiguous demarcated area in the south of the Federal Republic of Germany was founded in 1949. In the latter case, its territory covers the states of Baden -Württemberg, Bavaria, southern Hesse and sometimes the Saar and the Palatinate. The Saarland, Rhineland -Palatinate, Baden- Württemberg and the south of Hesse form the south-west ( West Germany ), Bavaria to the south east of the Federal Republic.

Definitions

Baden -Württemberg and Bavaria are the southernmost states of the Federal Republic of Germany, thus Southern Germany, while the southern Hesse, the Palatinate and Saarland are above it, but are counted in a wider sense also to Southern Germany, at least from the viewer's north Germany.

The original linguistic association of people sharing the German language area into a northern and a southern Germany. In this sense, a distinction is made in a Low German, Middle German, and Southern German -speaking countries, thus in a North / Lower Germany, Central Germany, Southern / Upper Germany.

Linguistic and religious embossing

As with other regional terms, there is no defined limit in the case of southern Germany. Most of the Main is given as a limit, because a part of Hesse, in the Upper Rhine Plain, lies south of the Main and has a special cultural and linguistic connection to southern Germany. In most parts of southern Germany Upper German dialects are spoken.

Overall, Southern Germany ( and the Rhineland ) marked compared to the northern and eastern areas of Germany in many parts rather from Roman Catholicism, where it 's also in southern Protestant dominated regions, such as Middle Franconia.

Main line

This main line is to locate as with the emergence of this concept in the context of the German war in 1866, not strictly on the riverbank of the River Main. Even in Hesse is the cultural boundary between Central and South Hesse Hesse rather than in the Taunus am Main. Further east, run away the boundaries between dialects and other traditions not in the Main valley, but in the low mountain ranges north ( and south ).

Earlier use

Before the Second World War, when the term " German " is often applied also for Austria and German Switzerland, the term Southern Germany often the southern German-speaking areas outside of Germany, which has been preserved in individual names included (eg Prato Süddeutsche kitchen, now as good old kitchen with ISBN 978-3-854-31426-4 reissued ).