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I'm from Poland and recently got interested in German history and culture. A month ago I went to vis...
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Yes, as a Bavarian, besides the obvious similarities with Austria, I think Czech people and culture are the closest to us. Someone from Aachen might feel more connected to Dutch people, etc
about your point regarding aachen: no, not at all. the moment you cross the border to the netherlands it feels like you enter a different world. completly different people with their own culture. same when going to belgium but much less since most people on the belgium side actually speak german.
Well, as someone from Düsseldorf and Niederrhein, the Dutch feel very similar hahaha
People who live farther from the border often say that, but it’s mostly a matter of not knowing the Dutch well. I lived 10 minute from the border (walking distance), and I used to go over there all the time, even lived there shortly for a while. from my experience I can tell you: they really are a very different people culturally.
The funny thing is, dutch people would be offended if they heard a german calling them culturally similar, not matter how close you live to the border. They would definitely push back hard on this one.
My sister has been living in Amsterdam for many years and she thinks that Dutch and German people are very close culturally. But maybe it's true that things are more 'tense' on the border hahaha
But also it might be a rural-urban thing. City people in both countries are probably more likely to come to this conclusion than rural folks
Oh, that’s a misunderstanding. I didn’t mean any tense situation, just noticing how different the cultures are. I lived right on the border and spent a lot of time with Dutch friends, and it struck me that a German at the border is still culturally closer to Germans on the other side of the country than to the Dutch.
It’s also about perspective: someone from Southeast Asia might see Dutch and German culture as pretty similar, simply because their own culture is so different from either one.
About “city people”: not sure what you meant there. I wasn’t talking only about rural areas. Aachen is a city after all.
And for what it’s worth, vast majority Dutch people (city or countryside) wouldn’t say they’re “culturally close” to Germans. best way to offend a dutch person haha.
Im from Aachen and I assure you we don’t feel connected to the Dutch!
At least, we would never admit it in a place where they could see it!
We often talk about it with our Dutch friends and both sides very much agree we don’t feel close except to those Dutch/Germans we happen to meet.
Those have all been great. But the Dutch at large? We don’t like them almost as much as our Dutch friends dislike the Germans at large!
That's because the Kingdom of the low countries had been established long before the current borders of modern Germany, so the Dutch in so many ways are quite distinctive people, while you couldn't quite say the same about people in Southern Jutland and Schleswig Holstein
Human's are such a shitshow in general. We just need some beef with other groups to feel well
What about Hessen, we don't have any "border brothers"
Hessen is lost mostly, sorry
That's the correct answer. Berlin might be similar, but not all of the country.
I guess we'll be most similar to the East (because of the shared history) and the south (Catholicism), and least similar to the West
The south isn't as catholic as you might think. In BW the protestant and catholic churches are roughtly equal in members. (Old) Bavaria is still majority catholic but Franconia for the most part is rather protestants (don`t know about the bavarian Swabians). And a lot of people either never been part of one of the churches or left them, only around half of the population are still part of one of the 2 major christians churches and it's going to fall even more.
On the other hand, the west had the most polish immigration since post-WW2, so you have a noticeable polish community there
But we have nothing in common with them, I think most of them are really German now.
They could easily integrate into the culture. Therefore you barely realize that 3rd generation Poles are Poles This shows that we do have a lot in common otherwise that would not have been possible.
Well here in the Ruhr area in West Germany, we've had many Polish immigrants (50s to 70s i think). You often have 'Polish shelves' in supermarkets (might be mixed with other Eastern European things), and quite a few Polish shops as well.
But hey, we've been neighbours for longer then either state existed, of course there's similarities!
You might look at the Bohemian influences. Big parts of Czechia, todays Northern Bavaria, Poland, Austria. I played Basketball with a polish friend for some years. Now we even share the same curse word!
The east is lost. They hate Poles and love Russians and vote right wing. They didn't fight against communism as much as Poles did so the mindset is completely different.
Don't even try to connect with DDR folks as a Pole. You'll be shocked by their statements. Especially in regards to the past and to Russia.
Здравствуйте , товарищи!