Not all of Bavaria is Bavarian 

The last bit about not being hessian shows you german identity in a nutshell. The most important part of german identity is that we are definetely not the same as those bastards in the next village, thank you very much. Everything else is optional.

"are you Bavarian or Franconian?" "I'm not Hessian" is the German equivalent of "Is whiskey Scottish or Irish?" "It's not English"

Ah yes Germany. We may have problems to show our German patriotism outside of the football european or world cup, but oh boy do we have a strong regional patriotism :D

I remember stopping on the Autobahn on the way to the former GDR region. I wasn't sure if I had already crossed the old border so I asked the guy at the petrol station. I didn't want to be insensitive so I didn't ask if we are in East Germany so instead I asked if we are in Bavaria. His answer was a swift and straight NO; after a way too long pause he said we are in Frankonia.

My Eldest Son was born when we lived in Oberbayern, but he was born in the next village which is in Schwaben. He's very pleased to say he's Bavarian and Swabian. (and British, and ethnically half Japanese... it's complicated.)

Finally! I've been waiting for this video for a very long time, Andrew! And... you might have guessed it: It does matter! 😂

I as a Bavarian have one aspect to add: The "Freistaat Bayern" (Free State of Bavaria) is written with an y, because one king in the 19th century wanted it this way. But the language and culture group is written Baiern with i. So Austrians are Baiern, but no Bayern. Franconians and Swabs are Bayern, but no Baiern. Get it? ;)

“No self-respecting Franconian would ever admit to being Bavarian.” I agree. And yes, I was born and raised in Franconia.

Well Atbaiern makes sense not only historically, but in terms of language: in altbaiern (and Austria) bavarian dialects are spoken. Not so in Swabia and Franconia.

Welcome to Germany. In case anyone Wonders. Yes. This is pretty much what all of Germany is Like. Germany is made up of over 1000 Territories which used to be Semi Independent with their own Culture. A few Kingdoms, Alot of Duchys and Countys, A bunch of Citystates and a Metric Crabton of Baronies, Knighthouses and other Territories that for whatever Reason remained Semi Independent..... Many of which up to this Day have their own Coat of Arms or even Flags... And many of which up to this Day insist on being Considered to be whatever their Culture was Named instead of being Lumped into one of the 16 German States we got nowdays....

Just a data point from my experience: I met a guy with a beautiful Swabian accent, but when I mentioned that part of my family is from Stuttgart, he was very insistent to be a *Bavarian* Swabian, and not to be confused with those "Wurttembergians". And for foreign readers, this gets fractally complicated when you consider that only part of Wurttemberg is Swabian, too, but also has Franconian and Allemanic regions, and let's not even get started about Badenians. None of this matters in professional life, but these distinction start to matter a lot the closer you get to a tavern, a local sports club, or the socializing part of a small town's fire department.

9 years ago, I came back from a trip to the Balkans. On the way back, we drove non-stop with several drivers from Sofia, Bulgaria to Cologne. When after many hours of driving we hit Germany near Passau, we thought to ourselves: "we're finally back in Germany. Not much longer now." The trip through Bavaria seemed longer than that through Austria and Hungary combined. It just didn't want to end. Just past Aschaffenburg I almost got out of my old Citroen to kiss the (Hessian) ground.

I have a friend living in Franconia which I visited several times already, it's Middle Franconia; they speak the Franconian dialect and are culturally different to Bavarians for the most; the landscape is very different, but at the same time, we eat Bavarian breakfast...It's a bit iffy, and sometimes they do wish Franconia was able to obtain statehood.

As a guy who grew up in Cadolzburg, a suburb of Fürth, thank you for clarifying this cultural Franconia/Bavaria thing to an international audience.

there is a similar thing in Georgian region called autonomous republic of Adjara, in the north there is Kobuleti municipality and no self respecting resident of Kobuleti would ever admit to being Adjarian, they say that they are Kobuletians. Rest of Adjarians make fun of them because of that.

Frei statt Bayern!

Ah yes, the Aschaffenburg conundrum. Or as Urban Priol (a comedian from Aschaffenburg) put it: "I'm a borderline Bavarian with a Franconian migration background!" (He's got a whole spiel about where he's from and what that area is part of in one of his programmes. It's hilarious.)

Thank you! This was a very important video. Too many people think of Bavaria as a homogeneous entity, even though this isn't the case. I, as a Franconian myself, am truly grateful that you mentioned this important distinction. In addition: the greatest difference nowadays is not the history but of course local culture, architecture, cuisine etc and in those regards, Franconia could very well be an entirely separate state. The following is just my opinion and other Franconians might see it differently (this is also heavily influenced by my general opposing political views on Söder): I see in Söder a Bavarian, yes he was born in Franconia and visits our region on Frankentag, but he has played into the culture of the Altbayern down south a great bit. Of course, this is expected by the others in Munich, but this IS the problem. We are (currently at least) still part of Bavaria and therefore our culture shouldn't be neglected, we shouldn't feel that we are supposed to ponder to the Altbayern if we want to go into politics because no, their culture is not superior to ours. Another factor in our (my) negatively connotated feeling towards the south is because except for Nürnberg/Fürth (and maybe just maybe a bit Würzburg and Bamberg) most development, infrastructure and attention is granted to Munich and its surrounding land (and Augsburg but that's just a good thing for the Swabians).

When Franz Josef Strauß was elected Prime Minister of Bavaria he made his inaugural Visit tour in Lower Franconia an held a speech in Aschaffenburg. In this speech he called the Aschaffenburg region the last hair on the tail of the bavarian lion. The at this time acting District administrator answered: And we feel us treated like this by the government of our Land. They told us FJS was very angry.

Spot on! It's fascinating how Aschaffenburgers don't want to have anything to do with people on the other side of the river. We speak the same dialect, gíve or take, and Aschaffenburg was the second residence of the Mainz elector. For some reason, Kurmainz does not feature as a common bond anymore. And yet, they refuse to be called Bavarians inside Bavaria.

My great grandmother was from Kelheim, which is at the most north western part of Lower Bavaria. But the next bigger city just a few kilometres down the river Danube is Regensburg, which is the capitol of Upper Palatinate. And most of the villages west to it belong to Upper Bavaria. Also it's also not far from Middle Franconia which begins at Hipoltstein just a bit up the Rhine-Main-Danube-Canal, which itself ends in Kelheim. So whenever my grandfather was asked which part of Bavaria his mother was from he just said "From Kelheim" and let them decide which part of Bavaria it belongs to just because he didn't know himself.

Funny random video recommendation. I am a hungarian living in Franconia now. Sometiems people are really really grumpy to us foreigners, but other than that I think I like it here. I did see a bit of history in Nürnberg castle museum, or the Bad Windsheim Freilandmuseum, plus some bits and pieces living here and it does seem that Franconian is a strong and pretty well established identity. I was born as an ethnic minority on the territory that used to belong to my ancestors for a thousand years, so I can respect people being proud of their heritage.

you are a small channel and you consistently provice subs. not that i use them but i love it when creators provide them!

Excellent video, Andrew! Could have done with this information when I, as a clueless Brit, married a lower Franconian and moved to the bottom left hand corner of the Main. It took me over 30 years to fathom out what you just explained in a few minutes! All so very true ;))

Very important topic, which you explained beautifully.

Ganz gut gemacht, mate!

Greetings from Hesse. Just so that you know: an instructor at a my former employer firmly stated: south of river Main the Balkans begins. So you might consider yourself a Slav. (He came from Hamburg, so this mistake might be excused)

Servus aus der (unterfränkischen) Rhön! You summed this up pretty much perfectly, and I will definitely share this explanation with friends in the UK and US because maybe then they'll understand that I am not Bavarian 😅

This is so well made ... As a true "Frankfurter" I always liked to make fun of my fellow colleagues from Aschaffenburg, who would speak a true hessian dialect although living in the furthest corner of Bavaria. And dare you mention that ... ;-)

A friend of mine was very upset, when I said, he was a Bavarian and said: "I'm no Bavarian. I'm a Franconian."

You were making lovely videos on many towns and landscapes in Hesse. I almost thought what I must not think ... 😉

Best wishes for a good recovery from Hesse ! 🙂

My ancestors came out of the Bavarian part of Bavaria. But I was born and grew up in Middle Franconia. I don't know who I am sometimes.

Absolutely love your content😂🤩

Great video, thumbs up!

Today, I was just thinking about whether you lived in Hesse or Bavaria! Nice to know now.

I used to live on the Hessian side of the Bavarian border and as a Zugereiste (originally a Rheinländer) always thought it to be weird to be so close to Bayern, but then not really Bayern. I visited Aschaffenburg a couple of times and it is such a beautiful city! Now I am still in Hesse, but closer to Wiesbaden/Rheingau.

At least from my experience the Germans like to group themselves by their dialect more than what state they are from.

I recently moved to Munich being from Upper Franconia. Never considered myself Bavarian before the move but the way people are receiving me as "the Franconian" I definitely know now I was right. They don't consider us Bavarians and we don't consider ourselves Bavarians despite being tied together politically. And to be fair, the culture and dialect definitely is distinct to each other so it makes sense to me that we do consider ourselves our own entities. Your comments make it seem like you are almost belittling these distinctions but it would honestly feel weird for me calling myself Bavarian.

Greetings from Farge. This is the northernmost village in the northernmost district of Bremen. I was born here and grew up here and even live in my grandparents house. From 2003 to 2014 I lived in Leipzig. That's why some people here see me as having moved there.

From what I heard in bavaria, there is a part of bayern called Franken which in english is Franconia. So it is a state which contains another unofficial state.

A Friend of mine grew up in Würzburg Franconia. They had to sing the Bavarian because of the curriculum of the free state Bavaria. After that they always sang the Franconian anthem twice. 😅

historical borders are such a common cause for friction in germany, truely. Some time after WW2 some communes around here were changed from a county in baden to a county in württemberg. Then in the 70s there were reforms, to simplify admisnistration. And because of the old baden/württemberg split, the communes around here tend to be waaaaayy smaller and messier than in regions where everything is clearly on one side of the border. And there are already many mixed ones. When i go to other regions of germany i always am amazed at how many villages can combine themselve into being one entity. Am used to it being 3, maybe up to 5 whole villages into one commune, when i go elsewhere it's often in the double digit amounts of small villages combined.

Reminds me a bit of the island of Goeree-Overflakkee. They spoke the dialect from the province of Zeeland, wore the traditional clothes of Zeeland, are _gereformeerd_, like Zeeland, and are an island, like so many in Zeeland. Except all of it has been under the control of South Holland since 1805, and most of it even longer. So if you ask anyone from or around the island where it really belongs to, and you’ll get wildly different answers.

I worked in Augsburg in 1969, and thought I was among Bavarians until I became aware that my native Augsburg coworkers were speaking Swabian. Later I learned that the Lech River is the dividing line between the Swabians and the Bavarians. Of course, don’t forget that München also has a district known as Schwabing, because Swabians lived there. But the mentality of the Bavarian is basically: „Wenn man ned a woschechter Bayer is, is a Saupreiß!“ 😂

I lived in Germany in the 70's, in the area of Hesse around Fulda. I was fortunate to travel around most of "West Germany". I found dining in Germany's restaurants and guesthouses a delight. To my tastes, Hesse has the best food, hands down. When I returned to the USA I was eager to try German food and was disappointed to find find most "German food" here is actually based on Bavarian recipes and dishes. I hope to return so that I can try what was "East German" dishes. I have heard great things about the food in the eastern part of the country.

Wow, I didn't know that you're from the good part of B*varia! Good for you!

Someone from Franconia, Nuremberg here... And I would say I feel both Franconian and Bavarian. I have two theories as to why this is. Either it's the Stockholm syndrome, or I got so annoyed during the long period of CDU/CSU government for being taken into kin liability for some CSU nonsense, even though being a Franconian/Bavarian doesn't automatically make you a CSU voter, that I gained my sympathy for Bavaria the moment it became good manners to complain and make fun of all of us Bavarians. Being beaten together brings us Franconians and Bavarians closer together.

Living for almost 6 years in the country side between Würzburg and Nürnberg, yes I quite understand this, and yes frankonian can distinct between each other by their own city.

And while Aschaffenburg is certainly not in Hesse, the economic ties of Aschaffenburg and its surrounding areas are strongest towards the Rhein-Main region, which for the most part is within Hesse. And also the dialect of that area is much closer to what you would here in the Rhein-Main region than to any other place in Bavaria, and even to the Franconian spoken around Nuremberg. (No surprise, as it is geographically much closer to Frankfurt than to Nuremberg,.) I used to have a girlfriend who was from the Nuremberg area, and the probably worst insult for her was to be called a Bavarian. 🤣

As a fellow Aschaffenburger (originally from the Spessart) I definitely agree with the Not Hesse sentiment. I personally have only heard and used the Franconia/Bavaria distinction jokingly, but the distinction from Hesse is very real

"Man soll dem lieben Herrgott für Alles danken, sogar für Ober-, Mittel-, und Unterfranken!" Gerüchteweise Inschrift einer Kachel im Münchner Hofbräuhaus.

I was born and raised in the middle part of Hessen. At age 21 I moved to schweinfurt, 3 years later to Nürnberg. I know that struggle of Bavaria and Franconia very well. The 300km to my parents house is such a big cultural difference! Some people still say: in Bayern (including the Franconian part) gehen die Uhren anders. They are always a bit extra to the rest of Germany. I don’t like the fact, American people thinks, whole Germany is like the southern part of Bavaria….

I live in Bremen but for a lot of old people from Bremen I do not because I live on the wrong side of the river Weser which they do not consider to be the real Bremen.

0:50 Careful. Part of the Palatinate, the so called Saarpfalz, is in fact not part of modern-day Rhineland-Palatinate but of Saarland.

As an Upper Swabian European I can fully concur.

As a real Spessarträuber i can relate to the importance of this we-are-not-living-in-Hessia-thing. Erbarme, die Hesse komme!

Great job as usual. Leave it to the Brit to do the research! Next, expand on Schwaben, a confusing topic even for many Germans.

Auf Deutsch ;) Viele Orte am Main hoch gehörten bis 1816 zum Erzbistum Mainz, auch deine Ecke, Schau dir nur das Stadtwappen. Wenn du da ein weißes Rad auf Rot siehst, dann war das mal unter Mainz

I'm fascinated by the history of Germany in the 1800s...but unfortunately I know very little. Supposedly there were 440+ individual kingdoms/city-states until Napoleon overran them? Then he reduced the number substantially, around 40? Then the unification by Bismarck in 1871....and things get fuzzy after that (admittedly, my "knowledge" is fuzzy entirely LOL)... I'd love to have an illustrated book with at least a broad overview of Germany's history of that era. Any suggestions?

My history teacher always jokingly told us: "Bavarians are decendents of romans that had problems with their feet and invading barbarians." But that's kinda true for a lot of regions in Europe. :D

One more difference: People in Altbaiern speak in Austro - Bavarian dialects. While all other bavarians outside of Altbaiern speak either in Franconian or Swabian dialects, both of which are very distinct from Austro - Bavarian and can be immdietely distinguished by german native speakers.

Yes, Nuermberg for example is a city in FRANCONIA. Franconia came to Bavaria in 1806, because of Napoleon Bonna Parte. So the Bavarian is south of the river Donau

I live in Rheinland-Pfalz. You can hike up to the Pfälzerhüte in Malbun, Liechtenstein. They call it that because the guy who built it came from the Pfalz.

Man muss Gott für alles danken, auch für Ober-, Mittel-, Unterfranken. Gruß aus Niederbayern.

I spent months in Bamberg and Lichtenfels for work a few years ago. Blue diamonds were nowhere to be found :-) just red and white Franconian colors. War super. Hab' auch in Baden-Württemberg gewohnt aber Bamberg hat mir deutlich besser gefallen. Schöne Gegend. Aber Rauchbier kann man vergessen. 😀

geil! Ich musste am ende wirklich lachen.

" Der is ja a halber Hess", wie's im mainfränkischen Asterix so schön als Beschimpfung heißt.

As someone from Baden-Württemberg I'd like to kindly ask for that part of Swabia to be returned to us, thank you very much.

As a franconian from Nuremberg i can say that its a lot more complicated than this. The real old cultural border between Bavaria and other cultural territorries was the danube river for centuries. South of the Danube river was definitly Bavarian and in the west Swabian. North of it is way more complicated. These cultural differents are dating back thousands of years. When the romans came into the modern day Bavarian Lands they just got as far as the danube river and spreaded their culture just in this "real Bavarian" region. The Danube was their border in these times and they never got north of it (except singular little exploring missions which werent successful). Thats why the big Roman city of Ratisbona, modern day Regensburg is at the northern most point of the Danube river but on the south side of it and not on the North. Thats why the "Oberpfalz" region is cultural mostly splitted in two halfs. The part south of the danube which is clearly bavarian infused and the north part, but which also isnt really franconian. Upper-, Middle-, and Lower-Franconia are cultural mostly consistant because there is no big natural border like the danube that couldnt be crossed (The Main river is much smaller than the danube and is crossable by many bridges and ferrys for long times). But as well there aren´t big natural borders in the west of Franconia. Due to this fact its not a big surprise that the franconian culture is more similar to the cultures in the modern day north-western Baden-Württemberg, southern Thuringia and parts of the south of Hesse. So the territorries of modern day Bavaria north of the danube and the ones south of it had nothing to do in common until Napoleon came in conquested everything and gifted the kingdom of Bavaria these (not really bavarian) lands north of the Danube river in 1806 which isnt long ago.

It's important to remember that the modern nation-state is a liberal concept that was slowly born from Enlightenment ideas and forwards, but mostly in the 19th Century, and as such any part of history before that only had some fuzzy ideas of shared ethnicity, language, more or less some common or shared history, and evne fuzzier territorial lines. While most of the wars were not between "countries" but between kings, their subjects, and the aristocratic dynasties they belonged to. This is worse in Germany than in most of Europe, a "country" where the idea of a cohesive nation took so much longer to reach some form of conclusion, compared to other old countries like England, Spain, or Denmark

This probably runs under the topic "Haarspalterei" ;-) Me as a born Hessian had to smile about the not being hessian notion. Reminds me a bit of how Bud Spencer in a movie was asked whether he was Italian and he said "no, Neapolitan". At the end of the day one cannot choose what state they were born in, it happens as it happens

Easy rule, if speaking to a foreigner or a German who is not Bavarian, one is Bavarian. If speaking to Bavarian one is Franconian, if on is speaking to a fellow Franconian one is as well Franconian, if speaking to a fanatic Franconian one is Bavarian. Did I really say easy????

Oh, Aschaffenberg! I'm there now! Although I have an attachment to Franconia, so I feel somewhat lost.

Really good.

i didnt know that about north-austria thank you :)

so passionate about not being hessian haha didn't know people where so passionate about that in that area. I just love the uniqueness of different parts of Deutschland , I only spent a short time in Germany but love the culture no matter where you come from. I love hearing the differences of bavarian vs. swabian etc.

If I do remember right, this "and Aschaffenburg" part was once part of Hesse, which my hessisch neighbours cannot get over with to this day 😀

As an Irish person I would like to say that Bavaria, alright I’ve mainly been to Munich, has the best Beer!

HRE borders must have kept the cartographers very well compensated.

That made me laugh. Thanks!

And then there's the culture. My wife's uncle lives in Dinkelsbühl, supposedly Bavarian, but no one there cares about any aspect of traditional Bavarian culture, and when I was there I had no sense that it was similar to München at all or that anyone spoke or understood the Bavarian dialect. Just a regular part of Germany like everywhere else.

I just wanna know whether the German tourists I met years ago quietly thought I was stupid for saying my gramma was from the Bavarian city of Schweinfurt.

I found the title quite peculiar, but once I watched the video, it makes perfect sense! Hence, depending on whether you are talking about federal states or geographical regions, you can call yourself a Bavarian, a Franconian, or an Aschaffenburger... and "definitely not in Hesse"! Thanks for the video!

Lest not forget that Coburg and Rodach were actually Thuringian Franconians until 1923 - just like the parts from Salzungen over Suhl to Hildburghausen and Sonneberg in Thuringia still is. So, there might be some that could consider themselves "previously Thuringian Francs now in Bavaria." ;-)

As an East German I lready got judged by locals for moving to West Germany. Having Moved to Franconia it got even more, because Bavaria does not have the best reputation in the other 15 states. But when having moved here, complaints already began again, because I had to learn this is more importantly Franconia than Bavaria where I had moved, coming to the fact, that me being East German makes me a "Saupreiß" (Prussian Pig) and that really makes it too much then 😂

Sounds all rather complicated. When I was living in Milan many decades ago I had a few German colleagues who said that whenever they were asked that they were German, except for one girl. She said that she was German, "BUT I am from Bavaria".

This video has now led me down a rabbit hole into the Lombards and Merovingians… not even the same topic really

Aaahahahaha, German particularism never fails to amuse! 😂 Thanks for the great video, I didn't know Söder was actually not a "true" Bavarian. Then again, what does a Saupreiss like me even know about Bavaria at all?^^

Haha, yeah I saw those Bavarian flags coming by train from Frankfurt in direction Aschaffenburg, even though the dialect there is more like Hessian. And for the people in the other German states, they can''t really differentiate between Franconians and real Bavarians. For them it's mainly just all Bavarians. I just know the difference since I lived in Würzburg for some time.

So the question is what regional accent of German do they speak in Aschaffenburg? Is it the Hessian Frankfurt dialect or the more southern bayerisch ? And which football team so they root for ? Eintracht oder Bayern? 😉

Another question: What about the Bavarian part of the Odenwald? How Bavarian is Amorbach, really?

0:53 The Palatinate of that time is today also to some part modern day Saarland

Danke!

Kirchturmpolitik. Love it.

The fact that modern Länder incorporate different historical regions and also split them has always puzzled me? Was it done for the divide et impera? In comparison to my country, Italy, German States follow historical borders less than Italian regions do. When did some big reorganization happen? Any German/German history nerd here?

Greetings from South Baden, or what used to be Further Austria...

Given that Bavaria only acquired Franconia because it sided with Napoleon and betrayed the rest of Germany, Bavaria should have to give it back! ;P

In England there's no Middlesex any more. But there's Postal Middlesex. There's Postal Middlesex in London, there's Postal Middlesex outside London and there's Former Middlesex in Postal London, which I live in

4:32 then why are the people there speaking an Hessian dialect? I have a friend from Alzenau who is convinced that because he grew up a stone throw away from the border it makes him 100% Franconian and he has to be like that. This is also the only reason he is a fan of 1. FC Nürnberg instead of the much nearer Eintracht Frankfurt or Kickers Offenbach...