Kultur 1

When I read "Backwords Southerners, Frigid Northerners" I was struck by how similar the north/south stereotypes in Germany are to the ones in the US. Intelligent and hard-working North vs. backward and lazy South is a pretty good summary of culture stereotypes in both Germany and the US, especially the pre-Civil War US. Maybe warmer climates in the south of both countries have caused the laziness stereotype? On the other hand, if southern Germany is mostly mountains, then it's probably colder than the rest of the country, so maybe not. Plus this stereotype in the US only holds for the eastern half; in the western half, the culture is divided more between the East and the West.

Maybe the stereotypes are due to sparser populations in the southern parts of both countries, instead. The southern mountains in Germany might lead to more isolation, while in the US, the Southeast is more sparsely populated than the Northeast.