When I decided to travel to Germany, I definitely did not think that I would encounter so many striking regional variations in culture. From language to food, the 16 states of Germany all have quite distinct cultures!
Germany has only been a single country for a relatively short period of time. In fact, the area we know today as Germany was made up of separate princedoms until the mid-1800s, when they unified. The country then separated into eastern and western regions after the end of the Second World War. And even though it only became a single country again in 1990, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, many of the regional variations in culture that existed prior to even the first unification still persist today. Many of the differences between the North and the South exist for deep historical reasons. A key difference is that people living in the northern half of the country are primarily Protestant, while in the southern half they are Catholic. This means that the various regions often have different holidays. For example, at the time of the year when here in the U.S.
