Southern Germany
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The term Southern Germany (German: Süddeutschland) is used to describe a region in the south of Germany. There is no specific boundary to the region, but it usually includes all of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, and the southern part of Hesse. The Saarland and Rhineland-Palatinate are also often included.
[edit] Population
Two of the most populous states of Germany, Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria, are part of Southern Germany; they have a combined population of 23,5 million people. In the broader sense (with Rhineland-Palatinate and the Saarland), Southern Germany includes roughly 30 million people. Thus, about 40% of the German population and almost 30% of all native speakers of the German language live there.
The region has a Catholic majority, but also a significant Lutheran Protestant population (especially in Northern Württemberg and some parts of Baden and Franconia (Northern Bavaria)), in contrast to the almost entirely Protestant Northern Germany. Due to the immigration of non-Christians, mainly Turks (see Turks in Germany) during the last decades of the 20th century, there is also a small number (roughly 250.000, i.e. 2-3% of the population) of Muslims.
[edit] Natural and cultural borders
The River Main, flowing westward, through Upper and Lower Franconia and Southern Hesse, through the city of Frankfurt, into the River Rhine at Mainz, is often cited as a natural border between Southern and Middle Germany while the border west of Mainz is in that respect less clearly determined. The border between the Palatinate and the Rhineland - roughly a line between Bonn and Bingen, in the mountain ranges (Mittelgebirge) of the Westerwald, the Taunus and the Eifel, along the Rhine and Mosel rivers - is seen as the cultural border between Southern and Western Germany.
To the West, the Alsace region (and to a lesser extent Lorraine), both since 1945 a part of France, are culturally, linguistically (see Alsatian dialect and Alemannic dialects) and also in terms of cuisine closer to Baden, Württemberg and the Palatinate and thus to Southern Germany than to the rest of France.
Southern Germany is also culturally, linguistically and otherwise more similar to German-speaking Switzerland, Austria and German-speaking South Tyrol than to Middle and Northern Germany.
Another, jocular, term is the so-called Weißwurstäquator, i.e. the "equator" between regions where the Weißwurst is common and where it is not; this border, however, is more a border between Bavarian culture (sometimes, Austrians are considered part of that culture as well (see Austro-Bavarian dialects)) and non-Bavarian Germans.
Economically, Southern Germany is the strongest part of Germany, with Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria powerhouses of manufacturing, especially in the automobile and machinery industry. Furthermore, it is home to some of the country's most prestigious universities (such as the ones in Heidelberg, Munich, Tübingen and Würzburg).
The specific features of the landscape are rolling hills, Mittelgebirge (mid-range mountains). Southern Germany also has a part of the Alps, in the southeast of the region (Allgäu and Bavarian Alps). In the culinary field, both beer and wine are produced in lots of varieties almost everywhere in the region. The regional cuisine consists of stews, sausages, cabbage, noodles and other pasta dishes as well as a variety of cakes and tarts.
