Kultur 11 - Gabrielle Spickard

     The articles for this chapter's Kultur readings were very interesting to read, and I learned a lot that I didn't previously know about German culture. I also especially enjoyed this week that (some) of the articles had a unified theme of the differences between different regions of Germany.
     For the first article "Breaking Down the Wall in the Head," I was very surprised to learn that there is still apparently a lot of tension between the regions that were formerly East and West Germany. I can kind of see where some of the stereotypes or mindsets might come from, going off of the information provided in the article, though. It was also interesting to learn that some older Germans who lived in the DDR during the time when the Berlin Wall was still up feel that they had more freedom under the socialist government than under the new united German government. They made good points, though, since I can see how some elements of the older government would be appealing (ex. full employment, free education, nationalized health care, etc.).
     For the second article, the Wikipedia article on "Ostalgie," I thought it was interesting to read as well. I can see how there would be nostalgia for certain products from another time in your life. I'm also curious if there's a huge difference between the DDR products and the Western products that took their place in the market post-unification.
     I also read the article "Backwards Southerners, Frigid Northerners." Relations between different parts of Germany seem so complicated: the East and the West dislike each other, and the north and south apparently dislike each other as well. It's also interesting that despite their reputation for being conservative and kind of ignorant, the southern part of Germany has better schools than the northern part. The stereotypes of north vs. south Germany also seems (to me) to kind of parallel the stereotypes of the northern and southern parts of the United States, although they don't seem to be as widespread in my experience. I lived in the south for my whole life until I came up to Michigan for college, and there was never really an overt sentiment of negativity towards the north, just certain stereotypes about cultural differences (being less friendly, kind of snobby, more liberal, etc.).