What surprised me most when studying German culture was the huge differences between the country's geographical regions. When I think about the North and South in America, I think of trivial differences, like food, accents, and cute expressions belonging to specific cities. The huge cultural differences that do exist in America aren't as pronounced as they are in Germany. In Germany, a country with such a long, rich history, it makes sense that its people are so diverse.
Sure, there are those little differences in Germany such as the expression "Grüβ Gott,” used only in the South, but there are some larger, more important cultural distinctions that have a significant impact on Germans’ behavior. The relationship between East and West Germans struck me pretty hard. Because of their hard lives in a totalitarian state, many of the older East Germans are stricter, with less of a tolerance for nonsense. Usually you think of cultural barriers between two different countries, not within one country.
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