Franken

Understand

Franconia's history as an entity separate from Bavaria stretches back over a thousand years. It was a duchy in the Holy Roman Empire.

Franconia used to be comprised of many independent principalities and petty duchies and knighthoods until it became part of Bavaria around 1806 (different territories were annexed by the Wittelsbachs at different times but 1806 is the commonly accepted "overall" date) as a result of the Napoleonic Wars. This has two main consequences: first, the dialect and religious composition of two neighbouring villages may be notably different (which used to cause tensions but is now of mostly folkloric interest); second, there is still some resentment towards Bavaria and many people do not like to be lumped together with their "colonisers" down south. While you will not encounter open hostility, try to avoid calling Franconians Bavarian. Many people also include part(s) of adjacent Länder in Franconia as they are linguistically, culturally and historically more connected to Franconia than to the Länder to which they belong in terms of administration. Those regions include: Sonneberg and Thüringen south of the Rennsteig (in fact Sonneberg voted to join the Nuremberg Metropolregion and there are talks of switching Bundesland) and the region of Baden-Württemberg called Heilbronn-Franken. On the other hand places like Aschaffenburg are linguistically close to neighbouring regions. Coburg in turn was one of the several petty states that were considered "Thur…

See

Several old towns in Franconia are designated UNESCO world heritage sites, such as that of Bamberg. The opera house of Bayreuth (not Wagner's, another one) was declared a world heritage site in 2012. Franconian Switzerland got its name when 19th-century romanticists compared it to Swiss Switzerland. It has been a major tourist area since then.

Do

The Franconian Switzerland (Fränkische Schweiz), along with the Saxonian Switzerland it is one of Germany's top destinations for rock climbing with many famous climbers either coming from here or having their "training-grounds" here The Wagner festival in Bayreuth draws the rich and famous of Germany and some other European countries every year. Getting a ticket infamously used to require connections, years of patience or loads money, but has been much easier since the introduction of a web-based system in 2013. There are numerous beer- and wine festivals all over Franconia, the most visited among which is the "Bergkirchweih" or simply "Berch" in Erlangen, that starts the Thursday before Pentecost (Pfingsten) and lasts twelve days. But almost every village has its own "Kirchweih" (often locally known as "Kärwa" "Kirwa" or other dialect terms) and Nuremberg (Volksfest) Bamberg (Sandkärwa) or Forchheim (Annafest) also have their well known festivities. Spectator sports are popular with big soccer (1.FC Nürnberg and some international matches) and track & field events held in Nuremberg's Max Morlock Stadion. Other popular teams and sports include basketball's Brose Baskets Bamberg (several times German champion), team handball's HC Erlangen, and ice hockey's Nuremberg Ice Tigers (two times German vice champion). The second most popular team of soccer in Franconia, enjoying a storied rivalry with Nuremberg is SpVgg Greuther Fürth. Franconian Switzerland is a karst region and as s…

Eat

thumb|200px|Schäufele with potato dumpling Schäufele is a traditional dish in Franconia. It is made from the pork's shoulder meat. Normally it is then served with potato dumpling (Kartoffelklöße), sauerkraut (or red cabbage, or savoy cabbage) and gravy.

Bratwurst most notably the small Nuremberg variety commonly served as drei im Weggla (three Bratwursts in a small bread roll) or sechs auf Graud (six Bratwursts with Sauerkraut and a slice of bread) and the various "Franconian" varieties that are usually bigger. Traditionally almost every city had its own slight variation on the basic recipe or how to prepare them, and Coburg is notable for roasting them on an open fire with conifer cones added to the fire for taste.

While Blaue Zipfel could be described as just another way to cook Bratwurst it is notably different in taste, as the sausages are cooked in an acidic liquid rather than fried.

Karpfen or carp is produced mainly around Höchstadt (Aisch) and several villages in that region have a carp in their coat of arms due to its historic (and continuing) importance as a foodstock and export-article. It is commonly eaten in the months "with r" (literally speaking that would be September–April) either blau (blue, that is cooked) or gebacken (that is fried, thus making even part of the fins edible) Legend has it that the Franconian carps owe their peculiar round shape to a medieval decree deeming anything "beyond the plate" to be the bishop's property, thus prompting medieval m…

Drink

thumb|A tray of the amber-coloured beer typical for Franconia. Franconia is world-renowned for beer and is actually the region with the highest brewery density in the world. Many small breweries, especially in Oberfranken only produce small amounts for consumption in their attached brewery-restaurants. Even small rural villages often still have their own breweries, although the declining demand and increased competition with bigger brands and their marketing budgets have taken their toll especially in the 1970s and 80s. There is a slight resurgence with some craft-beer like start-ups reviving names and traditions of long gone brands as well as starting anew from scratch. Breweries in Franconia lists breweries, beer cellars, brewery museums.

thumb|upright|Franconian wine is typically bottled in the Bocksbeutel. Many Franconians like to point out that there is Bierfranken (beer-franconia, especially Oberfranken and big parts of Mittelfranken) and Weinfranken (wine-franconia, mostly Unterfranken and the area close to the Main river). While the latter is a comparatively small region in terms of area the wine of Franconia can certainly compete with most other German wines and the famous Bocksbeutel (a special form of bottle, that looks like a male goat's ... bag, hence the name) is an excellent souvenir.

Less of a souvenir is Federweißer, wine in various states of fermentation that is available only seasonally. Shortly after harvest it is very similar in taste and alcohol conten…

Stay safe

Apart from some neighbourhoods of Nuremberg that deal with the common big-city issues of all German towns that size, Franconia should not concern you security-wise.

When climbing in Franconian Switzerland make sure that your equipment is in a good state and of good quality and make sure you or your guides know what you are doing as accidents happen from time to time.

As everywhere soccer games can get a little out of hand and fans may become hostile when drunk or after a lost game. This is especially true for the Derby (local parlance for a rivalry game between close geographic neighbours) between Nuremberg and Fürth. Of course 99% of Fans are peaceful and only want to support their team, but there are always exceptions.

Go next

Bavaria proper, locally known as Altbayern Saxony either with the ICE to Leipzig or with regional transport from Hof to Dresden The Czech republic Baden Württemberg Thuringia; While there is a defined administrative boundary (which for forty years was identical to a section of the "iron curtain"), the cultural border is a lot more fluid with Sonneberg (already in Thüringen) often considering itself Franconian, culturally