# slang names and nicknames for people from various regions of Germany



## Setwale_Charm

I have long been thinking about which section this thread could belong to: Cultural Discussions or German, and if my final judgement was wrong, could the mods please move it.
I am interested in common nicknames which people of the other regions of Germany call those living or originating from a particular region (any region). Not necessarily abusive ones, although, I suppose, it depends on how you see it. I am just interested in those equivalents of "Paddy" for Irishmen, for example, in Germany.


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## sokol

There are quite some, but most I'd guess (if not all ...) aren't really complimentary:

*Ossie*, Ossies - referring to ex-GDR (DDR) and usually pejorative
*Wessie*, Wessies - referring to 'old' FRG (BRD), probably not pejorative
*Preiss*, Preissn (Preussen) - referring to Northern Germans (not necessarily the ones living in the old state of Prussia) in genaral and usually pejorative, much used especially by Bavarians
*Badenser *- referring to citizens of the old 'Land' Baden by Württembergers, and I think meant only pejorative
Apart from that, several names are just the ones of the old 'Länder': *Rheinländer, Bayern, Schwaben, Franken, *etc. Surely there exist many more regional ones.

Then, crossing the borders:
*A > D: Piefke*, Piefkes - referring to citizens of Germany (FRG) in general and used by Austrians (probably Bavarians too), and usually pejorative
*D > A: Ösi*, Ösis (this in analogy to Ossies) - referring to citizens of Austria in general and used by Germans, usually pejorative
*CH > A: Schwab*, Schwaben - referring to citizens of Germany (FRG) in general and used by the Swiss according to deGruyter's Variantenwörterbuch and used pejorative
Strangely, we Austrians seem to have no common name for the Swiss: they are just that, the Swiss ('Schweizer').
Regional names inside Austria there are plenty: *Xiberger *for Vorarlbergians (pejorative), *Mostschädeln *for Lower Austrians (West only) and Upper Austrians (also pejorative), and I am sure quite some more which won't come to my mind at the moment.


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## berndf

A few small additions to Sokol's remarks.



sokol said:


> *Wessie*, Wessies - referring to 'old' FRG (BRD), probably not pejorative -- _Originally (before the reunification) used by West Berliners for West Germans._
> *Preiss*, Preissn (Preussen) - referring to Northern Germans (not necessarily the ones living in the old state of Prussia) in genaral and usually pejorative, much used especially by Bavarians _-- This use exists *only* in Bavaria. If used in swearing it is usually "Saupreiss" (Pig of a Prussian)._
> Apart from that, several names are just the ones of the old 'Länder': *Rheinländer, Bayern, Schwaben, Franken, *etc. Surely there exist many more regional ones. _-- These are not really nicknames but the regular names of those regions._


 
There are some humorous nicknames for certain districts (Keise) derived from the car number plate signs (car registration numbers start with a 1 to 3 letter code for the district or city). This game is particularly popular in the area around Hamburg. They sound pejorative but are really only meat to be funny. A few examples:
HH - city of Hamburg: *H*albes *H*irn (half brain)
PI - district of Pinneberg: *P*rovinz *I*diot (Idiot from the province: Hillbilly)
OH - district of Ostholstein: *O*hne *H*irn (without Brain)
OD - district of Bad Oldesloe: *O*ller *D*ussel (old Idiot)
WL - district of Winsen an der Luhe: *W*ilder *L*andwird (savage farmer)


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## Setwale_Charm

berndf said:


> A few small additions to Sokol's remarks.
> 
> 
> 
> There are some humorous nicknames for certain districts (Keise) derived from the car number plate signs (car registration numbers start with a 1 to 3 letter code for the district or city). This game is particularly popular in the area around Hamburg. They sound pejorative but are really only meat to be funny. A few examples:
> HH - city of Hamburg: *H*albes *H*irn (half brain)
> PI - district of Pinneberg: *P*rovinz *I*diot (Idiot from the province: Hillbilly)
> OH - district of Ostholstein: *O*hne *H*irn (without Brain)
> OD - district of Bad Oldesloe: *O*ller *D*ussel (old Idiot)
> WL - district of Winsen an der Luhe: *W*ilder *L*andwird (savage framer)


 
farmer, I think


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## berndf

Setwale_Charm said:


> farmer, I think


 
sure. 

I corrected the original post


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## Setwale_Charm

Any specific names for people coming from Stuttgart and Köln?


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## Robocop

sokol said:


> Strangely, we Austrians seem to have no common name for the Swiss: they are just that, the Swiss ('Schweizer').


CH > A: But we've got one for the Austrians: we call them "Groschlis" (Singular: ein Groschli)
CH > I: Tschingg, Spaghettifresser

The "stronger" version of such denominations usually has the prefix "Sau": Sauschwab, Saugroschli, Sautschingg, ...


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## b00nish

Robocop said:


> CH > A: But we've got one for the Austrians: we call them "Groschlis" (Singular: ein Groschli)



Funny, I never heard of that 
I'd rather call the Austrians "Ösis" like the Germans do.

But I heard that the Germans sometimes call the Austrians and the Swiss "Schluchtenscheisser" (someone that 'shits' in gorges).

Of course there are also a lot of nicknames for the people in the different Swiss regions, some of them have  a long tradition and are not known anymore by the most young people (example: Inhabitants of Lucerne are "Katzenstrecker" - could be translated somehow like "cat stretchers" but has actually nothing to do with the animals but with some geographic point as far as I know).


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## Robocop

b00nish said:


> Funny, I never heard of that


Well, you may be a bit (too) young for it. That (well-known to me) name was stamped when Austrians still paid in Groschen (and Schillinge, of course). By the way, search the web for "Groschli" ...


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## schabernack

Me as a girl from Vienna use "Schluchtenscheisser" for everybody who lives next to montains (that means everbody who is from south/ west  of Vienna) 
The word for Bavarians  is "Weisswurst Indianer"
Everybody that lives on the other side of the Danube is a "Gscherda"


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## schabernack

b00nish said:


> (example: Inhabitants of Lucerne are "Katzenstrecker" - could be translated somehow like "cat stretchers" but has actually nothing to do with the animals but with some geographic point as far as I know).



I think that is interesting. Are you sure it comes from a geographic point? Austrians call Italians " Katzlmacher". It comes -maybe- from the Italian word for spoon maker.


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## berndf

schabernack said:


> Me as a girl from Vienna use "Schluchtenscheisser" for everybody who lives next to montains (that means everbody who is from south/ west of Vienna)
> The word for Bavarians is "Weisswurst Indianer"
> Everybody that lives on the other side of the Danube is a "Gscherda"


 
Interestingly, people from the Lower Austrian country side return this nickname and call Viennese and everyone who speaks with a upper class accent or vocabulary a "Gscherda" ("Red' nicht so gscherd"). Originally the term was used by city dwellers to refer to the peasants as they had short hair ("geschoren").


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## Robocop

schabernack said:


> I think that is interesting. Are you sure it comes from a geographic point? Austrians call Italians " Katzlmacher". It comes -maybe- from the Italian word for spoon maker.


Yes, "Chatzestr*e*cker" (Katzenstrecker) is a corruption of the word "Chatzestr*i*ck", a small pass near Einsiedeln in Central Switzerland. Einsiedeln is a well-known place of pilgrimage. In the past, when the pious people of Lucerne went on their yearly pilgrimage to Einsiedlen *on foot*, they usullay took the way over the Chatzestrick (look it up with Google Earth).
It is not difficult to imagine why Lucerne's neighbours got to corrupt "Chatzestricker" (meaning people who took the way over the Chatzestrick) to "Chatzestrecker".
By the way, some people maintain that our Italian speaking compatriots and the foreign workers from Italy called the Chatzestrecker (a word that was difficult for them to pronounce) "Verreckti keiba zieh am Buseli" (literally: "the damned ones that stretch the cat/pull at the cat").


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## schabernack

berndf said:


> Interestingly, people from the Lower Austrian country side return this nickname and call Viennese and everyone who speaks with a upper class accent or vocabulary a "Gscherda" ("Red' nicht so gscherd"). Originally the term was used by city dwellers to refer to the peasants as they had short hair ("geschoren").


I know that, but I am the city dweller 
BTW, i think it is very funny that the Lower Austrians call each other "monkeys on the tree" (or something with more or less the same meaning). The only thing that they need is a valley between to call each other this.


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## sokol

schabernack said:


> I know that, but I am the city dweller


Not only by Lower Austrians, by Upper Austrians too - and probably many other Austrians from "province" Bundesländer: I've heard many times "Gscherda" used for the Viennese. 
(And I only ever discovered its "other use" by the Viennese when I settled here in Vienna. So for you, I am not only a "Gscherda" but a "Zuagraster" too. No "Schluchtenscheisser" though, as I was born in Mühlviertel.)
Anyway, the term "Gscherda" therefore is no nickname for people from a certain _region_.

"Weana Bazi" by the way is another one used for the Viennese - again, I fear, used pejorative only.


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## b00nish

sokol said:


> [...] So for you, I am not only a "Gscherda" but a "Zuagraster" too. [...



A "Zuagraster" refers to the fact, that you are not originally from Vienna, doesn't it?
I heard the Swabians call newcomers "Neigschmeckte"


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## berndf

sokol said:


> Not only by Lower Austrians, by Upper Austrians too - and probably many other Austrians from "province" Bundesländer: I've heard many times "Gscherda" used for the Viennese.


 
Of course.



sokol said:


> (And I only ever discovered its "other use" by the Viennese when I settled here in Vienna. ... I was born in Mühlviertel _[which is in Upper Austria]_.)


 
According to my observations People from Lower Austria are still aware of the history of the expression and that it is a "retuned compliment". That is why I mentioned them and didn't just say "Austrians from the countryside".


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## Henryk

Es kommt auch immer gut an, Schweizer und Ösis als Deutsche zu bezeichnen.


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## Setwale_Charm

So will somebody answer my question about Köln and Stuttgart?


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## berndf

There probably aren't any, sorry.


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## schabernack

Setwale_Charm said:


> So will somebody answer my question about Köln and Stuttgart?


I'm sure there is a word for people from Koeln BUT looks like too many Austrians here. 
Sorry, I can't help you with that.


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## Kuestenwache

There is no real slang name for people from Köln or Stuttgart. They're just "Kölner" and "Stuttgarter". You could call people from Köln "Jäcken" refering to the famous "kölner Karneval" but that is actually also a name for anyone making stupid jokes, that is just usually used in the region of Köln. I can't think of a real slang name just for people from Köln or Stuttgart.


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## Setwale_Charm

Kuestenwache said:


> There is no real slang name for people from Köln or Stuttgart. They're just "Kölner" and "Stuttgarter". You could call people from Köln "Jäcken" refering to the famous "kölner Karneval" but that is actually also a name for anyone making stupid jokes, that is just usually used in the region of Köln. I can't think of a real slang name just for people from Köln or Stuttgart.


 
 Terrible! How do you expect me to pest the former boyfriends now?

 What about Bavarians then? People from Tirol? (OK, I maybe know this one)


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## Lykurg

Wikipedia just told me that Stuttgarters are called "Stäffelesrutscher" because of the many stairs they have. 
In Köln they call non-natives "Immi" - but I don't know a nickname for someone from Köln.
_
People from Northern Germany are sometimes called "Fischköppe" (fish heads) - not too nice; traditional Hamburgians call those who are not born here "Quiddje(s)"._


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## Hutschi

Ossies and Wessies are both as well pejorative as not pejorative, depending on usage and who uses it and why.

There was the mostly pejorative word "Buletten" for "Berliner" - I do not know where it comes from.

People from "Thüringer Wald" are called "Löffelschnitzer" or "Thüringer Löffelschnitzer".

The people from the village I came from where called: "Hoselbocher Schnibbelkocher" from people in the neighbor town "Steinach" in the local dialect. (It means "Haselbacher Schnippelkocher", "Schnippel" means chopped vegetable, kochen=cooking), the revange was "Steenicha Löffelschnitza" ("Steinacher Löffelschnitzer")

I suppose "Löffelschnitzer" was used in larger regions and not only in dialects.

The most nicknames have two faces. 

---

In many cases a nick name is just the name of where somebody came from. This corresponds to an old name generating rule (also used for creating family names).


My own family name has such a root: "Hutschenreuther" means "the one from Hutschenreuth" - but this is forgotten in daily life. Even the village is almost forgotten - it is a small part of a small town now.


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## berndf

The word "Bulette" is rarely used in the West. We "Wessies" associate the expression very much with Berlin.

About the nickname for _Kölner_: I asked a _Rheinländer_ if he knew one. There really seems to be none. People from _Düsseldorf_ would in theory be in need for a pejorative term. There is an old rivalry between the two cities. But for them _Kölner_ is already sufficiently pejorative in itself.


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## Hutschi

berndf said:


> The word "Bulette" is rarely used in the West. We "Wessies" associate the expression very much with Berlin.


 
This is what is stands for: "ein Berliner" --- But we should not forget in our discussion who uses it.  But I do not know any Berliner who would use "Bulette" to refer to himself. 

This is the difference to "Ossi" or "Wessi".


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## berndf

Sorry, the way I expressed myself was misleading. It is calling a _hamburger steak_ or a _meat ball_ a "Bulette" which is associated with Berlin.


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## sokol

b00nish said:


> A "Zuagraster" refers to the fact, that you are not originally from Vienna, doesn't it?
> I heard the Swabians call newcomers "Neigschmeckte"



This is not quite correct - because "Zuagraster" (or "Zuagroaster" according to dialect) works _anywhere _in Austria [well, maybe there's the odd valley in the Alps where it doesn't, but basically almost anywhere in Austria surely]: it is a name for people from other regions settling in the own region.


As for Bavarians, the term "Bayer" (a "Boa" or "Boarischa" in the dialects of the Austrian regions bordering on Bavaria) could very well be used by Austrians pejorative   (although originally the term is neutral) - or to make it worse, "Sauboa" = "Saubayer" (which, however, I haven't heard for quite some time now). And the Bavarians *do *know if and when this is meant in an insulting way. But of course it would be difficult for you, not being a native, to bring over this meaning. 
Another nickname of the Bavarians I can't imagine (and I grew up right on the border to Bavaria). You could probably say "Weisswurstfresser" (which never is meant as a compliment and refers to the favourite type of sausage eaten there) or any similar names referring to habits of the Bavarians not shared at all by Austrians. But I guess they are no real substitute for a "Paddy"-like nick.

Tyroleans now, if you know one so please tell - because I don't.  (Except the already mentioned "Schluchtenscheisser" which, however, is completely new to me.) Oh well - "Sturschädln" would fit, but then a "Sturschädl" can be any thickheaded person, so this wouldn't be typical for Tyrol.


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