"It has been evident for a long time that, of all members of all the Germanic tribes, the Swabian is the most difficult to understand and the most mysterious. In him the most intense contradictions are found. Often, in one individual, meet both extreme boldness and amazing timidity, rebelliousness and philistinism, winning kindness and resentful standoffishness, skillfulness and awkwardness, firmness and instability, mistrust and friendliness, soaring idealism and grounded realisticism."
by Fritz Rahn in Der schwäbische Mensch und seine Mundart (Translation by Matt Carver)

The Schwaben cultural region is, for most Austrians, Germans, Swiss and visitors, a very ancient and distinct cultural area, most of which is in Baden-Württemberg, but with a substantial portion also in the western part of Bavaria, the Vorarlberg of Austria and the northern fringe of Switzerland. The whole of Liechtenstein is within the historical confines of Schwaben and the Lech river forms its traditional eastern boundary in Germany.

Understand

Traditional costumes often come out of the wardrobe at village festivals

Cities

In Austria:

• Bregenz - their Vorarlbergisch speech and customs separates the inhabitants of this city from the rest of Austria almost effectively as the Rätikon mountain range. Indeed, after the First World War the people of this area had to be diplomatically restrained by the allied powers from continuing to assert their independence from the rest of Austria for fear of a too diminished Austria being too easily subsumed into a greater Germany - a sentiment that proved all too prescient in 1938!

Parish church of Rankweil

In the German Customs Area (deutsches Zollgebiet) of Austria:

• Kleinwalsertal

In Baden-Württemberg:

• Friedrichshafen
• Heidenheim an der Brenz
• Ravensburg

The Tübinger Tor in Reutlingen

• Reutlingen
• Sigmaringen
• Schwäbisch Gmünd — its population of around 60,000 makes this town the second largest in the Ostalbkreis and it's famous for both its silver and gold handicrafts
• Stuttgart — nicknamed the Schwabenmetropole (Swabian metropolitan centre), because of its location in the very heart of Swabia and also because of the Swabian dialect spoken by its native inhabitants. In that dialect, the city's name is Schtugert or Schtuagerd
• Tübingen

With a wonderful view over the Danube and, on a clear day, a huge swathe of the Alps, Ulm Minster is still the tallest church in the world at 161.5 m (530 ft) and was, for a brief period at the turn of the nineteenth century, the tallest building in the whole world.

• Ulm — the birthplace of theoretician, Albert Einstein

In Bayern:

• Augsburg
• Füssen — the fairy tale castle of Neuschwanstein is nearby
• Harburg
• Kempten
• Landsberg am Lech
• Lindau — the Bavarian port and "island" city on Lake Constance (the Bodensee)
• Memmingen
• Nordlingen

Roman fort from c. 300 AD in Konstanz showing the foundations of an eight-cornered tower

In both Germany and Switzerland:

• Konstanz/Kreuzlingen

In Liechtenstein

• Vaduz

Other destinations

• Allgäu
• Blaubeuren Abbey

the Blautopf spring

• The Blautopf (German for blue pot) is a deeply intense blue and probably Germany's most clebrated spring that bubbles up from a depth of more than 21 m (69 ft) in the limestone to start the river Blau.

Talk

Swabian (in standard German: Schwäbisch) is just one, albeit a very major one, of the dialects of German spoken in Swabia. However, like folk from Yorkshire or the Arcadian parts of the New World, speakers tend to be rather proud of their linguistic heritage - there is even a tiny, almost stillborn version of Wikipedia in Schwäbisch ! If you're interested in Swabian vocabulary and inventions here's an interesting website.

Swabian also used to be spoken by the Volga Germans in the former Soviet Union, part of the Danube Swabian minorities in Hungary, parts of the former Yugoslavia and Romania.

The dialect ranges from a 'standard' Swabian, spoken in Stuttgart, to a variety of more vigorous, denser forms found in its hinterland. Just by listening quietly, many people can often tell the town or area a person comes from.

The market place in Schwäbisch Gmünd

Like Glaswegian for Britons, Swabian may be difficult to understand for other German speakers, not just because of its distinctive accent and vowel inflections but because it has its very own vocabulary too. For most Germans, a girl is a Mädchen, but when she crosses the Lech she becomes a Mädle. Strawberry jam for most Germans is Erdbeermarmelade while older Swabians often call this preserve Präschtlingsgsälz. Bizarrely, a readers survey of the largest newspaper in Stuttgart, chose as the most beautiful Swabian word: Muggeseggele (the fly's balls) !

Get in

Liechtenstein 10 frank gold coin

Although this region spreads over several international borders, most travellers will have no bureaucratic hassles, since all the relevant countries are both members of the Schengen agreement on facilitated border formalities and part of the same customs union. Currencies used are the euro (€) and the Swiss/Liechtenstein franc/frank (CHF)

By air

No smoking in the toilets allowed!

Stuttgart airport (STR ^IATA), located in Leinfelden-Echterdingen, hosts various airlines including the low cost airline TUI and has direct flight connections with major German and European cities. It won't be difficult to book a flight to Stuttgart from outside Europe connecting through a major hub such as London Heathrow or Paris Charles de Gaulles. Fares usually don't differ much if at all if you choose to fly into Stuttgart from another continent (rather than to Frankfurt, Munich or Berlin).

See

Blaubeuren Abbey

Eat

Swabian potato salad with Maultaschen

A traditional dish in Schwaben is Maultaschen. These are rectangular pasta parcels filled with meat, onions, spinach and various herbs, similar to ravioli but much larger. They can be served "as is" with a little butter or in a broth. Another appetising variant is to slice and fry them in a pan and serve with a seasonal salad. In times of more rigorous religious observance, this was sometimes thought of as a sneaky dish because the diner could plausibly claim that he was abstaining from meat - the offending pork being hidden inside the pasta parcel!

Beef with fried onions and Spätzle

An almost stereotypically Swabian classic dish is Spätzle - egg based noodles often served with a meat dish. A rule of thumb is to use one egg for every diner and then add an extra egg for luck.

Swabians have a reputation for being "Damp Diners (Nass-Esser)" . Most dishes are smothered in a sauce or gravy and a lot of dipping, dunking or crumbling into soups goes on. If you're served a soup, you'll always get a slab of bread to dunk in it if there's not a variety of pasta floating in it already. They're not called "Suppenschwaben" for nothing! Roast meats are invariably served with plenty of gravy.

• Gasthaus zur Linde, Sigmaringer Straße 49, Stuttgart-Möhringen, ☏ +49 711 719-9590, fax: +49 711 719-9592. Su-F 12:00-14:00 & from 18:00, Sa from 18:00. Renowned chef Jörg Mink cooks up a storm with schwäbischer recipes like your grandmother used to make. Kalbshaxenfleisch in seiner eigenen Soße mit Riesling und Sahne verfeinert dazu Austernpilze und Handspätzle, Kartoffelsalat in Schüsseln finished at your table is a recommendation at €23.50. €34.50 and less for mains. 

• 1 Wirtshaus am Lech, Leipziger Straße 50, Augsburg, ☏ +49 821 707074, fax: +49 821 707084. Cooking F-W 11:00-14:00 & 18:00-21:30; cold platter menu after lunch and before supper. Technically, this is 20 metres over the border on the wrong side of the River Lech, but still a great place to compare Swabian and Bavarian cuisines, this family owned and run restaurant has a spacious Biergarten too. €24.80 and less for mains. 

Drink

• Trollinger grapes make wines that are light to ruby red in colour and were introduced by the Romans. These wines are light and fruity with a nose that has hints of redcurrants and wild cherries. They complement cold sausage (Wurst) platters, poultry and local cheeses, and slide down very nicely on their own!

Go next

• Alsace