“Swabians do buy luxury clothes and other goods, but they don’t like to show off. You might see a Swabian housewife enter a luxury boutique who is dressed like her cleaner. You won’t see amazing hats in the street either or jewellery – people only show them to each other in private.”
Swabians even have an expression for this – hälinge reich, which means “secretly rich”.
.. Southern Germany’s frugality has its roots in the 19th century, when the area was very poor. Another influence was Pietism, a movement within Lutheranism that emphasised hard work and shunned worldly amusements.
.. Today the south is Germany’s wealthiest region.