Moreover, due to Prussia's long-term rule, the guys from Northern Germany generally tend to be traditional monarchists like Bismarck.
As for Southern Germany, while the Southerners retain many Catholic traditions, the Napoleonic Wars impacted them significantly, and the Southern German states were widely affected by the Great Revolution in France. These Southerners living in cities commonly carry a bourgeois form of liberalism. In this respect, a certain German poet rumored to live in the dirty alleys of Paris, gnawing on black bread, is a typical representative.
Although Heinrich Heine was a Prussian, because his hometown Dusseldorf is located in the Rhenish region, and as it was part of the former Rhein Confederation, Dusseldorf was not incorporated into Prussian territory until after the Napoleonic Wars. Therefore, Heine is quite different from Bismarck; he is an atypical Prussian and a quintessential Rhinelander.
