[sqrt17]

One subtle difference/fact: Brezeln are different between Bavaria (southeast) and Schwaben (southwest) - soft Brezeln are common in Schwaben, whereas Bavaria mostly has the salty hard stuff that was the parent of the salty hard stuff you can buy as a specialty in the US.

[subpixel]

I’m not sure if you made this up or were misinformed but this is not true.

[sqrt17]

Ok, I've lived in Schwaben but only ever visited Bavaria, and never ate Pretzels in the US. So Bavarian Brezeln are not completely hard and dry but they're definitely less squishy and soft than Swabian ones.

[anoncake]

Or they just mixed the two up.