Between Science and Ideology. History of German Speaking Ethnography of Czech Lands

Abstract

The study focuses on the chronological development of the ethnography of Germans living in the Czech Lands. The emphasis is put on its institutionalization and association with ideological concepts of the time. The ethnographical interest in Germans living in the Czech Lands dates back to the beginning of the 19th century. It focused on the lifestyle of the geographically and linguistically divided population. The disappearing traditions maintained in village communities were considered the most appropriate subject of study. After the establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic, German ethnographers concentrated on topics related to the strengthening of identity of the new German society which became part of the Republic. This development enhanced the prestige of ethnography, which facilitated its institutionalization in the academic environment. During the interwar years, ethnography was considered an appropriate academic discipline that could legitimize many politically-related claims, and was, therefore, expected to solve many societal isssues. In the years 1938–1945, the ideological instrumentalization of ethnography in the Czech-German environment reached a qualitatively new level. This was reflected in the focus of research of the newly established academic institutions, which were supposed to — with the help of ethnographic methods — contribute to the “scientific” legitimacy of the expansion plans of the Nazi regime already implemented or being prepared at that time. A strong inclination towards ideologically formulated “applied” science led to and in the first half of the 1940s eventually resulted in the explicitly racist research on the issue of “blood mixing” and the active participation of many ethnographers in the preparation, and partly also in the realization of the Nazi idea of a “new Europe”. The history of Sudeten-German ethnography was terminated by the displacement of the German population from what is now the Czech Republic in the second half of the 1940s.