Volk, Folk and the Popular: Sudeten Heimat Culture in 1930s Czechoslovakia

• In Event: The Road to the Protectorate: Exploring Czechoslovakia’s Uncomfortable Pasts

Abstract

This paper challenges longstanding perceptions of Sudeten culture as inherently conservative and driven by notions of rural Volks- or Heimat culture. Considering the modern visual idiom used by various designers and illustrators contributing to Sudeten culture in the 1930s and 40s, it argues that artists such as Hanns Erich Köhler embraced a modern visuality to blur the distinction between Volk, folk, and popular culture, ultimately forging a contemporary Sudeten culture that integrated concepts of Heimat culture into modern design and visual arts suitable for mass consumption.

Author

• Julia Secklehner, Constructor U (Germany)