My path to our Germans

'Our Germans' is what Czechs often call the Sudeten Germans. Both ethnic groups lived together in the Czech Lands for centuries until Nazi terror and expulsions brought this to an end. What personal experiences do Czech intellectuals associate with their former compatriots?

The title of the lecture series, which began in 2016, is taken from a lecture of the same name given by the Karlovy Vary archivist Milan Augustin in 2004. In the Czech Republic, the term 'Our Germans' (Naši Němci) refers to the Germans from the Czech Lands or the Sudeten Germans. Czech writers, artists and intellectuals discuss personal views, inspirations and experiences that they associate, above all, with the Bohemian Germans, but also with Germans in general. They include the authors Kateřina Tučková, Jaroslav Rudiš, Milan Uhde or Radka Denemarková, but also artists such as Magdalena Jetelová or the journalist Lída Rakušanová. In 2019, a volume with ten contributions was published under the title "My way to our Germans. Ten Czech Perspectives” in the lichtung Verlag. The Czech translation “Má cesta k našim Němcům” followed in 2022.
From 2023, face-to-face events will no longer be offered in the series. New posts will be published on the Adalbert Stifter Verein's YouTube channel and some can already be viewed there. The publication of a second anthology is planned for 2024.

From left: Ondřej Černý, director of the Czech Center Munich, the writer Jaroslav Rudi and Cultural Advisor Wolfgang Schwarz (r.) at an event in the series.. Adalbert Stifter Verein, Free access - no reuse