The experience called homeland

Under the overall concept of “homeland”, the Sudeten German Museum focuses on the life of the Germans in Bohemia, Moravia and Sudeten Silesia – what is today’s Czech Republic. The exhibition begins with the section on “Homeland!”, which describes the landscape and its inhabitants in the cultural, religious and economic context before 1945. Under the heading “The End of the Accepted Order”, it examines the political and social developments of the 19th century up to the catastrophe of World War II and the expulsions in the 20th century. “Homeland?” – now with a question mark – depicts the difficult new beginning and the integration of the Sudeten Germans in the West.

For centuries, the homeland of the Sudeten Germans in Bohemia, Moravia and Sudeten Silesia was shaped by the coexistence of three peoples – the Germans, the Czechs and the Jews. The Sudeten German Museum takes a look at this common homeland in all its facets, from which emerges the picture of a model cultural landscape of pan-European significance.

The Sudeten German Museum presents established facts in a lively and easy-to-understand way. Owing to its modern design, which incorporates the use of media, and its architecturally outstanding building, the museum leaves its mark far beyond the Bavarian state capital of Munich.