Vom Hirschberger Stadtimage zum Erinnerungsort der nordböhmischen Deutschen
Vom Hirschberger Stadtimage zum Erinnerungsort der nordböhmischen Deutschen

Summary/Abstract: At the end of the 19th century Hirschberg (now Doksy), a small town in the north of Bohemia, started to benefit from the increasing tourism. To attract more tourists many institutions, organisations and individuals in and outside of Hirschberg constructed an idealistic image of the town defining it as a spa in the centre of a beautiful countryside. In this paper we focus on how the new image of Hirschberg was formed, what it was like and how it differed from the reality. We also try to analyse the influence of this image on the memory of the Germans who had to leave Czechoslovakia after the Second World War. In their commemorative literature many parts of the erstwhile advertising material often reappear. Published in this new context they seem to have created from Hirschberg and its surroundings a local memory space that symbolizes the beauty and harmony of the lost home land.

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