The Sudeten German Institute for Regional and Ethnic Research (SALV) was founded on 13 October 1940 in Reichenberg/Liberec as the centre for ‘Sudeten German’ non-university academic research in the Reichsgau Sudetenland.^[1] It built on the work of the ‘Institute for Sudeten German Regional Studies’, which had existed since 1925 under the direction of Erich Gierach (1881–1943)^[2] and represented a politicised form of scholarship active during the Nazi era, which placed itself at the service of the ‘struggle for national identity’.

According to its statutes, the institute’s remit included research into the ‘Sudetenlands’ and eastern and south-eastern Europe.^[3] It was to give priority to issues that appeared important for “ethnic and economic reasons”.

Reverse of the Ackermann Medal
[Sudeten German Regional and Ethnic Research
, Reichenberg 1942, p. 2].

Close links existed with the German Charles University in Prague, the Reinhard Heydrich Foundation and the North and East German Research Association (NOFG).^[4] The SALV was highly active in publishing and continued to produce periodicals and source editions previously published by the “Institute for Sudeten German Regional Research”. Together with the Reinhard Heydrich Foundation, it published the journal *Deutsche Volksforschung in Böhmen und Mähren* (German Ethnic Research in Bohemia and Moravia).

Each year, the SALV awarded the Ackermann Medal for “particularly responsible and militant scholarship in the service of German identity in the Sudetenlands”.^[5] The recipients between 1940 and 1943 were Erich Gierach, Emil Lehmann (1880–1964),^[6] Wilhelm Wostry (1877–1951) and Kleo Pleyer (1898–1942, posthumously).

Gauhauptmann Anton Kreißl (1895–1945) oversaw the work of the SALV in his capacity as director of the institution. He was the deputy of the Department for Cultural and Community Affairs of the Reichsgau Sudetenland, Kurt Oberdoffer (1900–1980),^[7] . The managing director was Franz Runge (1886–1956), a teacher from Reichenberg.

In 1943, the SALV had 176 full members, 138 associate or supporting members, and three honorary members.^[8] The full members were predominantly university professors at the German University of Prague.

The Society’s work was organised into ten specialist committees:^[9]

1. Committee for Spatial and Soil Research (Gerhard Ziegler)
2. Committee for Prehistory and Early History (Hermann Schroller)^[10])
3. Commission for History (Wilhelm Wostry^[11])
4. Commission for Folklore (Bruno Schier^[12])
5. Commission for Settlement and Linguistic Research (Erich Gierach^[13])
6. Commission for Legal and Economic Research (Wilhelm Saure^[14])
7. Commission for Art and Literary Research (Rudolf Hönigschmid^[15])
8. Commission for Slavic Studies (Franz Künzel^[16])
9. Commission for Natural Sciences (from 1941) (Viktor [Czurda] Denk^[17])
10. Commission for Race and Clan Research (active only from 1943) (Karl Thums^[18])

There was also a geological research centre in Friedeberg/Žulové. The folklorist Josef Hanika ran the Centre for Folklore Research and a museum of folklore in Eger/Cheb.^[19] From 1942 onwards, a Research Centre for Politics and Contemporary History also operated within the framework of the Historical Commission under the direction of Rudolf Jahn.

The SALV Research Council comprised the heads of the individual specialist commissions and representatives of the Gau and NSDAP party leadership of the Reichsgau Sudetenland, and was primarily responsible for planning the research work.

Despite the accessibility of its archive holdings, no detailed study of the SALV has yet been carried out, and this remains a gap in the research.^[20] Following the establishment of the Reichsgau Sudetenland, the ‘Institute for Sudeten German Local History’ – like all other associations, foundations, etc. – was initially placed under the authority of a so-called ‘standstill commissioner’. It was officially dissolved in August 1939. In its place, the SALV was initially established as a division of the Department for Cultural and Community Affairs of the Gau self-government, until it was re-established in the summer of 1940 by Gauleiter and Reich Governor Konrad Henlein (1898–1945) in the summer of 1940 as a self-governing body of the Reichsgau Sudetenland, under its new name. According to its statutes, the institute was intended to support the work of the Party and the State through scientific expertise. For example, it provided expert reports on the Germanisation of Czech place names and personal names.^[21] Planned major research projects included a ten-volume edition of source material on the ‘History of the political struggle for national identity in the Sudeten region from its beginnings in the 19th century to the present day’. The continuities between the ‘Institute for Sudeten German Regional Research’ and the SALV are evident in many respects. The latter conducted research into German identity on the one hand, and ‘Czech studies’ on the other. Both activities were part of the tradition of the ‘struggle for national identity’ and were of dubious scholarly merit. Schier, for example, sought to demonstrate the significant influence of German folk culture on Slavic folk culture.^[22] In his ethnographic studies of the Chod people, Hanika identified “an extraordinarily strong German influence, both in terms of blood and culture”.^[23] These and other studies – such as those carried out by the Commission for Slavic Studies and Racial Research – contributed to the National Socialists ’ long-term plan for the Germanisation of the Bohemian region.^[24]

• Ingo Haar, Michael Fahlbusch (eds.): Handbook of Ethnic Studies. People – Institutions – Research Programs – Foundations. Munich 2008.
• Milena Josefovičová: Sudeten German Institute for Regional and Ethnic Research. In: Kristina Kaiserová, Miroslav Kunštát (eds.): In Search of a Centre. Scientific and Educational Institutions of the Germans in Bohemia in the 19th and First Half of the 20th Century [The Search for a Centre. Scientific and Educational Institutions of the Germans in Bohemia in the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries]. Ústí nad Labem 2011, pp. 327–341.
• Ota Konrád: The Sudeten German Institute for Regional and Ethnic Research 1940–1945. ‘Scientific Rigour and Ethnic Commitment.’ In: Stefan Albrecht, Jiří Malíř and Ralph Melville (eds.): ‘Sudeten German Historiography’ 1918–1960. On the Prehistory and Foundation of the Historical Commission of the Sudeten Lands. Munich 2008 (Publications of the Collegium Carolinum 114), pp. 71–95.
• Ota Konrád: Dějepisectví, germanistika a slavistika na Německé univerzitě v Praze [Historiography, German Studies and Slavonic Studies at the German University in Prague] 1918–1945. Prague 2011, pp. 217–227.
• Petr Lozoviuk: Interethnicity in the Academic Process. German-language folklore studies in Bohemia and their social implications. Leipzig 2008 (Schriften zur Sächsischen Geschichte und Volkskunde 26), pp. 252–256.
• Alena Míšková: Vývoj německých libereckých vědeckých a vlastivědných institucí a jejich archivních fondů (1925–1945) [The Development of German Scientific and Local History Institutions in Liberec and Their Archival Collections]. In: Proceedings of the North Bohemian Museum. Historia 11 (1993), pp. 33–46.
• Tobias Weger: Sudeten German Institute for Regional and Ethnographic Research, Reichenberg. In: Ingo Haar, Michael Fahlbusch (eds.): Handbook of Ethnic Studies. People – Institutions – Research Programs – Foundations. Munich 2008, pp. 683–688.

[1] Franz Runge: The opening of the Sudeten German Institute for Regional and Ethnic Research in Reichenberg (12–14 September 1940). In: Journal of Sudeten German History 4 (1940/41), pp. 219–222.

[2] For the director’s perspective and the contemporary context, see: Erich Gierach: The Institute for Sudeten German Regional Research in Reichenberg. In: *German Journal for Ethnic and Cultural Heritage Research* 1 (1930), pp. 34–38; Weger: *Sudeten German Institute*, pp. 684ff.

[3] Announcement of the Statutes of the Sudeten German Institute for Regional and Ethnic Research dated 12 July 1940. In: Official Gazette for the Reichsgau Sudetenland 21 (1940), pp. 903–905.

[4] Lozoviuk: Interethnik, p. 252; Konrád: Dějepisectví, pp. 223–226.

[5] Cf. Anton Kreißl: ‘A Year at the Sudeten German Institute for Regional and Ethnic Research. Report by the Director of the Institute’. In: Sudeten German Regional and Ethnic Research. Mission and Achievements. Reports and lectures on the occasion of the first annual conference of the Sudeten German Institute for Regional and Ethnic Research (11–13 October 1941). Reichenberg 1942, pp. 3–11, here p. 11; Konrád: The Sudeten German Institute, pp. 75ff.

[6] On Lehmann, see Lozoviuk: *Interethnik*, pp. 242–250.

[7] On Oberdorffer, see Jiří Němec: ‘Kurt Oberdorffer’. In: Haar, Fahlbusch (eds.): *Handbuch*, pp. 444–448.

[8] Weger: Sudetendeutsche Anstalt, p. 687.

[9] The heads of the respective commissions are named.

[10] Schroller also headed the Office for Prehistory in Teplitz/Teplice and was the regional curator of archaeological antiquities in the Sudetenland. Konrád: Die Sudetendeutsche Anstalt, p. 78; cf. Jan Blažek: *Archeologie v okupovaném pohraničí* [Archaeology in the Occupied Border Region] 1938–1945. In: Zdeněk Radvanovský (ed.): Historie okupovaného pohraničí 1938–1945. Vol. 5. Ústí nad Labem 2000, pp. 135–155.

[11] On Wostry, see Karel Hruza: ‘Scientific Tools for Contemporary Political Issues.’ Critical remarks on the work and influence of the historians Wilhelm Weizsäcker and Wilhelm Wostry. In: Zeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropaforschung 54 (2005), pp. 475–526, here pp. 494–521; Ibid.: Wilhelm Wostry. In: Haar, Fahlbusch (eds.): Handbook, pp. 772–776; Nina Lohmann: ‘Heimat und Volk’. The historian Wilhelm Wostry between German-Bohemian and Sudeten German historiography. In: Albrecht, Melville (ed.): Sudeten German Historiography, pp. 127–150; Ibid.: Wilhelm Wostry and ‘Sudeten German’ Historiography up to 1938. In: *Acta Universitatis Carolinae – Historia Universitatis Carolinae Pragensis* (AUC – HUCP) 44 (2004), pp. 45–145.

[12] Cf. Ota Konrád: ‘…no longer guilty.’ The folklorist Bruno Schier’s understanding of his subject and scholarship before and after 1945. In: *Acta Universitatis Carolinae – Studia Territorialia* 7 (2005), pp. 333–364; Lozoviuk: *Interethnik*, pp. 336–339.

[13] See Ingo Haar: Erich Gierach. In: Ibid., Fahlbusch (ed.): Handbook, pp. 193–198; Lozoviuk: Interethnik, pp. 250–252.

[14] Saure was Rector of the German Charles University from 1940 to 1942. See Alena Míšková: The German (Charles) University from the Munich Agreement to the End of the Second World War. University Administration and Changes in the Faculty. Prague 2007.

[15] See the short biography with a list of works by the art historian and conservationist in: K. Erik Franzen, Helena Peřinová (eds.): Biographies of the Members of the Historical Commission of the Sudeten Lands in its Founding Year 1954. In: Albrecht, Melville (ed.): Sudeten German Historiography (as in note 11), pp. 219–276, here pp. 235–236.

[16] Künzel was head of the NSDAP’s Border Region Office in the Reichsgau Sudetenland. Cf. Detlef Brandes: ‘Ethnic Replacement, Resettlement, Racial Census’. Nazi ‘Ethnic Policy’ in the Bohemian Lands. Munich 2012 (Publications of the Collegium Carolinum 125), pp. 198–201; Volker Zimmermann: The Sudeten Germans in the Nazi State. Politics and Public Sentiment in the Reichsgau Sudetenland (1938–1945). Essen 1999 (Publications of the German-Czech and German-Slovak Historians’ Commission 9), pp. 285–294.

[17] Viktor Czurda, head of the Institute of Plant Physiology at the German University in Prague, had been using only the German name ‘Denk’ since 1941. See Míšková: The German (Charles) University (as in note 14).

[18] Thums headed the Institute for Hereditary and Racial Hygiene at the German Charles University. See Michal Šimůnek: A New Subject. Hereditary and Racial Hygiene at the School of Medicine of the German Charles University in Prague 1939–1945. In: Antonín Kostlán (ed.): Science in the Bohemian Lands 1939–1945. Prague 2004, pp. 190–316, here pp. 203–239.

[19] See Tobias Weger: ‘Ethnic Science between Prague, Eger and Munich: The Case of Josef Hanika’. In: Christiane Brenner, K. Erik Franzen, Peter Haslinger, Robert Luft (eds.): Historiography of the Bohemian Lands in the 20th Century. Scholarly Traditions – Institutions – Discourses. Munich 2006 (Bad Wiesseer Conferences of the Collegium Carolinum 28), pp. 177–208; Martin Zückert: Josef Hanika (1900–1963), folklorist. Between academic research and the ‘struggle for national identity’. In: Monika Glettler, Alena Míšková (eds.): Prague Professors 1938–1948. Between Science and Politics. Essen 2001 (Publications on Culture and History in Eastern Europe 17), pp. 205–220; Lozoviuk: Interethnik, pp. 165–168, 189–197.

[20] Cf. Milena Josefovičová: The Sudeten German Institute of Local History in Liberec 1925–1945 and the Collection of the Sudetendeutsche Archive [Die sudetendeutsche heimatkundliche Anstalt in Reichenberg 1925–1945 und die Sammlung des Sudetendeutschen Archives]. In: Práce z dějin Akademie věd 2 (2010), pp. 77–79.

[21 Konrád: The Sudeten German Institute, p. 81.

[22] See also Bruno Schier: ‘German Reconstruction Forces in the Folk Cultures of the West Slavs’. In: Sudeten German Regional and Ethnic Research (as in note 5), pp. 24–48.

[23] Quoted from Konrád: *Die Sudetendeutsche Anstalt*, p. 87. See also Lozoviuk: *Interethnik*, pp. 199–202, and Josef Hanika: *On the German Contribution to Chod Farming*. A Research Task. In: Kurt Oberdorffer, Bruno Schier, Wilhelm Wostry (eds.): Wissenschaft im Volkstumskampf. A commemorative volume for Erich Gierach on his 60th birthday, presented by friends, students and colleagues. Reichenberg 1941, pp. 233–250.

[24] Konrád: The Sudeten German Institute, pp. 86–91; Lozoviuk: Interethnic Relations, pp. 225–234.

Stefan Lehr: Sudeten German Institute for Regional and Ethnic Research, Reichenberg. In: Online Encyclopaedia on the Culture and History of Germans in Eastern Europe, 2012. URL: ome-lexikon.uni-oldenburg.de/p32764 (as at 19 November 2021).