Heimat and Traditional Costume: A Topic from Yesterday in Today's World?

A lecture with slides by Prof. Dr. Werner Mezger of the University of Freiburg im Breisgau.

Heimat - for some it is a self-evident concept, for others it causes unease, and for others still it seems antiquated, parochial, and outdated. This is precisely where the lecture begins: approaching the concept of Heimat from a cultural-studies perspective, it examines its various facets - historical, present-day, and future functions. The central question is what role a sense of home and belonging plays in a world changing faster than ever before.

Does Heimat still carry any meaning in the face of the dramatic upheavals of the 21st century - a new world order, climate change, migration, artificial intelligence, geopolitical turning points? Are events like the Heimattage Baden-Württemberg simply pouring yesterday's ideals into ritualised forms? Does Heimat have a genuine future, or is it merely a romanticised past? Put bluntly: do we still need it at all?

Further questions arise: where is our society heading? What are the consequences of the demographic formula "fewer, older, more diverse"? How do GPS, Google Earth, and AI reshape our perception of geographical space and local ties? What happens as physical space dissolves into virtuality, where nearness and distance have lost their concrete meaning? And finally: is wearing traditional costume completely out of place today, or does the Tracht movement perhaps show that the past does have a future? The lecture cannot offer definitive answers, but it aims to provoke thought and raise new awareness of these questions.

Prof. Dr. Werner Mezger, known for numerous book publications, is a researcher at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau.