Women’s costume

Costumes such as this one used to be worn until the German population was expelled from the vicinity of the town of Wischau in 1945. With its eight villages, the ‘Language Island’ was what had remained of a formerly much larger, interconnected German language region within the Czech Republic. Wearing the costumes provided the residents with a means of also distinguishing themselves from their Czech environment in their outward appearance.The details of the costume immediately gave away which village its wearer came from and what her social status was. As presented here, it served as the festive costume of married women. The donator of the garment, Rosina Reim, is from the Wischau Language Island herself and chairwoman of the community association Gemeinschaft Wischauer Sprachinsel e. V. Aalen/München. The costumes are still worn today at public appearances, presentations and parades.