Huncokar Folk Tales as Part of the German Ethnographic Research

The ethnographic research of German-speaking lumberjacks – huncokars (pronounced hoont-so-cars) took place from the 1920s to the 1940s and was conducted by researchers working in German and Sudeten German ethnographic organizations. At that time, the lay and expert public were increasingly interested in the living conditions, customs, traditions and culture of the German population that lived beyond the borders of the Weimar Republic and later the Third Reich. The huncokars were particularly interesting for researchers because of the fact that they lived apart from the majority (Slovak) population in forested regions of western Slovakia. They were an endogamous and ethnically closed community. The main goal of my study is to analyze the individual folk tales related to huncokar population.