Adolf Černý and his Explorational Trips in Lusatia

Travelling had an important place in the life of Adolf Černý. He became familiar with many parts of pre-war Europe as well as the new countries which came into being following the First World War, however his most thorough trips were through Slavic Lusatia. His research trips to Lusatia in the 1880s and 1890s were one of the final phases of his collection of ethnographic material in this part of the Slavic world. His brilliant knowledge of the Sorbian language helped him to penetrate into the world of the Sorbian rural inhabitans, which at that time was rather archaic. The base for his trips was always Budyšin (Bautzen), where the central Sorbian institutions were located, and the home of Michal Hórnik, the leader of the Sorbs at the time