Among the important works of local his tory of the end of the 19th century belongs also a huge German work „Die österreichisch-ungarische Monarchie in Wort und Bild“ that, besides demographic, geographic, historical or economical tractates contains also ethnographic studies. It also contains a volume dedicated to Moravia and Silesia, two multiethnic regions dominated by Czech and German inhabitants (in Silesia also the Poles played an important role). The book thus deals not only with two independent political units, but also with two nations whose mutual relations were certainly problematic at the time of the publication of this work. It seems that also in this book manifested itself the contemporary national barrier between the Czechs and the Germans, including the specialists on ethnography. In the book chapters written by renowned Czech authors, at the time at the peak of their Scientific career — František Bartoš, Josef Kivana or Vincenc Prásek. On the other hand, the authors of the ethnographic chapters about the German ethnic group are not that well known today. They didn't publish in the Czech ethnographic periodicals of the time, their works are not referred upon by their Czech colleagues. But the book as a whole is certainly well-arranged and balanced. The very ethnographical chapters provoke some doubts, because they reflect some of thepoliticalproblems of the time. In the very structure of these important chapters we can see a dominant role that the initiator s of the book ascribed to the German nation. Although it was less numerous and its folk culture and its folk culture could not be considered as a modelfor the folk culture ofother nation groups, the chapters on German folk culture precede chapters dedicated to the Czechs, resp. the Poles. The Czech nation is uniformly named „Slavic“, a fact that through its political conservatism certainly should have provoked the bad blood of the Czech patriotic circles. Also, the book was written in the particularly sensitive period ofrising discontent not only among the Czechs and the Germans, but also the Czech political representation and the leadership of the Habsburk Empire and its political élite.
The specific feature of the tramping is the fact that, in špite of its 80-year-tradition and a reál mass character, it has always verged on becoming illegal. This is a consequence of the very substance of the activity - a free camping outdoors, outside the parcels or objects sanctioned for this purpose by competent statě authorities or private owners. The intensity of the restrictive measures of the administrativě machinery towards tramping is unsteady - sometimes the activity has been tolerated, sometimes sujfered in silence, but also occasionally or systematically persecuted. This occurred during all regimes - at the times of the first Czechoslovak Republic, during Nazi occupation, during the „ building of the socialism “ times, but also nowadays. The motives that drove the oppression of the tramp movement for part of the statě organs of course differed considerably. Between the wars the tramp movement has been restricted by the police, who applied especially the so called „ Kubát ’s law forbidding the camping and outdoor activities of the single youths of the opposite sex. During the occupation times the tramps háve been persecuted by the security organs of the protectorate police and by the German Gestapo, who suspected them of being involved in the resistance movement and helping the partyzans. In the socialist era the tramps had to liide from the foresters, police forces and their wardens stationed in the villages, who resented the existence of the relatively informal tramp movement outside the oficial structures, their free movement over the country as well as their traditional sympathies toward the heroes of the American West, showed by their clothing and other atributes. In the last tenyears, the tramps are being accused of breaking the nátuře protection laws and they are persecuted especially by the representatives of the State conservation department.
Cultural historian and ethnographer Čeněk Zíbrt, scientist, university professor and editor of popular periodicals, entered the awareness of his contemporaries as a prominent, erudite specialist. As such he had been accepted not only in Bohemia, but also in Moravia. To his fame contributed also his role of an editor of the ethnographic journal „Český lid“ [Czech Folk], published since the year 1892. Precisely for the Moravian ethnographes the contacts with this journal and with Zíbrt himself were of multilateral importance. They were sending him their publications, books and various treatises to be reviewed or propagated in Český lid. Themselves they also contributed to the journal with their articles, texts of varied quality and different genres, extensive studies, shorter articles and various bagatelles. An important contribution represented also the illustrations, sent from Moravia by artistically competent ethnographers and photographers. Český lid, on the other hand, offered a welcome source of income to many authors. However, Zíbrt selected carefully from the contributions sent by the ethnographers, so many of them waited long for the publication of their article. Many of the contributors asked their texts and illustrations to be returned to them, sometimes not successfully. Such inauspicious experiences with publicating in Český lid resulted in limitation of contacts of some ethnographers with Zíbrt. In špite of this, the majority of them appreciated the periodical very much. This fact was documented also by their not pretended joy from the renewal of Český lid in the 1920 ’s. Zíbrt, editor of the renewed journal, was contacted by new or renewed contributors.