The paper focuses on the Šumava literary landscape around the rivers Vltava, Otava and Úhlava, using the literary works of Adalbert Stifter, Karl Klostermann and Hans Watzlik, each of whom approached the depiction of the landscape and life in Šumava in a different way. At the same time, the article deals with national issues – Stifter and Klostermann were proponents of so-called bohemianism, Watzlik was a nationalist.

Bohemia, a land inhabited by two nations who had always fought for land – the long-established Germans and the Czechs who immigrated later. After the end of the Habsburg monarchy and the founding of the Czechoslovak Republic, Czech influence grew and the Germans had no choice but to fight – to fight to preserve their homeland and their identity. This is how the main message of the novel Alle Wasser Böhmens fließen nach Deutschland [All the Waters of Bohemia Flow to Germany] by the Sudeten German writer Friedrich Jaksch-Bodenreuth could be summarised succinctly. While the novel was met with enthusiasm on the German part, it was banned in Czechoslovakia and its author had to flee the country.