on nature and the provincial homeliness of Germany. Forests, mountains, landscapes, and rural areas portrayed Germany in a homely light with which the German people readily identified. In 1984, Edgar Reitz released his film Heimat, highlighting the provincial sense of belonging and the conflict that exists between urban and rural life. Alon Confino, in his book Germany as a Culture of Remembrance: Promises and Limits of Writing History (2006) sees the post-war concept of Heimat as having emerged as a reaction to Germany's self-imposed position on the world stage, a symptom of the forced introversion following the world wars, and an attempt at individual distancing from responsibility for Nazi Germany's actions. Heimatschutz Heimatschutz is the German term for "protection of national heritage". The so-called "Heimatschutzarchitektur" or Heimatschutzstil is an architectural style that was first described in 1904 and was practised until the late 1960s. Its goal was to embed buildings into their regional cultural environment by referencing local design features, such as materials, proportions and shapes. Unlike the historism found in the 19th century, Heimatschutz did not embrace ornate and decorative elements and tried to reinterpret traditional techniques and regional design languages in a clean and modern way. The German association for Heimatschutz, the Deutsche Bund für Heimatschutz, was founded in Dresden in 1904 with a focus on built heritage conservation and the furtherance of traditional crafts and techniques. Support in international law In international law the "right to one's homeland" (German: Recht auf die Heimat; French: droit au foyer; Italian: diritto alla Patria; Spanish: derecho a la patria) is a concept that has been gaining acceptance as a fundamental human right and a precondition to the exercise of the right to self-determination. In 1931 at the Académie de Droit International in The Hague (Hague Academy of International Law), Robert Redslob spoke of the right to the homeland in connection with the right to self-determination in Le principe des nationalités. Georges Scelle in Belgium, Felix Ermacora in Austria, Alfred de Zayas in the United States, and Christian Thomuschat and Dieter Blumenwitz in Germany are amongst those who have written extensively on the subject. The first United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Jose Ayala Lasso of Ecuador affirmed this right, which is reflected in the 13-point Declaration appended to the Final Report on "Human Rights and Population Transfers". See also Homeland Urheimat Culture of Remembrance References Bibliography Jens Jäger: Heimat,