Henlein returned home after the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in 1919 to work as a bank clerk in Gablonz, then part of the newly established Czechoslovakian state. The Sudeten German community had long been a stronghold of the "völkisch" movement, and Henlein embraced "völkisch" ideas as the best way forward for the ethnic Germans of the Sudetenland, who had been the "insiders" favored by the authorities in the old Austrian Empire and who were now suddenly the outsiders in the new Czechoslovak republic, a change of status that most Sudetenlanders found very jarring and painful. Henlein joined the "Turnerband" (gymnastics association), which played an oversized role in the Sudeten German community life which outsiders often missed, and by 1923, he was responsible for promoting "völkisch" ideology in his local "turner" club as the best way to deal with the current "national crisis" facing the Sudeten community. A central tenant of "völkisch" ideology had always been that a healthy bodies made for a healthy race, and as a result, there had always been a close connection between sports and "völkisch" activities in the German-speaking world. Influenced by the German national movement, Henlein became a gym teacher of the gymnastics club in Asch (Aš) in 1925, which, similar to the Czech "Sokol" movement, took an active part in Sudeten German communal life. Given the importance of the "turnerband" to Sudeten community life, Henlein's position as a "turnerband" leader gave him far more importance than what his position would suggest.