By GISELA WILLIAMS

OFFENBURG, Germany - For years, Stefan Strumbel, a street artist born and raised in this small city in southwestern Germany, has wrestled with the idea of “heimat” - a German word that translates loosely as homeland or regional identity - and how his art should reflect it. That’s one reason, he said, that he decided to stop painting graffiti five years ago and focus on cuckoo clocks instead.

“For so long, after Hitler, Germans haven’t been able or allowed to reclaim their heimat,” said Mr. Strumbel, 30, sitting on a well-worn couch in his one-bedroom apartment here. “I wanted to ask the question, ‘What is heimat?’ and make it something fresh, ironic and dynamic.”

“When I did graffiti, it was all about marking my territory,” he continued. “But then I started thinking that graffiti itself was more of a New York thing and that I should do something that was authentic to where I come from, the Black Forest.”

And what could be more quintessentially German than a cuckoo clock, thought Mr. Strumbel, who began buying clocks from local stores and transforming them into street-art inspired pieces with spray paint.

A year later, in 2006, he had a solo exhibition at a gallery, showing the clocks along with a number of drawings and murals. It was the clocks, however, that drew the most interest, completely selling out. Soon after, he made an arrangement with Anton Schneider & Sons, a sixth-generation cuckoo-clock maker, to manufacture them.

Mr. Strumbel’s clocks, which are based on traditional models but are adorned with grenades and handguns instead of rabbits and antlers, now sell through Galerie Springmann in Freiburg for $1,200 to $35,000 each.

Their popularity could be attributed to the way they capture the spirit of the new Germany, said Mon Muellerschoen, an independent curator in Munich. “A Germany that is aware of its past, but ready to take new, lighthearted and colorful paths - a Germany that can accept its cliches with the wink of an eye.”

But in Mr. Strumbel’s apartment, a surprisingly urban space , there is no sign of the clocks. There is, however, an extensive collection of artwork by contemporary street artists . “Whenever I have some money, I spend it on art,” Mr. Strumbel said. “When I’m home I don’t want to think of work.”

His spare living room is decorated with prints by Shepard Fairey, the graphic designer and artist known for designing the Obama “Hope” poster; a self-portrait by Jonathan Meese, the German artist; and prints by the British graffiti artist Banksy and by Swoon, an American street artist.

Mr. Strumbel found the 102-squaremeter apartment, on the third floor of a 19th-century building about five years ago . When he peeled off the paper covering one of the living room walls, the rough-hewn texture reminded him of the gritty facades of buildings in East Berlin. He liked it so much that he left it that way, sealing it with industrial glue .

“My goal is to bring a little bit of the street into my home,” Mr. Strumbel said. “And something from my heimat into the streets.”

Mr. Strumbel pointed out a piece done by his uncle, “an artist who killed himself before I was born,” showing the uncle as a child, with Donald Duck.

“Can you believe that it’s more than 40 years old?” he said. “That piece has inspired me since I was a child. We have a similar sense of humor.”