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Czechoslovak Republic. Czechoslovakia. 10th Sokol Games Badge, Prague. 1938.
The Sokol movement is a sports movement of Czech origin. Initially associated with gymnastics, it eventually surpassed the sphere of sport.
Its origins trace back to Prague, where it was founded in 1862 by Miroslav Tyrš and Jindřich Fügner with the primary goal of establishing a sports center, a gym. However, it also included readings, discussions, and other activities considered important for people concerned with their physical well-being. The movement excluded no one, not even women, and spread to other regions away from Prague.
The movement spread throughout all the regions populated by Slavic cultures, most of which were part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire or the Russian Empire, such as present-day Slovakia, the traditional territories of Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Poland (Sokół), Macedonia, Ukraine, or Belarus. In many of these nations, the organization also served as an early precursor to scout movements.
The idea of physical training and establishing sports centers for that purpose was not new. The Sokol movement closely resembles the physical education of athletes and warriors in Ancient Greece. Germany also influenced this movement with its societies that promoted gymnastics for the entire population, the Turnverein societies, mass gymnastics organizations with a nationalist mentality founded by Friedrich Ludwig Jahn in 1811.
Miroslav Tyrš, the founder of the first Sokol in Prague in 1862, exerted great influence on the movement until his death in 1884. Born into a German family, with the German name Friedrich Emanuel Tirsch, in 1834, Tyrš grew up under the influence of romantic nationalism, which led to uprisings across Europe in 1848. He was educated at the University of Prague and completed his studies in philosophy. In the 1860s, he began to engage with Czech nationalism, changing his name to one that appeared more Slavic. After being unable to secure an academic position, Tyrš combined his experience as a therapeutic gymnastics trainer with the nationalist ideologies he had encountered in Prague, thereby establishing the first Sokol club.
