Sokol (Czech movement)

The Sokol is a movement gymnic nationalist Czech founded on February 16th, 1862 by Miroslav Tyrš and Jindřich Fügner. Influenced by the ancient Greece and the German Turnverein , this movement mixing sports activities and cultural with the Patriotisme is indissociable Czech national Renaissance of the end of the 19th century and, more generally, rise of the national feeling Slavic. It is closely dependant on the foundation of the Czechoslovakian State and on its destinies.

Focused at the origin on the practice Sport ive, Sokol develops quickly and extends its activities to the field Culture L: libraries, reviews or conferences. The slety (sporting gatherings of mass) joining together until: 500000 participants, the newspapers or the libraries of Sokol played an important role to forge and diffuse the Czech national identity under the Empire Austro-Hungarian. The movement is spread in all the country and essaime throughout the world, particularly in the Slavic countries but also in France, where the first sokol sees the day in 1892 in Paris, Spain and North America, where the first sokol is created the same year with Chicago, greater Czech community of the the United States.

According to the Czech Association of Sokols in 1912, the movement sokol is a “national organization who cultivates the gymnastics (…) to give to the people healthy and strong wire, linking physical education with moral education, by a systematic culture of the beauty, morals and bravery, penetrated by the national and democratic spirit”.

Philosophy of Sokol

Miroslav Tyrš, the founder of the movement

The Sokol movement

In accordance with the inspiration of Tyrš, the philosophy of Sokol proposes the sporting practice groups some, the promotion of values morals and the Czech Nationalisme .

On thus finds there a strict Discipline and the choice of a Uniforme which takes again the large features of the uniform Garibaldi in. The artist Josef Mánes composes it with the pants and the jacket catechu of the Czech peasants, the red shirt Garibaldi enne, and a silk hat pricked of a feather of falcon. Exploiting the military register, the organization adopts an anthem, Hej, Sokolíci, mužně vpřed (“Go, Faucons, go valiantly”) and a slogan, Tužme (“Let us be strong”). A flag of Sokol, red with an immaculate falcon, is drawn by the writer Karolina Světlá.

The practice of the sport in group is in the center of the activities of Sokol: Exercises of gymnastics choreographies, Fencing or Haltérophilie thus constitute the common feature of all the local units. The sports activities were extended since to a broader spectrum but the Gymnastique remains the base about it.

Le movement puts forward the moral ideals which are inter alia: the discipline, perseverance, love of the fatherland, honesty, sincerity, will, sociability, intrepidity, asceticism, voluntary help. The movement is Laïc but, exciting the Czech nation, it joins together de facto proportionally more hussites. That will involve the creation of a competitor movement by the catholic clergy of Bohemia.

Le Sokol wants to be independent of the Austro-Hungarian empire. He of it is thus independent financially and, in its promotion of the Czech nation, he is very close to the Parti the young Czechs which professes nationalist ideas . Most of the founders of Sokol was directly member: the prince Rudolf von Thurn-Taxis, the writer Josef Barák, Julius and Eduard Grégr. However most of these members are quickly replaced with the head of the movement by others, less committed. The movement is near thereafter to the national Parti social Czech with the turning century.

With the difference in the movement scout which is born in 1907, the Sokol movement is opened with all the classes of old, even if that is done during a slow evolution. He insists on fraternity between each member who is called between them brothers and greet himself of a Na zdar! (“Ave! Hello! ”), expression entered from now on the Czech language running. The movement is opened with all the social classes and its principal leaders come from the lower middle class or the middle-classes. It is an organization of mass which will have until: 560000 members in 1938, right before the Protectorate of Bohemia-Moravie and the Second world war during which the organization is prohibited.

Influences and historical context

Ancient Greece

The movement sokol plunges its roots in the interest of Tyrš for physical education in ancient Greece. It is convinced that it is education with the Palestre of a whole people which ensured Greece his victory over the Perses. With its manner, the Sokol movement wants to promote the ideal of the Greek Kalos kagathos , the man of virtuous nature and with the body of athlete, from a patriotic and nationalist point of view, the Habsbourg replacing Persians.

Of '' German Turnverein ''

The historical influence of the German culture on the Czech culture is however undeniable and Sokol takes as a starting point the of Turnverein , sporting movement founded in 1811 by Friedrich Ludwig Jahn. This Prussian teacher stressed to him also the cohesion of the community by the sport. Claire E. Nolte, professor of modern history in Manhattan College, was the first to draw up the comparison with Sokol in in The Sokol in the Czech Lands to 1914: Training for the Nation published in 2002 with New York at Palgrave Macmillan. It stresses that the of Turnverein , another movement of mass, was born in reaction with the triumphs Napoleon iens and encouraged German nationalism, just as Sokol in reaction to Habsbourg. However she considers that the Sokol movement shows purely Czech or Slavic characteristics and is only one derived and not a copy from the of Turnverein .

Parallel to these two influences, one can note that the end of devotes an increasingly large attention to the Hygiène, with the development of the sport and external activities.

Historical context

See also: Austria-Hungary, Chronology of the empire Austro-Hungarian, History of the Czech Republic

A liberalization of the Empire

Of 1849 with 1859, the baron Alexander von Bach is Minister of Interior Department of the Empire of Austria. Holding of the line absolutist, it sets up a policy of oppression which fills the prisons of political prisoners. Czech is not saved and Bach thus made exile Karel Havlíček Borovský. In 1859, the fall of the Bach ministry opens the way at one period of relative liberalization in the empire and easier assertion of the Czech identity. A law on the right of association is voted in 1860, which involves a rapid development of community life. In Bohemia, the number of associations passes from 466 to: 4476 between 1856 and 1876.

These conditions facilitate the creation of Sokol in 1862: This creation is the fruit of the meeting between two men: Tyrš and Jindřich Fügner, a German merchant of Prague, in favor of the Czech cause (at the point to have slavisé its first name of Heindrich in Jindřich). They met at Bartelmus, the German industrialist of the children of which Tyrš was tax collector. Sides of Tyrš the inspirer, it will play the part of the “realizer and man of action”.

Czech national rebirth

History

Beginnings at 1915: a fast development

Beginnings of Sokol

The creation of first Sokol takes place in Prague the February 16th 1862. It is called then gymnic Union of Prague and will take the title of Sokol only later. Thanks to the joint action of Tyrš and Fügner and with the networks of this last, association gains the sympathy of a high part of the Czech company:

The elite gives. Moral support of high ranking authorities like Purkyně and Palacký, direct Contest of Charles Maydl, professor at the university, surgeon of universal fame, the Frankenberger laryngologist, of Skuherksý, politicians, lawyers, writers such as professor Tonner, Eduard Grégr, Jules Grégr, Thomas Černý, who became later mayor of Prague, Emanuel Engel, appointed, and hundred others| the Gazette of Prague , special issue devoted to Sokols, 1938

The development is fast as of the first years. Three years after their creation, the sokols are: 2000 and one female association is created as of 1869, the Company of the women and the young girls of Prague.

1860-1870: internal development, militarization and problems

In 1871, they count already more: 10000 members in 120 units. Sokols extend initially in Moravie and in current the Slovenia. As Slovakia, association does not have the right to be established. While developing, it recruits largely in the popular classes.

Very controlled and threatened of closing in 1866, the movement can continue its action while beginning, because of war between the Prussia and the Austria, to introduce education prémilitaire into the movement of Sokols, namely to transform the units of Sokols into “sporting military detachments”. Thereafter, the authorities will continue to supervise Sokol, not preventing this last from seeing growing its size and its prestige. The fast rise of association worries the empire and, in 1873, the type-setter František Kmoch sees himself withdrawing his station of teaching because of his too great sympathy with the movement. In the same way, the Cs slet (gathering of mass) envisaged for 1888 is finally prohibited by the authorities. This even militarist military aspect will re-appear on several occasions in the history of the Sokol movement.

The militarization of the movement creates movements in association and of the political factions are formed between the members. Jindřich Fügner intervened and the whole of the direction of Sokol must resign. It is replaced by a committee independent of the political parties, encouraged to respect the words of Fügner: “let us be a community plain and not divided by political divergences or nuns”. These historical links are often proposed like explanation of the Czech Francophilie; the Czech translation “ Cs frankofilství ” appears for the first time in 1895, in a writing of Sokol.

In the years 1890, several reforms are installation in the methods of Sokol, aiming at centering them more on the training that on the performance. Programs for the children, the teenagers and the women are created and constructions of libraries are encouraged. To bring the masses to the nationalist ideology and to deepen into force the egalitarianism in association are the proposed objectives. The voted resolutions on July 7th, 1895 illustrate these choices.

From 1900 to 1915: return to magnifiées values

The movement organizes and solidifies gradually its current form: in 1904, the whole of the local sokols are joined together in the Czech community of Sokol (ČOS) and the organization is clarified: each local section is autonomous under the control of the regional unions and those under the control of the ČOS.

Success involves competition quickly: 1908 see the creation of the Cs Orel , an organization Catholique of physical education, on the same model as Sokol, by the party Christian-Socialist.

In parallel the parties divide more and more and Sokol does not escape the movement: rise of the social democrat party and the agrarian party led to the creation of other rival movements of Sokols: The social democrats create the Cs Dělnická tělovýchovná jednota or DTJ (Club of gymnastics of the workers). The majority of the members of Sokol close to its ideas joined it while Sokol is radicalized: according to the decline of the Left the Young Czechs, the majority of the leaders of Sokol approach the Cs Česká strana národně sociální (Left national Czech Socialist). Vis-a-vis the new competition, Josef Scheiner, president of the association of Sokol, chooses to reaffirm the nationalist line: several leaders whose Scheiner, criticize the qualified social democrats of “German” or “Jews”, traitors with the Czech cause.

The fifth Cs Slet , organized in 1907, insists on the Panslavisme and puts at the honor delegations of various Slavic countries. The levelling ideas are attenuated and the proposed competition. It allows finally the creation of the federation of Sokols Slavic, influenced by the ideas panslaves.

The Cs Slet of 1912 is also very militarist and constitutes the first Cs Slet only panslave ( Cs Všeslovanský slet ). Revealing of the militarist atmosphere, Augustin Očenášek, a member of Sokol, notices as follows:

When the thunder thunders and that the nations rise to defend their existence, that the cries of the battle come from Sokols.

However some measurements moderate this evolution: the congress of the association of Sokols of 1910 reaffirms the intention of Sokol to remain “out of the policy” and facilitates adhesion in Sokol, letting adhere the Social democrats. In the same way, the women obtain the right to take part in the exercises of group of the Cs Slet as of 1901 and a resolution is voted on May 10th, 1914 to make it possible to the women to join as a full member Sokol.

As of 1914, the Czech Légions take a big part with the combat on the side of the allied military powers (Milan Rastislav Štefánik or Tomáš Masaryk, future first Czechoslovakian president are committed there). To a large extent, they are made up the old ones of Sokol and take again the vocabulary of the movement, being greeted by same the Cs Na zdar! . A Czech company is created and affublée of the nickname “Nazdar Company! ”. Among soldiers, Sokol east intimate associated with the fatherland: the Commander Procházka declared thus that, “for all the Czechoslovakian legionaries, Sokols were the image of the family and the fatherland”.

The end of the war and the creation of the Czechoslovakia allow the official revival of the movement and the continuation of its expansion. Sokol and its members play an important role in the creation of the Czechoslovakian State. They ensure the maintenance of law and order in the first moments of the new country and Joseph Scheiner, chief of Sokols is named supreme commander of the army by the provisional government while Tomáš Masaryk, first Czechoslovakian president, is old of Sokol.

In 1921, Sokol installs its head office in superb the Palais Michna ( Michnův palác ) which becomes more simply and more democratically the house Tyrš ( Tyršův dům ). The local clubs multiply everywhere and are the incarnation of the new country. For Daniel Essertier, “the house of Sokols, it is the temple of the Fatherland”. In these years of inter-war period, the words of Tyrš take flesh: “Each Czech is Sokol. The Sokol movement is then prohibited third once in 1948. Sokol is absorbed by the system of “plain physical education” and two official youth movements take the continuation: The Pionýr (Young Pioneers for the children from 8 to 15 years) and the ČSM (Union of Czechoslovakian youth for the young people from 15 to 25 years). These movements are placed in the continuity of the sokols and the communist authorities of Czechoslovakia organize, every 5 years, as from 1955, a Spartakiade, commnunist equivalent of the Slety sokols.

In 1968, the Printemps of Prague allows a short re-creation of Sokol but the standardization which follows met fine a rapid to the attempt.

Sokol today

Marked by successive prohibitions, Sokol plays today a less part in Czech Republic than at last century. Moreover its patriotic ideals are probably less attracting for the Czechs today, independence being acquired. The Czech Community of Sokol (CTS) remains however an important movement and gathers approximately: 1100 units and: 190000 members. It organizes the practice of 57 sports and influenced much the expansion of the race Terry Fox as a Czech Republic. The country counts from now on candidates as many as the Canada where the race was born.

The Cs Slet , gathering of mass

The Cs Slet , gathering in mass of the gymnastes, is probably the most impressive aspect of the Sokol movement. The Czech word Cs slet ( Cs slety in the plural) means “cloud of birds”, which illustrates the size of these gatherings of mass. Held with irregular intervals, they gathered until more: 500000 people. In a stage like the Stage of Strahov in Prague, of tens of thousands of participants overall exercises with regulated choreography carry out. There still, the nation is in the center, like illustrates it this quotation:

It is also a poem which the allegorical scene of Sokols which will put in full light the results of rhythmic education. The allegory it is the topic eternal of the native ground, liked, coveted, attacked, defended, saved and more passionately still liked for blood and the tears which it cost the allegory of Sokols is the symbol even of their role in the nation: they link, they reconcile, they unceasingly turn all the glances towards the only reality which counts: the Fatherland||French review of Prague, p. 144 and 146 1938

As the remainder of the activities of Sokol, these exercises of group are not the only components of the Slet ; Czech art and the culture also have their place there, always with a patriotic dimension. In 1882: 1552 members of Sokol ravel in folk costume in the streets of Prague with 57 standards. In 1907, it is in Moravian traditional costumes. However this dimension does not prevent the presence from abroad sympathizers of the movement who ravel starting from the second Cs Slet of 1891. It is in fact about a delegation of French gymnastes, answer to the presence of a delegation sokole to the World Fair of Paris of 1889.

The Czech presidents regularly posted their sympathy towards the Sokol movement, while attending different the Cs Slety : Tomáš Masaryk in 1920 and 1926, Edvard Beneš in 1938, Vaclav Havel in 1994, Vaclav Klaus in 2006.

International expansion

The development of Sokol abroad takes part of two distinct phenomena:

In the Slavic countries, it is an expression of the Panslavisme;
In the rest of the world, it often plays the part of “Czech place of sociability”.

These two phenomena can be expressed together in the same country, in particular in the Slavic countries.

Slavic countries

In second half of the 19th century the ideas of the Panslavisme have the wheel in motion and Sokol is asserted some; the first congress panslave meets in Prague in 1848. These ideas facilitate the diffusion of the Sokol model in the other Slavic countries, in particular by Czechs installed in these countries like August Šenoa, Croatian writer and mayor of Zagreb, born in a tchéquo-Germanic family. In 1874, association Cs Česka Beseda (Czech World) is founded in Zagreb. She develops quickly, creating units sokoles through the country.

This Croatian example is followed in Poland (creation of the pl Sokół ), Slovenia, Serbia, Ukraine (Sokil), Macedonia, Russia, etc the ideas defended by Sokols remain the same ones and, for example, the Yugoslav sokols take an active share with the foundation of the Partisans Yugoslavians during the Second world war.

The song Cs Hej, Slováci ( He, Slavic ), work of Samuel Tomášik in the honor of the Slavic people and anthem of the panslavism, is taken again as official anthem by Sokol where it becomes the Cs Hej, Sokolici .

The sokol like Czech “place of sociability”

In the countries with Czech minorities, Sokol also develops, making it possible to the Czechs to have a meeting place. For Jean-Philippe Namont who is based on the study of Sokol of Paris, Sokol abroad played the part of “place of sociability”. The role is the same one in Vienna according to Monika Glettler.

The example of Yorkville (Manhattan) is revealing of this phenomenon: this district of New York then accommodates many Czech emigrants, in particular on the in Bohemian Boulevard (the 72e street). Quickly, two in Sokol halls are born in the surroundings (67e and 73e streets). In the same way, in Little Bohemia} '' with [[Omaha (Nebraska) Omaha]] in [[Nebraska]] the account in approximately 1920 {{formatnum: 3500}} emigrated Czech and four sokolsCe paragraph is built to some extent starting from the local articles of English Wikipedia: [[: in: Little Bohemia (Omaha, Nebraska) Little Bohemia]] and [[: in: Yorkville (Manhattan) Yorkville]] . One counts, today, 44 sokols in [[North America]] {{in}} [http://www.sokolgreatercleveland.org/WhatisSokol/Sokol.htm Site of Sokol de Greater Cleveland] and Sokol of Paris is always active. Until obtaining Czechoslovakian independence in 1918, Sokols abroad are often used as political platform to convince Czech and foreigners of legitimated combat for independence. Thus in 1898 the two Czech companies of ParisOutre Sokol existed Beseda publish a memorandum of four texts which denounce police repression against the Czech nationalists or depict the “fight of Bohemia against Pan-Germanism. ” '' Mémorandum published by the two Czech companies of Paris: Beseda and Sokol '', Paris, 48 pages, included in {{pdf}} '' [http://www.ens.fr/europecentrale/XfichesSTOCK/Namont2002_art.pdf Sokol of Paris, place of sociability of Czechoslovakian in France between 1892 and 1948] '', Jean-Philippe Namont, July 2002. Under the Nazism or Communism, the foreign sokols preserve this role of platform of opposition. Thus, in 1948, Sokol of Paris breaks its bonds with the Czech federation of Sokol, cored “by the elements subversive of the new Communist government, itself with the pay of a foreign power”, it [[Union of the Soviet socialist republics the USSR]] '' Sokol of Paris, Hundred years of free-Czechoslovakian friendship, 1862-1962 '', Henri Chaloupek, 1962, p. 44-56. == Annexes == === Notes and references === {{References columns = 2}} === Bibliography === * {{periodic Fr}} {{titer=Les ideas of Miroslav Tyrš auteur=Monic Malfitano revue=La Re-examined French of Prague no=50000025 date= May 1926 pages=34-50}} * {{periodic Fr}} {{titer=Un French glance on the sokols auteur=Daniel Essertier revue=La Re-examined French of Prague no=17000079 date= March 1938 pages=133-147}} * {{in}} {{work titer=The Sokol in the Czech Lands to 1914: Training for the Nation auteur=Claire E. Nolte éditeur=Palgrave Macmillan année=2002 lang=en}} * {{of}} {{work titer=Sokol und Arbeiterturnvereine [D.T.J.] der Wiener Tschechen (a) 1914 auteur=Monika Glettler éditeur=Oldenbourg année=1970 pages=116 lang=de}} * {{of}} {{work titer=Die slawische Sokolbewegung. Beiträge zur Geschichte von Sport und Nationalismus in Osteuropa auteur=Diethelm Blecking lieu=Dortmund éditeur=Veröffentlichungen der Forschungsstelle Ostmitteleuropa year der Universität Dortmund année=1991 pages=255 isbn=3-923293-32-1 lang=de}} === to go === further {{commons Sokol}} {{wiktionary sokol}} ==== related Articles ==== * [[Czech national Rebirth]] ==== external Bonds ==== * {{Cs}} {{in}} [http://www.sokol-cos.cz the site of the association of the Czech sokols] * {{Fr}} '' [http://www.radio.cz/fr/article/24261 the 140 {{E}} birthday of gymnic association Czech Sokol] '', '' [[Radio operator Prague]] '', February 20th, 2002 * {{Fr}} [http://www.bwise2.com/sokol/histoire.htm History of Sokol of Paris] * {{Cs}} {{in}} [historical http://sechtl-vosecek.ucw.cz/cml/dir/sokol.html Photographs of the Sokol movement and Slety] {{Good article vote=BA oldid=20705989 date= September 17th, 2007}} {{Article potentially of quality oldid=22560761 date= November 4th, 2007}} {{Multi stringcourse Gate Tchéquie Gate Sport Gate history}} [[Category: History of Tchéquie]] [[Category: Sport in Czechoslovakia]] [[Category: Gymnastics]] [[Category: Nationalism]] [[Category: Sport as a Czech Republic]] [[Cs: Sokol (spolek)]] [[of: Sokol (Turnbewegung)]] [[in: Sokol]] [[pl: Polskie Towarzystwo Gimnastyczne "Sokół"]] [[Ru: Сокольскоедвижение]] [[SSL: Sokol (društvo)]] [[the U.K.: Сокіл (товариство)

Random links: