A Club of Brothers: the Birth of the Sokol

Abstract

The Sokol was the most successful of the Czech clubs founded in the early 1860s. Unlike the older elitist Czech clubs, such as the Museum Society or the Měšt’anská beseda, these new clubs drew their membership from the petite bourgeoisie and working class, which were aspiring to social advancement and national self-assertion. The ability of the Sokol to win this constituency was due in large part to the universal appeal of its gymnastic training, as one observer recalled:

Of course, we had other national clubs, such as the Matice, Museum Society, etc., but they were only scholarly and not understood by the majority of people… The Sokol concept, accessible and comprehensible to the masses, fell like a spark into a slumbering Czech society.¹