Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.Join Britannica's Publishing Partner Program and our community of experts to gain a global audience for your work!
Sokol, (Czech: “Hawk,” or “Falcon”), gymnastic society, originating in Prague in 1862 to develop strength, litheness, alertness, and courage. Originally patterned after the German turnverein, the Sokol traditionally emphasized mass calisthenics as a means of promoting communal spirit and physical fitness. Banned during the Nazi occupation, the Sokol movement was revived in 1945 but was proscribed again in 1948 by communist leaders because of its identification with Czech nationalism. The movement was reborn after the decline of communist influence in the early 1990s. In 1994 the first mass meetings since the 1948 ban were held in Prague, with more than 20,000 participants.
Offshoots of the original society formed by émigrés—such as the American Sokol (founded 1865), later known as the American Sokol Educational and Physical Culture Organization (Czech), and Sokol U.S.A. (Slovak)—combine gymnastics and physical education with social, educational, and communal activities.
Learn More in these related Britannica articles:
physical culture: Humanism and national revivalsOther burgeoning movements included the Sokol (“Falcon”), founded in 1862 to foster a Czech national awakening, and the Polish Falcons (1867), which had similar aspirations. These kinds of cultural groups often sponsored national dances, songs, language revivals, and traditional athletic contests. The Gaelic Athletic Association closely coincided with the Irish…
gymnastics: History(A similar movement, the Sokol, originated and spread in Bohemia and was also transported to the United States.) By 1861 American Turners and Turners from Germanic regions bordering Prussia attended the second
Turnfestin Berlin. By the time of the first modern Olympics in Athens in 1896, eight Turnfests…
turnvereinSimilar organizations, called Sokols (
seeSokol), formed in Bohemia (modern Czech Republic) in the 1860s, emphasized social and communal unity rather than nationalism.…