Description

This scarce rayon scarf with a printed map of the Czech Republic and coats of arms, was made at the occasion of the 10^th meeting of the gymnastics organization Sokol in 1938 in Prague. Sokols were a pan-Slavic all-age gymnastics organization first founded in Prague in the Czech region of Austria-Hungary in 1862 by Miroslav Tyrš and Jindřich Fügner. The movement soon expanded all over the Slavic countries.

This last Sokol meeting in Prague, attended by 350,000 Sokols, was held in June 1938, just three months prior to the Munich Agreement, a settlement permitting Nazi Germany‘s annexation of portions of Czechoslovakia. During the Nazi occupation of Bohemia and Moravia Sokols brutally suppressed and banned.

See the movie of the opening of the 10th Sokol meeting in Prague here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqeGIzW0-Dc