From the Archives Ancient Greece comes to Prague in the summer of 1938
In the early summer of 1938 an unprepared visitor would have found it hard to find a hotel in Prague. Tens of thousands of people from dozens of countries, including Yugoslavia, France and the United States had gathered in the city. This was tenth international gathering of the Sokol movement, which had been founded in Prague back in the 1860s with the idea of using physical exercise to build a sense of patriotism. Sokol took its inspiration from Ancient Greece, but in 1938 the event also had more than a hint of pan-Slav solidarity in the face of an increasingly aggressive Nazi Germany. At the vast Strahov Stadium literally tens of thousands of people engaged in simultaneous gymnastic displays. Czechoslovak radio was there, reporting live on the events as they happened, amid the constant cheers of the crowd in the background.
Edvard Beneš attending the Sokol gathering in 1938
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