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Choosing Czech Identity in Nineteenth-Century Prague: the Case of Jindřich Fügner

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Claire E. Nolte
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Jindřich (Heinrich) Fügner played a significant role in the evolution of Czech national culture in the nineteenth century. As the first President, or starosta, of the Sokol (Falcon), the Czech gymnastic club that was modeled on the older German Turnverein movement, he worked together with the club's Gymnastic Director, Miroslav Tyrš, to build the foundations of the most successful Czech nationalist organization of the nineteenth century. A prominent and respected figure in the society of mid-century Prague, he was also somewhat of an anomaly, a German businessman who abandoned the status that his wealth and national origin conferred to cross-over to a Czech identity. Although such conversions evoke images of “national promiscuity” or “national transvestitism” in the modern world, where national identity is viewed as inevitable, they were not uncommon in nineteenth-century Prague, and Fügner's choice was unusual only because it was not motivated by a desire for social advancement or economic opportunity. Rather, in a world where political expression was limited, it appears as a statement of personal values and ideological conviction whose motives must be sought not in material concerns, rather in the more abstract regions of the soul.

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Articles
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Nationalities Papers , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , March 1996 , pp. 51 - 62
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Copyright © 1996 Association for the Study of Nationalities of Eastern Europe and ex-USSR, Inc. 

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References

Notes

1. The term “national promiscuity” appears in Křen, Jan, Konfliktní společenství: Češi a Němci 1780-1918 [Community of Conflict: Czechs and Germans 1780-1918] (Prague: Academia, 1990), pp. 101. I am indebted to Roman Szporluk for the phrase “national transvestite.”Google Scholar

2. Moravia remained largely agrarian, and industrialization in the small Silesian province tended to tip the ethnic balance away from both Germans and Czechs in favor of newly arrived Poles.Google Scholar

3. Cohen, Gary, The Politics of Ethnic Survival: Germans in Prague, 1861-1914 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1981), pp. 20, 92.Google Scholar

4. Hroch, Miroslav has divided the national movements of the small nations of Europe into three phases: (A) a time of scholarly interest, (B) a period of patriotic agitation; and (C) the rise of a mass national movement, and sees 1848 as the turning point between phase B and C in the Czech case. Miroslav Hroch, Social Preconditions of National Revival in Europe: a comparative analysis of the social composition of patriotic groups among the smaller European nations, trans. Ben Fowkes (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985) pp. 23, 44.Google Scholar

5. The early years of the Sokol are examined in Claire E. Nolte, “Training for national maturity: Miroslav Tyrš and the Origins of the Czech Sokol, 1862-1884” (PhD dissertation, Columbia University, New York, 1990).Google Scholar

6. Karolina Syětlá, “Jindřich Fügner v mé paměti” [Jindřich Fügner in my recollection], in Čech, Švatopluk et al., eds, Za praporem sokolským [Under the Sokol Flag] (Prague: Alois Wiesner, 1887) p. 16.Google Scholar

7. Václav Červinka, U kolébky Sokola [At the cradle of the Sokol] (Prague: Šolc & Šimaček, n.d. [1920]), p. 34.Google Scholar

8. There are several biographical sources for Fügner. After Fügner's death, Tyrš wrote an overview of his life for a Sokol club lecture that was later published. Miroslav Tyrš, “Jindřich Fügner, nárys života, zjevu a povahy” [Jindřich Fügner, a sketch of his life, appearance, and character], Sokol: časopis věnovaný zájmum těločvicným [Sokol: Journal Dedicated to Gymnastic Interests] 1883: pp. 2–3, 6, 10–12, 21–23, 30–32. Tyrš's piece covered Fügner's life up to the time of his involvement in the Sokol, and the remainder was chronicled by Josef Müller and published, together with Tyrš's article, on the twentieth anniversary of Fügner's death in Jindřich Fügner, nástin jeho života a působen' [Jindřich Fügner, an Outline of His Life and Work] (Prague: Sokol pražsky, 1885). Tyrš also wrote an entry on Fügner for the Rieger encyclopedia in 1873, and Emanuel Tonner wrote a biographical sketch for the Prague Sokol's twentieth anniversary album. “Fügner,” Riegrův slovník naučný, 10: p. 206; and Emanuel Tonner, “Jindřich Fügner,” Památník vydaný na oslavu dvacetiletého trvání těloevičné jednoty Sokola Pražského [Album Published in Honor of the Gymnastic Club Prague Sokol] (Prague: Sokol pražsky, 1883) pp. 3-13. In addition, his daughter published her childhood memories of him and two more biographies appeared in the 1930s. Renata Tyršová, Jindřich Fügner: paměti a vzpomínky na mého otce [Jindřich Fügner: memories and reminiscences of my father] (Prague: Český čtenář, 1927); Josef Bartoš, Jindřich Fügner (Brno: Moravský legionář, 1934); and Ladislav Jandásek, Sokolství Jindřicha Fügnera [The Sokol Spirit of Jindřich Fügner] (Brno: Moravský legionář, 1933).Google Scholar

9. Svétlá, “Fügner,” p. 15. Fügner's daughter discusses the possible Czech forebears of the Fügner family in Tyršová, Fügner, 1: p. 9.Google Scholar

10. Světlá, “Fügner,” p. 16. Because of this, some biographers have concluded that Fügner was unhappy in his business career, but Tonner claims that he found it satisfying. Bartoš, Fügner, p. 21; Tyrš, “Fügner,” p. 6; and Tonner, “Fügner,” p. 6.Google Scholar

11. Kant's Critique of Pure Reason had been placed on the Index in 1827 and Austrian conservatives shunned his work. Fügner gave his little daughter, Renata, who had been named in honor of René Descartes, a medallion inscribed with Kant's admonition “Sapere aude!” Tyršová, Fügner, 1: pp. 51–52; and Johnston, William M., The Austrian Mind: an intellectual and social history, 1848-1938 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972), p. 285. Fügner's engraving of George Washington is in Stární muzeum tělesné vychový a sportu v Praze, oddělení archivní dokumentace [Archive of the State Museum of Physical Education and Sport in Prague, or MTVS], Fügner Papers, Folder 103. His feelings about America are discussed in Bartoš, Fügner, p. 39.Google Scholar

12. A letter of appreciation for his services as an Oberleutnant in the Fifth Battalion, Eighth Company of the National Guard is in MTVS, Fügner Papers, Folder 55.Google Scholar

13. The constitution was never enacted and was withdrawn in January 1851.Google Scholar

14. This correspondence is collected in Othmar Feyl, “Die Entwicklung des Sokolgründers Heinrich Fügner im Lichte seiner Prager Briefe an den Böhmendeutschen Konservativen Joseph Alexander von Helfert in den Jahren 1848 bis 1865,” in Deutsch-Slawische Wechselseitigkeit in sieben Jahrhunterten: Gesammelte Aufsätze (Berlin: Akademie, 1956), pp. 517–578.Google Scholar

15. Helfert grew up in Prague and became a professor of Roman and church law at the University of Lemberg. A political conservative, he was also, like Fügner, a Bohemian patriot who was interested in Czech history and gave the son that Mina bore him shortly before she died the Czech name “Zdeněk.” Zdeněk Helfert, according to his cousin, Renata Tyršová, later became a Czech nationalist. Tyršová, Fügner, 2: p. 50.Google Scholar

16. The company was Nuova Societa Commerciale d'Assecurazioni. Fügner's request for assistance to gain this position is: J. Fügner to J. A. Helfert, 25 February 1853, in Feyl, “Die Entwicklung Fügner,” p. 547.Google Scholar

17. The Liebigs were distantly related to Fügner's mother and his father wanted him to use the relationship to further the family business in Prague. Some of the Liebigs hoped he would marry into their family. Tyršová, Fügner, 1: p. 33.Google Scholar

18. Bartoš, Fügner, p. 120.Google Scholar

19. Fügner's role in this body is discussed in Tyrš, “Fügner” (Sokol), p. 31; Tonner, “Fügner,” p. 9; and “Životopis Jindřicha Fügnera (vyňato z ’Národu‘)” [Biography of Jindřich Fügner (excerpted from “The Nation”)], in Sokol ápomínka všem Sokolům a jich přátelum k třetímu veřejnému cvičení Sokola pražského [Sokol: a souvenir for all true Sokols and their friends in remembrance of the third public exercising display of the Prague Sokol], comp. Karel Bohuš Kober (Prague: Kober, 1867), p. 10. Fügner never gave any speeches while serving on the Town Council, disliked politics, and, according to his daughter, “got angry with the philistines in City Hall.” Tyršová, Fügner, 1: p. 127.Google Scholar

20. Active in 1848, Barák retained his radical sentiments and was often at odds with the authorities. Fügner sent money to him anonymously. Tyršová, Fügner, 1: p. 81.Google Scholar

21. Tyršová, Fügner, 1: pp. 127–135; and Jandásek, Sokolství Fügnera, pp. 31–32.Google Scholar

22. The attempts of this group to converse in Czech are described in Tyršová, Fügner, 1: pp. 128–129, 136-137. Kateřina Fügnerová, who had spoken Czech with some of her relatives as a child, was more comfortable with the language than her husband. Fügner encouraged his daughter to learn Czech, and letters she wrote him in Czech in 1861 and 1862 are in MTVS, Fügner Papers, Folder 19.Google Scholar

23. Fügner liked “Hynko” because he could sign his name “H. Fügner” in a bilingual sense. He started using “Jindřich” in 1862. Tyršová, Fügner, 1: p. 125.Google Scholar

24. Karolina Světlá recalled how her family moved into a different social circle after declaring themselves in support of the Czech cause in 1848. Světlá, “Fügner,” p. 16Google Scholar

25. Despite their established usage in the German lands, these practices were not readily accepted in the more conservative society of Bohemia. Many both inside and outside the club agreed with the assessment of a police report: “In Vereine selbst ist das republikanische Prinzip eingeführt sich ‘Du’ zu nennen, und es macht sich possierlich wenn der Schüler seinen Professor mit ’Du‘ anspricht, und ebenso von ihm angeredet wird” [emphasis in original]. Státní ústřední archiv v Praze [State central archives in Prague, or SÚA], Collection of the Governor's Office [Presidium místodržitelství, or PM], Police Report, 20 July 1862, PM 8/5/20/2/1862/No. 1588.Google Scholar

26. Tyršová, Fügner, 2: pp. 27–28. Fügner's popularity in the club is analyzed in Jandásek, Sokolství Pügnera, pp. 72–74.Google Scholar

27. [Emphasis in original] The proclamation, dated May 14, 1862, is quoted in Jandásek, Sokolství Fügnera, p. 70.Google Scholar

28. Letter dated 4 July 1862, quoted in Jandásek, Sokolství Fügnera, p. 90.Google Scholar

29. German liberal theorists wanted to “deproletarianize” the working class and transform them into a “workers' estate” (Arbeiterstand). Thomas Nipperdey, “Verein als soziale Struktur im späten 18. und frühen 19. Jahrhundert,” Geschichtswissenschaft und Vereinswesen im 19. Jahrhundert, by Hartmut Boockman et al. (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck Ruprecht, 1972) p. 21. The importance of nationalist activity in helping the lower classes gain confidence is stressed in Chlebowczyk, Józef, On Small and Young Nations in Europe: nation-forming processes in ethnic borderlands in East-Central Europe (Wroclaw: Zakład Narodowy Imienia Ossolinskich Wydawnictwo Polskiej Akademii Nauk, 1980) p. 149.Google Scholar

30. J. Fügner to J. A. Helfert, 20 April 1862, in Feyl, “Die Entwicklung Fügner,” p. 571. The reference to the Hussite general Jan Žizka illustrates how the Hussites had become a popular symbol of the Czech national struggle with the regime at this time. Fügner's daughter attempted to discredit this letter by claiming that her father would not have discussed his commitment to Czech nationalism with a narrow-minded Habsburg bureaucrat like Helfert. Tyršová, Renata, Miroslav Tyrš, jeho osobnost a dílo [Miroslav Tyrš: his personality and his work] (Prague: Český čtenář, 1932), 1: p. 41.Google Scholar

31. “První Šibřinky” [The First Šibřinky], Památník Sokola pražského, pp. 89–93; and Tyršová, Fügner, 2: pp. 127-134. On the popularity of masked balls at this time, see Johnston, Austrian Mind, p. 131.Google Scholar

32. The Sokol Music Group was formed in the summer of 1862, after the police had banned drums on Sokol outings, to provide processional and interlude music for club events. Fügner hired the conductor, purchased the instruments, and selected the program for the group's first concert in October 1862. Although the group appeared occasionally at Sokol events and private functions, Fügner's ambitions for it were never realized. Burdened by mounting debts and harassed by the police, who regarded it as an illegal expansion of the club's constitutionally mandated activities, the Sokol Music Group disbanded at the end of 1863. The group's history is chronicled in Václav Černý, “Hudební sbor Sokol” [The Sokol music ensemble], Památník Sokola pražského, pp. 66–67. Material on the group is in SÚA, Prague Sokol Collection, Box 43. See also, Tyršová, Fügner, 2: pp. 37–39.Google Scholar

33. Červinka, U kolebky, pp. 22–23; and Josef Müller, “Sokol v sále u Apolla” [The Sokol in Apollo Hall], Památník Sokola pražského, p. 56.Google Scholar

34. A history of the club uniform, including drawings of Mánes's original proposals, is Ferdinand Tallowitz, “Dějiny kroje sokolského” [A history of the Sokol uniform], Památník Sokola pražského, pp. 180–187. See also, Miroslav Tyrš, “K dějinámi kroje sokolského” [About the history of the Sokol uniform], Sokol (1874): pp. 111-112. According to one account, Mánes never attended any club meetings and his designs were impractical for gymnastic use. Červinka, U kolebky, p. 21.Google Scholar

35. The police report on this Assembly noted that Fügner's “auffallend schlechtes böhmisch mit seltener Duldung angehšrt worden war, …” Addendum to Police Report, 11 April 1862, SÚA, PM 8/5/20/2/1862/No. 861.Google Scholar

36. Fügner purchased land in the New Town area of Prague and made an agreement with the club whereby he owned the building, which would include a large apartment for him and his family, and leased space to the club for a percentage of the dues income. Jaroslav Marek, “Vývoj a obsah tělovýchovné činnosti Sokola v letech 1862-1871” [The development and content of the physical training work of the Sokol in the years 1862-1871], Acta universitatis carolinae, gymnica 1967, 2: p. 92.Google Scholar

37. A description of the new hall, including photographs and floor plans, is A. V. Prager, “Tělocvična Sokola pražského” [The training hall of the Prague Sokol], Památník Sokola Pražského, pp. 78–83.Google Scholar

38. Tyršová, Tyrš, 1: p. 55.Google Scholar

39. His brother died in a mental hospital in 1862, both his parents died in 1863, and Julie died in 1865.Google Scholar

40. The funeral is described in Josef Müller, “ámrtí Fügnerovo” [Fügner's death], Památník Sokola pražského, pp. 94–99; and “ápomínky na J. Fügnera (z Národu),” pp. 14–15.Google Scholar

41. This problem is explored in Křen, Konfliktn' společenstv', pp. 36, 38, 482.Google Scholar

42. Ibid., pp. 59–60.Google Scholar

43. Ibid., pp. 36, 60.Google Scholar

44. This criticism was leveled at the Prague contingent at a Congress of Germans from Bohemia held in Teplice in August 1848, because they had boycotted the elections to the Frankfurt Parliament. Jan Havránek, “The Development of Czech Nationalism,” Austrian History Yearbook 1967, 3(2): p. 235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

45. Tyršová, Fügner, 1: p. 19. Fügner updated a comment made by Count Thun in his 1845 book, Der Slavismus in Böhmen: “Ich werde weder ein Čeche noch ein Deutscher, sondern nur ein Böhme.” Quoted in Masaryk, Tomáš Garrigue, Česká otázka: snahy a tužby národního obrození [The Czech Question: struggles and aspirations of the national revival] 2nd edn (Prague: Pokrok, 1908) p. 89.Google Scholar

46. Stölzl, Christoph, Die Ära Bach in Böhmen (Munich: Oldenbourg, 1972) p. 64, n. 4; and Bartoš, Fügner, p. 39.Google Scholar

47. Fügner's prejudice increased in the last year of his life, after his lawsuit against a Viennese newspaper over a report that he had lost his insurance job because of his work for Czech causes failed, leaving him embittered toward the German-Jewish press and the German community which supported it. Some letters on this case are in MTVS, Fügner Papers, uninventoried.Google Scholar

48. The Czech writer Karel Havlicek once remarked that whoever wanted to be a Czech must first stop being a Jew. On this issue, see Křen, Konfliktní společenství, pp. 76, 153.Google Scholar

49. Bartoš, Fügner, p. 44; Světlá, “Fügner,” p. 27; and Křen, Konfliktn' společenstv', p. 105.Google Scholar

50. This is Tyrš's interpretation. Tyrš, “Fügner” (Sokol), p. 31; and Tyrš, “Fügner” (Riegrův slovník naučný), 10: p. 206. Fügner's daughter also emphasized her father's political sentiments in explaining his conversion to a Czech identity. Tyršová, Fügner, p. 27. On the clientage position of Germans toward the regime of the Bach era, see Křen, Konfliktní společenství, p. 142.Google Scholar

51. Public opinion on this issue, compiled by the police in Bohemia at the time, forms the basis of Suppan, Arnold, “Die Haltung der Tschechen und Deutschen Böhmens zum Krieg in Oberitalien 1859,” Bildungsgeschichte, Bevölkerungsgeschichte, Gesellschaftsgeschichte in den böhmischen Ländern und in Europa: Festschrift für Jan Havránek zum 60. Geburtstag (Munich: Oldenbourg, and Vienna: Verlag für Geschichte und Politik, 1988) pp. 191–214. See also, Přehled československých dějin [An Overview of Czechoslovak History] (Prague: Československá academie věd, 1960), 2(1): p. 149.Google Scholar

52. This assertion is made in Feyl, “Die Entwicklung Fügner,” p. 515. See also, Glettler, Monika, Sokol und Arbeiterturnvereine der Wiener Tschechen bis 1914 (Munich: Oldenbourg, 1970) pp. 31–32.Google Scholar