44 The Sokol Hall on Letná

In the age of rising nationalism – that is, from the middle of the 19th century – gymnastics associations were enormously important for the self-determination of individual nations. They looked after not only the physical but also the mental development of their members and led them to patriotism. Several such associations were active in Teplice; the most prominent among them were the Czech Sokol and the German Turnverein.

When the local branch of Sokol was founded in 1894, the Turnverein already had thirty-two years of activity behind it. After all, at that time less than one fifth of the people of Teplice spoke Czech. The two associations naturally competed for prestige, and so, indirectly, for the prestige of their nations. Their gymnasiums had to match this. In 1902 the Sokol members converted the former Böhm restaurant in Provaznická Street, today Tyršova Street. That Neo-Renaissance Sokol hall, however, disappeared in 1977 under the embankment of the E55 through road. On the other hand, the splendid Art Nouveau gymnasium (Neue Turnhalle) on Letná, built by the German gymnastics association in 1909, is still in use today.

Between the wars, the German Turnverein held a number of congresses in Teplice. The town remembers, for example, the election of 1923, when Konrad Henlein was proposed as rapporteur for youth education. At that time he was a gymnastics instructor in Aš. Over time, however, he worked his way up not only into the leadership of the gymnastics association, but also into political posts. In 1935 he became chairman of the Sudetendeutsche Partei, which pushed through the annexation of the areas with a German majority to Germany.

After 1945 and the expulsion of the German population, the Sokol took over the management of the Neue Turnhalle. Three years later, however, the Sokol members, whom the communist regime was trying to destroy, had to leave it again. Only after the fall of communism could they return to the gymnasium, and they are still active there today.