Abstract
The German Gymnastic Association (Deutscher Turnverband), the largest German gymnastic organisation in the First Czechoslovak Republic, bought a run-down multi-storey building close to Horní Slavkov in 1928. After costly restoration, it was reopened as a lodge, the Jahnheim.
The Jahnheim was meant to be a meeting place for members of various German nationalistic organisations, one where they could work to strengthen their resistance against the Czechoslovak state in an informal atmosphere. This study employs in particular the journal of the German Gymnastic Association to examine, which assumptions the building possessed for fulfilling this ambitious plan and whether the efforts that the German Gymnastic Association invested in the project achieved some results.
We seek to locate this topic in the broader socio-cultural context of the German gymnastic movement as well as in a transnational perspective. Thanks to this the Jahnheim near Horní Slavkov obtains the Central European relevance.