Abstract
For the German Gymnastic Association (Deutscher Turnverband), which acted in the Czechoslovak Republic between 1919 and 1938, the World War I presented the key event in the history. According to the official notion in the association, the united German nation achieved heroic victories, but at the end it was defeated and enslaved due to machinations of Jews and Bolsheviks.
This obligatory image of the war was multiplied with the aid of the periodical, war-novels, iconography and festivities. The aim was to spread the hate against the supposed enemies of the German nation and to make the gymnasts disposed to the new fight.
Some gymnastic organisation from Austria and Germany had the same "Weltanschauung" like the Germany Gymnastic Association and they aimed to inculcate their members with the nationalistic and racial perception of the World War I as well. However, in all these gymnastic organisations the effectiveness of the strategies for the multiplication of the war-image was not such high as it is usually supposed.