OREL VE STÍNU SOKOLSKÝCH KŘÍDEL: PŘÍSPĚVEK K DĚJINÁM KATOLICKÉ TĚLOVÝCHOVNÉ ORGANIZACE

The paper is concerned with the Orel (Eagle) organization in Moravia and Slovakia. It attempts to place Orel in relation to the Sokol (Falcon) organization of Brno. It looks into fields that have been unjustly neglected up to now. The context of the two important gymnastic organizations, which had a liberating influence on a wide range of people, is an important indicator of pluralism in Czech society. The specific feature of the Orel Christian gymnastic organization lay in the enrichment of sport with a religious element. From the point of view of Orel, sport was the not the aim, but only a means for bringing about the sanctification of people. The Orel organization, with a rich history reaching back to the beginning of the 20th century, can be seen to have fallen under the shadow of the broad national Sokol movement. The original mutual aversion of the two most important gymnastic organizations gradually changed under the influence of the sharpening foreign and internal political situation.