Healthcare and Physical Education of Children and Youth in Prague 1869-1914.

Marek Waic,Dagmar Pavlů

doi:10.3389/fspor.2020.581285

Abstract

The article focuses on the healthcare and physical education of children and youth in Prague, the capital city of Czech lands, in the period after the Austro-Hungarian compromise of 1867. The legislative framework for children's physical development and healthcare consisted of laws passed by the Imperial Council which were in force throughout the entire region of Cisleithania. Its execution and implementation, however, were the responsibility of the Czech territorial assembly and Prague municipality. The study analyses the environment in which children grew up, the quality of their diet, and their medical care, particularly the activities of school doctors. Further, the text concentrates on the organization and the quality of school physical education. Prague serves as an example of an industrial centre of the Cisleithanian region whose industrial development caused rapid urbanization which limited the possibilities of physical development of children and youth. Until the end of the 19th century, the only possibility of organized exercises was school physical education, and its quality was greatly influenced by the modest spatial conditions of schools. Even at the better-equipped grammar schools, physical education was an optional subject until 1909 and was not taught at most of them at all. As part of the modernization of the empire, the Cisleithanian government supported physical education, also for military reasons. The same was done by the Prague municipality, where care for the physical development and health of children and youth did not become the subject of political disputes.

Highlights

The following study focuses on the Prague municipality’s attention to the health and physical development of children and youth in the context of dynamic industrialization and urbanization and other social changes caused by these historical processes
This article focused on the development of health care and the physical growth of youth in Prague, the metropolis of the Czech lands, in the period after the division of the Habsburg monarchy into the Cisleithanian and Transleithanian regions
The fundamental legislative framework for this agenda was gradually created through laws enacted by the Imperial Council, which were valid throughout the territory West of the Leitha River

Summary

Introduction

The following study focuses on the Prague municipality’s attention to the health and physical development of children and youth in the context of dynamic industrialization and urbanization and other social changes caused by these historical processes. The study pays attention to the development of legislative norms that were valid throughout the Cisleithanian region and which created the legislative framework within which the municipal authorities channeled their efforts. The central power gave the territorial assemblies the power to create legislative norms that could supplement the laws passed by the Imperial Council. The period covered by this study is characteristic of the efforts of the Imperial Council and the Viennese government to modernize the entire Cisleithanian region. The implementation of a specific form of health care and physical development of children and youth was, primarily in the hands of municipal authorities

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