1911 The Beginnings Of Woodcraft In Czech and Slovak Lands
The American youth colony
Picture from p. 30 1.–2. The cover of the magazine Věstník. ~z~ STR
Picture from p. 30 3. The American youth colony, Hofmeister sitting in the middle of the bottom row. ~z~ STR
Picture from p. 30 4. The American colony buglers led by the musician Jan Kohoutek. ~z~ STR
Picture from p. 30 5. The musician Jan Kohoutek with the American colony scouts. ~z~ STR
Picture from p. 31 6. A colonist from Rožmitál as the postman. ~z~ STR
Picture from p. 31 7. A regional paper with an article about the colony. ~z~ STR
Picture from p. 31 8.–9. Hofmeister and his scouts on a trip. ~z~ STR
The American youth colony, founded by the teacher Ing. František Hofmeister in Rožmitál pod Třemšínem, Czech Republic, on 14 April 1911, combined a boarding school with American-style scouting. It did include some educational methods adapted from Seton, but lacked other essential elements of woodcrafting – a motivation system based on uniform criteria (honors for coups), and the Indian picturesqueness.
Hofmeister's colony differed from Baden-Powell's scouting in self-government, being non-political, and emphasis on economic self-sufficiency. In 1913, the colony was visited by professor A. B. Svojsík, the founder of the scouting organization Junák ("Scout"). What he came across in Rožmitál did not, naturally, at all resemble Baden-Powell's scouting known to Svojsík from England.
Photographs and an article about the activities of Hofmeister's colony were published in 1913 by the popular paper Vídeňský illustrovaný deník ("Vienna Illustrated"). The activities were also presented in regional press and Věstník ("Bulletin") issued by Hofmeister.
However, scouting got attention in Czech lands mainly thanks to Antonín Svojsík who had issued his book Základy junáctví ("The Basics of Scouting") a year earlier. Svojsík was addressed by those interested in implementing this new education system, and so it comes as no surprise that there was no one else to follow Hofmeister's model. Therefore, his American youth colony was the only attempt to apply American-style scouting, influenced by Seton, in Europe.
From the beginning, Hofmeister had cooperated with the headmen of the organization Obec Psohlavců ("The Dogheads Community") – Miloš Seifert and Jan Hořejší. Shortly after the First Czechoslovak Republic was founded, he tried to involve some scout troops of Obec Psohlavců in his education system, but he was unsuccessful.
Therefore the colony ceased to exist in the beginning of the 1920s.
The tribe Děti Živěny ("Children of Živěna") from Beroun
The first woodcrafter tribe in Europe was founded by secondary school students in the town of Beroun. This happened at a camp on Plešivec near the village of Lochovice on 15 July 1913. It had originally been a scout troop founded on 6 October 1911 by Ferdinand Pakosta, a P.E. teacher, and Miloš Seifert – Vojvoda, a natural science teacher. After Pakosta had quit in June 1912, the leadership position by Seifert's side was gradually occupied by other members of the teaching staff (Miloš Maixner 1912–15, Karel Jirák 1915–16, Josef Vobejda 1916–17, Václav Patera 1917–18) and his wife Antonie (1917–1920).
Picture from p. 32/1.–2. A photo from the summer camp Děti Živěny on Plešivec, 1913. ~a~ MS, ~z~ AW {{{3}}}
Picture from p. 32 3. The emblem of the tribe Děti Živěny. ~a~ MM, ~z~ AA
Picture from p. 32 4. A record from Děti Živěny's chronicle about establishing the tribe 15. 7. 1913. ~a~ MS, ~z~ LA
Picture from p. 32 5. Přátelé přírody ("Friends of Nature"), a student group from Beroun, under the lookout tower Děd, 17. 3. 1912. ~a~ MS, ~z~ LA.
Picture from p. 33 6. Děti Živěny near the town of Zbiroh, 1915. ~z~ SI
Picture from p. 33 7.–8. A photo from the summer camp Děti Živěny near the village of Soběšín, 1914 and 1915. (Both photos have been colorized.) ~a~ MS, ~z~ LA
Picture from p. 33 9. Děti Živěny in Brdy Mountains, 1915. ~z~ LA
Picture from p. 33 10.–11. The student group Přátelé přírody from Beroun on their expeditions, fall 1912. ~a~ MS, ~z~ LA.
Psohlavci – scouts in opposition
The establishment of the scouting district Psohlavci ("Dogheads") under the protection of the organization Záchrana ("Salvage") in fall 1913 kind symbolized the unclarified views on high school youth education. The humanitarian organization Záchrana ("Salvage"), founded in 1909 under the name Ústřední sdružení ženské pro mládež ("Women's Central Alliance for Youth"), had at that time been led by Anna Marie Němcová (1855–1927) – the daughter-in-law of the renowned writer Božena Němcová. This organization offered and provided help and protection to female apprentices, workers, maids and students, as well as to unemployed women. During World War I, Anna passed the leadership of Záchrana on to her daughter Marie Záhořová. In the 1920s, the active organization already owned "the social services palace", a 6-storey building in Prague, and named it "Ženský dům Charlotty G. Masarykové" ("Charlotte Garrigue Masaryk Women's House").
A new scout organization was initiated by three high school teachers in Prague – Jan Hořejší, Emil Pelunka and Bořivoj Müller. It is not known how long Emil Pelunka stuck with Psohlavci, but there are records from 4 December 1913 of the three leaders signing decrees on having passed leader exams together. According to preserved documentation, chronicles and photos, it is clear that at least in the beginning Psohlavci did not differ much from Svojsík's scouts (Junáci). Only the emergence of the Beroun-based troop Děti Živěny brought about new impulses, especially when it comes to emphasis on love for nature by means of the ideas of woodcraft. Although Děti Živěny had friendly contact with the Prague-based Psohlavci from the start, the Beroun-based Psohlavci section was officially formed only two years later as part of the newly founded Obec Psohlavců.
Picture from p. 34 1.–4. Psohlavci camping under the leadership of Jan Hořejší, Tymákov 1913. ~z~ SI
Picture from p. 35 5. The journey of Psohlavci to the campsite was not easy, 1913. ~z~ SI
Picture from p. 35 6. The stamp of Psohlavci, 1913. ~z~ AW
Picture from p. 35 7. The cover of the Psohlavec magazine, 1914. ~a~ JH, ~z~ SI
Picture from p. 36 8. Psohlavci from Prague on a trip, 1914. ~z~ SI
Picture from p. 35 9. Emil Pelunka's troop Psohlavci, 1913. ~z~ SI
Miloš Seifert, Miloš Maixner, František Hofmeister
Picture from p. 36 M. Seifert, 1917. ~z~ RS
Picture from p. 37 LT Walden, 1929. ~z~ AW
Picture from p. 37 M. Maixner, 1920. ~z~ NA
Picture from p. 38 Maixner and the scouts, 1913. ~z~ SI
Picture from p. 39 F. Hofmeister ~z~ STR
Picture from p. 39 Hofmeister and skiers, 1913. ~z~ STR
Picture from p. 40 The patch of Obec Psohlavců, approx. 1920. ~z~ SI
- Miloš František Seifert - Woowotanna
- (* 8. ledna 1887, Sušice – † 3. prosince 1941, Bechyně).
A teacher, naturalist, author, translator and, most importantly, the father of the Czechoslovak woodcraft movement. Besides woodcraft, Seifert promoted healthy lifestyle, vegetarianism, pacifism, buddhism, ecology and environmental protection.
Already in 1911 Seifert founded a scout troop at the secondary school in Beroun together with his colleague Ferdinand Pakosta. They followed the example of professor A. B. Svojsík. A teacher of natural science, he also led the club "Kroužek přátel přírody" ("Friends of Nature"), which involved trips connected with camping and learning about nature. At that time, a wave of interest in the English scout movement also came to the Czech education environment from Germany. Scouting sections emerged also in other schools all over Bohemia.
The Beroun-based troop very soon reverted their attention from Baden-Powell to Seton thanks to Seifert and his colleague Miloš Maixner. Seton – a painter, writer, hunter and naturalist – made a better impression on pacifism-oriented teachers than the soldier Robert Baden-Powell did. In the first half of 1913, Seifert bought The Book of Woodcraft and Two Little Savages, according to which the Beroun-based troop Děti Živěny started to operate as the first woodcreafter tribe on European territory, starting from their summer camp. At the same time in Prague, professor Bořivoj Müller and Seifert's university classmate Jan Hořejší would establish troops of Psohlavci. These soon separated from Svojsík's group and became protected by the organization Záchrana ("Salvage"). Both classmates had kept close contact already from 1907 when they had started issuing a students' magazine Úsvit ("Dawn"). They had done so for three years.
In 1915, scout groups from Prague, Beroun, Příbram, Pilsen, Louny and other places, which had maintained friendly relations, established "Obec Psohlavců" ("The Dogheads Community"), a competitor to Svojsík's scouts. They issued their own magazine Psohlavec printed with the use of hectography. After the upheaval of 1918, some leaders of Obec Psohlavců founded the independent official organization Děti Svobody ("Children of Freedom"). At the beginning of 1919, it was attempted to merge all scout groups into a unified "Svaz Skautů" ("Scouts Association"), but unsuccessfully. In summer already, Obec Psohlavců was renewed and got on with its independent activity.
In June 1919, Miloš Seifert married Antonie Paterová, a teacher and a medic. In September 1919, he went to Dolný Kubín, Slovakia, to teach at a secondary school. Even there, though, Seifert continued with his missionary effort to develop Obec Psohlavců, and founded a section called Horní chlapci ("Upper Boys") led by his student Ján Čaplovič. The emergence of a woodcrafter tribe in Slovakia lead to the modification of the name of Obec Psohlavců at its November rally in Beroun. The new name is Československá obec junácká Psohlavci – Horní chlapci ("Czechoslovak Scouting Community of Dogheads – Upper Boys"). Jan Hořejší, too, was active in Slovakia at the same time. He also established a section in Košice, but incorporated it into the competitor, Svaz skautů. The views of the individual leaders on relations with Svojsík's Svaz skautů began to differ.
During his stay in Slovakia, Seifert began to work on a monumental handbook Přírodou a životem k čistému lidství ("Through Nature and Life to Pure Humanity"), based on Seton's The Book of Woodcraft, that would provide Psohlavci with their own program. Seifert had already known by then how Seton had been removed from the leading position at Boy Scouts of America, and had seen Baden-Powell slowly turn all the attention of the scout movement exclusively to himself. Therefore he wanted to prevent the assimilation of Psohlavci and Svaz skautů at any cost. In 1921 he contacted Seton in writing, whose correspondence and advice were essential for the course that Psohlavci were to take.
In 1922, there was a split in Obec Psohlavců, when one fraction (Hořejší, Pokorný) joined Svaz skautů, whereas the other under Seifert's lead founded the woodcraft organization Zálesácká liga Československá ("Czechoslovak Woodmen's League"), renamed Liga Lesní moudrosti (The Woodcraft League, LLM) a year later. The organization published its own magazine Vatra ("Bonfire") and the bulletin Hlasatel ("Reporter"). Seifert was the organization leader until 1924 when he left and founded Woodcrafterský klub ("Woodcrafters' Club"), later renamed Liga pro výchovu přírodou "Moudrost lesa" ("League for Education by Nature 'Woodcraft'"). He released one issue of the official magazine Lesní moudrost ("Woodcraft"), but later, due to financial difficulties, he had to settle for the bulletin Hlasatel Moudrosti lesa ("Woodcraft Reporter") printed with the use of hectography. From 1927, Jaroslav Šimsa, the contemporary Chief of LLM, would take steps towards uniting woodcraft in Czechoslovakia again. Because of his chronic disease, the unification only took place in fall 1928. Miloš Seifert was elected the Chief of the new Liga československých woodcrafterů ("Czechoslovak Woodcrafters League").
In spring 1931, Miloš Seifert gave up his position of the Chief of The Woodcraft League and held the honorary position of the Totem Guard until his death. He waited for the public acknowledgement of his merits (that he did not end up getting) until 1936 when, on Christmas, Czechoslovakia was visited by Ernest Thompson Seton – the founder of woodcraft himself. Despite that, Seifert never stopped promoting Seton's movement, publishing in press, releasing books and translating tirelessly until his death.
Miloš Seifert died in Bechyně of a brain tumor at the age of 54 on 3 December 1941, during World War II.
- Miloš Maixner
- (* 4. ledna 1873, Praha – † 5. května 1937, Praha)
Maixner came from a well-known Hořice-based branch of artists: his father Petr Maixner (1831–1884) was a painter and restorer, his uncles Karel and Čeněk were artists too, as well as his cousin Jaroslav (a sculptor). This is where not only his inclination to artistic activity, but most likely also his interest in spiritual science had come from. Maixner's interests were, however, much wider, and his life was a colorful mosaic. Let us present at least its main areas here.
Due to family tradition, he had been prepared for a career in art from childhood. After high school graduation (1888) he was prof. F. Sequens's student of religious and historical painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. Here he befriended another student, František Kupka (1871–1957), who later became one of the founders of modern abstract painting, and today he is possibly the most acknowledged Czech painter abroad. Maixner got invited by him to come to Vienna to get education in the years 1894–95 from an extravagant German artist, philosopher and social reformer Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach (1851–1913). There is no doubt that meeting Diefenbach influenced Maixner's future course and efforts to a considerable degree.
Upon return to Bohemia, Maixner began his career in education and paid attention among others to trends in teaching drawing and painting in the education system. For this purpose he undertook a few study trips abroad. In 1910 he passed a state examination for teachers of freehand drawing, and then worked on a handbook for teachers of drawing at high schools (it is not known, however, whether it has ever been published). Nevertheless, one of the subjects that he taught at high school was drawing. In 1910–1912, he was a member of the artist group Umělecké sdružení Sursum associating spiritually oriented artists and writers such as Váchal, Konůpek, Kobliha, etc. A few paintings from his Beroun era have been preserved.
During his first year at the secondary school in Beroun, Maixner's views grew closer to those of his younger colleague Miloš Seifert – aiming at edification of people as well as the entire society with the help of social reforms, the meaning of nature in upbringing, etc. belonged, without doubt, to the main discussion topics. Seifert already had experience with attempts to organize a group of boys as a scout section, and got significant help from September 1912 on, when Maixner also took the lead of this section. They both made contact with the Czech scouting pioneer A. B. Svojsík, studied Baden-Powell's work Scouting for Boys and, at the beginning of 1913, they ordered E.T. Seton's books from abroad. In May 1913 they released Kapesní knížka českých junáků ("Czech Scouts' Pocketbook") together, a brief and practical handbook where they claim: „As far as we are concerned, we look up to E.T. Seton as the true initiator of scouting, the American founder of scout patrols.… And we can also say that the American scout is more free, more genuine, more natural. The American Woodcraft Indians… are more appealing to us thanks to their love for nature…“. Miloš Maixner is the author particularly of the practical part of the handbook.
Maixner's contribution to the Beroun-based tribe Děti Živěny was crucial especially due to his practical approach and dexterity. While Seifert was more of a theoretician, the making of teepees, bows, shields and other camping equipment probably happened only thanks to Maixner back then, who gave it all a specific picturesqueness thanks to his drawing skills and was also the author of the tribal emblem. (from the chronicle of Děti Živěny: „…Prof. Maixner, who can make everything in a nice way, is the busiest… Here, when painting the shields, prof. Maixner got the idea that our tribal emblem should be a land of fire with green rays – the symbol of power and benefit. Apart from that, we painted a swastika on it, and everyone their own totem.…“).
There is no information about Maixner's activities with Děti Živěny in the period of World War I, he probably withdrew due to his illness. The second peak of his interest and involvement dates back to 1918–1919: „After the upheaval, thanks to the efforts of Maixner, Müller, Seifert and other scout workers, the center of Czechoslovak scouting "Děti Svobody" was created, which made it its task to implement Seton's education goals on the basis of the Czech type of a person raised once by nature.… All nation-based contemporary organizations that had emerged on our lands joined Děti Svobody (Děti Živěny, Psohlavci, Děti Žižkovy, etc.)…“. Maixner held the position of the Chief Scout (the Executive).
Děti Svobody were supposed to be the counterweight of the organization Junák – český skaut led by Svojsík. Nevertheless, in the independent republic the voices calling for an unified scouting organization grew louder. Unification really happened in June 1919 when "Svaz junáků – skautů RČS" ("Association of Scouts of the Czechoslovak Republic") was founded (Maixner was a committee member in the position of a Deputy for Education), but this union was short-lived. Already after the holidays of that year, Děti Svobody exited the association, and many leaders including Maixner stopped getting involved in scouting because they were disgusted with the many interpersonal conflicts, the struggle for leading positions, and scheming.
Maixner's legacy may be looked upon from many levels corresponding with his various activities. If we stick to his contribution to Czech woodcraft, we can outline the following as the key impulses in his beginnings:
- emphasis on the nation-oriented nature of the movement and on its moral side,
- emphasis on the practical side ("the thinking hand") which the not-so-practical Seifert was not able to implement in full; the spiritual impulse of the movement was also important.
Not that Miloš Seifert had not been interested in spiritual matters before having met Maixner, but his older colleague's knowledge and insight must have impressed him in this regard. This is because from the spiritual point of view, Seifert spent his life searching, whereas Maixner made a big progress on his journey. There are some surprising common features of their fates, caused by the powers of the Zodiac – they were both stubborn Capricorns who hated injustice, all their actions were intertwined with ethics, they both strove towards their ideals, which brought a premature retirement at the age of fifty-two to one of them, and to the other as early as at forty-six.
Miloš Maixner died in Prague on 5 May 1937.
- František Hofmeister
- (* 2. srpna 1875, Rožmitál – † 8. července 1950, Oslí)
A high school teacher, but mainly a patriot from the Brdy Mountains, who was the first on the Czech lands to work with youth with the use of Seton's methodology.
František Hofmeister graduated from the secondary school in Příbram and studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University in Prague, where he obtained the Engineer (Ing.) degree.
From 1 August 1903 František Hofmeister worked as a substitute professor at the Forestry University in Písek. Hofmeister also spent some time studying in France and getting experience in the USA. The stay in America influenced him a lot. He wondered how he could use the experience for attracting more attention to his native region.
He found an ally in Ferdinand Mašek, the mayor of the town Vodňany. Together they prepared a proposal to open a transport academy to educate postal and railway clerks. The town council accepted the proposal on 11 June 1908. A co-author of the proposal, František Hofmeister was entrusted with the project preparation. The project, however, needed the approval of the imperial-royal governorship in Prague. In 1909, the Vodňany project was abolished because the imperial-royal governor Frenzl refused to approve it.
Hofmeister did not give up though and tried to implement his transport academy project in Příbram. Nevertheless, he failed there too. Only in 1911 he finally managed to found the American youth colony in Rožmitál pod Třemšínem.
On 22 October 1913 František Hofmeister married Marie Černá. In 1915 he had to enlist into the army and go to war. Nothing is known about his activity in the war, but one thing is certain – upon his return from the war, the American youth colony that he had founded and that Marie had led during his absence ended its operation. They had two daughters. Jaroslava, later married as Kmochová, and Irena, later married as Tomsová.
With his American youth colony, Hofmeister had outrun Antonín Benjamín Svojsík, his greatest rival; this has been subject to doubt until today.
František Hofmeister became the Town Secretary at Rožmitál pod Třemšínem and kept serving his municipality. His oldest brother Rudolf Richard had a career as a writer.
František Hofmeister died in Oslí on 8 July 1950, a day after his 75th birthday.
