Czech Republic
This worldwide education movement was founded in 1907 by the Englishman, Sir Robert Baden-Powell. In the background printing of his book Scouting for Boys he wrote that scouting is education of a good citizen by way of forest wisdom. Scouting met with a tremendous enthusiasm not only in boys but also in girls, and spread rapidly throughout the world. The first Czech scout boy club was set up in 1911 by Professor A. B. Svojsík. The first girl club of the Czech scout movement Junák was set up in 1915 by Ph Dr. A. Berkovcová. The golden age of the scout movement came after the establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic. It enjoyed a great respect and became a school for numerous personalities, such as J. Wolker, A. Rašín, the academic professor J. Charvát, etc. In 1948 the scouting movement was by force integrated into the Czech Youth Association and after two years liquidated. The Czech scouting movement preserved numerous traditional elements, such as the way of camping, a close relationship to the wildlife, romance, serving the neighbours, traditional uniforms. A completely original element, typical for the Czech scouts, is the tent with a wooden substructure invented at a camp led by J. Půlkrábek in 1913.
A voluntary, non-political civic organisation, without restriction to membership, Junák was founded in 1911 by Antonín Benjamin Svojsík, who, after visiting British Scouts, wanted to establish a similar movement in his homeland. In 1910, inspired by the writings of Baden-Powell, Professor Svojsík wrote Základy junáctví ("The Foundations of Scouting"), the first handbook for Scouts already operating in the Czech lands. In that book, he combined Baden-Powell's system of education; ideas of the American writer, traveller and painter E.T. Seton (founder of Woodcraft); and the traditions of the Czech nation. He followed this with an experimental camp in 1912. The participants walked the entire 200 km distance on foot, and their luggage was brought there on a single large push-cart. In the quickly developing world of Scouting at the time, Junák-Český skaut provided a model to be followed by many other developing national associations.
Scouting in the Czech Republic has a long and distinguished history. The Czechs were third, after the United Kingdom and Chile, to adopt Scouting. The independent organization Junák was established in June 1914, the same year its first Scouting newsletter was issued; the chairman was Dr. D. Klika and the Chief Scout was Professor Svojsík. A month later World War I started and many leaders were called up to fight. In January 1915, the first Girl Scouts were introduced, under the leadership of Vlasta Koseová (formerly Štepánová), and shortly thereafter, a section for Guide Education was established. Dr. Anna Berkovcová became the Chief Guide. The same summer, the first Girl Guide company "Anemones" held a camp on the banks of river Vltava.
In 1918, at the creation of the Czechoslovak Republic, the Czech Scouts offered their services, and helped the established government with many things, they kept patrol over important buildings and sites, but they are best known for their mail delivery service, delivering official mail in Prague. They had their own stamps, the first Scout stamps in the world, which are very rare and valuable today among stamp-collectors. On December 21 1918, "Czech Scout mail" was restored, due to the arrival of President Masaryk from exile. The ranks of Scouting grew rapidly in the new country, and in 1922 a National Scout festival took place in Prague to commemorate 10 years of Scouting. Following the end of World War I, the different associations within Czechoslovakia came together in one united national association, and the Czechoslovakian Scout and Guide Federation was among the charter members of the World Organization of the Scout Movement in 1922, with Professor Svojsík elected to the World Committee.
Before World War II, Junák had the third most members of any Scout Association in Europe, and numbered seventh in the world; by 1936 the number of Scouts in Czechoslovakia was 70,000. Junák bid to host the World Jamboree in 1933. The preparations started in earnest and in 1931 Czech Scouts prepared the "All-Slavonic Jamboree" as the test for the World Jamboree, a successful festival which culminated in a march through Prague and an address by President Masaryk at Prague castle. But in the end the World Jamboree was to take place in Hungary. Czech Scouts participated in all World Jamborees from the first in 1920 through 1937. At the 1937 World Jamboree in Holland, the Junák contingent had 314 members.
Antonín Benjamin Svojsík died on September 17, 1938, and Czech Scouts and Guides unified on January 22, 1939 to found the new association called Junák. The Chief Scout was Dr. Rudolf Plajner and the Chief Guide was Vlasta Koseová. Junák was abolished by force and Scouting prohibited by German State Secretary Karl Hermann Frank during the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia on October 28, 1940. Many Scouts and Guides joined the Czech Resistance; over 700 of them died during the war as part of the movement. After the war, the association was re-registered in Prague in 1945, following the country's liberation, with 120,000 members registered in 1946, the number of members grew to nearly 250,000, (making it the second largest association in the World Movements at that time), and in 1947, a contingent of 500 represented Junák at the World Scout Jamboree in France, sporting two Scout bands. In summer 1946, Lady Olave Baden-Powell visited Czechoslovakia and she was welcome in the whole Republic by our Scouts and Guides. After the war, in lieu of Scout camps, their participants helped in local agriculture. Chief Guide Vlasta Koseová became the Vice-chairman of the World Committee of WAGGGS and Chairman Dr. Velen Fanderlik was a member of the World Scout Committee of WOSM.
However, in 1948, after the Communist coup, Junák was disbanded; beginning in 1949, trials were held against various Junák Commissioners, some of whom were sentenced to many years of imprisonment in communist concentration camps, where many of them died. Many Junák troops continued to meet in secret, ironically using the cell method developed by Lenin (as was also the case in neighboring Hungary). In 1968, during the Prague Spring, the Scouts again began meeting openly, until it was banned by order of the Federal Ministry of the Interior, in October 1970. During that period, the number of Scouts in Czechoslovakia was 65,000. Again, many Junák units continued to operate in secret.
After the 1989 Velvet Revolution, Junák was one of the first organisations to re-emerge from working underground, by then, for the fourth time in its history. By the close of 1989, the number of Scouts in Czechoslovakia was 80,000. On 1 February 1990, the Federation of Czech and Slovak Scouting was officially registered, paving the way for its re-admittance to the World Organization during the World Scout Conference in Paris in July 1990, re-recognised by the major world Scouting organisations (see below). Upon Czechoslovakia's dissolution on December 31, 1992, Cesky Junák (as it was then called) and Slovenský Skauting were required to apply for membership of the World Organization as the national member organizations of the Czech Republic and Republic of Slovakia, respectively. On June 30, 1996, Junák-Svaz Skautů a Skautek was welcomed as the 141st member of the World Organization of the Scout Movement. In 1998, Junák became one of the founding members of the Czech Council of Children and Youth, a national youth council that aims to protect the rights and interests of Czech young people. Membership in 1998 was 57,979 Scouts and Guides in the Czech Republic. During the summer of 1998, 1,361 camps were held and 32,177 Scouts and Guides participated in these camps. In 2001, Junák hosted the European Guide and Scout Conference, in Prague.