School and war. Civil defence education in Czech schools

The exhibition examines the history of the school teaching subject “civil defence education” in its complexity: wide general public can still subconsciously remember the socialist form of civil defence education teaching, but this subject had for the first time appeared at the time between the two world wars, when Czechoslovak republic faced a threat from the part of Nazi Germany. The real roots, however, can be traced back to the times of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy.

The content of the subject did not represent only “defence” in the narrow meaning of the word, but a total preparedness for extraordinary situations – pupils had to be physically fit in the first place,  able to orientate in terrain and able to provide the first aid for various types of wounds. To use  means of personal protection in case of a war conflict and the defence education in schools were inseparably linked to ideological schoolings about the reasons why and by whom the country/nation were endangered. Civil defence education was closely connected with out-of-school organizations (Sokol, Svazarm) and their activities are also shown at the exhibition.

Because the theme of defence still appears in the present school instruction, although in a modified form, actual teaching of the thematic whole “Protection of man during extraordinary events” is presented in the entry corridor of the museum. The displayed objects were borrowed by the Fire Rescue Brigade which, in the framework of its activities, adjusts the theme discussed for school teaching.

Place: Museum’s entrance hall, museum’s ground floor

Started: August 27^th, 2021

Ends: June 30^th, 2022