Branná výchova ve školách meziválečného Československa
Civil Defence Education in Interwar Czechoslovak Schools

Summary/Abstract: Discussing the civil defence education in interwar Czechoslovakia, the first part of the study describes the legal regulations that introduced this type of education in schools (the regulations of the ministry of education from 1934 and 1935, the law on the civil defence education from 1937) that are followed by the list of textbooks and methodologies for teachers. The second part presents the content of the subject that was divided into two main units: the first one consisted of the moral education of the pupils (bolstering patriotism) and the practice part (terrain exercises and orientation and first aid training), while the second part included the preparation for the involvement in civil anti-aircraft protection (pupils aged 14 and older) teaching the students the principles of evacuation and self-protection against air raids (including protection against chemical substances). The third part of the study focuses on the conflict between the regulations and the real civil defence instruction at schools as recorded by teachers in school annual reports and chronicles. As revealed from these records, teaching this subject was associated with difficulties; the schools struggled with a shortage of teaching tools but primarily with insufficiently trained teachers. All of these problems were resolved within several years when remarkable textbooks were released offering new teaching methods; however, the political development and the German occupation of Czechoslovakia thwarted any further development of the civil defence education (it was cancelled after the occupation in 1939).

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