The conspiratorial and sporting role of the Greyhound Society in the Grand Duchy of Posen
The conspiratorial and sporting role of the Greyhound Society in the Grand Duchy of Posen

Summary/Abstract: Shortly after the Society for the Improvement of Horse, Cattle and Sheep Breeding in the Grand Duchy of Posen organized horse races in 1845 in Prussian-partitioned Poland, a Jockey Club was established by the Poles, later renamed the Greyhound Society. Although its dominant activities included hunting and shooting, the members of the organization were also involved in underground independence movements. Given the scope of its activities and date of establishment, the Greyhound Society may be considered a pioneering organization. Other existing Polish organizations that combined the need for physical exercise with patriotic activism were founded later, in the second half of the 19th century. Shooting exercises and military drills practiced by the Greyhound Society were evidence of the preparation of the organization's its members for revolutionary anti-Prussian actions, as confirmed by numerous accounts presented during the 1847 Berlin Kammergericht trial of Polish conspirators.

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