Jindřich Fügner

Biography[edit]

He was born in Prague (baptized in the church. Stephen) to Peter (1787-1863) and Frances (Františka) (1794-1863) Fügner. His father was a businessman (Handelsmann), a native of Leitmeritz. Police records show that the family of Peter and Frances had two daughters: Caroline and Julia and three sons: Ferdinand, Heinrich and Wilhelm.^[1]


Thanks to private study and study abroad he gained a broad education and learned several foreign languages. Later, he run a trade insurance business. Though his business was successful, he had higher goals. He was devoted to music, sports and social interests.


Thanks to the legacy of his grandfather (inherited his vineyards and boats) his family was quite wealthy. As a successful businessman, he became the owner of the Italian company Nuova Societa Commerciale d'Assecurazioni, a general trade company.^[2]


Fügner, a German by birth, never mastered the Czech language. His decision to adopt a political and national identity as a Czech was derived from a strong sense of his local identity as a "Praguer" and from his disenchantment with social pretensions of the German elite in Prague and the northern Bohemia.^[3]


The Czech patriotic circles introduced him to Tyrš.^[4] Soon after, Fügner and Tyrš worked together on founding the Czech gymnastic association. The association was named Sokol Prague and Fügner became the association first leader (starosta).^[5] He introduced and promoted tykání, i.e. the way of addressing one person using the second person singular (you) among the association members and addressing the members as "brothers". The red jacket he used to wear, became part of the Sokol uniforms. Thanks to him the first Sokol society was established in the Sokol Street (a former fortification) in Prague.^[6] He died at the age of 43; the cause of his death was most likely blood poisoning.^[7] His funeral became a national manifestation.^[8]