Miroslav Tyrš

Miroslav Tyrš (born Friedrich Emanuel Tirsch, in Czech: Bedřich Tyrš; 17 September 1832 – 8 August 1884) was a Czech philosopher, art historian, sports organizer and together with Jindřich Fügner the cofounder of the Sokol movement.

Early life Miroslav Tyrš was born Friedrich Emanuel Tirsch to a German doctor in Děčín. The family moved to Döbling near Vienna where his father, mother and two sisters died from tuberculosis leaving Miroslav orphaned at the age of six years. He was brought up by his Czech uncle in Kropáčova Vrutice near Mladá Boleslav and was assimilated into the Czech community.

In 1844, Tyrš, along with nine other scholars, undertook physical training with R. Stephany. He studied at the gymnasium in Malá Strana, Prague and passed its final exam in Czech in 1850. At a time when students were required to take exams in the German language, yet Tyrš insisted on taking the exam in Czech to make a patriotic, pro-Czech stance. He also changed his Christian name first to Bedřich (Czech version of Friedrich) and then to Slavic Miroslav. His thesis dealt with the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer. as proposed by Emanuel Tonner.

As a born German he wanted the club to be open to all the nationalities, but Germans in Bohemia refused to be in the same club with Czechs, so Tyrš changed his mind and started promoting the new club as bringing the Greek ideal only to Czech people. Serbia's biggest children hospital is named after Tyrš.