“A Matter of Physical Health and Strength”: Disciplining the Female Body and Reproducing the Czech National Community in the Mid-Nineteenth Century

An 1850 article “Uzavírání sňatku” (“Marriage”) by Czech physician Jan Špott outlined the requirements for those who considered themselves part of the Czech national community. Špott stressed that those concerned with the future national existence had to educate themselves and each other to create healthy offspring. I examine Špott’s article with regard to contemporary ideas about fitness, the role of women, the need to discipline the female body, as well as the importance of education in reproducing the community. This article’s analysis—set in the broader context of the history of women, medicine, and nationalisms—shows that nation-oriented education could be perceived as a way to ensure the nation’s future existence while simultaneously emphasizing the responsibility of individuals, and particularly women, for the reproduction of the community. Špott’s propositions are significant to other nineteenth-century national movements and to postnational contexts where national fitness is a concern.