This contribution focuses on the German physician Gustav Rösler, a pioneer of the thennew science of eugenics, and advocate of the movement for life reform (Lebensreform) in the Bohemian Lands in early 20th century. At this time, interest in social phenomena which were linked to industrialisation and had a negative impact on human health contributed to the creation of organisations and institutions designed to counter these phenomena. At a time when the German national movement was rapidly growing, Gustav Rösler designed a ‘programme of improvement of German fitness’. Its aim was to cultivate mental and physical fitness of the German population, especially the youth. Its institutional foundation was the Liberec-based Neudeutscher Kulturbund in Österreich and the publishing house Neudeutscher Kulturverlag.
This paper introduces the agricultural interest structures of Germans in Austrian Silesia in the latter half of the 19th century as an element of modernisation of the countryside which significantly contributed to its economic, class and political emancipation, from the point of view of their gradual organisational construction and the principles of peasant association. It can be surmised that the milieu of agricultural associations, which were connected with other agricultural-economic structures in terms of their membership and interest, had the potential to advance the ideological elements of the nascent German agrarian movement at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The paper focuses on the key agricultural non-political associations along with their developmental trends which created this base in the region of Austrian Silesia. The author primarily relies on printed sources, because although the archive material devoted to agricultural associations in the region may seem very rich, it does not provide the necessary amount of relevant data. Given the current state of research, when the interest structures of associations are not given attention considering their role in the development of rural areas, this article seeks to enrich the professional discourse surrounding the issue.