The Deutscher Fußball-Club Prag, commonly known as DFC Prag, was a football club based in
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...
. The club was founded on 25 May 1896 by a group of German Jews in Prague, which at the time of its founding was the capital of the
Kingdom of Bohemia
The Kingdom of Bohemia ( cs, České království),; la, link=no, Regnum Bohemiae sometimes in English literature referred to as the Czech Kingdom, was a medieval and early modern monarchy in Central Europe, the predecessor of the modern Czec ...
in
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
. DFC Prag was one of the strongest teams in Europe in the beginning of the 1900s. The team took part in the
1903 German football championship final
The 1903 German football championship Final decided the winner of the 1903 German football championship, the 1st edition of the German football championship, a knockout football cup competition contested by the regional league winners to determin ...
and became Bohemian champions several times. The club was dissolved in 1939, following the
occupation of Czechoslovakia
Occupation commonly refers to:
*Occupation (human activity), or job, one's role in society, often a regular activity performed for payment
*Occupation (protest), political demonstration by holding public or symbolic spaces
*Military occupation, th ...
by
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
. A new DFC Prag was founded on 9 June 2016, in the tradition of the original club.
History
Founding member of the German Football Association
The multi-national character of Austria-Hungary meant that footballers in the monarchy could find themselves playing in the leagues of
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
,
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
,
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...
or Bohemia. It was common for sports clubs to be founded based on the shared ethnicity of their members. DFC Prag was founded on 25 May 1896, by a group of German Jews from the football department of Deutscher Eis- und Ruder-Club Regatta Prag, established in 1891.
When it was formed in 1900, the
German Football Association (DFB), actively sought out members among ethnically German clubs from outside of the country. DFC Prag was a
founding member of the German association and its president, Dr. Ferdinand Hueppe, became the first president of this new national association.
Contesting Germany's first championship
DFC Prag was a very strong side at the end of the 1800s and early 1900s: they were Bohemian champions in 1896, and played in Germany's first ever national final in 1903, and became again Bohemian champions in 1917.
The story of the team's appearance in the
1903 final is an odd one as they got there without having to play the scheduled playoff match against
Karlsruher FV
Karlsruher FV is a German association football club that plays in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg. Established on 17 November 1891, KFV was a founding member of the German Football Association (Deutscher Fussball-Bund) in 1900 and is the oldest ...
. The opponents received a telegram, supposedly from the DFB, indicating that the game had been rescheduled and consequently did not travel to the appointed match-up. DFC Prag, already waiting in
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...
for the arrival of Karlsruher FV, were declared the winners by forfeit and advanced to the final, over the loud protests of the opponents. To this day the origin of the telegram is unknown. The second team to advance to the final was