140 years have passed since the Mountain Club for Northern Bohemia was founded. And that was truly a significant reason for a fitting commemoration. Not only this anniversary, but also the fact that the founder and first chairman of the club, MUDr. Johann Hille, died 100 years ago (he served for 40 years). And why Krásná Lípa of all places? Because the founding meeting of the club took place in this North Bohemian town (December 13, 1885) at the Hotel Beseda on the market square.
Aware of the aforementioned facts, our club decided to commemorate this event and prepare a full-day program for September 20, 2025, to mark it and symbolically inscribe itself forever in the memory and history not only of the tourist club, but of the wider public and the entire region. The decision to invite our friends from across the border (from Saxony and Upper Lusatia) to the celebrations was also a symbolic gesture. Our shared history in the field of hiking thus leads to exemplary current and future Czech-German cooperation.
As mentioned above, we met on September 20th with the main goal of informing participants about the importance of the Mountain Club for future tourism and sporting activities, emphasizing that the Czech Tourist Club was subsequently founded (in 1888). We divided the program into two parts. The first, in the morning, was dedicated to activities closely associated with MUDr. Hille and Rudolf Kögler (vice-chairman of the Mountain Club, a native of Krásná Lípa and creator of the first nature trail in the Czech lands, as well as the builder of the geological map in Zahrady). And so we dedicated this part of the day to hiking and cycling tours to places that commemorate both of them and the mountain club itself (Kyjov – memorial plaque for Dr. Hille, his grave and the grave of R. Kögler in Krásný Buk, the Dymník lookout tower, which was dedicated to the club upon its completion, the memorial plaque at R. Kögler's house and the geological map in Zahrady; we christened the bench named after Dr. Hille in Kyjov; participants were able to visit the Hotel Beseda, the houses where Dr. Hille lived and practiced medicine). Furthermore, we obtained permission, and the event attendees were able to view the reconstructed Diettrich family crypt. For visitors from Germany, we arranged an excursion to the Schindler factory and a guided tour of the church in Chřibská, which is only open on these occasions.
For the afternoon, we had prepared refreshments for the participants and, most importantly, a performance by the fantastic New Liberec Dixieland Band and the equally excellent German brass band, Blasmusik from Sebnitz.
The main goal of the festival was to inform people about the beginnings of tourism in Bohemia and to highlight that the roots of this sport also lie with the ancestors of our neighbors on the German side.
If we as organizers can judge this ourselves, but especially thanks to the feedback and evaluation from the wider community, then we certainly fulfilled our task.
For complete information about the event described above, it is necessary to add the following:
- The event was held with significant support from the Euroregion Nisa and its Small Projects Fund under the Czech-Saxon Programme 2021-2027.
- The project partners were the Czech Tourist Club Krásná Lípa, zs and the Upper Lusatian District Sports Association eV from Görlitz.
- Project content: Highlighting the extraordinary contribution of the Mountain Association to the creation of tourism in the Czech lands, further popularizing tourism in our city and region, and exchanging experiences with cross-border partners.
- The grant amount is 15,120 euros
