The Deutscher Fußball-Club Prag, commonly known as DFC Prag, was a football club based in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

. 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 (), sometimes referenced in English literature as the Czech Kingdom, was a History of the Czech lands in the High Middle Ages, medieval and History of the Czech lands, early modern monarchy in Central Europe. It was the pr ...

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

. 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 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 ...

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

. 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 lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much 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 south, Croatia and ...

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 Founding may refer to: * The formation of a corporation, government, or other organization * The laying of a building's foundation * The casting of materials in a mold See also * Foundation (disambiguation) * Incorporation (disambiguation) I ...

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 semi-final match against

Karlsruher FV The Karlsruher Fußball-Verein e. V. 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 ...

. 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 States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

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

VfB Leipzig {{Short pages monitor