Dukla Prague was formed in 1948 as (ATK) Praha and started life in the top division of Czechoslovak football. The Dukla organisation, as it later became known, was run by the Czechoslovak Army and included seven sports teams. The club changed its name to (ÚDA) Praha in 1953, winning the first of eleven league titles in the 1953 season. The club went on to win the 1956 league title, changing their name to the same year in honour of those had fallen at the Battle of Dukla Pass in 1944. The subsequent 1957–58 season brought a second consecutive league title for the club, and its third overall.