Friedrich Jahn

(11August 177815October 1852) was a German gymnastics educator and nationalist whose writing is credited with the founding of the German gymnastics (Turner) movement as well as influencing the German Campaign of 1813, during which a coalition of German states effectively ended the occupation of Napoleon's First French Empire. His admirers know him as , roughly meaning "Father of Gymnastics ".

Life

was born in the village of in Brandenburg, Prussia. He studied theology and philology from 1796 to 1802 at the universities in , , and . After the Battle of Jena–Auerstedt in 1806, he joined the Prussian army. In 1809, he went to Berlin where he became a teacher at the and at the Plamann School.

Brooding upon what he saw as the humiliation of his native land by Napoleon, conceived the idea of restoring the spirits of his countrymen by the development of their physical and moral powers through the practice of gymnastics. The first , or open-air gymnasium, was opened by in in the south of Berlin in 1811, and the (gymnastics association) movement spread rapidly. Young gymnasts were taught to regard themselves as members of a kind of guild for the emancipation of their fatherland. The nationalistic spirit was nourished to a significant degree by the writings of .

In early 1813 took an active part in the formation of the famous Lützow Free Corps, a volunteer force in the Prussian army fighting Napoleon. He commanded a battalion of the corps, but he was often employed in the secret service during the same period. After the war, he returned to Berlin, where he was appointed state teacher of gymnastics, and he took on a role in the formation of the student patriotic fraternities, or , in .

A man of a populistic nature, rugged, eccentric and outspoken, often came into conflict with the authorities. The authorities finally realized he aimed at establishing a united Germany and that his schools were political and liberal clubs. The conflict resulted in the closing of the in 1819 and arrest. Kept in semi-confinement successively at , and at the fortress in Kolberg until 1824, he was sentenced to imprisonment for two years. The sentence was reversed in 1825, but he was forbidden to live within ten miles of Berlin.

He therefore took up residence at on the , where he remained until his death, except for a short period in 1828, when he was exiled to on a charge of sedition. While at , he received an invitation to become professor of German literature at Cambridge, Massachusetts, which he declined, saying that "deer and hares love to live where they are most hunted."

In 1840, was decorated by the Prussian government with the Iron Cross for bravery in the wars against Napoleon. In the spring of 1848, he was elected by the district of Naumburg to the German National Parliament. died in 1852 in Freyburg, where a monument was erected in his honor in 1859.

popularized the ''four Fs'' motto ", , , " ("fresh, pious, cheerful, free") in the early 19th century.

Works

Among his works are the following:
* (, 1806),
* (, 1810),
* (Frankfurt, 1814),
* (Berlin, 1816)
* (Naumburg, 1828),
* (, 1833), and
* (, 1863).
A complete edition of his works appeared at in 18841887. See the biography by (Berlin, 1894), and , by (Munich, 1895).

Contribution to physical education

promoted the use of parallel bars, rings and the high bar in international competition.
In honor and memory of him, some gymnastic clubs, called , took up his name, the most well known of these is probably the .

Gymnastics classes inspired by design started opening in the United States in 1825 under the expertise and advocacy of Germans Charles Beck and Charles Follen, as well as American John Neal. Beck opened the first gymnasium in the US in 1825 at the Round Hill School in Northampton, Massachusetts. Follen opened the first college gymnasium and the first public gymnasium in the US in Massachusetts in 1826 at Harvard College and in nearby Boston, respectively. Neal was the first American to open a public gymnasium in the US in Portland, Maine in 1827. During this period, Neal spread concepts in the US in the ''American Journal of Education'' and ''The Yankee'', helping to establish the American branch of the movement.

A memorial to exists in St. Louis, Missouri, within its Forest Park. It features a large bust of in the center of an arc of stone, with statues of a male and female gymnast, one on each end of the arc. The monument is on the edge of Art Hill next to the path running north and south along the western edge of Post-Dispatch Lake. It is directly north of the St. Louis Zoo. On the plaque below his bronze bust, is given credit as "The Father of Systematic Physical Culture".

Other memorials to are located in , Germany; Vienna; and Cincinnati, Ohio's Inwood Park in the Mount Auburn Historic District. An elementary school in Chicago, is named after .

Criticism

In his own time was seen by both supporters and opponents as a liberal figure. He advocated that the German states should unite after the withdrawal of Napoleon's occupying armies and establish a democratic constitution under the monarchy, which would include the right to free speech. As a German nationalist, advocated maintaining German language and culture against foreign influence. In 1810 he wrote, "Poles, French, priests, aristocrats and Jews are Germany's misfortune." At the time wrote this, the German states were occupied by foreign armies under the leadership of Napoleon. Also, was "the guiding spirit" of the fanatic book burning episode carried out by revolutionary students at the Wartburg festival in 1817.

Scholarly focus on the of thought started in the 1920s with a new generation of interpreters like and . explicitly linked with National Socialism. The equation by the National Socialists of ideas with their world view was more or less complete by the mid-1930s. , an educational philosopher and university lecturer who attempted to provide theoretical support for Nazi ideology (through the interpretation of among others) wrote a monograph on in which he characterized invention of gymnastics as an explicitly political project, designed to create the ultimate citizen by educating his body.

gained infamy in English-speaking countries from the publication of ''Metapolitics: The Roots of the Nazi Mind'' (1941). claimed was the spiritual founder of Nazism who inspired early German romantics with anti-Semitic and authoritarian doctrines, influencing and finally, the Nazis. However, observed that portrait of cultural trends supposedly leading to Nazism was "a caricature without resemblance" relying on "misleading shortcuts", though response in the same issue points out that it is clear from remarks that did not read far into the book.

See also

*Turners

Notes

References

*

Further reading

*

External links

Early Climbing Activities in GymnasticsForest Park Monument1Forest Park Monument 2
*
Open Library

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jahn, Friedrich Ludwig
1778 births
1852 deaths
People associated with physical culture
People from Prignitz
Freikorps personnel of the Napoleonic Wars
German gymnasts
19th-century German educators
History of gymnastics
Prussian Army personnel of the Napoleonic Wars
People from the Margraviate of Brandenburg
University of Greifswald alumni
Members of the Frankfurt Parliament
German nationalists
German prisoners and detainees