Friedrich Ludwig Jahn

Template:Short description Template:Expand German Template:Infobox person {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ({{#invoke:IPA|main}}; 11Template:NbspAugust 1778Template:Snd15Template:NbspOctober 1852) was a German gymnastics educator and nationalist whose writing is credited with the founding of the German gymnastics (Turner) movement, first realized at Volkspark Hasenheide in Berlin, the origin of modern sports clubs,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> as well as influencing the German Campaign of 1813, during which a coalition of German states effectively ended the occupation by Napoleon's First French Empire. His admirers know him as {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, roughly meaning "Father of Gymnastics {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}".<ref name=Goodbody>Template:Cite book</ref> Jahn invented the parallel bars, rings, high bar, the pommel horse and the vault horse.

Life

{{#invoke:Lang|lang}} was born in the village of {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} in Brandenburg, Prussia. He studied theology and philology from 1796 to 1802 at the universities in {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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 {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} and at the Plamann School.Template:Sfn

Brooding upon what he saw as the humiliation of his native land by Napoleon, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} conceived the idea of restoring the spirits of his countrymen by the development of their physical and moral powers through the practice of gymnastics.<ref name=Goodbody/> The first {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, or open-air gymnasium, was opened by {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} in {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} in the south of Berlin<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> in 1811, and the {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (gymnastics association) movement spread rapidly.<ref name=Goodbody/> Young gymnasts were taught to regard themselves as members of a kind of guild for the emancipation of their fatherland.Template:Sfn The nationalistic spirit was nourished to a significant degree by the writings of {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}.<ref name=Goodbody/>

In early 1813 {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} 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 {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, in {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}.Template:Sfn

A man of a populistic nature, rugged, eccentric and outspoken, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} often came into conflict with the authorities. The authorities eventually realized he aimed at establishing a united Germany and that his {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} schools were political and liberal clubs.<ref name=ac>Template:Cite AmCyc</ref> The conflict resulted in the closing of the {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} in 1819 and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} arrest. Kept in semi-confinement successively at {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, and at the fortress in Kolberg until 1824,<ref name=ac/> 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.Template:Sfn

He therefore took up residence at {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} on the {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, where he remained until his death, except for a short period in 1828, when he was exiled to {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} on a charge of sedition.Template:Sfn While at {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, 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."<ref name=ac/>

In 1840, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} 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. {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} died in 1852 in Freyburg, where a monument was erected in his honor in 1859.Template:Sfn

{{#invoke:Lang|lang}} popularized the four Fs motto "{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}" ("fresh, pious, cheerful, free") in the early 19th century.<ref name=Goodbody/>

Works

File:Notgeld-Lenzen-75-Rück-Jahn.jpg

lang}}

Among his works are the following:

• {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, 1806),
• {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, 1810),
• {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (Frankfurt, 1814),
• {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (Berlin, 1816)
• {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (Naumburg, 1828),
• {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, 1833), and
• {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, 1863).

A complete edition of his works appeared at {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} in 1884Template:Ndash1887. See the biography by {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (Berlin, 1894),Template:Citation needed and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, by {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (Munich, 1895).Template:Citation needed

Contribution to physical education

File:A treatise on gymnasticks (1828) (14584454757).jpg

lang}} Treatise on Gymnasticks, 1828

{{#invoke:Lang|lang}} promoted the use of parallel bars, rings and the high bar in international competition.<ref name=Goodbody/> In honor and memory of him, some gymnastic clubs, called {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, took up his name, the most well known of these is probably the {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}.Template:Citation needed

Gymnastics classes inspired by {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} 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.<ref name= Leonard1923>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp 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.<ref name= Leonard1923 />Template:Rp Neal was the first American to open a public gymnasium in the US in Portland, Maine in 1827.<ref name= Leonard1923 />Template:Rp During this period, Neal spread {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} concepts in the US in the American Journal of Education<ref name= Leonard1923 />Template:Rp and The Yankee, helping to establish the American branch of the movement.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

A memorial to {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} exists in St. Louis, Missouri, within its Forest Park. It features a large bust of {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} 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, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} is given credit as "The Father of Systematic Physical Culture".Template:Citation needed

Other memorials to {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} are located in {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, Germany; Vienna; and Cincinnati, Ohio's Inwood Park in the Mount Auburn Historic District.Template:Citation needed An elementary school in Chicago, is named after {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Criticism

File:Wien Jahn Gedenktafel.jpg

Memorial in Vienna

In his own time {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} 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 {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} monarchy, which would include the right to free speech. As a German nationalist, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} advocated maintaining German language and culture against foreign influence. In 1810 he wrote, "Poles, French, priests, aristocrats and Jews are Germany's misfortune."<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> At the time {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} wrote this, the German states were occupied by foreign armies under the leadership of Napoleon. Also, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} was "the guiding spirit" of the fanatic book burning episode carried out by revolutionary students at the Wartburg festival in 1817.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Scholarly focus on the {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} of {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} thought started in the 1920s with a new generation of {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} interpreters like {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}. {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} explicitly linked {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} with National Socialism.<ref name= Bernett1979>Template:Cite book</ref> The equation by the National Socialists of {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ideas with their world view was more or less complete by the mid-1930s.<ref name= Bernett1979 />Template:Rp {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, an educational philosopher and university lecturer who attempted to provide theoretical support for Nazi ideology (through the interpretation of {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} among others) wrote a monograph on {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> in which he characterized {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} invention of gymnastics as an explicitly political project, designed to create the ultimate {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} citizen by educating his body.<ref name= Bernett1979/>Template:Rp

{{#invoke:Lang|lang}} gained infamy in English-speaking countriesTemplate:Citation needed following the publication of {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Metapolitics: The Roots of the Nazi Mind (1941).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} claimed {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} was the spiritual founder of Nazism who inspired early German romantics with anti-Semitic and authoritarian doctrines, influencing {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} and finally, the Nazis. In a review of Viereck's book {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} observed that {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} portrait of cultural trends supposedly leading to Nazism was "a caricature without resemblance" relying on "misleading shortcuts."<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} response in the same issue points out that it is clear from {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} remarks that {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} did not read far into the book.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

See also

• Turners
• SSV Jahn Regensburg

References

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Further reading

• Template:Cite book

External links

• Early Climbing Activities in Gymnastics
• Forest Park Monument1
• Forest Park Monument 2
• Template:Cite Americana
• Open Library