Foroliviensis de Arte Gymnastica Libri Sex: in quibus exercitationum
omnium vetustarum genera, loca, modi, facultates, & quidquid denique ad
corporis humani exercitationes pertinet diligenter explicatur. Editio
novissima, aucta, emendata, & figuris authenticis Christophori Coriolani
exornata. Amstelodami, Sumptibus Andreæ Frisii,” (1672).
In this connection may be mentioned also “The Muscles and Their Story,
from the Earliest Times; including the Whole Text of Mercurialis, and
the Opinions of Other Writers Ancient and Modern, on Mental and Bodily
Development. By John W. F. Blundell, M.D., Licentiate of the Royal
College of Edinburgh, Author of ‘Medicina Mechanica,’ etc.” London,
Chapman & Hall, 1864.
[7] The table of contents, translated, is given in full at the foot of
pp. 477-479 in the Report of the United States Commissioner of Education
for 1891-1892, vol. =1=.
[8] Translated by Karl Wassmannsdorff in _Deutsche Turnzeitung_, =17=
(1872); 272, 279.
[9] Chapter 23. The entire passage is given in English at the foot of pp.
472-474 in the report of the United States Commissioner of Education for
1891-1892, vol. =1=.
[10] Quotations from these chapters will be found in Barnard’s _Am. Jour.
Educ._, =16=, 490-496 (1866). In 1545 _Roger Ascham_ (1515-1568), author
of The Scholemaster, published his “Toxophilus, the schole of shootinge
conteyned in two bookes.”
CHAPTER IX.
LOCKE AND ROUSSEAU.
The best of the Renaissance writers on education had begun to break
away from authority and tradition, and with reason as a guide were
groping their way toward a training better suited to the nature and
present needs of man than any the past could supply. That their ideas
gained currency throughout all Europe and the way was thus prepared for
practical reforms is very largely due to the powerful influence exerted
by two philosophers, _John Locke_ (1632-1704) and _Jean Jacques Rousseau_
(1712-1778), the former of whom published “Some Thoughts on Education” in
1693, and the latter his “Émile, a Treatise on Education” in 1762.
[Illustration: FIG. 7.—John Locke (1632-1704).]
Locke was an Oxford graduate and lecturer, had studied medicine and
been physician in the household of Lord Ashley, afterwards Earl
of Shaftesbury, and his chief work, the “Essay Concerning Human
Understanding,” had already appeared (1690). His views, therefore,
commanded attention at once, and whatever relates to the physical side
of education came with the added weight of special knowledge. The author
begins by dwelling at some length upon the hygiene of childhood. “Keep
the body in strength and vigor,” he says, “so that it may be able to obey
and execute the orders of the mind.... A sound mind in a sound body, is
a short but full description of a happy state in this world: he that has
these two has little more to wish for; and he that wants either of them
will be but little the better for anything else.... He whose mind directs
not wisely will never take the right way; and he whose body is crazy and
feeble will never be able to advance in it....
“Most children’s constitutions are either spoiled, or at least harmed, by
cockering and tenderness.” They should not be too warmly clad or covered,
winter or summer, and to prevent colds the boy’s feet are to be washed
every day in cold water, and his shoes made “so thin that they might leak
and let in water whenever he comes near it.” For safety and for health’s
sake he must learn to swim. He is to be “much in the open air, and very
little, as may be, by the fire, even in winter.” Clothing should never be
made tight, especially about the breast, and the diet ought to be very
plain and simple, with only small beer for drink, and that after eating.
Serving his meals at irregular intervals will train him to endure hunger,
if necessary. As regards fruit, “our first parents ventured paradise
for it, and it is no wonder our children cannot stand the temptation,
though it cost them their health.” Some kinds are wholesome and may be
taken freely before or between meals, but others are forbidden. Allow
no sweetmeats—“one of the most inconvenient ways of expense that vanity
hath yet found out; and so I leave them to the ladies.” Nothing is more
to be indulged children than sleep, but insist upon early rising, and
let the bed be hard and rather quilts than feathers. All may be summed
up in these rules: “Plenty of open air, exercise, and sleep; plain diet,
no wine or strong drink, and very little or no physic; not too warm and
strait clothing; especially the head and feet kept cold, and the feet
often used to cold water and exposed to wet.”
Further on, in the body of his work, Locke comes to what we should now
call physical training proper. He recognizes that “besides what is to be
had from study and books, there are other accomplishments necessary for a
gentleman, to be got by exercise, and to which time is to be allowed, and
for which masters must be had. Dancing being that which gives graceful
motions all the life, and above all things, manliness and a becoming
confidence to young children, I think it cannot be learned too early....
As for the jigging part, and the figures of dances, I count that little
or nothing, farther than as it tends to perfect graceful carriage. Music
... wastes so much of a young man’s time to gain but a moderate skill in
it ... that amongst all accomplishments I think I may give it the last
place.... Fencing, and riding the great horse, are looked upon as so
necessary parts of breeding that it would be thought a great omission
to neglect them: the latter of the two, being for the most part to be
learned only in great towns, is one of the best exercises for health
which is to be had in those places of ease and luxury ... and ... is of
use to a gentleman, both in peace and war.... As for fencing, it seems to
me a good exercise for health, but dangerous to the life, the confidence
of their skill being apt to engage in quarrels those that think they have
learned to use their swords.... If ... a man be to prepare his son for
duels, I had much rather mine should be a good wrestler than an ordinary
fencer; which is the most a gentleman can attain to in it, unless he will
be constantly in the fencing school, and every day exercising....
“I would (also) have him learn a trade, a manual trade; nay, two or
three, but one more particularly.... Manual arts, which are both got and
exercised by labor, do many of them by that exercise not only increase
our dexterity and skill, but contribute to our health too; especially
such as employ us in the open air....” He “is not for painting;” but
proposes “one, or rather both these, viz., gardening or husbandry in
general, and working in wood, as a carpenter, joiner, or turner; these
being fit and healthy recreations for a man of study or business.”
The effects produced by Rousseau’s educational romance, “Émile,” upon
the modern pedagogic world it would be difficult to exaggerate. The
times were ripe for a revolt, and close upon the radical criticism of
existing methods to which this theorist gave such convincing expression
followed the actual reforms inaugurated by Basedow, Pestalozzi, and other
innovators. It will be sufficient here to mention only a single phase of
the education which this disciple of Locke would give to his imaginary
hero. “The body,” says Rousseau[11] in Book I, “must needs be vigorous in
order to obey the soul: a good servant ought to be robust.... The weaker
the body, the more it commands; the stronger it is, the better it obeys.”
Upon the subject of sleep, cold bathing, and the clothing suitable for
young children his views are those of Locke.
[Illustration: FIG. 8.—Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778).]
In Book II we read: “If ... you would cultivate the intelligence of
your pupil, cultivate the power which it is to govern. Give his body
continual exercise; make him robust and sound in order to make him wise
and reasonable; let him work, and move about, and run, and shout, and be
continually in motion; let him be a man in vigor, and soon he will be
such by force of reason.... It is a very deplorable error to imagine that
the exercise of the body is injurious to the operations of the mind; as
if these two activities were not to proceed in concert, and the second
were not always to direct the first!... These continual exercises, thus
left wholly to the direction of Nature, not only do not brutalize the
mind while fortifying the body, but on the contrary they form within us
the only species of reason of which childhood is susceptible, and the
most necessary at any and all periods of life. They teach us thoroughly
to understand the use of our powers, the relations between our own bodies
and surrounding bodies, and the use of the natural instruments which
are within our reach and which are adapted to our organs.... In order
to learn to think, we must ... exercise our limbs, our senses, and our
organs, which are the instruments of our intelligence; and in order to
derive all the advantage possible from these instruments, it is necessary
that the body which furnishes them should be robust and sound. Thus, so
far is it from being true that the reason of man is formed independently
of the body, it is the happy constitution of the body which renders the
operations of the mind facile and sure....
“... Let him learn to make jumps, now long, now high; to climb a tree,
to leap a wall. Let him always find his equilibrium; and let all his
movements and gestures be regulated according to the laws of gravity,
long before the science of statics intervenes to explain them to him....
When a child plays at shuttlecock he trains his eye and arm in accuracy;
when he whips a top he increases his strength by using it, but without
learning anything. I have sometimes asked why we do not offer children
the same games of skill which men have, such as tennis, fives, billiards,
bow and arrow, football, and musical instruments. I have been told, in
reply, that some of these sports are beyond the strength of children,
and that their limbs and organs are not sufficiently developed for the
others. I find these reasons bad.... I do not mean that he shall knock
the balls in our tennis courts, nor that his little hands shall be made
to hold the racket of an expert; but that he shall play in a hall whose
windows are protected; that at first he use only soft balls; that his
first rackets shall be of wood, then of parchment, and finally of catgut
stretched to accord with his progress.... To spring from one end of the
hall to another, to estimate the bound of a ball still in the air, and to
send it back with a strong and steady hand, such sports do not befit a
man but they serve to train a youth....
“... I insist absolutely that Émile shall learn a trade,” Rousseau
continues, in Book III. This is not so much for the trade itself, as for
overcoming the prejudices that despise it. “His apprenticeship is already
more than half done, through the tasks with which we have occupied our
time up to the present moment.... He already knows how to handle the
spade and the hoe; he can use the lathe, the hammer, the plane, and the
file; the tools of all the trades are already familiar to him. All he
has to do in addition is to acquire of some of these tools such a prompt
and facile use as to make him equal in speed to good workmen using the
same tools, and in this point he has a great advantage over all others;
he has an agile body and flexible limbs, which can assume all sorts of
attitudes without difficulty and prolong all sorts of movement without
effort.... All things considered, the trade which I would rather have be
to the taste of my pupil is that of cabinetmaker. It is cleanly, it is
useful, and it may be practised at home; it keeps the body sufficiently
exercised; it requires of the workman skill and ingenuity, and in the
form of the products which utility determines, elegance and taste are not
excluded....”
As he approaches maturity (Book IV) Émile requires “a new occupation
which interests him by its novelty, which keeps him in good humor, gives
him pleasure, occupies his attention, and keeps him in training—an
occupation of which he is passionately fond and in which he is wholly
absorbed. Now the only one which seems to me to fulfil all these
conditions is hunting.... Émile has everything necessary for success in
it: he is robust, dexterous, patient, indefatigable. Without fail he will
contract a taste for this exercise; he will throw into it all the ardor
of his age; for a time, at least, he will lose in it all the dangerous
inclinations which spring from idleness. Hunting toughens the heart as
well as the body....”
Book V is concerned with the education of Sophie, Émile’s future wife.
“... Plato, in his _Republic_, enjoins the same exercises on women as
upon men, and in this I think he was right.... Since the body is born,
so to speak, before the soul, the first culture ought to be that of the
body; and this order is common to both sexes. But the object of this
culture is different; in one this object is the development of strength,
while in the other it is the development of personal charms. Not that
these qualities ought to be exclusive in each sex, but the order is
simply reversed: women need sufficient strength to do with grace whatever
they have to do; and men need sufficient cleverness to do with facility
whatever they have to do. The extreme lack of vigor in women gives rise
to the same quality in men. Women ought not to be robust like them, but
for them, in order that the men who shall be born of them may be robust
also. In this respect the convents, where the boarders have coarse fare,
but many frolics, races, and sports in the open air and in gardens, are
to be preferred to the home where a girl, delicately reared, always
flattered or scolded, always seated under the eyes of her mother in
a very close room, dares neither to rise, to walk, to speak, nor to
breathe, and has not a moment’s liberty for playing, jumping, running,
shouting, and indulging in the petulance natural to her age; always
dangerous relaxation or badly conceived severity, but never anything
according to reason. This is the way the young are ruined both in body
and in heart.... Delicacy is not languor, and one need not be sickly in
order to please.”
While Locke and Rousseau were urging the necessity of some sort of
physical training in the scheme of education, and philologists and
students of ancient art kept alive the knowledge of Greek gymnastics, a
number of medical writers had been directing attention to the importance
of bodily exercise in the restoration and preservation of health. In
London, in 1705, _Francis Fuller_ (1670-1706), a graduate of St. John’s
College, Cambridge, published “Medicina Gymnastica: or a Treatise
Concerning the Power of Exercise with Respect to the Animal Œconomy,
and the Great Necessity of it in the Cure of Several Distempers.”[12]
A German translation appeared in 1750,[13] after the book had already
passed through seven or eight editions in England. _Friedrich Hoffmann_
(1660-1742), a distinguished German physician referred to several times
by GutsMuths in his “Gymnastics for the Young,” and the first professor
of medicine at Halle University, published in Latin an essay “On Motion,
the Best Medicine for the Body”[14] in 1701; and eighteen years later
several of his articles on the hygienic influence of exercise appeared
at Halle under the title “The Incomparable Advantages of motion and of
Bodily Exercises, and How They are to be Employed for the Preservation
of Health.”[15] _Joh. Friedrich Zückert_ (1737-1778), a Berlin physician
quoted by Basedow, in discussing the hygiene of infancy and childhood
(1764-1765),[16] mentions various bodily exercises, such as wrestling,
dancing, riding, vaulting, bowling, skating and swimming. Upon his
appointment to the chair of medicine at Lausanne, in 1766, _Simon
André Tissot_ (1728-1797) delivered a Latin discourse on the health
of the literary class (_De valetudine litteratorum_), in which he
recommends games and gymnastics for the youth of both sexes. A French
translation of the address was published in 1767,[17] a German one
in the following year,[18] besides later editions in both languages,
several in English,[19] and at least one in Swedish,[20] “Italian, and
six other languages.” A well-known French physician, _Clement Joseph
Tissot_ (1750-1826), published in Paris in 1780 his “Medical and Surgical
Gymnastics: an Essay on the Use of Motion and of Different Exercises
of the Body in the Cure of Disease.”[21] Translations of the work were
printed in Leipsic[22] and Stockholm.[23]
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
R. M. Quick, “Some Thoughts concerning Education, by John Locke. With
Introduction and Notes.” Cambridge (England), at the University Press,
1880. Revised edition, 1884.
J. W. Adamson (Editor), “The Educational Writings of John Locke.” New
York: Longmans, Green & Co.; London, Edward Arnold, 1912.
W. M. Payne, “Rousseau’s Émile: or, Treatise on Education. Abridged,
Translated, and Annotated.” New York, D. Appleton & Co., 1892.
Thomas Davidson, “Rousseau and Education according to Nature.” New York,
Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1898.
Gabriel Compayré, “Jean Jacques Rousseau and Education from Nature.”
Translated by R. J. Jago. New York, Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., 1907.
R. L. Archer (Editor), “Rousseau on Education.” New York: Longmans, Green
& Co.; London, Edward Arnold, 1912.
Karl Wassmannsdorff, “Aerztlicher Einfluss auf die sogenannte Erneuerung
der Leibesübungen in Deutschland; ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der
Turnkunst,” in _Neue Jahrbücher für die Turnkunst_ =15= (1869): 111-133.
FOOTNOTES:
[11] These quotations are taken from Rousseau’s Émile, abridged,
translated, and annotated by William H. Payne. New York, 1892.
[12] London: Printed by John Matthews, for Robert Knaplock, at the
Angel and Crown in St. Paul’s Church Yard, 1705. A second edition, with
additions, followed in the same year, a third (“printed for Robert
Knaplock, at the Bishop’s-Head in St. Paul’s Church-Yard”) in 1707, a
fourth in 1711, a fifth in 1718, a sixth in 1728, another in 1740, and
the “ninth and last” in 1777.
[13] Medicina gymnastica, oder von der Leibesübung, in Ansehung der
animalischen Oeconomie, oder der zu Erhaltung der Gesundheit des
menschlichen Lebens nöthigen Ordnung; und wie solche bey Curirung
verschiedener Krankheiten unumgänglich nöthig sey, von Franz Fuller, aus
der sechsten Englischen Herausgabe übersetzt. Lemgo, Johann Heinrich
Meyer, 1750.
[14] “De motu, optima corporis medicina.”
[15] “Vorstellung des unvergleichlichen Nutzens der Bewegung und
Leibes-Uebungen und wie man sich derselben zur Erhaltung der Gesundheit
zu bedienen habe.”
[16] “Unterricht für rechtschaffene Eltern, zur diätetischen Pflege ihrer
Säuglinge” (Berlin, A. Mylius, 1764. Second edition, 1771); and “Von der
diätetischen Erziehung der entwöhnten und erwachsenen Kinder bis in ihr
mannbares Alter” (Berlin, A. Mylius, 1765. Second edition 1771).
[17] “Avis aux gens de lettres et aux personnes sédentaires sur leur
santé, trad. du latin” (Paris, Herissant Fils, 1767). It was later
corrected by the author and published under the title “De la santé des
gens de lettres” (Lausanne, F. Grasset & Cie.; Lyon, Benoit Duplain; and
Paris, P. F. Didot le jeune, 1768). Other editions bearing the same title
appeared at Lausanne in 1769, 1770, 1772, and 1788; at Lyon in 1769; and
a “nouvelle édition, augmentée d’une notice sur l’auteur et de notes, par
F.-G. Boisseau,” in Paris (J.-B. Baillière) in 1825 and 1826.
[18] “S. A. D. Tissot, der Arzneygelahrtheit Doctor und öffentlicher
Lehrer zu Lausanne, der Königl. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften
zu London, der Medicinisch-Physischen Akademie in Basel, und der
Oekonomischen Gesellschaft in Bern Mitglied, von der Gesundheit der
Gelehrten. Aus dem Französischen übersetzt von Joh. Rud. Füesslin.”
Zurich, Füesslin und Compagnie, 1768. Later editions are said to have
appeared in Zurich in 1769 and 1775. The German translation was also
published in Leipzig (J. G. Müller) in 1768 and 1775.
[19] “An Essay on Diseases Incident to Literary and Sedentary Persons.
With Proper Rules for Preventing Their Fatal Consequences, and
Instructions for Their Cure. By S. A. Tissot, M.D., Professor of Physic
at Berne.... The Second Edition, with very large Additions. With a
Preface and Notes by J. Kirkpatrick, M.D. London: Printed for J. Nourse
... and E. and C. Dilly ... MDCCLXIX.” The English translation was also
published in Dublin (“Printed for James Williams, at No. 5, Skinner Row.
MDCCLXXII.”)
[20] “Råd till de Lärde och till dem som föra ett stillasittande
lefnadssätt. Af Tissot. Öfversättning i sammandrag. Pendant till
Underrättelse om Gymnastik. Upsala, hos Palmblad och C. 1821.” The
dedication “till studerande corpsen” is signed “Gustav von Heidenstam.”
[21] “Gymnastique médicinale et chirurgicale, ou essai sur l’utilité du
mouvement, ou des differens exercices du corps, et du repos dans la cure
des maladies; par M. Tissot, Docteur en Médecine, & Chirurgien-Major du
quatrième Regiment des Chevaux-Légers.” Paris: Bastien, Libraire, 1780.
[22] “Medicinische und chirurgische Gymnastik, oder Versuch über den
Nutzen der Bewegung oder der verschiedenen Leibesübungen, und der Ruhe
bey Heilung der Krankheiten. Aus dem französischen des Herrn Tissot,
mit Anmerkungen des Herausgebers bereichert. Mit Churfürstl. Sächs.
Privilegio. Leipzig, bey Friedrich Gotthold Jacobäer und Sohn, 1782.”
[23] “Medicinsk och Chirurgisk Gymnastik, eller Försök om nyttan af
Rörelse och Stillhet vid Sjukdomars botande. Af Herr Tissot, M.D., Öfver
Fältskär vid fjerde Regementet af Franska lätta Cavallerier. Stockholm,
Tryckt hos Bokhandlaren Joh. Dahl. 1797.”
CHAPTER X.
THE BEGINNINGS OF MODERN PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN GERMANY.
[Illustration: FIG. 9.—Johann Bernhard Basedow (1723-1790).]
_Johann Bernhard Basedow_ (1723-1790), the son of a Hamburg wigmaker,
attended school in his native city and was for several years a student
of theology in Leipsic, later accepted a position as private tutor, and
for eight years, from 1753 till 1761, was professor of moral philosophy
and belles-lettres in the school for young noblemen (Ritterakademie)
at Soröe, in Denmark. This institution belonged to a type common in
Continental countries during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.[24]
It had been founded in 1623 by Christian IV, who merely followed the
custom of the age when along with teachers of the literary branches he
appointed professional masters of riding, fencing, and dancing, a master
of gymnastics, and a special teacher of various games of ball. Basedow,
therefore, had before his eyes a system of education which actually made
the attempt to combine physical with mental training, in the case of
youth of a certain class. After leaving Soröe he taught for seven years
in Altona, near Hamburg. Thoughts of reform in school life had already
begun to fill his mind, and the appearance of Rousseau’s Émile (1762)
just at this time no doubt influenced him profoundly. In 1768 he gave
up teaching in order to devote himself wholly to the improvement of
educational methods.
For some years Basedow had been pondering plans for a model school which
should embody his ideas and force them upon the attention of educators,
and where among other innovations physical training should be given a
place in the daily program. The support of the Duke of Anhalt, at whose
invitation he removed to Dessau in 1771, enabled him to realize this
project, and on December 27, 1774, he opened there his private academy,
named by him the Philanthropinum. A year and a half later the number of
pupils was only fifteen, including Basedow’s daughter, and only three of
these were above eight years of age. But in spite of the unwillingness
of parents to subject their children to the new methods, and although
the founder himself soon resigned his position at the head of the
institution, the effects produced by the experiment were far-reaching
and it was watched with the greatest interest. Basedow severed all
connection with the school in the spring of 1778, but other men, with
greater capacity for organization and administration than he possessed,
continued the work in conformity with his views until 1793, when the
Dessau Educational Institute, as it had been called after the first few
years, finally closed its doors.
According to the prospectus issued in December of 1774, five hours a day
were to be allotted to studies, three hours to recreation in fencing,
riding, dancing, music, etc., and two hours to manual labor. Basedow
promises that if the numbers are sufficient and the ages suitable there
will be drill in military positions and movements, and frequent marches
on foot; he also hopes to have the school dwell under tents in the field
for two months of the summer, and in this way to give opportunities for
hunting and fishing, boating, bathing, climbing, and jumping, as well
as for the study of geography and the natural sciences. The physical
training of the pupils was first entrusted, as a part of his duties, to
_Johann Friedrich Simon_, a teacher in the Philanthropinum from January
2, 1776, to October 20, 1777; and he was succeeded by _Johann Jakob
Du Toit_, whose connection with the school lasted from Easter of 1778
until the end came in 1793. The earliest exercises mentioned are weekly
lessons in dancing, free instruction in fencing for the older boys, and
six lessons a week in the Duke’s private riding-school. The latter’s
riding-master also gave free instruction in vaulting the (living) horse.
Thus the “knightly exercises,” as these four were called, had all been
introduced, and Basedow himself refers to this fact, evidently recalling
the school at Soröe.
But children of such tender age plainly required a different sort of
bodily training, and accordingly it was not long before Simon began to
give his pupils lessons in what he termed “Greek gymnastics,” apparently
including under this head nothing more than orderly contests in running,
wrestling, throwing, and jumping, such as formed the staple of discipline
in the Greek palæstra. For the broad-jumping he used ditches, cut so
that they were perhaps eight feet across in the middle, but tapered
almost to a point at either end, the pupils starting with a width which
they could easily clear and working gradually toward the center as their
strength and skill increased. For the high-jump two vertical poles were
fixed at a distance of two and a half feet from each other in the ground,
reaching about five feet above its surface; into holes bored in these,
at intervals of an inch, wooden pegs were set at any desired height, and
a stick resting crosswise upon the pegs furnished a barrier which would
not injure the person who happened to strike it with his foot. Another of
Simon’s devices was a long round beam raised about four feet above the
ground and fastened firmly between posts at its thicker end and again
near the middle, but with the smaller half left unsupported. The pupils
were taught to balance themselves upon this beam, first at the fixed end,
while the teacher lent a hand from below, and then, as they accustomed
themselves little by little to the feat, upon the swaying portion, and
without assistance. A simpler exercise of the same character consisted in
crossing ditches on a narrow plank. The list of games, all of which were
under the oversight of a teacher, included shuttlecock, tennis or fives,
skittles, and playing with a large ball filled with air. For the younger
children there were also hoops and seesaw.
Under Simon’s successor, Du Toit, other varieties of exercise were added
from time to time—singing and reading aloud; swimming, skating, shooting
with the bow and with firearms; marching in time and playing soldier;
making excursions on foot into the surrounding country; walking up the
rounds of a ladder set obliquely, without the help of the hands, or
swinging from its under side and climbing hand-over-hand; carrying bags
full of sand with the arms stretched out horizontally at the sides,
while a teacher, walking among them, counted his steps aloud, and the
pupils noted the number when their muscles began to pain them, and when
they were finally overcome with fatigue, gauging thus the daily increase
in strength and endurance. Gardening is mentioned, and in the fall of
1777 working in wood was introduced—the use of the lathe and plane, and
cabinetmaking. Thus, at the very beginning of modern physical training,
and under these earliest teachers of the art, we find in embryo most of
the varied forms which have been advocated at one time or another since
that day, _i.e._, simple games and athletic sports, gymnastics, military
drill, manual labor and manual training, and school excursions. It will
be observed, further, that these exercises had been incorporated into the
plan of education as an essential factor, and that they were entrusted,
not to a special master, but to one of the regular teachers in the school.
Other institutions were soon started in imitation of the Dessau
Philanthropinum. The first of these was opened in October of 1775 at
Marschlins, in Switzerland, but closed its doors in the following year. A
second, at the castle Heidesheim, not far from Mannheim, lived only from
the first of May, 1777, until some time in 1779. The task of organization
in each instance was confided to Karl Friedrich Bahrdt, who had spent
four weeks at Dessau and was recommended by Basedow himself. But one
philanthropinistic school, the Schnepfenthal Educational Institute,
long outlived its parent, and has survived even to the present day. Its
founder, _Christian Gotthilf Salzmann_ (1744-1811), had been called
from a pastorate in Erfurt to become liturgist and teacher of religion
in the Philanthropinum at Dessau, remaining there from the spring of
1781 until the end of February, 1784, and he himself attributed much of
his later success to what he saw and learned in these three years. A
growing desire to carry out independently his ideas of education, upon
similar principles but with some important differences in organization
and surroundings, finally induced Salzmann to give up his position in
order to found a new school in the country, remote from the influences
of city life. The site selected for the venture was Schnepfenthal, an
estate in the vicinity of Gotha. Toward its purchase Duke Ernst II of
Saxe-Gotha contributed four thousand thaler, and the cornerstone of the
main building was laid June 18, 1784.
Besides the Director’s four children, there were during the first
year nine pupils, all of them under twelve years of age, and for the
instruction of this small number five assistants were employed. On July
18, 1785, _Christian Carl Andre_ entered upon his duties as a teacher
at the Institute, and to him Salzmann assigned the physical training of
the pupils. About eleven o’clock they were called away from other tasks
for the gymnastic lesson, commonly given in an open space under the oaks
which shaded a neighboring hill. Here a jumping-ditch had been dug, and a
balance-beam and pair of upright poles set up, like the ones at Dessau.
The new exercises mentioned at this period are throwing at a target,
running through the long jumping rope, pole-vaulting, and running up
and down hill. When the weather was unfavorable they practised indoors
various movements and positions intended to teach the proper carriage of
the body—the beginnings of our present “free exercises.” The knightly
exercises had not yet been introduced. After the midday meal the children
were allowed the time until two o’clock for relaxation and games, and
again in the evening these alternated with “musical entertainments.” The
whole of Sunday afternoons was set apart for amusements, excursions on
foot, and games under Andre’s direction. Pupils who showed proficiency in
the events of the morning were distinguished by a few oak leaves on the
hat, and as a further reward they were sometimes permitted by the teacher
to choose the exercises for the following day.
In July of 1786 this portion of Andre’s work was turned over to _Johann
Christoph Friedrich GutsMuths_ (1759-1839), who continued to discharge
the duties of the position for nearly fifty years. During fifteen years
of this time, _i.e._, from October of 1787 till 1802, Christian Ludwig
Lenz assisted him by giving instruction in swimming and vaulting. The
preëminence of GutsMuths among pioneers of modern physical education does
not rest upon priority in time—as we have seen, he was not the first,
but the fourth teacher of gymnastics in a school open to all classes
of society—but it is due rather to his long period of service, to the
character and results of his teaching and the favorable impression which
it made upon visitors, and to the series of volumes from his pen which
formed what has been aptly called the first normal school of physical
training for other teachers, and not in Germany alone, but elsewhere in
Europe and even beyond its borders. For these reasons his career deserves
somewhat extended notice.
GutsMuths, son of a tanner in moderate circumstances, was born August
9, 1759, in the ancient Prussian town of Quedlinburg. The boy’s
first library consisted of a great Bible illustrated with beautiful
copper-plate engravings, an old geography with woodcuts of the different
races of men, and, best beloved of all, the “Acerra philologica,” in
German. This last book, containing hundreds of selections from the
writings of well-known Greek and Latin authors, he read through a score
of times, he said, and it may have given him his first introduction to
the gymnastics of the ancients. He was also fond of working with tools,
and skilful with his pencil and afterwards with brush and paints. In
the spring of 1773, while he was in his third year at the _Gymnasium_
or classical secondary school of Quedlinburg, his father died. Four
years later, upon recommendation of the prorector of the _Gymnasium_, he
became private tutor in the family of Dr. Friedrich Wilhelm Ritter, a
respected physician in the town and medical adviser to the then abbess
of Quedlinburg, Princess Anna Amelia, sister of Frederick the Great.
GutsMuths now found his time fully occupied. Besides preparing his own
school tasks, he must teach the two oldest of Dr. Ritter’s four sons and
a merchant’s boy whom he had also accepted as a pupil, and to fit himself
the better to discharge the new duties he studied carefully Basedow’s
“Elementarwerk” (1774) and especially the “Methodenbuch” (1770).
In 1779 GutsMuths entered the university of Halle, intending to take
up the study of theology; but inclination led him to attend as well
courses in mathematics, physics and modern languages (including English
and Italian), and pedagogy, too, continued to interest him greatly.
After three years in Halle he returned to Quedlinburg to resume his old
position in the Ritter household, where there were now six children,
five of them boys and the oldest barely nine years old. The next to the
youngest, aged three, was Karl, the geographer-to-be. Only two years
later, in June, 1784, Dr. Ritter succumbed to a severe attack of typhoid
fever. His young widow found herself unable to continue the salary which
GutsMuths had been receiving, but he was unwilling to desert the family
in its time of need and was easily persuaded to remain for another year
in spite of the changed circumstances.
During this same year Salzmann was making preparations to open his new
educational institution at Schnepfenthal, about seventy miles away
to the south and west in a straight line. Already teachers had been
selected, but outside of his own large family there were no pupils on the
grounds. He decided to receive without charge, as the first of these,
some promising lad not yet beyond his sixth year, and having learned of
Dr. Ritter’s death from a published announcement, sent two friends to
Quedlinburg to see whether there might not be among his sons a suitable
candidate. As a result, Frau Ritter was asked to part with her favorite
Karl. June 7, 1785, taking the boy and his brother Johannes, four years
older, she set out for Schnepfenthal, accompanied by GutsMuths, and
reached there at noon of the 9th. A stay of several days led to such
favorable impressions on both sides that she accepted Salzmann’s offer to
receive _both_ children, and GutsMuths consented to remain as a permanent
assistant. He made the return journey to Quedlinburg with the widow,
arranged his affairs in the home city, and on the 30th of the same month
was again in Schnepfenthal, ready to take up the new tasks.
[Illustration: FIG. 10.—J. C. F. GutsMuths (1759-1839) and Karl Ritter
(Anders monument in Quedlinburg).]
[Illustration: FIG. 11.—Portrait of GutsMuths, and Views of Schnepfenthal
and Vicinity (Deutsche Turn-Zeitung).]
The life story of GutsMuths during the next half century, apart
from his work as teacher and author, is soon told. In a letter to a
university friend, written in June, 1791, he speaks of his garden, and
of cabinetmaking and wood-turning; he has daily gymnastic exercises with
the children in good weather, goes shooting in the fall, and in winter
skates on the meadows and coasts down the neighboring hills; he is an
industrious botanist, still takes up his brush occasionally, painting
portraits especially, but also landscapes from Nature, and enjoys the use
of a very good pianoforte by one of the best German makers; he mentions
the many distinguished visitors (Goethe, Wieland, Kotzebue and others),
but says that of more importance to him is the Gotha library of seventy
thousand volumes from which he has permission to draw whatever books he
desires, through a messenger who makes trips back and forth every day or
two. The school itself has a good collection of books, and he has been
made librarian. Together with an English pupil he has read much in that
language.
Twelve years after his arrival in Schnepfenthal, on August 15, 1791,
GutsMuths was married to Sophie Eckardt, a niece of Salzmann’s wife.
They occupied a storehouse on the grounds, at first, but after fifteen
months moved into a home of their own in the little village of Ibenhain,
a half mile distant in the valley. There they gradually improved and
beautified the dwelling and its surroundings, laid out a garden which
became famous for its flowers and fruit, and by the purchase of adjoining
pieces of ground from time to time came at length to be possessors of a
considerable estate, the source of much pleasure and not a little profit.
The family life seems to have been an ideal one. Eight sons and three
daughters were born to the couple, and two of the children who married
during his lifetime presented their parents with six grandchildren.
“Father” Salzmann died in 1811, but his son Karl succeeded to the
directorship and the new administration brought no change in GutsMuths’
relations with the school. The completion of fifty years of teaching,
celebrated June 1, 1835, found him still in full enjoyment of his powers
and busy in his calling. He continued in active service up to the end of
March, 1839, and died on the 21st of the following May, after a brief and
painless illness.
In the earlier years, while pupils and teachers were few, GutsMuths gave
instruction in various elementary subjects, but especially in geography
and the French language. Gymnastics was added, as we have seen, in July,
1786. Later, when he had moved to Ibenhain, he confined himself to his
favorite subjects—the gymnastic lesson from 11 to 12 daily (until the
summer of 1835), and geography and technology between 2 and 4. After 1802
he was swimming teacher as well. Salzmann had expected not more than
twelve pupils at the start, but in the fall of 1785 there were already
thirteen, including four of his own children, and the numbers steadily
increased during the next two decades, to forty-nine in 1790, fifty-two
in 1800, and sixty-one in 1803. The war which broke out in 1806 led to
a marked falling off, followed by another rise, from twenty-two at the
beginning of 1814 to thirty-six three years later, and forty-one in 1823.
For full information regarding the sort of gymnastic exercises which
GutsMuths practised with his pupils we turn, of course, to his books.
With few exceptions they were taken outdoors, in a spot set apart for
the purpose and provided with the necessary apparatus. Already at
Dessau, and by his predecessor Andre at Schnepfenthal, a varied list of
suitable forms had been elaborated: Marching in time, walking on the
balance beam and crossing ditches on the edge of a plank, jumping over
a stick placed on jump stands, pole vaulting, jumping across a ditch,
vaulting, carrying weights with outstretched arms, throwing at a target,
foot-races, running and jumping through a long rope swung by two persons,
simple free exercises indoors, skating and coasting, and long walks. Most
or all of these GutsMuths continued to employ, modifying them, however,
and making numerous additions as experience suggested. During the summer
of 1794, for example, or before it, he has the pupils going up and down
a rope ladder, swinging on vertical ropes, climbing a mast, hanging
and travelling on the under side of a horizontal beam, balancing rods
on the fingers, going through various exercises while standing on one
foot, jumping over a rope swung close to the ground, throwing a wooden
discus, wrestling, pushing against each other, lifting a weight hung on
a rod and moved toward or from the hands according to the strength of
the individual, estimating distance with the eye, and reading aloud so
as to be heard by a person stationed at varying distances. He kept an
accurate record of each pupil’s performance in order to note his needs
and progress.
Meanwhile gardening and other forms of manual labor and training were
not neglected by Salzmann. Terraces were laid out upon the sides of a
hill near the school, and here each pupil had his own patch of flowers,
vegetables, and fruit to cultivate, earning pocket money by selling
produce to the Institute. During the first year a bookbinder in the
neighboring village of Waltershausen had given instruction in his trade
and in the manufacture of little boxes, pen cases, and baskets out of
pasteboard; and after the spring of 1796 one of the regular teachers,
who had been employed in various mechanical pursuits and was unusually
skilful with his hands, continued this instruction in pasteboard work
and also taught the pupils to make wooden models of tools and machines
used in the various handicrafts, in milling, etc. Now and then a whole
day was passed in the open air by teachers and pupils, who enjoyed their
lunch together at some attractive spot in the woods. Longer excursions
on foot, when the smaller children were left at home and a wagon was
required to carry the baggage of the party are occasionally mentioned.
Thus we read of a four days’ excursion in October, 1798, undertaken by a
company numbering forty-five persons; and in another year the journeys of
Salzmann with his pupils amounted altogether to more than a hundred miles.
[Illustration: FIG. 12.—Title-page of “Gymnastik für die Jugend” (1793).]
Joseph Röckl, a professor of pedagogy, passed nine days at the school in
1805, and in a published record of his observations commends the frugal
diet there, the light and simple clothing, the unusually airy rooms for
sleeping and study, the regard for personal cleanliness, the active
outdoor life, regular walks, work in the garden, and especially the
gymnastic exercises. He visited, with GutsMuths, the newly erected riding
school, the grounds for jumping and vaulting, and the swimming pool;
watched the pupils handling saw, plane, and chisel, or engaged in paste
work; and learned of the occasional festivals and the yearly excursions.
He doubts whether anywhere in all Germany there is an educational
institution which devotes more care to the physical well-being of its
scholars.
[Illustration: FIG. 13.—One of the plates in “Gymnastik für die Jugend”
(1793).]
Other visitors also came to Schnepfenthal, and went away to spread
the news of what was undertaken and accomplished there. The lasting
fame of GutsMuths, however, depends less upon the example furnished
by his fifty years of teaching than upon his books, two of which, at
least, the “Gymnastics for the Young” (1793), and its continuation, the
“Games” (1796), not only constitute the first modern manuals on those
subjects, but deserve to rank as classics. The former[25] was issued in
two volumes, which contain altogether about seven hundred pages, nine
copper-plate illustrations of various exercises, and a folding sheet
with explanatory drawings of apparatus. The first volume is divided into
five chapters: 1, We are weak because it does not occur to us that we
could be strong if we only would. 2, Consequences of the common method
of education, and especially the neglect of bodily training. 3, All the
means hitherto employed against lack of hardihood are insufficient. 4,
Gymnastics proposed and objections answered. 5, The effects and object
of gymnastics. The second and larger volume is a practical handbook,
arranged as follows: Chapter 6, Gymnastics defined, the open-air
gymnasium described, the exercises classified. 7-15, Different sorts of
jumping, running, throwing, wrestling, climbing, balancing, lifting,
carrying, pulling, dancing, walking, military exercises, bathing and
swimming. 16, Behavior in case of fire, keeping watch at night, fasting.
17, Loud reading and declaiming. 18, Exercises of the senses. 19, The
exercises classified, according to the different parts of the body which
each affects. 20, Method, use of time, general rules. 21, Manual labor
and training. A second edition of the work, so much altered that it is
virtually a new treatise, was published in 1804.[26]
In the volume “Games,”[27] of which two editions appeared in the first
year and a third in 1802, an introduction of about fifty pages is
followed by detailed descriptions of one hundred and five different
games, arranged in natural groups and according to the faculties which
they test or tend to develop, _e.g._, attention, observation, memory,
judgment. The other works of GutsMuths include a “Manual of the Art of
Swimming” (1798, 2d ed., 1833),[28] “Mechanical Avocations for Youths
and Men” (1801, 2d ed., 1809),[29] “Book of Gymnastics for the Sons of
the Fatherland” (1817),[30] and “Catechism of Gymnastics: a Manual for
Teachers and Pupils” (1818).[31] Some idea of the wide influence exerted
by these books may be gained from the fact that the “Gymnastics for the
Young” was pirated outright in Austria (the 2d ed., Vienna, 1805);[32]
appeared in the form of translations more or less altered and condensed
in Denmark (Copenhagen, 1799),[33] England (London, 1800),[34] the United
States (Philadelphia, 1802. This is a reprint of the London edition, and
in both the work is wrongly attributed to _Salzmann_ on the title page.
See footnote on p. 89),[35] and Holland (The Hague, Amsterdam, and Breda,
1806);[36] was epitomized and issued under a different name in Bavaria
(Stadtamhof, 1800),[37] France (Paris, 1803),[38] and Sweden (Lund,
1813);[39] was freely drawn upon by Clias in the “Elements of Gymnastics”
which he published in German (1816), French (1819) and English (1823);
and with these books of Clias served as the basis of Young’s Italian
manual (Milan, 1825).[40] Of the “Games,” six editions (revised) have
been published since the author’s death, the last of them in 1914. In
addition to his books on physical training GutsMuths wrote numerous ones
devoted to _Geography_, and rendered an important service to educational
science through the _Bibliothek der paedagogischen Litteratur_, which he
edited and published in the years 1800-1820 (53 volumes).[41]
[Illustration: FIG. 14.—Title-page of the English translation of
“Gymnastik für die Jugend” (1800).]
[Illustration: FIG. 15.—Footnote on p. 89 of the English translation of
“Gymnastik für die Jugend.”]
Chronologically the names of _Franz Nachtegall_ (1777-1847), _Per
Henrik Ling_ (1776-1839) and _Friedrich Ludwig Jahn_ (1778-1853) should
follow those of the German pioneers who taught and wrote in Dessau and
at Schnepfenthal. These men, however, are best studied in connection
with the later results of their life work, _i.e._, statewide physical
education in Denmark, the Swedish system of school gymnastics, and the
popular gymnastic societies (Turnvereine) of Germany, to each of which a
separate chapter is devoted.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
_General_
Encyklopädisches Handbuch des gesamten Turnwesens und der verwandten
Gebiete. In Verbindung mit zahlreichen Fachgenossen herausgegeben von Dr.
Carl Euler, Schulrat, Professor, Unterrichts-Dirigent der königlichen
Turnlehrerbildungs-Anstalt in Berlin. Wien und Leipzig, A. Pichler’s
Witwe & Sohn, 1894-1896. Three volumes.
Geschichte des Turnunterrichts. Bearbeitet von Professor Dr. Carl Euler,
Unterrichts-Dirigent der Königl. Zentral-Turnanstalt in Berlin. Zweite
Auflage. Gotha, E. F. Thienemanns Hofbuchhandlung, 1891. There is also a
“dritte Auflage, neu bearbeitet von Carl Rossow, Turnlehrer am Königl.
Wilhelms-Gymnasium in Berlin,” issued by the same publisher in 1907.
Die Turnübungen in den Philanthropinen zu Dessau, Marschlins, Heidesheim
und Schnepfenthal. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des neueren Turnwesens. Von
Dr. Karl Wassmannsdorff. Sonderabdruck aus der _deutschen Turnzeitung_.
Heidelberg, Karl Groos, 1870.
Neue Jahrbücher für die Turnkunst (NJT). Published in Dresden (vols.
1-27) and Leipzig (vols. 28-40) 1855-1894. There were six numbers a year
1855-1881, and twelve numbers 1882-1894. In 1880 the name was changed to
“Jahrbücher der deutschen Turnkunst.”
Deutsche Turn-Zeitung (DTZ). Leipzig, since 1856. This is the official
organ (weekly) of the Deutsche Turnerschaft.
Monatsschrift für das Turnwesen (MT). Berlin, 1882-1920.
Körper und Geist (KG). Published under this title, 26 numbers a year,
in Leipzig from April 1, 1902 (vol. XI), through December, 1920 (Vol.
XXIX). It was started April 1, 1892, as the “Zeitschrift für Turnen und
Jugendspiel” (24 numbers a year), and ten volumes were published under
that title.
Karl Wassmannsdorff, in NJT 1855: 28, 153, 247, and 323; 1887: 56; MT
1882: 18, 49, and 76; and DTZ 1887: 700 and 715.
Ferd. Brehmer, in DTZ 1911: 806.
G. Meier, in NJT 1890: 257, 311, and 408.
W. Moestue, in KG 13: 213, 327, and 359 (1904 and 1905).
Jaro Pawel, in NJT 1891: 15.
Otto Richter, in DTZ 1890: 470, 603, and 622.
Richard Winter, in DTZ 1910: 189, 358, and 597.
_GutsMuths_
GutsMuths’ pädagogisches Verdienst um die Pädagogik, die Geographie und
das Turnen. Inaugural-Dissertation zur Erlangung der Doctorwürde der
Hohen Philosophischen Facultät der Universität Leipzig vorgelegt von
Adolf B. Netsch, aus Oberkunnersdorf bei Löbau in Sachsen. Hof. a. S.,
Rud. Lion, 1901.
Johann Christoph Friedrich GutsMuths. Erweiterter Separatabdruck aus der
Festschrift zur Feier des 100jährigen Bestehens von Schnepfenthal. Von
Dr. Karl Wassmannsdorff. Heidelberg, Karl Groos, 1884.
Karl Wassmannsdorff, in DTZ 1865: 400, 409; 1884: 317, 354; NJT 1884:
233, 290, 340, 392, 430, 476; 1888: 3, 49; 1890: 41; 1894: 15, 53, 101,
and 145.
H. Brendike, in DTZ 1886: 551.
Carl Euler, in DTZ 1871: 133; NJT 1872: 2, 149; MT 1885: 217; 1886: 201;
1899: 136.
P. M. Kawerau, in DTZ 1859: 61.
M. Kloss, in NJT 1858: 249.
E. Witte, in KG 13: 33 (1904).
Other articles in DTZ 1861: 241; MT 1902: 302; and KG 13: 124, 127, and
142 (1904).
FOOTNOTES:
[24] Dr. Karl Wassmannsdorff has described in the _Deutsche Turnzeitung_
(1870, pages 35-40 and 41-42) two of the oldest German _Ritterschulen_,
the first founded in 1575 at Selz, in Alsace, and the second the
_Collogium Illustre_ at Tübingen, Württemberg, opened in 1594. The
article is reprinted in Hirth’s “Das gesamte Turnwesen,” second edition,
1893, =1=: 290-303.
[25] “Gymnastik für die Jugend. Enthaltend eine praktische Anweisung zu
Leibesübungen. Ein Beytrag zur nöthigsten Verbesserung der körperlichen
Erziehung. Von GutsMuths, Erzieher zu Schnepfenthal.” Schnepfenthal:
Verlag der Buchhandlung der Erziehungsanstalt, 1793. Bound in two
volumes. The centenary of the book’s appearance was the occasion of
complete and partial reprints as follows:
“Gymnastik für die Jugend von GutsMuths. Unveränderte Ausgabe der ersten,
in Jahre 1793 erschienenen Auflage, veranstaltet von Gustav Lukas ... Mit
11 Tafeln.” Wien und Leipzig, A. Pichler’s Witwe & Sohn, 1893.
“GutsMuths, 1793, 1893. Die Kupfer und Einiges vom Texte des ersten
Turnunterrichtsbuches der Welt, ‘Schnepfenthal 1793.’ Mit einer
turngeschichtlichen Einleitung von Dr. Karl Wassmannsdorff, einem
Facsimile der Handschrift Jahn’s in Schnepfenthal, dem Idealturnplatze
Basedow’s vom J. 1771 und einem Bilde des Herausgebers.” Leipzig, Eduard
Strauch, 1893.
[26] “Gymnastik für die Jugend, enthaltend eine praktische Anweisung
zu Leibesübungen. Ein Beytrag zur nöthigsten Verbesserung der
körperlichen Erziehung. Von J. C. F. GutsMuths, Fürstlich N. W. Hofrath
und Mitarbeiter an der Erziehungsanstalt zu Schnepfenthal. Zweite
durchaus umgearbeitete und stark vermehrte Ausgabe mit 12 von dem Verf.
gezeichneten Tafeln.” Schnepfenthal, Buchhandlung der Erziehungsanstalt,
1804.
[27] “Spiele zur Uebung und Erholung des Körpers und Geistes, für die
Jugend, ihre Erzieher und alle Freunde unschuldiger Jugendfreuden.
Gesammelt und praktisch bearbeitet von GutsMuths, Erzieher zu
Schnepfenthal. Mit einem Titelkupfer und sechzehn kleinen Rissen.”
Schnepfenthal, Verlag der Buchhandlung der Erziehungsanstalt, 1796.
A second edition of the “Spiele” appeared in 1796, and a third in 1802;
a fourth, revised and with a new introduction by F. W. Klumpp, in 1845;
and a fifth, sixth, and seventh, revised by O. Schettler, with Klumpp’s
additions and 33 woodcuts, in 1878, 1884, and 1885. An eighth edition,
edited by Dr. J. C. Lion, was published at Hof (Rudolf Lion) in 1893, and
a ninth at the same place in 1914, “neu bearbeitet von Georg Thiele.”
Danish translations of the “Spiele” were published as follows; R.
Nyerup, “Beskrivelse over nogle Lege,” in _Borgervennen_ 1800 nos.
41-44, 1801 nos. 11 and 12, and 1802 no. 4; and Jo. Werfel, “Nyeste
Samling af gymnastiske Lege, Selskabslege og Julelege, til Tidsfordriv
og Fornöjelse. Efter Gutsmuths,” Copenhagen 1801 (The same book was
published again in Copenhagen in 1802 under the title: “Walter og hans
Elever i deres Fritimer.”).
[28] “Kleines Lehrbuch der Schwimmkunst zum Selbstunterrichte; enthaltend
eine vollständige praktische Anweisung zu allen Arten des Schwimmens
nach den Grundsätzen der neuen Italienischen Schule des Bernardi und
der älteren Deutschen, bearbeitet von J. C. F. GutsMuths, Mitarbeiter
in der Erziehungsanstalt zu Schnepfenthal. Weimar, im Verlage des
Industrie-Comptoirs, 1798.” A Danish translation was published under the
title:
“J. C. Fr. GutsMuths: Lærebog i Svømmekonsten til Selvundervisning;
indeholdende en fuldstaendig praktisk Anvisning til alle Arter af
Svømmen. Overs. og udg. (translated and published) af L. Reistrup.”
Copenhagen, 1800.
“Kleines Lehrbuch der Schwimmkunst zum Selbstunterrichte; enthaltend eine
vollständige practische Anweisung zu allen Arten des Schwimmens nach den
Grundsätzen der neuen Italienischen Schule des Bernardi und der alten
allgemeinen Schwimmschule bearbeitet von Hofrath J. C. F. GutsMuths,
Mitarbeiter in der Erziehungsanstalt zu Schnepfenthal. Zweite genau
durchgesehene, verbesserte und vermehrte Auflage.” Weimar: Im Verlage des
Landes-Industrie-Comptoirs. 1833.
[29] “Mechanische Nebenbeschäftigungen für Jünglinge und Männer,
enthaltend eine praktische, auf Selbstbelehrung berechnete Anweisung zur
Kunst des Drehens, Metallarbeitens und des Schleifens optischer Gläser.
Als Anhang zu seiner Gymnastik von J. C. F. GutsMuths, Mitarbeiter in der
Erziehungsanstalt zu Schnepfenthal.” Leipzig und Altenburg, bei J. C.
Hinrichs, 1801. Second edition, unchanged, in 1809.
[30] “Turnbuch für die Söhne des Vaterlandes. Von Joh. Chr. Fried.
GutsMuths. Mit vier Kupfertafeln.” Frankfurt am Mayn: Bei den Gebrüdern
Wilmans, 1817.
[31] “Katechismus der Turnkunst (Kurzer Abriss der deutschen Gymnastik),
ein Leitfaden für Lehrer und Schüler von J. C. F. GutsMuths.” Frankfurt
a. M.: Bei den Gebrüdern Wilmans, 1818.
[32] Wien: In Kommission bei Anton Doll, 1805. This is the second
edition, reprinted with a few unimportant alterations.
[33] “Kort Anviisning til Legemsøvelser. Et Udtog af Gutsmuths Gymnastik,
Udgivet paa Dansk af V. K. Hjort.” Copenhagen: Paa Hofboghandler S.
Poulsen’s Forlag. 1799.
[34] “Gymnastics for Youth: or a Practical Guide to Healthful and
Amusing Exercises for the Use of Schools. An Essay toward the Necessary
Improvement of Education, Chiefly as it relates to the Body; freely
translated from the German of C. G. Salzmann. Master of the Academy at
Schnepfenthal, and author of Elements of Morality, Illustrated with
Copper Plates.” London: J. Johnson. 1800.
[35] The title page differs from that of the London edition only in the
imprint: “Philadelphia: Printed by William Duane, No. 106 Market Street,
1802.”
[36] “Volledig Leerstelsel van kunstmatige Ligchaams-oefeningen. Een
Bijdrage tot de Opvoeding der Jeugd. Gevolgt naar het Hoogduitsch van
J. C. F. GutsMuths, Hofraad, en Leeraar op de Kweekschool van den Heere
Salzmann, te Schnepfenthal, door Jan van Geuns ... ’s Gravenhage,
Amsterdam en Breda: Bij de Gebroeders van Cleef en W. van Bergen & Comp.”
In two volumes, published in 1806 and 1813. A second edition, unchanged,
appeared in 1818.
[37] “Entwurf zu einer Gymnastik, oder Anleitung zu Leibesübungen für
die Jugend, grössten Theils nach Art der alten Römer und Griechen; aber
alle nach den Bedürfsnissen und Umständen unsers Zeitalters gesammelt,
und in ein regelmässiges Ganzegebracht, von Johann Nepomuck Fischer,
Weltpriester. Stadtamhof, bey Joh. Mich Daisenberger. 1800.”
Reprinted under the title: “Des Weltpriesters Joh. Nep. Fischer Auszug
aus GutsMuths’ Gymnastik für die Jugend v. J. 1793, verfasst i. J. 1799.
Neu herausgegeben von Karl Wassmannsdorff. Den Freunden der Geschichte
des deutschen Turnwesens gewidmet.” Hof, Grau & Co. (Rud. Lion). 1872.
[38] “La Gymnastique de la jeunesse, ou traité élémentaire des jeux
d’exercice, considérés sous le rapport de leur utilité physique et
morale; par M. A. Amar Durivier, et L. F. Jauffret. Ouvrage orné de 30
gravures. A Paris, chez A. G. Debray, Libraire, près le Louvre, place du
Muséum, no. 9. An XI (1803).”
[39] “Gymnastik för Swenska Ungdomen, eller Kort Anvisning till
Kroppsöfningar. Öfversättning (by H. F. Sjöbeck, docent at the University
of Lund). Med ett Kopparstick. Lund, 1813. Tryckt uti Berlingska
Boktryckeriet.”
[40] “Ginnastica elementare o sia corso analitico e graduato degli
esercizi atti a sviluppare ed a fortificare l’organizzazione dell’
uomo, estratto dalle opere dei celebri autori di ginnastica Professori
Clias e Guts-Muths, compilato da E. Young, colonello ... ed arricchito
di 13 Tavole in rame.” Milano: Per Giovanni Silvestri. 1825.
“Elementar-Gymnastik oder zergliederte, stufenweise Anleitung zu jenen
Leibes-Übungen, welche vorzüglich geeignet sind, den menschlichen Körper
zu entwickeln, auszubilden und zu stärken. Nach den Werken der rühmlichst
bekannten Gymnastiker und Professoren Clias und GutsMuths bearbeitet
von E. Young, Oberst, Kommandant der K. K. Militär Erziehungs-Anstalt
in Mailand.... Mit 22 Kupfertafeln. Aus dem Italienischen übersetzt von
K. K. Oberleutnant S. Poschacher. Mailand, aus der kaiserl. königl.
Buchdruckerey. 1827.”
[41] The “Encyclopædia of Bodily Exercises” (_Encyklopädie der
Leibesübungen._ Three volumes, 1794, 1795, 1818) published by Gerhard
Ulrich Anton Vieth (1763-1836) of the Dessau _Hauptschule_ (not the
Philanthropinum), and the important pioneer work of Don Francisco Amoros
(1770-1848) in Madrid and Paris and of Phokion Heinrich Clias (1782-1854)
in Switzerland, England, and France, are omitted here for lack of space,
but have been discussed at length in an article which appeared in the
_American Physical Education Review_ for June, 1904 (IX: 89-110). The
sketches of Amoros and Clias, without bibliography, are reprinted as
chapters V and VI in the writer’s “Pioneers of Modern Physical Training”
(New York, Association Press, 1915).
CHAPTER XI.
FRIEDRICH LUDWIG JAHN, AND POPULAR GYMNASTICS IN GERMANY.
Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, the father of popular gymnastics (_Volks-_ or
_Vereinsturnen_) in Germany, was born August 11, 1778, at Lanz, a
Prussian hamlet lying midway between Hamburg and Berlin and only a few
miles distant from the right bank of the Elbe. His father, the village
pastor, was a large and vigorous man, faithful to all the varied duties
of his office, and at the same time a thrifty manager of the parochial
estate, fond of his garden, and with hop-fields and sheep of his own. The
mother was a strong, brave woman of Puritan type, devoutly religious,
severely plain in her manner of living, industrious and economical, and
not unlike the peasant women of the parish in outward appearance. Their
only other child was a daughter, born two years before.
The first thirteen years of the boy’s life were spent at home, mostly
outdoors and in the company of older persons. At the age of four he began
to read with his mother in Luther’s translation of the Bible, a book
with which he afterwards showed great familiarity. This was followed by
Pufendorf’s record of the Great Elector’s deeds and by the historical
writings of Frederick the Great. The latter monarch died when Jahn was
eight years old, and was made a very real hero to him by the tales of
veterans of the Seven Years’ War living in the neighborhood and of
troopers attracted by the rich pasturage there. In addition to Latin his
father taught him history, geography, and the German language, which
soon became his favorite studies and continued to interest him deeply
throughout his school and university days.
Rich cultivated lands and broad meadows alternate with pine woods
and patches of arid, sandy soil on the surface of the alluvial plain
which reaches out in all directions from Lanz. Not allowed to mingle
much with the peasant children, Jahn roamed these neighboring fields
and forests, learned from grown-up acquaintances to ride and swim and
shoot, helped his father in the garden, went with him across the Elbe
to market the hops at Dannenberg, in the electorate of Hannover, and
accompanied other hop-growers as far as Lübeck, Wismar, and Rostock,
on the Baltic. His mother came from Neustadt, in the adjoining duchy
of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and frequent trips with smugglers across
the borders of this state, only ten miles away to the north, made him
thoroughly at home on every road and foot path leading thither. It was
this frontier life and his early visits to other states that made it
easy for Jahn in later years to disregard sectional barriers and to view
as citizens of a common country all who spoke the German language. The
relation of lord and vassal was unknown in Lanz and most of the peasants
owned the farms they tilled. Jahn breathed in the prevailing spirit of
self-reliance and independence, and grew up sturdy and fearless, fond of
his native language and customs, and proud of the history of Prussia, and
of Brandenburg, his own province, in particular.
[Illustration: FIG. 16.—Friedrich Ludwig Jahn (1778-1852).]
On October 8, 1791, he entered the higher classical school (_Gymnasium_)
at Salzwedel, an old Prussian town about twenty-five miles to the
southwest of Lanz. Notwithstanding the lack of system and completeness
in his home training the boy’s marked natural ability, his gift of quick
perception, and his retentive memory must have led to rapid progress;
for three years later (September 27, 1794), at the age of sixteen, he
was received into the eighth class (_Unter-prima_) at the _Gymnasium zum
grauen Kloster_ in Berlin. On the 17th of the following April, after
spending only six months at this second school, he left for home suddenly
and without taking leave, so that for a time the authorities supposed
some accident had befallen him. In contrast with the outdoor life and the
comparative freedom from restraint of his earlier years, he had found
the confinement and orderly discipline of the classroom doubly irksome;
and his country plainness, not to say roughness, of speech and manners
and want of familiarity with city ways, together with his independent
spirit and the absence of intimate companionship with boys of his own age
while he was living at home, had led to repeated misunderstandings with
teachers and fellow-pupils alike.
His university career was even more irregular and stormy, but now his
native capacity for leadership and a certain rugged eloquence in public
speaking began to reveal themselves. For five years, dating from April
27, 1796, he was a student in the University of Halle. In obedience to
his father’s wish he undertook the study of theology; but it was not in
his nature, nor had his imperfect preparation fitted him, to take one
of the usual professional courses. Prussian and German history and the
German language and literature, subjects generally neglected at that
day but dear to his own heart from childhood, absorbed more and more
of his time and thought. Thus, after three years we find him selling,
for ten thalers, the manuscript of a small treatise on “The Promotion
of Patriotism in Prussia,”[42] a glorification of that state and its
rulers, and a plea for more attention to the study of Prussian history in
the schools and universities as a means of developing love of country.
The purchaser published the work a year later, with his own name on the
title page. Meanwhile Jahn’s habits of study continued to be desultory.
Although he attended lectures, and in the philological seminar of F. A.
Wolf won that scholar’s commendation for his “language instinct,” few of
the courses begun were completed in orderly fashion, and his work was
interrupted by frequent excursions on foot to various parts of Germany.
Another disturbing factor was the war which he soon declared against
the student clubs and associations of fellow-countrymen known as
_Landsmannschaften_, the predecessors of the present _Corps_.
The sectional character of these “circles” is evident from their
names—Westphalians, Pomeranians, Silesians, Magdeburgers, Anhalters,
etc.; and it seems to have been their spirit of narrow provincialism,
coupled with the dissolute life and constant duelling of their
members, which roused him to an almost fanatical opposition and was
the occasion of incessant brawls. His increasing difficulties with the
Landsmannschaften and the effort to unite against them all students
outside their ranks brought him at length into conflict with the academic
authorities, and he left Halle to continue the same passionate struggle
for a time at Jena, where his eloquence gained him a considerable
following among the students.
Apparently it was a desire to study the Northern languages that carried
him next into what was then Swedish Pomerania, where he was received
into the University of Greifswald May 31, 1802, enrolling himself under a
false name. Here, too, in spite of poverty, he soon became a recognized
leader. It was rumored that he belonged to the proscribed secret order
of Unitists. However this may have been, before many months had passed
certain wild student pranks and the violent outcome of a factional feud
resulted in his appearance before the academic authorities, by whom he
and a fellow student were given, on February 7, 1803, the _consilium
abeundi_.
After the turmoil of his school and university life there now succeeded
a period of quiet teaching and literary labors, during which the man
gathered himself together, formed those settled convictions which were
the mainspring of his future career, and gave evidence of his underlying
strength and soundness of character. For two years he was a private
tutor, in Neubrandenburg until the end of September, 1804, and then at
the Torgelow glass-works, twenty-five miles westward. The first of these
years witnessed a foreshadowing of the great work begun seven years later
in Berlin. Every evening he gave his pupils, the sons of Baron Lefort,
instruction in swimming, in a brook near the town, followed by practice
in running, climbing, jumping, and wrestling on a neighboring height,
and by a few lively games. Any other boys who happened to be present,
although strangers to him and with no claim upon his services, were made
welcome, and in this way the number was increased to twenty or thirty.
New and equally vigorous outdoor exercises were substituted in the late
fall and winter months.
On October 1, 1805, Jahn took public leave of his Mecklenburg friends
through the columns of the _Strelitz’scher Anzeiger_. His next move,
made in the interest of literary plans and to favor his own advancement,
was to Göttingen. Some months were spent in linguistic studies at the
University, and in the summer of 1806 he removed to Jena, where he
completed a volume of “Contributions to High German Synonymy,” embodying
material collected in all parts of Germany during the excursions of his
university days. The book is the work of an ardent friend of the German
language, and not of a scientific philologist; and it reveals the keen
observer of the country and its inhabitants, as well as the student of
popular dialects.
Jahn had hoped to get a footing in the university at Göttingen, it
seems; but in the fall of 1806, while he was sojourning in the Harz
Mountains, his plans were suddenly changed and his thoughts turned
from the classroom to the camp. Napoleon’s incursions and his insolent
treatment, which were threatening the very existence of Prussia, had at
last compelled Frederick-William III to take up arms against the French.
Learning that war was inevitable, Jahn immediately gave up his visit
and hastened toward the army which was gathering in Thuringia, intending
to volunteer his services. Delayed by swollen streams, he reached Jena
on the day of the battle (October 16, 1806), saw the last struggle and
the crushing defeat, and joined the fleeing soldiery as a “volunteer
fugitive.” Frederick-William’s ill-prepared and poorly officered troops
had proved an easy prey for the French. One by one the great fortresses
were surrendered and garrisoned by the enemy’s forces, the royal family
was forced to flee from Berlin, and by the Treaty of Tilsit (July, 1807)
Prussia lost half her territory and became virtually a mere province of
France, overrun by the soldiers of the conqueror and entirely at his
mercy.
Jahn’s flight and later wanderings led him by wide detours to Halle and
Magdeburg, down the Elbe, across to the Baltic and westward along the
coast to Lübeck (November 5), thence into Silesia, apparently, and back
again to Jena, where he remained until the Treaty of Tilsit. Afterwards,
until the fall of 1809, he spent a portion of his time at home, but lived
for the most part with a friend at Dammeretz, on the Elbe some distance
below Lanz. Before the outbreak of the war he had been engaged on two
works, a “Handbook for Germans,” and “German Nationality” (_Deutsches
Volksthum_); but the manuscript of both seems to have been lost in
the days following the battle of Jena. The former was not rewritten,
but the latter, his chief literary work, was again ready in 1808 (the
introduction is dated October 14, at Lanz) and appeared at Lübeck in
the spring of 1810. Its central thought is the unity of Germany, and in
its pages his controlling passion for the German language, customs, and
history, his intense love for the fatherland, and his desire to see it
bound together into one strong nation, able to throw off the foreign
yoke, found full and forcible expression.
Late in December of 1809 Jahn arrived in Berlin, where, as he says, love
for the fatherland and his own inclination led him again to teaching.
Disappointed in his original idea of finding a position in the new
Berlin University, and failing to receive a promised head mastership at
Königsberg when the results of his faulty school and university training
became apparent, he at first received some private pupils, and the next
Easter entered a training school for teachers (the _Königliche Seminar
für gelehrte Schulen_). He also began to give instruction in history,
German, and mathematics at the _Gymnasium zum grauen Kloster_, the
school from which he had run away fifteen years before. This position
he retained for a year and a half, until Christmas, 1811, and in the
meantime he had been given some classes in Dr. Plamann’s flourishing
Pestalozzian School for Boys.
It was the custom at the Graue Kloster for teachers to spend some of
the Wednesday and Saturday half-holiday afternoons outdoors with pupils
of the lower classes. In the spring of 1810 Jahn began to make this
his practice, meeting the boys from time to time outside the Halle and
Kottbus gates for games and simple exercises like running, jumping,
and wrestling, or going farther south with them to the _Hasenheide_, a
hilly and wooded stretch of unused land on the southern slope of the
Spree valley, and to the adjoining _Rollberge_ and the _Tempelhofer
Berg_. Older scholars were welcomed whenever curiosity and inclination
tempted them to join the band, and the numbers rapidly increased from
week to week. They played at “Black Man,” or at “Robber and Traveler”
(afterwards known as “Knight and Townsman”), using a fowler’s hut for
the robbers’ den and the foot of an oak as the city or castle from which
the travelers set forth. The first apparatus, furnished by Jahn, was a
pair of light poles tipped with iron points so that they could be thrust
into the sand, and a rope with a sandbag at either end, which was placed
across the top as a barrier to be jumped over. Long, straight sticks
were used like spears for hurling at any mark that might be chosen.
The limb of an oak, their first horizontal bar, sufficed for hanging
exercises and for attempts to draw themselves up by the arms. Preparatory
jumping exercises, borrowed from GutsMuths, were occasionally practised.
One afternoon Jahn went on foot with ten or twelve boys as far as the
_Britzer Heide_, to the southeast, where they had a game together and
then walked back. The report of this first _Turnfahrt_ (gymnastic
excursion) roused the desire for others of a similar sort.
Jahn knew how to vary the exercises and make each one interesting, and
the moments of rest were filled with jokes and banter or with stories
drawn from history and from his own experiences. Winning thus the
respect and love of all his young companions, he was able to overcome
the spirit of dissension which at the start was ready to break out on
slight provocation, and made harmony and discipline prevail. During the
following winter a part of those who had been regular in attendance still
held together, and were allowed a share in the indoor exercises of the
pupils at Plamann’s school—fencing with light broadswords and shooting at
a target with crossbows. This group formed a nucleus for the next year’s
work.
The spring of 1811 saw Jahn again at the Hasenheide with pupils from the
Graue Kloster and Plamann’s school. But now he had a more definite plan
in mind. Immediately after school hours on Wednesdays and Saturdays work
was begun in an opening in the woods, opposite a few public houses. They
first fenced in a rectangular area and built in the background a small
hut or arbor where clothing could be left, and then set up within the
enclosure their simple apparatus. This comprised a horizontal mast or
balance-beam, a rope hung from a yard which was fastened crosswise in the
limbs of two trees, a group of horizontal bars made by tying three small
fir trunks, at a height of seven feet, to three pines which stood at the
points of a triangle, a roughly made inclined ladder, two climbing masts,
one fifteen and the other twenty feet or more in height, and two sets
of fixed standards for use in high jumping and pole-vaulting. They also
made a jumping ditch, and laid out a figure-of-eight track, one circle of
which served as a wrestling place. Games were to be played outside the
enclosure.
Early in June this first _Turnplatz_[43] was opened. Each boy was
assessed fourteen groschen (thirty-three cents) to meet the expense of
keeping grounds and apparatus in condition; but Jahn evidently advanced
much of the original cost himself, and he granted free admission to any
boys of good character who were unable to pay the light charge. Meanwhile
the attendance had increased to eighty or a hundred, and later in the
summer it rose to two hundred. A friend of Jahn’s came with many of his
pupils from the _Friedrich-Wilhelms- und Werder’schen Gymnasium_, and
two other teachers brought boys from the Schindler’schen Orphan Asylum.
Seeing the need of a special suit for the exercises, Jahn appeared one
day clad in long trousers and a short jacket of gray unbleached linen,
a costume so cheap and durable that its use soon became general on the
Turnplatz, and an enemy of the turners was in the habit of referring to
them later as “the unbleached rascals.” All distinctions of rank and
class disappeared with the adoption of this uniform costume. Lunches
consisted of bread and salt, or of bread and butter and eggs, and pure
spring water was the usual drink. Tobacco and brandy, together with all
sweetstuffs, were forbidden.
Tuesday and Friday afternoons were added to the usual half-holidays
during the months of July and August. Besides the games, wrestling, in
which Jahn was himself uncommonly proficient, retained its popularity in
spite of the new apparatus. There was no wooden horse as yet, but one day
Friedrich Friesen, a fellow teacher with Jahn at Plamann’s school, showed
them how to vault from the rear and the side to a seat on the thick end
of the balance beam. The exercises were not yet orderly or organized, but
every boy was an inventor and shared the result with others, learning
from them in turn. It was hardly in Jahn’s nature to be systematic,
and such a thing as a formal school of gymnastics was foreign to his
purpose. The essential thing was the active, wholesome, common life
in the open air, and especially the games, training the boys to work
together in harmony, and he sought also to kindle in them a public spirit
which might some day be of service to the nation.
With the approach of winter all movable apparatus at the Hasenheide was
stored away, and now Jahn and his oldest pupils began to read eagerly
whatever they could find on the subject of physical training, studying
with special care the books of GutsMuths and Vieth.
[Illustration: FIG. 17.—Jahn’s Hasenheide _Turnplatz_, from a
contemporary print (1818).]
A year’s experience had shown that the first Turnplatz was too small,
too near the public houses, too exposed to “weather, wind, and wit.”
With the first spring sun of 1812 work was therefore begun on a new site
farther to the east and south, the free use of which was granted by the
authorities. It lay on a tableland at the head of the slope, close to
the Rollberge, and was protected from the wind on three sides by dense
thickets of pine, fir, and oak. Paths were made leading to this spot,
the surface was levelled off, more trees were set out, another hut was
erected, in the center of the grounds this time and with a meeting and
resting place near it (the _Tie_), and the apparatus was brought away
from the old Turnplatz. The equipment received numerous additions. Three
vaulting bucks or horses without pommels, three, four, and five feet high
respectively, were constructed out of tree-trunks. Nearby stood the
first crude models of our parallel bars—three pairs of thin beams about
twelve feet long, those in each set placed parallel with each other and
about two feet apart. They corresponded in height with the bucks, and
the original aim in using them was merely to gain the strength of arm
and hand necessary for lifting and supporting the body during vaulting
exercises. New jumping ditches and running tracks, a larger balance beam,
targets with movable iron-mounted heads, and more elaborate devices for
hanging and climbing exercises were provided.
Jahn had already begun to note down and arrange the various exercises,
but everything was still in process of development. Although the other
apparatus was not neglected, the parallel bars and the horizontal bar
soon became the favorite pieces, and the boys vied with each other in
inventing new performances on them. Three turners who had received
private instruction in vaulting during the winter preceding met for
further practice at special hours with little groups of skilled
companions, and for this purpose Friesen arranged to have a live horse
brought to the Turnplatz on certain days. Less interest was taken in
jumping, and games did not hold such a prominent place as formerly.
Once a month Jahn used to stay all night at the grounds, going through
the exercises by moonlight with his pupils. It was also the custom for
several of them to keep watch there regularly, as a precaution against
thieving. The _Turnfahrten_ were renewed, and gave a great impetus
to excursions of all sorts. More than a hundred turners are said to
have gone off on foot during the summer vacation, some of them on very
considerable journeys.
Before the season was over the attendance had reached five hundred, new
arrivals streaming in from all classes of society. On Sundays adults
were allowed to take part. In general, the popular attitude toward the
movement was very favorable. Spectators of every rank and by the hundred
gathered at the sides of the Turnplatz, and the evident physical benefit
from the work, the harmony that existed and the strong national feeling
cultivated there were at once appreciated. Jahn worked alone, for the
most part, assisted, however, by the older and more experienced pupils,
whom he was now able to employ as squad leaders (_Vorturner_). If
something new was to be practised he selected a few of the most skilful
and showed them the exercise himself, and they in turn spread it from
group to group. In spite of the numbers, accidents were unknown during
this and the preceding summers. Occasionally gentle measures were not
sufficient to preserve discipline. It it said that Jahn knew how to use a
rope-end, and that when two boys had quarreled he used to furnish each of
them with a pliant root, with which they fought it out in the presence of
their comrades, clad in their thin linen breeches, and striking with all
their might lest they should appear cowardly.
In the winter of 1812-13 some of the best turners, with Friesen at their
head, organized a society for the critical study of gymnastics and to
work out an artistic arrangement of the material which had accumulated.
A hall was also rented, a wooden vaulting horse was purchased with
a hundred thalers which some of them had collected, and practice in
vaulting and fencing was continued.
The momentous events of the next three years, which drew all Europe
into the conflict with Napoleon and culminated in his final overthrow
at Waterloo (June 18, 1815), put a temporary check upon the further
development of Jahn’s work at the Hasenheide, at the same time that they
emphasized its value. On March 17, 1813, King Frederick-William III of
Prussia declared war upon France and appealed to his people to join in
the great War of Liberation. Jahn was among the first to respond. He
entered Lützow’s famous Free Corps, and his example was quickly followed
by most of the turners who were old enough to bear arms. Although he
made occasional visits to the Turnplatz in 1813 and 1814, and remained
in Berlin during the campaign of 1815 to watch over the work there, he
had entrusted it, before joining the Corps, to lottery director Johann J.
W. Bornemann, who had shown great interest in the movement. He had also
persuaded one of his earliest and most capable pupils, Ernst Eiselen,
the state of whose health incapacitated him for military service, to
undertake the direction of the exercises, and this position Eiselen seems
to have retained throughout the three seasons. At the suggestion of
Minister von Schuckmann and with the approval of Chancellor Hardenberg,
Jahn’s annual allowance was increased from 500 to 800 thalers, Eiselen
was provided with a salary of 400 thalers, and for the support of the
Turnplatz a yearly grant of 150 thalers was made, together with free
timber for building purposes.
Some important additions were made at the grounds meanwhile, and work
went on as usual, though with diminished numbers. In August of 1814
General Blücher paid a visit to the spot, and after watching some of
the exercises made a brief address. The Crown Prince, who also appeared
there, was especially pleased with the wrestling. The wife of Prince
William came with her children, and the sons of Prince Radziwill, the
King’s brother-in-law, were on intimate terms with the turners. Jahn
was married at Neubrandenburg on August 30, 1814, to Helene Kollhof,
whom he had met while he was a private tutor in Mecklenburg, nearly
ten years before. During the same summer Bornemann published a “Manual
of the Gymnastics Revived by Friedrich Ludwig Jahn under the name
of _Turnkunst_,”[44] intended to prepare the way for Jahn’s own book
which was not ready until two years later. A society of older turners,
consisting originally of nine members, was organized in the fall of 1814,
and met every Saturday with Massmann, one of their number, to practise
songs, discuss regulations, revise the exercises by series, fix rules for
the games, and choose leaders for the squads. The first anniversary of
the Battle of Leipsic (October 18 and 19) was celebrated at the Turnplatz
with huge signal fires, songs by all the turners, and a great exhibition.
The number of spectators on this occasion was estimated at ten thousand,
including many persons of distinction and delegates from six neighboring
towns.
In the fall of 1815 and the following winter gymnastics was again made
the subject of associated investigation, and now the results of so much
study and experience were gradually brought together into book form.
Eiselen undertook the technical portions, with the help of Massmann,
Dürre, and others, while Jahn wrote the remainder, decided in doubtful
cases, and revised the whole. March 31, 1816, he signed the preface,
and on April 29 the finished volume was published under the title _Die
Deutsche Turnkunst_ (“German Gymnastics”).[45]
No analysis of this book can convey any idea of the charm and vigor of
its style, or of the lofty patriotism that pervades it. The preface
(pages iii-xlviii) tells the story of the Hasenheide Turnplatz, the
origin of the word Turnkunst, and how the present volume came to be
written. The author believes that, though incomplete, it reveals the
spirit of the workers, and will serve as a guide in similar undertakings
elsewhere. Only preliminary and fundamental forms of exercises have
been described; such others as fencing, swimming, dancing, and military
exercises must be left for a larger work. The early history of
gymnastics, especially in connection with popular festivals, deserves
careful investigation, for contests of strength and skill are a necessary
feature on these occasions. The German nomenclature of gymnastics is
explained and defended. Certain Prussian authorities who have proved
themselves promoters and patrons of Jahn’s efforts are mentioned; and
finally a gymnastic annual is promised, the first number to appear
the following year at Eastertide. Part I, The Gymnastic Exercises (pp.
3-166), is arranged in eighteen sections, devoted respectively to
walking, running, jumping, vaulting the horse, balancing, the horizontal
bar, the parallel bars, climbing, throwing, pulling, pushing, lifting,
carrying, holding the body outstretched horizontally, wrestling, jumping
with the hoop, and with the rope, and miscellaneous exercises. In each
case the necessary apparatus is described. Part II, Gymnastic Games
(pp. 169-183): Gymnastics and games are links in the same chain, and
a gymnasium without a playground is inconceivable; games prepare for
social life, and in them one comes to know his mates thoroughly; the
characteristics of a good game are given, and six selected games are
described—black man, prisoner’s base, knight and townsman, the hunt,
storming, and German ball. Part III (pp. 187-206) tells how to lay
out and fit up an outdoor gymnasium, and gives specifications for the
complete equipment of one which will accommodate four hundred persons
working in squads. Dimensions of each piece of apparatus, and of its
parts, are stated in detail, so that the cost in any given locality
can be figured out. Part IV (pp. 209-244) discusses the management of
the grounds and exercises, with sections on the art of gymnastics, the
gymnasium, the teacher, the exercises, the exercise period, costume,
meeting place (the _Tie_), and spectators; and gives the general and
special rules to be observed by the turners. Part V (pp. 247-288)
contains a classified bibliography of gymnastics, with about 170 titles;
and explains the plan of an outdoor gymnasium shown on the first of two
large folding plates. A portion of the first plate and all of the second
illustrate various forms of apparatus.
After the appearance of the book work was continued at the Hasenheide
throughout the seasons of 1816-18 with little change, from early spring
until the exercises of October 18, the anniversary of the Battle of
Leipsic. Gymnastics must still hibernate during the winter, from lack
of suitable accommodations indoors. On October 22, 1816, Jahn reported
that the number of turners in Berlin had passed the thousand mark. The
next year it increased to 1074, and life on the Turnplatz reached its
culmination. Hans Ferdinand Massmann had returned to Berlin at Easter,
after a year at Jena, and from July 15 until September 2 he took the
place of Eiselen at the grounds, while the latter was absent at Kiel in
the interest of his health. More trees were planted, seats were provided
around the _Tie_, and other improvements and additions were made. The
turners began the afternoon with whatever form of exercise each preferred
for himself (_Kürturnen_); then followed a period of rest, after which
all took part in the orderly exercises (_Turnschule_), grouped in squads
and divisions according to age. Each squad had its leader (_Vorturner_),
who also kept a record of the attendance and proficiency of its members.
Massmann had prepared a set of instructions for the guidance of these
leaders, and there were written lists of exercises in tabular form
(_Turntafeln_) to show the steps of progression in each group.
Whole days were often given up to games, which were still popular, and
almost every Saturday they were played all night long. Excursions, with
older turners especially, and enlivened by Jahn’s talk and by many a
song, were continued during this and the following summer. The nights
were passed in haylofts or on the straw in some shed, and at sunrise they
started on, first singing together a selection more or less devotional.
For Jahn was an earnest Christian; his knapsack always contained a
Bible, and he frequently read aloud from it to his companions, showing
a preference for prophetic passages from the Old Testament. At the
celebration of October 18 thousands were present. Jahn first gave a
review of the year’s progress; following this all joined in a song,
and then came competitive exercises, a torchlight procession to the
Rollberge, more speechmaking and singing, and the lighting of huge
bonfires. On the 31st of the same month the universities of Jena and
Kiel each conferred on Jahn the honorary degree of Doctor of Philosophy,
in recognition of his services to the fatherland in time of need, his
stimulating influence on the young, his power as a public speaker, and
his efforts in behalf of the German language.
The number of turners dropped to 815 in the season of 1818, but there
seems to have been no weakening in Jahn’s hold upon the love of his
followers. We hear again of the close friendships formed among them, the
manly qualities encouraged, the earnest effort to be purely German in
speech, custom, and dress, and the underlying seriousness of their joyous
life together. After the day’s exercise they used to return to the city
in groups, each with some favorite leader as its center. Singing and
conversation alternated until the Kottbus gate was reached; there they
halted until all had come up, joined in a final song, and then scattered
to their homes.
The next spring (1819) the Turnplatz did not open at the usual time. The
Prussian Ministry had in mind a union of gymnastics with the whole scheme
of instruction in the schools. Summer and winter exercises alike were to
be under its supervision. Additional grounds were to be opened, and one
site had already been secured near Berlin. The plan was nearly ready, and
Jahn was informed that for the present, until it should be perfected, the
authorities desired that the Hasenheide Turnplatz should remain closed.
The years 1814-18 had witnessed a rapid and remarkable spread of the
Jahn _Turnen_ far beyond the narrow bounds of its first home, throughout
the length and breadth of the Prussian provinces, and into other German
states as well. Outdoor gymnasia had been opened, for example, at
Königsberg, Elbing, Marienwerder, and at least four other cities in
East and West Prussia; at a score of places in Silesia, beginning with
Breslau and Liegnitz, and including Bunzlau, Frankenstein, Waldenburg,
Strehlen, Hirschberg, Neisse, Leobschütz, Gleiwitz, Brieg, and Kreuzburg;
at Friedland, Neubrandenburg, Neustrelitz, and Malchin in Mecklenburg;
Potsdam, Frankfort-on-the-Oder, and Prenzlau in Brandenburg; the free
cities of Hamburg and Lübeck; in central Germany at Leipsic, Halle,
Jena, Erfurt, Gotha, Eisenach, Rudolstadt, Mühlhausen, Nordhausen, and
Heiligenstadt; at Frankfort, Hanau, and Offenbach on the Main, and
along the Rhine at Mainz, Bonn, Cologne, and Düsseldorf; at Darmstadt
and Giessen in Hesse, Heidelberg in Baden, Stuttgart and Tübingen in
Württemberg, and Erlangen and Hof in Bavaria.
In general the early history of these Turnplätze resembles that of
the parent organization in Berlin. A majority of them were started in
connection with higher schools for boys, but they often included in
their membership teachers and university students, clerks and young
mechanics,—all classes of society. Usually the prime mover was some
teacher, impelled, like Jahn, by a motive which was patriotic rather than
pedagogical; and afterwards local, provincial, or state authorities not
infrequently added their support. Sometimes it was the public officials
themselves who inaugurated the movement. The common incentive was the
great tidal wave of love for the fatherland which swept over Germany
at the time of the War of Liberation. Many a teacher who had fought in
Lützow’s or some other volunteer corps and joined in the stirring songs
of Karl Theodor Körner about the campfire or on the march went back to
his classroom filled with a desire to see developed in his young charges
a stronger patriotism, a simpler, more vigorous, and more manly type
of life, less regard for distinctions of rank and wealth, a spirit of
mutual helpfulness and a willingness to unite with others for the common
welfare. Jahn’s _Turnen_ had already shown its fitness for these ends.
In many cases assistance was received directly from Berlin. Thus in
September of 1814 Jahn sent Eduard Dürre,[46] one of his Vorturners, to
Friedland in Mecklenburg, where two teachers were trying to introduce
the exercises in the Gelehrtenschule; and the same year Massmann started
a Turnplatz at Schwerinsburg. At the request of the _Oberpräsident_
of the Rhine Province Jahn recommended in 1816 a teacher of gymnastics
for Cologne, and a similar request from two Jena professors was met
by persuading Massmann and Dürre to continue their studies in that
university for a time. When the _Deutsche Turnkunst_ appeared in 1816
it became at once the authority on all Turnplätze and the guide in
opening new ones. A glance at the contents will show how admirably and
completely it meets the requirements of such a manual. Minister von
Schuckmann ordered fifty copies sent to the West Prussian authorities in
Marienwerder, at their request, and two hundred more for distribution
among other provincial officials. In Westphalia, for example, twenty-four
higher classical schools for boys were thus supplied. Numerous visitors,
too, came to Berlin for a longer or shorter time to be trained as
teachers of gymnastics. Some did this at their own motion and expense,
and others received state support. In 1816 there were, among others,
three normal school students from Weissenfels, and teachers from Neumark,
Neustadt a. d. Dosse, Wusterhausen, and Neurippen. Jahn made them all
welcome, charged no fees, gave his time and personal interest freely in
regular hours and out, and saw that each one obtained the best possible
preparation.
His own brief trips and longer excursions should also be mentioned in
this connection. A short visit which he paid to Frankfort-on-the-Main
in 1815 led a band of school boys there to fit up a private Turnplatz.
In September of the next year he was very cordially received by a
congress of seventy school inspectors, clergymen, and teachers at
Frankfort-on-the-Oder, and delivered an address on gymnastics which made
a deep impression. A month’s excursion with eighteen older turners in
July and August of 1817 took him through Mecklenburg and Pomerania to
the Island of Rügen, in the Baltic. The party was hospitably greeted and
entertained by the turners in Neustrelitz, Neubrandenburg, and Friedland,
joining with them in exercises on the Turnplatz, or matching strength at
tug-of-war and wrestling. They met other turners from Prenzlau, and at
Puttbus, before a large audience, gave a sort of gymnastic exhibition
with an accompaniment of national songs. Again the next summer he set
out with thirteen school boys, intending to be absent four weeks. They
journeyed southeast through Hirschberg and Waldenburg to Breslau, spent
several days with turners in the Silesian capital, and on the way back
visited Liegnitz, Züllichau, and Frankfort-on-the-Oder.[47]
Still another agency in the spread of Jahn _Turnen_ is found in the
_Burschenschaften_, or general student unions, organized in the German
universities as one result of the War of Liberation. Students who had
served in Lützow’s Free Corps, the most national of the volunteer
regiments, took the lead in forming the first of these at Jena, where it
was publicly announced on the 12th of June, 1815. The new association was
intended to correct the abuses of the _Landsmannschaften_ or sectional
clubs, to promote the physical and moral vigor of its members, and to
awaken love for the common German fatherland and a desire to see it free
and united. Gymnastics was at once introduced and practised after the
Berlin fashion. Jahn watched the inception and spread of the movement
with the keenest interest, if he did not himself have a hand in sketching
the plan of organization; and he sent to Jena two of his most trusted
pupils, Dürre and Massmann, whose activity there was not confined to the
Turnplatz. Other Burschenschaften were soon formed in the universities at
Halle, Leipsic, Giessen, Heidelberg, Bonn, Erlangen, and elsewhere, and
with them wandering students from Berlin, Breslau, and Jena carried the
art of the Hasenheide _Turnvater_. Thus Karl Völker, one of the directors
of the Jena Burschenschaft, after completing his studies there went to
Tübingen in 1818 to accept an invitation from students in that university
to help them organize a Burschenschaft and start a Turnplatz. The city
offered a site, upon condition that the boys in its _Bürgerschule_ and
_Gymnasium_ should be allowed a share in the exercises.[48]
The key to the history of the Hasenheide Turnplatz and the scores of
others patterned after it in the years 1814-18 we have found in the
spirit of the German War of Liberation. To this also are to be traced the
repressive measures which suddenly checked the growth of the seemingly
lusty organization before the completion of its first decade, and for
more than twenty years banished it as a factor in the popular life.
When the common people rose in arms against Napoleon it was with the
hope that war would result, not only in freedom from the foreign yoke,
but in closer union between the semi-independent German states, and the
substitution of constitutional liberty for the absolutism of personal
rule. They secured promises of ample concession to these cravings, but
found, after peace was declared, that their rulers had no intention of
meeting engagements made under duress. The Germanic Confederation of 1815
was a sorry substitute for the vigorous empire anticipated, and under
the lead of Prince Metternich, Austrian Minister of Foreign Affairs, the
Holy Alliance at once adopted a reactionary policy which was hostile
to the free movement of ideas and sought to allay the agitation of the
popular mind. The turners represented a political tendency, and therefore
incurred suspicion.
Beginning January 17, 1817, Jahn had delivered in Berlin a series of
twenty-one semi-weekly public lectures on his favorite subject, German
Nationality. Among the great number of persons from all classes who
heard him some were offended by his blunt speech, and various extreme,
unguarded, and misunderstood statements gave a handle to opponents who
accused him of revolutionary principles. He was eccentric and independent
always, and with his followers on the Turnplatz took exception to much
that was customary in dress, speech, and manners. Disquieting rumors were
in circulation regarding his conduct on the Rügen and Breslau excursions,
and it was suggested that the large gatherings at the anniversary
celebrations of the Battle of Leipsic were dangerous to public order
and afforded a chance for demagogues. In the summer of 1817 Jahn was
unfavorably criticized by two writers in the Berlin press, who attributed
to his work in the Hasenheide injurious physical, mental, and moral
effects; and the discussion did not cease when reports from the directors
of three higher schools and a special investigation made by Medical
Councilor Dr. von Könen, at the request of Minister von Schuckmann, had
failed to sustain the objections raised, and on the contrary brought
complete vindication.
Under the auspices of the Burschenschaften hundreds of students from
many German universities met in Eisenach October 18, 1817, to celebrate
the anniversary of the Battle of Leipsic and the tercentenary of the
Protestant Reformation. There were appropriate exercises in the town and
in the Hall of the Minnesingers at the Wartburg Castle, and when evening
came all gathered about a huge bonfire for more speeches and singing.
Suddenly Massmann appeared with friends carrying bundles of waste-paper
done up and labeled to represent books. After recalling Luther’s burning
of the papal bull he read off from a prepared list the titles of certain
reactionary writings hostile to German unity, constitutional government,
and free institutions; and as each item was reached the corresponding
bundle was pitchforked into the fire with suitable comments. Common
opinion credited Jahn with being the real originator of this student
prank. It naturally aroused the anger of the authors concerned, among
whom Kotzebue and Kamptz deserve mention here since their names appear
again in the next paragraph. Metternich saw in the performance the
indication of a widespread conspiracy.[49]
A conference of monarchs at Aix-la-Chapelle in the fall of 1818 did
much to confirm Frederick-William III of Prussia in his suspicions
of intrigue. Metternich also laid before Prince Wittgenstein, the
Prussian Minister of State, a memorial in which he declared that the
_Burschenschaften_ were nurseries of revolution and the _Turnplätze_
preparatory schools for university disorders; both must be suppressed,
for no palliative measures would suffice. A more forcible argument was
the assassination of the German dramatist Kotzebue by Karl Ludwig Sand at
Mannheim, on the 23d of March, 1819. Kotzebue was a paid spy of Russia
and a reactionary writer who had attacked with especial bitterness the
student unions and the turners. Sand was a turner, and had visited
Jahn and others in Berlin the year before; he was a member of the Jena
_Burschenschaft_, and had been present at the Wartburgfest. Without any
proof of the fact, it was assumed that he had carried out the decision of
an organization. On the night of July 13-14 Jahn was arrested and taken
to the fortress of Spandau, on suspicion of “secret and most treasonable
associations.” Meanwhile Kamptz had been made Prussian Minister of
Police and clothed with extraordinary powers, and a special commission
had been charged with the prosecution of demagogues. A little later a
conference of German ministers adopted the oppressive Carlsbad Decrees,
which were ratified by the Frankfort Diet September 20. These provided
for censorship of the press, police supervision of the universities, and
a central commission of seven to search out “the origin and ramification
of revolutionary conspiracies and demagogic associations.” The
_Burschenschaft_ was dissolved, and January 2, 1820, Frederick-William
III decreed that _Turnen_ should absolutely cease throughout Prussia.
Jahn was kept at Spandau for a few days, transferred to Küstrin July 17,
brought back to Berlin for trial early in October, and by an official
report of February 15, 1820, the chief charges against him were declared
null and void. A cabinet order of May 31 released him from arrest, but
stipulated that he should reside, until further notice, in the fortress
of Kolberg, on the Baltic, and placed him under the oversight of the
commanding officer there. The 1000 thalers which he had been receiving
from the state—800 as teacher of gymnastics and 200 from the Ministry of
War—was to be continued. After prolonged investigation the supreme court
at Breslau, by its decision of January 13, 1824, absolved him from all
suspicion of complicity in the murder of Kotzebue, but sentenced him to
two years additional confinement in a fortress on account of “repeated
irreverent and insolent utterances regarding existing conditions and
regulations in the state.” From this decision Jahn appealed, and sent in
his “self-defence” (_Selbstvertheidigung_, finished October 9, 1824) to
the supreme court at Frankfort-on-the-Oder, by which body he was entirely
acquitted March 15, 1825.
But a cabinet order of May 3 forbade his living in Berlin or within
a radius of ten miles from the capital, or in any city containing
a university or higher school for boys; and wherever he settled he
was to remain under police surveillance. The thousand-thaler pension
remained unchanged. Jahn selected for his home the Thuringian town of
Freyburg-on-the-Unstrut, about thirty miles west and south of Leipsic.
The accession of Frederick-William IV to the throne of Prussia in 1840
was followed by the final removal of all police restrictions, and brought
him also the long-expected decoration of the Iron Cross. By a cabinet
order of June 6, 1842, gymnastics was “formally recognized as a necessary
and indispensable part of male education and received into the circle
of means for popular education.” _Turnen_ began to revive with this,
but though Jahn followed its development with interest and received
hospitably the turners who visited his home, he took no active part in
the movement. In 1844 he attended the centennial exercises of his first
school, the _Gymnasium_ at Salzwedel. Four years later he was present as
a delegate in the German national assembly at Frankfort-on-the-Main, but
returned to his home bitterly disappointed. He died at Freyburg, after a
brief illness, October 15, 1852.[50]