Friedrich Ludwig Jahn (Turnvater Jahn) (August 11th 1778, Lanz - October 15th 1852, Freyburg) was
a German Prussian gymnastics educator and patriot. Jahn studied theology and philology from 1796 to 1802 at Halle, Göttingen at the Greifswald. After Jena he joined the Prussian
army. In 1809 he went to Berlin, where he became
a teacher at the Gymnasium zum Grauen as well as at the Plamann School. Brooding upon the humiliation of his native land by
Napoleon, he conceived the
idea of restoring the spirits of his countrymen by the development of their physical and moral powers through the practice
of gymnastics. The first Turnplatz, or open-air gymnasium, was opened by him at Berlin in 1811, and the movement
(Turnverein) spread rapidly, the young gymnasts being taught to regard themselves as members of a kind of gild for the emancipation
of their fatherland. This patriotic spirit was nourished in no small degree by the writings of Jahn. Early in 1813 he took an active
part at Breslau in the formation
of the famous corps of Lützow, a battalion of which he commanded, though during the same period he was often employed in secret
service. After the war, he returned to Berlin, where he was appointed state teacher of gymnastics. As such, he was a leader
in the formation of the student Burschenschaften1811 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ....
A man of democratic
nature, rugged, honest, eccentric and outspoken, Jahn often came into collision with the reactionary spirit of the time, and
this conflict resulted in 1819 in the closing
of the Turnplatz and the arrest of Jahn himself. Kept in semi confinement at the fortress of Kolberg until 1824, he was then sentenced
to imprisonment for two years and served one year, though he was forbidden to live within ten miles of Berlin. He therefore
took up his residence at Freyburg on the Unstrut, where he remained until his death, with the exception of a short period
in 1828, when he was exiled
to Colleda on a charge of sedition. In 1840, he was decorated
by the Prussian government with the Iron Cross for bravery in
the wars against Napoleon. In the spring of 1848 he was elected
by the district of Naumburg to the German National Parliament. Jahn died on in
Freyburg, where a monument was erected in his honor in 1859. Jahn invented the parallel
bars, balance
beam, gymnastics
rings, vaulting
horse and the horizontal
bar. He is often described
as the "father of gymnastics" (Turnvater).
Friedrich
Ludwig Jahn, popularized the motto "Frisch, Fromm, Fröhlich, Frei" ("Hardy, God-fearing, Cheerful, Free") in the early nineteenth
century. Among his works are the following: Bereicherung des hochdeutschen Sprachschatzes (Leipzig,
1806), Deutsches Volksthum (Lübeck, 1810), Runenblätter (Frankfurt, 1814), Neue Runenblätter (Naumburg,
1828), Merke zum deutschen Volksthum (Hildburghausen, 1833), and Selbstvertheidigung (Vindication) (Leipzig,
1863).

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Friedrich Ludwig Jahn |

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Jahn Statue in St Louis |
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