Germany

Friedrich Ludwig Jahn was born on 11th August 1778 in Lanz near Lenzen in the Prignitz as a son of a parish priest. In 1796 he started studying theology in Halle. Later he predominantly concentrated on the studies of history and philology. From 1809 Jahn worked as an assistant teacher in Berlin. At Berlin's Hasenheide Friedrich Ludwig Jahn opened the first German gymnastics field ('Turnplatz'), or open-air gymnasium, in spring 1811. His activities were particularly pointed at the youth, with whom he went to the gym field in free afternoons. The German gymnastics, understood by Jahn as a whole of the physical exercises, fit into his 'Nationalerziehungsplan', as he had developed it in his main writing "Das Deutsche Volkstum" (1810). Jahn developed well-known gymnastic equipment, invented also new apparatuses. Particularly by his main writing "Die Deutsche Turnkunst" (1816) the apparatus gymnastics developed to an independent kind of sport, and so the gym activities were not only limited to simple physical exercises, which he quoted as following: "Going, running, jumping, throwing, carrying are free exercises, everywhere applicable, as free as fresh air. The country can expect them from everyone, poor, average and rich people, because everyone needs them". In 1817 Jahn was appointed honorary doctor Dr. phil. by the universities of Jena and Kiel. As a German patriot Jahn fought against the 'Kleinstaaterei' and for the unity of Germany. He took part in the preparation and realisation of the liberation struggle against the Napoleon foreign rule 1813/15, in which result he expected the fulfilment of his dreams of a unified Germany. In 1819 he and many other sportsmen and 'Burschenschaftler' fell victim to the so-called 'Prosecution of Demagogues'. He was arrested and imprisoned for five years because of revolutionary activities and state-endangering propaganda. In June 1825, after his release from prison, Friedrich Ludwig Jahn moved into the town Freyburg. Since the stay in Berlin as well as in all Prussian university and secondary school cities was forbidden to him, he took refuge in this little town. In Freyburg he lived for a short time in the hotel "Zum schwarzen Bären" (today Schützenstraße), afterwards at the master tailor's Sachse at the market. On 19th September 1828, Jahn was banned to the little Thuringian town Koelleda due to alleged contacts with young people, students and teachers of secondary schools in the area. When Jahn returned to Freyburg in spring 1835, he moved into a house at the church square. Since this building burnt down in 1838, Friedrich Ludwig Jahn acquired a property at the foot of the 'Schlossberg'. One year later he had a house built there according to his own plans. In Freyburg Jahn lived in seclusion and spent more and more time on scientific and theoretical work. Only in 1840 Friedrich Ludwig Jahn was rehabilitated and was belatedly decorated with the Iron Cross ("Eisernes Kreuz") for bravery in the wars against Napoleon. In 1848 Jahn, a representative of the administrative district Merseburg, was elected member of the Frankfurt National Assembly. On 15th October 1852 Friedrich Ludwig Jahn died in his house in Freyburg. With the national gymnastics festivals in Coburg in 1860, in Berlin in 1861 and in Leipzig in 1863, the memory of Jahn's ideas returned into the people's consciousness. The inscription at the gable of his house "Frisch, Frei, Fröhlich, Fromm", translated as 'fresh, free, happy, good", which originated in Jahn's time, became the basic idea of the German gymnastics movement.
 * //__ Biography of Friedrich Ludwig Jahn __//**



Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Oberschule mit Sportbetonung

History of wrestling