The astonishing development of popular interest in gymnastics which has taken place in Germany and other European countries can be traced directly to Jahn’s work at the Hasenheide, near Berlin, in the years 1810-1818; and between 1833 and 1858, in Switzerland and Hesse, Spiess laid the foundation of German school gymnastics. But although the first definite step looking toward physical training in the Prussian schools was the cabinet order of 1842 (p. 101), it was not until after the accession of William I to the throne, in 1861, that conditions became at all propitious. During the latter half of the reign of Frederick-William III, from 1819 to 1840, the one man who with his pupils and assistants kept alive the tradition of Turnen in Berlin, adding to and further systematizing its content, and won for it gradually increasing recognition, was Ernst Eiselen, among Jahn’s earliest followers and his most faithful fellow-worker. Under Frederick-William IV (1840-1861) there were at first encouraging signs of revival, but the unfortunate choice of Massmann to direct the carrying out of the new plans (1843-1850), followed by Rothstein’s untactful and somewhat bigoted attempt to substitute the gymnastics of Ling for that of Jahn in the Royal Central Institute of Gymnastics at Berlin (1851-1863), made the whole period a disappointing one of storm and stress, without much evidence of real progress. Each of these early phases deserves a few words of explanation.

Ernst Wilhelm Bernhard Eiselen (1793-1846), after the closing of the Hasenheide Turnplatz in the spring of 1819, became a teacher in the Plamann school for boys. In April of 1825, using rented quarters, he began to give courses in foil- and sabre-fencing and vaulting to students in the University of Berlin, and two years later succeeded in obtaining permission to offer private instruction in gymnastics. May 1, 1828, he opened his own gymnasium, with indoor and outdoor equipment, at Dorotheenstrasse 31d (now 60). Courses for the training of teachers were added in 1831, and the next year corrective exercises for girls, for whose accommodation a special room was provided. By 1836 the number of his pupils had increased to such an extent that a second gymnasium was built in another part of the city (Blumenstrasse 3, now 63a), and placed under the management of Wilhelm Lübeck (1809-1879), who afterwards (1839) became its independent director. Arsenical poisoning in his youth had permanently impaired Eiselen’s health, and this fact and his retiring disposition may have led the Prussian authorities to prefer Massmann as their agent in 1843. Eiselen was put in charge of a great public Turnplatz in the suburb of Moabit in 1846, but died a few months later at Misdroy, a sea-bathing resort on the Island of Wollin. Attention has already been called to his writings (p. 102). Among his pupils and assistants who afterwards filled important teaching positions were Wilhelm Ballot, Moritz Böttcher, Philipp August Feddern, and Wilhelm Lübeck.

In 1836 Dr. Karl Ignaz Lorinser (1796-1853), state medical counsellor at Oppeln, in Prussian Silesia, published a striking article on “Safeguarding Health in the Schools,”⁠[74] in which he urged that too exclusive training of the mind in the higher schools was threatening national vigor. His paper and the widespread discussion which followed called the attention of the ministry of education anew to the need of reform, and led to various orders looking toward more or less systematic introduction of bodily exercises under the supervision of teachers. Participation, however, depended upon parental consent and the inclination of pupils. The cabinet order of June 6, 1842, and the summons of Massmann to Berlin in the spring of 1843 to organize a system of statewide physical training aroused expectations which were slow in being realized. Instead of the Spiess plan of separate facilities at each school and a graded scheme of exercises incorporated in the school program, Massmann clung tenaciously to the idea of great central exercising grounds (Turnplätze), preferably a single one even for the larger cities, and a gathering here of all ages and classes for free activity, especially on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons—a system of public playgrounds, rather than one of orderly physical training.

But his endeavor to revive the Jahn gymnastics on a new Turnplatz laid out in the neighborhood of the old Hasenheide site met with little success, and the numbers in attendance dwindled rapidly. The times had changed, and there was no one to supply Jahn’s inspiring leadership. Teachers were needed, but Eiselen’s death had cut short a plan to have him give two courses a year, of six weeks each, in his private gymnasium. A “Central Training School for Teachers of Gymnastics” (Zentral-Bildungsanstalt für Turnlehrer), under Massmann’s direction, was therefore organized instead. It was to give annually two three-months’ courses, beginning April 1 and August 1, to a maximum of thirty pupils in each. The opening took place May 1, 1848, in the Eiselen gymnasium; but the courses were discontinued before the end of the following year. The attendance had been disappointingly small, and those who came manifested little interest in their work. Massmann, already a discredited leader with whose projects the school authorities themselves had shown little sympathy, was retired in 1850. The government attitude toward the Jahn Turnen was still one of suspicion and antagonism, and meanwhile attention had been drawn to the claims of a new system of gymnastics, built up on foreign soil.

Hugo Rothstein (1810-1865), second lieutenant in the Prussian artillery and teacher in the artillery school at Berlin, paid a visit to Sweden in 1843, and upon his return published in Der Staat (September, 1844) an article on “Gymnastics in Sweden and Ling’s System of Gymnastics.” It attracted favorable notice in military circles, and Minister of War von Boyen commissioned him to revisit the country in order to become better acquainted with the subject. Accordingly in June of 1845, now first lieutenant and accompanied by another officer, he went to Stockholm for a full course at the Central Institute of Gymnastics (Kongl. Gymnastiska Centralinstitutet), adding three months in Copenhagen to observe the fencing and other instruction at the Danish Royal Institute of Military Gymnastics (Det Kongelige Militære Gymnastiske Institut). During his second sojourn in the Swedish capital he saw much of Director Branting and Head Teacher Georgii, and was also a frequent guest at the palace of King Oscar I. In the autumn of 1846 both officers were back in Berlin. The following year Massmann published a translation of Ling’s writings on gymnastics,⁠[75] and Rothstein had begun work at once on a series of volumes on the Ling system which appeared at intervals between 1847 and 1859.⁠[76]

A direct result of the reports by Rothstein and Techow (the infantry lieutenant who had been his companion) was the founding in Berlin of a “Central Institute for Gymnastic Instruction in the Army” (Zentralinstitut für gymnastischen Unterricht in der Armee), with the two officers as teachers. Lübeck’s gymnasium on Blumenstrasse was used for the practical exercises, and the first course there was begun October 1, 1847; but the rioting which broke out in Berlin the next spring, following the February revolution in Paris, brought it to a sudden close. Two years later, however, the foundations of a new building were laid in Scharnhorststrasse, and now it was decided to train both military and civilian teachers in a single school, rechristened “Royal Central Institute of Gymnastics” (Königliche Zentral-Turnanstalt) and opened to pupils October 1, 1851. Rothstein was made director of instruction (Unterrichtsdirigent). In his own teaching he employed the Ling apparatus and exercises, making light of Jahn’s Turnen, and for anatomical and physiological reasons rejecting the parallel bars unconditionally. This action gave rise to repeated protests from Turnvereine in Berlin and other German cities, who regarded it as a part of the government’s reactionary policy, and led to a violent controversy (the Barrenstreit) in the years 1861 and 1862. Dr. Carl Philipp Euler (1828-1901), who became civilian teacher in 1860, had proposed that the banished apparatus be restored. Petitions, memorials, and opinions for and against its use multiplied, and the discussion was widened to include the whole subject of the comparative merits of the Ling-Rothstein gymnastics and the Jahn Turnen. Emil Du Bois-Reymond (1818-1896), professor of physiology in the University of Berlin, entered the lists as a powerful champion on the side of the Turners.⁠[77] On the last day of 1862 appeared an opinion from the highest medical authority in Prussia, the Royal Scientific Deputation for Medical Affairs, to the effect that exercises on the parallel bars “are justifiable and not to be rejected.”⁠[78] It was therefore ordered that both parallel bars and horizontal bar should be used with civilian pupils. Rothstein withdrew from the school in 1863, left Berlin for Erfurt, his birthplace and early home, and died there March 23, 1865.

The later history of the Central Institute may be briefly outlined here. A second civilian teacher, Gebhard Eckler (1832-1907), was added in October of 1864. In 1877 the military and civilian sections, which had existed side by side, were permanently separated, the former retaining the old site on Scharnhorststrasse and hereafter called the Royal Military Institute of Gymnastics (Königliche Militär-Turnanstalt),⁠[79] and the latter, under the name “Royal Training School for Teachers of Gymnastics” (Königliche Turnlehrer-Bildungsanstalt), opening its doors in temporary quarters on October 8, but after two years occupying its own new home at 229 Friedrichstrasse (October 15, 1879). As early as 1866 Euler had begun to conduct private classes for women who desired to become teachers of gymnastics, and in 1880 regular state courses were added to meet their special needs. The first of these began April 19 and closed July 6. Euler became “director of instruction” (Unterrichtsdirigent) in 1877, and Dr. Ignaz Küppers (1840-) was added as second director in 1891. Following Euler’s death, September 15, 1901, Eckler was given the same title (1902), but retired in 1905, followed by Küppers in October of the next year. A new office, that of director of the school, was now created, and its first incumbent (May, 1905) was Dr. Paul Diebow (1861-1920). In the autumn of 1911, after a further change of name (to Landesturnanstalt, April 1, 1908), the institution was moved to its present home in Spandau, eight miles northwest of Berlin, where it enjoys ample facilities for indoor and outdoor training of all sorts. The full course for men, at the outbreak of the Great War, covered seven months (April-November), and that for women six months (January-June).

To meet the great demand for teachers, examinations for persons trained in city or private courses outside the Central Institute had been given under its auspices after 1866. Beginning in 1889, arrangements for similar state examinations for both men and women have been made in Bonn, Breslau, Halle, and Königsberg, and in the case of women at Bielefeld, Cassel, Danzig, Hannover, Kiel, Magdeburg, Stettin, and a few other cities. The next noteworthy step was the introduction of teachers’ training courses in the Prussian universities, in each of which (Berlin, Bonn, Breslau, Göttingen, Greifswald, Halle, Kiel, Königsberg, Marburg, and Münster) a student could in 1914 take work in the theory and practice of physical education, in preparation for a teacher’s certificate in that subject, and could take the examination itself at the university where he was studying.⁠[80] In general such courses are governed by regulations contained in the Prussian ministerial order of July 9, 1892, originally intended for the University of Halle, and a supplemental order of February 20, 1909, which relates to training in outdoor exercises. The former provides for courses under the immediate oversight of the University Kurator, to begin in the middle of October and continue until the close of the winter semester—something less than five months. They are open to candidates who have already qualified as teachers in the schools, and to university students who have completed four semesters of work. There is no charge for tuition. Each course embraces both theoretical instruction and practical exercises, and occupies about eighteen hours a week. As a rule one-third of the time is devoted to lectures on the history of physical education, methods, the forms and construction of apparatus (Gerätkunde), the structure and functions of the human body, hygiene as related to exercise, and first aid in accidents; and the remaining two-thirds to the attainment of personal dexterity in the field of school gymnastics, and the actual teaching of others, and direction of games, etc. Four hundred and ninety-eight students attended these winter courses in the Prussian universities in the year 1910-1911.

The later order, directed to the Kuratoren of Prussian universities, requires that as soon as possible the above courses be supplemented by summer ones, lasting about four weeks and devoted solely to the subject of games and athletic sports (Volks- und Jugendspiele und volkstümliche Übungen). It was recommended that they cover from fifty to sixty hours altogether, including from four to six lectures on the value of games and athletic sports, about eight on theory and method, eight hours devoted to practice in teaching or directing, and the rest to practical exercises. The courses may be compressed within four weeks, or made to occupy two or three hours each on two afternoons a week and spread over an entire summer semester, thus interfering less with the student’s other work. In many cases admission has been granted to students in the departments of medicine, theology, and law, as well as to those enrolled in the department of philosophy and preparing directly for the examination for a state certificate as teacher of physical education. Hereafter the full certificate is to be granted only to those who have completed both winter and summer courses.

In spite of all this progress, there was at the beginning of 1913 no professorship of physical education in any German university, although the establishment of such a chair had been proposed at the University of Giessen.

The Prussian cabinet order of June 6, 1842, had “formally recognized bodily exercises as a necessary and indispensable part of male education.” A ministerial circular of February 4, 1844, sent out to the provincial school authorities, directed that in towns and cities indoor and outdoor space should be provided for gymnastics at all higher schools (Gymnasien, höhere Stadtschulen) and training-colleges for teachers (Schullehrer-Seminaren), in order that the exercises might be practised uninterruptedly throughout the year. Instruction was to be in the hands of some regular member of the teaching staff who gave only part of his time to this branch, rather than one who taught no other subject. The exercises were to come as a rule on the half-holiday afternoons of Wednesday and Saturday, or under certain conditions they might be given daily during the hour following the afternoon session. It was left to his parent or guardian to decide whether or not any pupil should participate. Certificates of graduation from the schools were to note whether and with what success use had been made of the instruction in gymnastics. A later order (November 27, 1866) extended this last provision to cover semester reports as well.

An order of September 10, 1860, reveals the intention of the ministry to introduce gymnastics into all schools for boys and young men, from the elementary or folkschool to the university.⁠[81] Special short courses at training colleges for teachers, to reach those already in service, are recommended as a means of filling the immediate need of competent instruction, which will later be cared for by the regular graduates. The indifference of many members of the teaching body in higher schools is rebuked, together with the excessive number of excuses from attendance, but attention is also called to praiseworthy progress made at other institutions where the new movement receives earnest and sympathetic support. University authorities are advised to furnish their students with facilities for continuing habits of bodily activity, and reminded of the advantage to the state if those who are to be leaders in church and school affairs are given an opportunity here to become familiar with a branch of education which they may later be called upon to oversee or inspect.

Early in 1862 an official “Manual for Instruction in Gymnastics in the Prussian Elementary Schools” was published, replaced by a “New Manual” in the summer of 1868. This latter was again revised in 1895.⁠[82] By ministerial order of June 4, 1862, such instruction is declared to be an integral part of the course for males in schools of this grade (Volksschule), and attendance at the exercises is made compulsory. Suitable grounds and the equipment called for by the Manual must be provided. Teachers are prepared in training colleges (Seminare), where special attention is given to actual handling of classes in model schools, choosing and arranging suitable material for the different grades from the official manual, and in the senior class to instruction in methods, the installation of apparatus, the recent history of physical education, the hygiene of exercise, and first aid.

The apparatus mentioned in the official manual of 1895 includes wooden and iron wands, long jumping rope, jump stands and jumping board, balance beam, climbing ropes and poles, ladders, adjustable horizontal bar, and parallel bars. It recommends enough fixed apparatus so that four pupils can exercise at a time. In its one hundred and fifty pages are described a variety of marching and free exercises, and exercises with the different forms of apparatus just mentioned, and in conclusion sixteen selected running games and seven ball games. Beyond outlining the general plan of each lesson, calling attention to the need of orderly progression throughout the year, and indicating which of the exercises are intended for the upper grades, the manual offers no direct assistance to the teacher in laying out his course, i.e., it contains no tables showing sample lessons and no series of exercises arranged in order of increasing difficulty.

A third hour of exercise a week was added to the curriculum in higher schools in 1892, and in elementary schools by order of June 13, 1910, which was intended especially to encourage the use of games and other activities in the open air. This same order made compulsory for all schools the ten-minute periods of exercise for the promotion of good carriage, deep breathing, and quickened blood-flow recommended in 1907 for days on which there was no regular lesson in gymnastics. The “Guide for Use with Boys in Elementary Schools without Indoor Gymnasia,” published in 1909,⁠[83] lays down principles which are binding for boys’ schools of every sort. In it the class exercises in marching introduced by Spiess are omitted. Free exercises and exercises on apparatus are selected with the specific needs of the pupil in mind, and show the influence of Swedish teaching and practice. They are supplemented by running exercises, games, dry-land-swimming, and other forms of activity, and attention is called to the value of Spielstunden or play-afternoons. A recent development in higher schools is the organization and rapid spread of voluntary gymnastic, running, tramping, and athletic clubs of all sorts, conducted under the oversight of teachers.

It was not until the ministerial order of May 31, 1894, that instruction in gymnastics became a required subject in higher schools for girls. Two lessons a week were to be given, and by women teachers. An order of March 30, 1905, extended the requirement to elementary (Volks-) and intermediate (Mittel-) schools in cities and large towns, and recommended that teachers encourage also the playing of games after school hours. The manual of 1895 was to form the basis of instruction. A further step was taken on July 11, 1911, when the time allotted to gymnastics was increased to three hours a week for the upper grades, and all elementary schools not covered by former orders were urged to add the subject to their curriculum. An official “Manual for the Physical Training of Girls in Prussian Schools” was published in 1913.⁠[84]

To an American the German universities and technical schools seem singularly backward in the matter of physical education. At none of them is there a full professorship devoted to the subject, and at least a third have not even an instructor in gymnastics (Turnlehrer) on the teaching staff. There are two student associations which may be considered the survivors of the Burschenschaften of Jahn’s day, so far as the practice of gymnastics is concerned. One of them, the Akademischer Turnbund, or “A. T. B.” (Verband nichtfarbentragender akademischer Turnvereine und -Verbindungen auf deutschen Hochschulen), organized June 27, 1883, on the Schweizerhöhe near Jena, included 39 societies and about 1900 student members in 1919, and belongs to the German Turnerschaft. Its first competitive meet (Turnbundfest) was held at Arnstadt, August 5 and 6, 1893, and the 6th at Coblenz July 28-31, 1912.⁠[85] The other, the Verband farbentragender Turnerschaften, or “V. C.” (Vertreter-Convent), to which 55 societies with about 1800 student members belonged in 1919, was given its present name and form at a convention held in Berlin, June 11 and 12, 1885. Only a small proportion of its societies have affiliated themselves with the German Turnerschaft. The first general competitive meet (Turnfest) was held at Sangerhausen May 26-29, 1882, and the sixteenth in Gotha May 13-16, 1913.⁠[86] In 1911 an Akademischer Bund für Leibesübungen was formed, including the two associations mentioned, the Akademischer Ruderbund, the Kartelverband akademischer Rudervereine, the Akademischer Sportbund, and other similar organizations. This union held a “German Academic Olympia” in Breslau, August 1-3, 1911, and another at Leipzig, October 17-19, 1913. There had already been gatherings of this sort at Leipzig, July 11, 1909, and Berlin, July 2 and 3, 1910.

There have been two attempts at a statistical survey of school gymnastics covering all of the German states, the first by J. C. Lion in 1873, and the second by Carl Rossow in 1908.⁠[87] A general convention of German teachers of gymnastics was held in Berlin, August 9-11, 1861, in connection with the second general German Turnfest. Others have been held at intervals ever since, and at the twelfth (Hof a. Saale, July 17 and 18, 1893), a Deutscher Turnlehrerverein (German Society of Teachers of Gymnastics) was formally organized. The eighteenth convention met in Breslau May 29 and 30, 1914.⁠[88]