![]() ![]() To uplift his countrymen and unite its youth, he turned to physical fitness. After Prussia was invaded by France, Jahn saw the Germans’ defeat as a national humiliation. The era’s popular gymnastic societies combined all three.įormer Prussian soldier Friedrich Ludwig Jahn-who would later become known as the “father of gymnastics”-embraced Enlightenment-era concepts of national pride and education. There, as in ancient Greece, physical fitness was considered an integral part of citizenship and patriotism. Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote that “the education of the body must precede that of the mind.”īut gymnastics, as we know it today, comes from another hotbed of intellectualism and intense debate: 18th- and 19th-century Europe. Scott Kretchmar, the gyms where Greek youths trained served as “hubs for scholarship and discovery”-community centers where young people were educated in the physical and intellectual arts. ( How ancient Greeks mixed naked sports with pagan partying.)įor the Greeks, exercise and learning went hand in hand. The word stems from the Greek word gymnos, or “naked,”-appropriate, since the youths trained in the nude, performing floor exercises, lifting weights, and racing one another. The sport has its origins in ancient Greece, where young men underwent intense physical and mental training for warfare. ![]()
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