Gymnastics ban in Prussia

The gymnastics movement emerged at the beginning of the 19th century, primarily at the instigation of the educationalist Friedrich Ludwig Jahn. According to Jahn, gymnastics was intended to train the body and character of all Germans. The movement was thus also directed against class differences and the petty statehood that existed in the German Confederation.

This is precisely why the Prussian King Frederick William III had the first German public gymnastics ground in Berlin’s Hasenheide closed in 1819 and “gymnastics father” Jahn arrested. On January 2, 1820, he ordered a complete “gymnastics ban” in Prussia. Other German sovereigns did the same. It was only under Frederick William IV that the ban was lifted in Prussia in 1842.