Flappers & Fiction

Heinrich Metzner chronicles the history of the German Turner movement from its origins with Friedrich Ludwig Jahn in early 19th-century Germany to its establishment in New York. Jahn developed gymnastics as both physical training and patriotic preparation against Napoleon’s occupation, opening the first public gymnasium in Berlin in 1811. After facing persecution and exile, the Turner movement eventually flourished in Germany and spread to America through German immigrants after 1848. The article details how New York’s Turner societies, particularly the Central Turn-Verein, built magnificent facilities and maintained the German system of comprehensive physical education.