Friedrich Ludwig Jahn Friedrich Ludwig Jahn ( August 11 , 1778 – October 15 , 1852 ) was a German gymnastics educator and nationalist . His admirers know him as Turnvater Jahn , roughly meaning " father of gymnastics " Jahn . Life . Jahn was born in Lanz in Brandenburg . He studied theology and philology from 1796 to 1802 at Halle , Göttingen at the University of Greifswald . After the Battle of Jena - Auerstedt in 1806 he joined the Prussian army . In 1809 he went to Berlin , where he became a teacher at the Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster and at the Plamann School . Brooding upon what he saw as the humiliation of his native land by Napoleon , Jahn conceived the idea of restoring the spirits of his countrymen by the development of their physical and moral powers through the practice of gymnastics . The first " Turnplatz " , or open - air gymnasium , was opened by Jahn in Berlin in 1811 , and the " Turnverein " ( gymnastics association ) movement spread rapidly . Young gymnasts were taught to regard themselves as members of a kind of guild for the emancipation of their fatherland . This nationalistic spirit was nourished in no small degree by the writings of Jahn . Early in 1813 Jahn took an active part in the formation of the famous Lützow Free Corps , a volunteer force in the Prussian army fighting Napoleon . He commanded a battalion of the corps , though he was often employed in the secret service during the same period . After the war he returned to Berlin where he was appointed state teacher of gymnastics , and took on a role in the formation of the student patriotic fraternities , or Burschenschaft en , in Jena . A man of populistic nature , rugged , eccentric and outspoken , Jahn often came into conflict with the authorities . The authorities finally realized he aimed at establishing a united Germany , and that his " Turner " schools were political and liberal clubs . The conflict resulted in the closing of the " Turnplatz " in 1819 and Jahn ' s arrest . Kept in semi - confinement successively at Spandau , Küstrin , and at the fortress in Kolberg until 1824 , he was sentenced to imprisonment for two years . The sentence was reversed in 1825 , but he was forbidden to live within ten miles of Berlin . He therefore took up residence at Freyburg on the Unstrut , where he remained until his death , with the exception of a short period in 1828 , when he was exiled to Kölleda on a charge of sedition . While at Freyburg , he received an invitation to become professor of German literature at Cambridge , Massachusetts , which he declined , saying that “ deer and hares love to live where they are most hunted . ” In 1840 Jahn was decorated by the Prussian government with the Iron Cross for bravery in the wars against Napoleon . In the spring of 1848 he was elected by the district of Naumburg to the German National Parliament . Jahn died in Freyburg , where a monument was erected in his honor in 1859 . Jahn popularized the motto " Frisch , Fromm , Fröhlich , Frei " ( " Fresh , Pious , Cheerful , Free " ) in the early 19th century . Works . Among his works are the following : A complete edition of his works appeared at Hof in 1884 - 1887 . See the biography by Schultheiss ( Berlin , 1894 ) , and " Jahn als Erzieher " , by Friedric ( Munich , 1895 ) . Contribution to sports . Jahn promoted the use of parallel bars , rings and high bar in international competition . In honor and memory of him , some gymnastic clubs , called " Turnvereine " ( German : " Turnvereine " ) , took up his name , the most well known of these is probably the SSV Jahn Regensburg . A memorial to Jahn exists in St . Louis , Missouri , within Forest Park . It features a large bust of Jahn in the center of an arc of stone , with statues of a male and female gymnast , one on each end of the arc . The monument is on the edge of Art Hill next to the path running north and south along the western edge of Post - Dispatch lake . It is directly north of the St . Louis Zoo . Other memorials to Jahn are located in Groß - Gerau , Germany ; in Vienna , Austria ; and in Inwood Park , in the Mt . Auburn neighborhood of Cincinnati . Criticism . In his time Friedrich Jahn was seen by both his supporters and opponents as a liberal figure . He advocated that the German states should unite after the withdrawal of Napoleon ' s occupying armies , and establish a democratic constitution ( under the Hohenzollern monarchy ) , which would include the right to free speech . As a German nationalist , Jahn advocated maintaining German language and culture against foreign influence . In 1810 he wrote , " Poles , French , priests , aristocrats and Jews are Germany ' s misfortune . " At the time Jahn wrote this , the German states were occupied by foreign armies under the leadership of Napoleon . Also , Jahn was " the guiding spirit " of the fanatic book burning episode carried out by revolutionary students at the Wartburg festival in 1817 . Jahn gained infamy in English - speaking countries through the publication of Peter Viereck ' s " Metapolitics : The Roots of the Nazi Mind " ( 1941 ) . Viereck claimed Jahn as the spiritual founder of Nazism , who inspired the early German romantics with anti - Semitic and authoritarian doctrines , and then influenced Wagner and finally the Nazis . However , Jacques Barzun observed that Viereck ' s portrait of cultural trends supposedly leading to Nazism was " a caricature without resemblance " relying on " misleading shortcuts " . Viereck ' s claims concerning Jahn ' s supposed cultural influence , and influence on Nazism in particular , are not supported by evidence . The writings of the German Romantics do not even discuss Jahn , let alone endorse him . Joseph von Eichendorf ' s 1823 comedy " Krieg den Philistern " is unusual in mentioning Jahn at all , but does so only to ridicule him . Wagner , much influenced by Jahn according to Viereck , never even mentioned him . Scholarly focus on the völkischness of Jahn ' s thought started in the 1920s with a new generation of Jahn interpreters like Edmund Neuendorff and Karl Müller . Neuendorff explicitly linked Jahn with National Socialism . The equation by the National Socialists of Jahn ' s ideas with their world view was more or less complete by the mid - 1930s . Alfred Baeumler , an educational philosopher and university lecturer who attempted to provide theoretical support for Nazi ideology ( through the interpretation of Nietzsche among others ) wrote a monograph on Jahn in which he characterises Jahn ' s invention of gymnastics as an explicitly political project , designed to create the ultimate völkisch citizen by educating his body .