JAHN, FRIEDRICH LUDWIG German pedagogue and patriot, commonly called Turnvater ("Father of Gymnastics"), was born in Lanz on Aug. 11, 1778. He studied theology and philology from 1796 to 1802 at Halle, Gottingen and Greifswald. After Jena he joined the Prussian army. In 1809 he went to Berlin, where he became a teacher at the Gym nasium zum Grauen as well as at the Plamann School. Brooding upon the humiliation of his native land by Napoleon, he con ceived the idea of restoring the morale of his countrymen by the development of their physical and moral powers through the practice of gymnastics. The first Turnplatz, or open-air gym nasium, was opened by him at Berlin in 1811, the young gym nasts being taught to regard themselves as members of a kind of gild for the emancipation of their fatherland. In 1813 he took an active part at Breslau in the formation of the famous corps of Liitzow, a battalion of which he commanded, though during the same period he was often employed in secret service. After the war he returned to Berlin, where he was appointed state teacher of gymnastics. As such he was a leader in the formation of the student Burschenschaf ten (patriotic fraternities) in Jena.
A man of democratic nature, rugged, honest, eccentric and out spoken, Jahn often came into collision with the reactionary spirit of the time, and in 1819 the Turnplatz was closed and Jahn was arrested. He was detained at the fortress of Kolberg until
and sentenced to imprisonment for two years; but this sentence was reversed in 7825, though he was forbidden to live within ten miles of Berlin. He settled at Freyburg on the Unstrut, where he remained until his death (Oct. 15, 1852), with the exception of a short period in 1828, when he was exiled to Colleda on a charge of sedition. In 1840 he 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.
Among his works are: Bereicherung des hochdeutschen Sprach schatzes (Leipzig, 18o6), Deutsches V olksthum (Lubeck, I8io), Runen bliitter (Frankfort, 1814), Neue Runenblatter (Naumburg, 1828), Merke zum deutschen V olksthum (Hildburghausen 1833) , and Selbst vertheidigung (Vindication) (Leipzig, 1863). A complete edition of his works appeared at Hof in 1884-87. See the biography by Schultheiss (Berlin, 1894), and Jahn als Erzieher, by Friedrich (Munich, 1895).