Stamp design by A. Meissner
Nestled into the south side of Forest Park’s Art Hill, a 41-foot-long statue displays the Moses-bearded head of Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, the father of gymnastics. Jahn was the first to use parallel bars, rings, and the high bar as a standard for gymnastic competition. He gathered that equipment inside “Turnverein gyms” as a way for Germans to resist Napoleonic rule and restore the people’s spirit under the guiding philosophy “Sound mind, sound body.”
Between 1830 and 1860, tens of thousands of Germans immigrated to St. Louis. They went on to build dozens of “Turner” gyms and organize neighborhoods into liberal social clubs. The gyms had open-air recreation areas, youth associations, philosophy groups, debate societies, and shooting clubs.
The Turners are one of the oldest still-operating athletic organizations in the world and are credited with the idea of “physical education” as a part of the American school curriculum. The idea that fitness would need to be taught was at one time an alien concept, but German immigrants brought with them a value for public health and the notion that the physical well-being of everyone—not just kings, queens, and the rich—should be a cornerstone of society.
