200 years of debates about Jahn and his memorial
Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, known as the "Father of Gymnastics," is undoubtedly one of Germany's most controversial national heroes. One of the most vocal prophets of ethnic nationalism, founder of the first German gymnastics arena, and the spiritual father of the student fraternities, Jahn is undoubtedly one of the midwives of the modern German national movement at the beginning of the 19th century.
Image gallery
Hampelmann Figur mit langem Bart und Gesicht Friedrich Ludwig Jahns
Revered and ridiculed as a person, persecuted and co-opted as a politician, his work during his lifetime and beyond reflects above all the dark side of German nationalism: xenophobia and self-aggrandizement, bravado, and violence. Criticism and co-optation of the "intellectual leader of the nation" are also inscribed in his monument in Hasenheide, which has once again sparked controversial debates in recent years.
Is honoring Jahn's memory still appropriate today? Historian Henning Holsten's lecture will explore Jahn's life and work, as well as the interpretations of his friends and enemies, contemporaries, and later generations, against the backdrop of German history in general and the local history of Rixdorf/Neukölln in particular.
This lecture concludes the Museum in Dialogue series for the exhibition DENK MAL JAHN.
(IN GERMAN)
Additional information
Dates
September 2025
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