Welcome
to the Jahnturnen!
The Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Turnfest, colloquially known as Jahnturnen, is a competitive and participatory event and is considered the most traditional open-air gymnastics meet in Germany.
Jahn Gymnastics Festival100th Jahn Gymnastics Festival
1TP3One hundred
In 2024, the gymnastics festival was held for the 100th time. The program of the celebrations included
- Festive event in the atrium of the Rotkäppchen sparkling wine cellar - (alternative open air event on the market square)
- Show programs on the festival meadow - arranged by sports groups of the Burgenlandkreis and gymnastics clubs from all over Germany
- Workshop and participation offers of the Landesturnverbandes
- Performance of the German national gymnastics team
- Turnerball in the atrium of the Rotkäppchen Sektkellerei and a big tent
- State Children's Gymnastics Festival
- Opening of the new permanent exhibition in the Jahn Museum
- Festschrift and publication on the history of the Jahnturnfest
About the Jahn Gymnastics FestivalAbout the Jahn Gymnastics Festival
Fresh, pious, cheerful, Freyburg!
Every year on the penultimate weekend in August, people of all ages from 14 - ü90 meet to do gymnastics together. Top and recreational gymnasts meet here, including many former members of the German national team, but also athletes from Austria, Switzerland, Israel or Japan. The most prominent participant and ambassador is the oldest competitive gymnast in the world, Johanna Quaas, who is 95 years old.
The competitions in apparatus gymnastics form the core of the programme. Offers such as the Jahn run, the orienteering, the gymnastics for everyone and various workshops round off the gymnastics festival programme. Around the competitions the organizers organize in cooperation with the Jahn Museum a varied supporting program with a variety of events and cultural offerings, including the ceremony with wreath-laying, the singing of the old gymnasts, exhibition openings, city tours, the gymnastics ball and the gymnastics party.
In the last 20 years the Jahnturnen has become the national gymnastics festival of the Saxony-Anhalt State Gymnastics Association e.V. - who together with the City of Freyburg acted as the organizer.
1TP3Historical
On the initiative of Freyburg's mayor Ehlert, the first gymnastics event took place on August 11, 1901. Exactly 72 participants accepted his invitation and competed in various disciplines. In addition to apparatus gymnastics, these included high jump and long jump, all-around competitions, bouncing ball, gymnastics and stone throwing. The number of participants increased steadily from year to year. In 1912 there were already 190 participants, in 1923 there were 338 active participants on the list. The absolute record number of participants was reached in 1961 with 1,550. Currently, the number of participants has leveled off at 1,000 - 1,200.
The disciplines have changed again and again over the last 120 years, but the gymnastics festival has its fixed place in the calendar of events and competitions. Since 1901, the event has always taken place, regardless of various political upheavals and systems. Only in the two world wars and the years of the large GDR gymnastics festivals the gymnastics festival could not be accomplished. Unfortunately, the Corona pandemic in 2020/21 has also made a realization impossible.
In its now more than one hundred year history, the event has changed its name several times, but without losing its fundamental character:
Jahn gymnastics - Jahn war gymnastics - Jahn memorial gymnastics - Jahn gymnastics games - Jahn memorial competitions - Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn memorial competitions - Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn memorial gymnastics
Since 1994 the gymnastics meeting officially bears the name "Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Turnfest" and thus refers to the festive character of the event, which unites sporting competitions, the commemoration of the "gymnastics father" and the social get-together of gymnasts from near and far.
