Welcome to Jahn gymnastics!
The Friedrich Ludwig Jahn Gymnastics Festival, colloquially known as Jahn Gymnastics, is a competition and participation event that has been held outdoors in Freyburg for over 100 years and is one of the most traditional gymnastics festivals of its kind.
The 102nd Jahn Festival 2026 will again take place from August 21st to 23rd, 2026 in Freyburg further information to follow
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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 second-to-last weekend in August, people of all ages from 14 to over 90 gather to do gymnastics together. Elite and recreational gymnasts meet here, including many former members of the German national team, as well as athletes from Austria, Switzerland, Israel, and Japan. The most famous participant and ambassador is Mrs. Johanna Quaas, the world's oldest competitive gymnast at 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 acts as an organizer - develops.
History of Freyburger
Jahn Festival
Today's Jahn Festival began as an athletics event. At the initiative of the new mayor Friedrich Ehlert, the town of Freyburg invited people to a “Folk Competition” in 1901, which consisted of a pentathlon featuring high jump, pole vault, sling ball, stone put, and a 100-meter dash. This was intended to complement the memory of Jahn and serve as an additional attraction for the town.
Seventy-two gymnasts registered for the first competition, and from then on, the event took place every year near August 11th, Jahn's birthday, on the Schützenplatz. After a few years, the name “Jahn German Gymnastics Competition” became established, the number of participants doubled, and in 1913, the German Gymnastics Federation took over the event. Afterwards, there was a five-year break due to World War I.
In the 1920s, all-around competitions for female gymnasts and for older participants were added, as well as a combined running and swimming relay race called “Rund um die Jahnstätten” (Around the Jahn-sites). This increased the number of participants to around 400. In 1937, apparatus gymnastics were performed for the first time, in mixed competitions for older participants. The apparatus were set up outdoors on the gymnastics field, as they still are today. A little later, there were also purely apparatus competitions and gymnastics competitions for female gymnasts. The event continued throughout World War II as the “Kriegs-Jahnwetturnen” (War-Jahn Competition) with 500-600 participants.
After the war, a long pause ensued, then the competitions were resumed in 1953 as “Jahn Memorial Competitions,” later sometimes called “Jahn Memorial Gymnastics.” The program continued to consist of popular, mixed, and apparatus competitions, supplemented in the sixties by fistball, volleyball, and folk sport competitions. However, in the seventies, it was reduced again, notably the decathlons were dropped. Since then, apparatus gymnastics has defined the character of this traditional gathering, to which about 1000 male and female gymnasts come to Freyburg every year. It has been called “Jahn Gymnastics Festival” since 1994 and has since become the State Gymnastics Festival of Saxony-Anhalt.
Gymnastics Competition 1909, Hans Faber pole vaulting over 3.30 m (Source: Deutsche Turn-Zeitung)
Jahn gymnastics on the Schützenplatz 1961 (Source: Jahn Museum)
