Book: Documentation of the conference „200 years of gymnastics in Württemberg“ on May 18, 2016 in Calw-Hirsau

Hirsau, in the fall of 1816: something extraordinary happens in this small Swabian town with barely 350 souls: five young men get together to do gymnastics. The work of the founder of the German gymnastics movement, Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, „Die deutsche Turnkunst“, which had just been published in Lübeck in the spring, served as their model. They are „serious about the dear German fatherland“, as they confide in their gymnastics diary; because the „true art of gymnastics“ is „closely connected … with patriotic spirit and strength“. They also want to restore the lost balance between soul and body. Their motto is: „Fresh, free, happy and pious“. The preceptor of Leonberg, Friedrich Wilhelm Klumpp, who would later be known as the „Swabian father of gymnastics“, was involved in the founding. If this alone is remarkable, the foundation of an association with self-imposed laws, a treasury and a board of directors is even more so. The capital city of Stuttgart will not have its gymnastics center until a year later.
This small group of gymnasts stood at the cradle of gymnastics in Württemberg.
It has only been possible to look back since the „Turntagebuch“ was found by Siegfried Greiner from Hirsau in 1972, through whose legacy it is kept in the Württemberg State Library in Stuttgart.