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ARTICLE - BETWEEN GYMNASTICS AND SPORT: EDUCATION OF THE BODY AND PRESERVATION OF IDENTITY IN GERMAN-BRAZILIAN GYMNASTICS SOCIETIES

ABSTRACT:

Numerous gymnastic societies were created in Brazil between the mid-nineteenth century and the end of the 1930’s. Their main goal was, to contribute to the formation of the German-Brazilian communities and preservation of their cultural heritage in benefit of the country that had welcomed them, through a specific form of body education, Turnen. From the first decades of the XX century on, however, sports start to gain some space in these societies and, as a foreign creation, is involved in discussions and inquiries about their possible educational and hygienic benefits. In this article we analyze how gymnastics and sports have been appropriated by the gymnastic societies as elements of body education and identity preservation. It is noted that the initial resistance to the sport insertion is more connected to the preservation of gymnastic as a national German “heritage” and it engages with the discussions on the theme that were taking place in Germany.

Keywords:
History of gymnastic; History of sport; German immigration

RESUMO:

Entre meados do século XIX e fins da década de 1930 foram criadas no Brasil numerosas sociedades ginásticas cujo principal objetivo era, por meio de uma forma específica de educação do corpo, o Turnen, contribuir para a formação das comunidades teuto-brasileiras e para a manutenção de sua herança cultural em benefício do país que os acolhera. A partir das primeiras décadas do século XX, entretanto, o esporte passa a ganhar espaço entre essas sociedades e, como uma criação estrangeira, é envolvido por discussões e questionamentos acerca de seus possíveis benefícios educativos e higiênicos. Neste artigo, analisamos como ginástica e esporte foram apropriados pelas sociedades ginásticas como elementos de educação do corpo e manutenção identitária. Percebe-se que a resistência inicial à inserção do esporte está mais vinculada à preservação da ginástica como uma “herança” nacional alemã, e apresenta-se em diálogo com as discussões que se davam sobre o tema na Alemanha.

Palavras-chave:
História da ginástica; História do esporte; Imigração alemã

INTRODUCTION

Along the nineteenth century and during the first decades of the twentieth, Brazil was one of the destinations of thousands of Europeans who would leave their countries of origin in search of better life conditions, or even new businesses opportunities (WILLEMS, 1980WILLEMS, E. A aculturação dos alemães no Brasil. São Paulo: Companhia Editora Nacional, 1980.; SEYFERTH, 1982SEYFERTH, G. Nacionalismo e identidade étnica: a ideologia germanista e o grupo étnico teuto-brasileiro numa comunidade do Vale do Itajaí. Florianópolis: Fundação Victor Konder, 1982.; MAGALHÃES, 1998MAGALHÃES, M. B. de. Pangermanismo e Nazismo: a trajetória alemã rumo ao Brasil. Campinas: Editora da Unicamp, 1998.; SIRIANI, 2003SIRIANI, S. C. L. Uma São Paulo alemã: vida quotidiana dos imigrantes germânicos na região da capital, 1827-1889. São Paulo: Imprensa Oficial do Estado, 2003.). Among the different groups which arrived in the country in such period were those coming from regions that compose Germany today. The immigrants identified as “Germans” represented one of the groups whose systematic entrance in the country happened for a long time. The immigration of German origin individuals was made official from 1820 on (SIRIANI, 2003SIRIANI, S. C. L. Uma São Paulo alemã: vida quotidiana dos imigrantes germânicos na região da capital, 1827-1889. São Paulo: Imprensa Oficial do Estado, 2003.), and lasted in an almost continuous way, until World War II. Such long lasting systematic immigration does not mean, however, that they had constituted one of the most populous ethnic groups of the country.

The lack of data makes it hard to accurately affirm the number of Germans who came to the country since the start of their systematic immigration. According to Willlems (1980)WILLEMS, E. A aculturação dos alemães no Brasil. São Paulo: Companhia Editora Nacional, 1980., more precise statistics can only be found from the decade of 1880 on and, still, vary depending on the organs that organized them. From the National Department of Settlement records, and taking into consideration not only the immigrants identified as “Germans”, but also all of those who spoke German, Willems (1980WILLEMS, E. A aculturação dos alemães no Brasil. São Paulo: Companhia Editora Nacional, 1980.) estimates that, between 1887 and 1936 the country received around 280,000 German origin immigrants, which corresponds to around 7% of the total number of immigrants who came to Brazil during this period.

Although they did not constitute a homogeneous group and there were differences among the areas colonized by Germans, both in the south and southeast regions of Brazil, there is a consensus among the German immigration researchers that a remarkable characteristic of this group was the associative life. Even though this associative life shown by the German immigrants was related, at least initially, to the lack of basic elements of public life, such as schools, religious services or even spaces dedicated for fun, such phenomenon was not born in the Brazilian lands (LUEBKE, 1987LUEBKE, F. Germans in Brazil: a comparative history of cultural conflict during World War I. Baton Rouge; London: Louisiana State University Press, 1987.; SEYFERTH, 1999SEYFERTH, G. Nacionalismo e identidade étnica: a ideologia germanista e o grupo étnico teuto-brasileiro numa comunidade do Vale do Itajaí. Florianópolis: Fundação Victor Konder, 1982.; RIETH, 2007RIETH, R. W. Associativismo e protestantismo na imigração e colonização: o caso da Associação Gustavo Adolfo. Estudos Teológicos, v. 47, n. 2, p. 27-43, 2007. Disponível em:<http://est.tempsite.ws/periodicos/index.php/estudos_teologicos/article/viewArticle/445>.
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; SCHALLENBERGER, 2009SCHALLENBERGER, E. Associativismo cristão e desenvolvimento comunitário: imigração e produção social do espaço colonial no sul do Brasil. Cascavel: Edunioeste, 2009.). The associations constituted themselves as important social structures in the nineteenth century Germany (NIPPERDEY, 1972NIPPERDEY, T. Verein als soziale Struktur im späten 18. und frühen 19. Jahrhundert. In: H. B. al., Geschichtswissenschaft und Vereinswesen im 19. Jahrhundert. Beiträge zur Geschichte historischer Forschung in Deutschland. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1972.) and, according to Rieth (2007RIETH, R. W. Associativismo e protestantismo na imigração e colonização: o caso da Associação Gustavo Adolfo. Estudos Teológicos, v. 47, n. 2, p. 27-43, 2007. Disponível em:<http://est.tempsite.ws/periodicos/index.php/estudos_teologicos/article/viewArticle/445>.
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) they shared three main characteristics, which were “free, spontaneous or voluntary belonging”, “conscious overcoming of the social stratification boundaries, determined by origin, property or formation”, and “ascension of elites within the bourgeoisie”. The gymnastics Societies were among the different associations that were being created in Germany during this period (Turnvereine) (NIPPERDEY, 1972NIPPERDEY, T. Verein als soziale Struktur im späten 18. und frühen 19. Jahrhundert. In: H. B. al., Geschichtswissenschaft und Vereinswesen im 19. Jahrhundert. Beiträge zur Geschichte historischer Forschung in Deutschland. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1972.; KRÜGER, 2013KRÜGER, M. The history of German sports clubs: Between integration and emigration. International Journal of the History of Sport, v. 30, n. 14, p. 1586-1603, 2013.).

In Brazilian lands, the gymnastics societies were also among the different associations founded by the German origin immigrants. According to Magalhães (1998MAGALHÃES, M. B. de. Pangermanismo e Nazismo: a trajetória alemã rumo ao Brasil. Campinas: Editora da Unicamp, 1998.), the associations created by this group, which gradually became identified as German-Brazilian,1 1 A noção de teuto-brasileiro é muito comum nas regiões de colonização alemã do sul e sudeste do Brasil e expressa um duplo pertencimento: cultural à Alemanha e político ao Brasil. Essa “identidade hifenizada”, como identifica Lesser (2001; 2015), resulta das noções de nação e nacionalidade que circulavam nessas comunidades, cujas origens remontam ao romantismo e ao nacionalismo alemães do início do século XIX, e se vinculam com a ideia de germanidade (Deutschtum), que representaria uma noção que valorizava tanto aspectos hereditários como culturais germânicos. Sobre as noções de teuto-brasileiro e germanidade, ver: Seyferth (1982; 1993; 1996; 2003; 2004); Quitzau (2016). worked as “micronations” in which a sense of collective belonging and ethnic identity was (re) created and affirmed. In this sense, the studies of Wieser (1991WIESER, L. Deutsches Turnen in Brasilien: Deutsche Auswanderung und die Entwicklung des deutsche-brasilisches Turnwesen bis zum 1917. London: Arena Publications, 1991.), Quitzau and Soares (2010QUITZAU, E. A.; SOARES, C. L. “A força da juventude garante o futuro de um povo”: a educação do corpo no Sport Club Germania (1899-1938). Movimento, v. 16, n. 3, p. 87-106, 2010.) and Quitzau (2011QUITZAU, E. A. Educação do corpo e vida associativa: as sociedades ginásticas alemãs em São Paulo (fins do século XIX, primeiras décadas do século XX). 2011a. Universidade Estadual de Campinas, 2011., 2013QUITZAU, E. A. “O Trabalho Na Forma De Alegria Juvenil”: a Ginástica Segundo Johann Christoph Friedrich Guts Muths. Revista Brasileira de Ciências do Esporte, v. 34, n. 2, p. 359-373, 2011b. Disponível em: <http://rbceonline.org.br/revista/index.php/RBCE/article/view/1040>.
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, 2016QUITZAU, E. A.; SOARES, C. L. Um manual do século XVIII: culto à natureza e educação do corpo em “Ginástica para a Juventude”, de Guts Muths. Revista Brasileira de História da Educação, v. 1, n. 40, p. 23-50, 2016. Disponível em:<http://rbhe.sbhe.org.br/index.php/rbhe/article/view/540>.
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) inquire about the place of gymnastic and sporting societies in this broader associative life constituted by the German immigrants established in Brazil and, particularly, about how this specific form of education of the body represented by German gymnastics — named as Turnen — was understood in these spaces, both as a means of physical and moral formation of their associates, as well as an identity element.

When electing Turnen, this specific form of gymnastics created in the early nineteenth century by Friedrich Ludwig Jahn (TESCHE, 2002TESCHE, L. O Turnen, a Educação e a Educação Física nas Escolas Teuto-Brasileiras no Rio Grande do Sul: 1852-1940. Ijuí: Unijuí, 2002.; QUITZAU, 2015QUITZAU, E. A. Da “Ginástica para a juventude” a “A ginástica alemã”: observações acerca dos primeiros manuais alemães de ginástica. Revista Brasileira de Ciencias do Esporte, v. 37, n. 2, p. 111-118, 2015.; 2016QUITZAU, E. A.; SOARES, C. L. Um manual do século XVIII: culto à natureza e educação do corpo em “Ginástica para a Juventude”, de Guts Muths. Revista Brasileira de História da Educação, v. 1, n. 40, p. 23-50, 2016. Disponível em:<http://rbhe.sbhe.org.br/index.php/rbhe/article/view/540>.
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), these associations take a specific form of education of the body as the central axis of their actions, and that has a strong bond with the German nationalism of the nineteenth century as remarkable characteristic. However, from the first decades of the twentieth century on, another form of education of the body, sport, starts to gain space between these societies and, as an English origin creation, is surrounded by discussions and questions about its possible educational and hygienic benefits. It is important to emphasize that, when taking gymnastics and sport as specific forms of education of the body, we assume the concept developed by Soares (2014SOARES, C. L. Educação do corpo. In: GONZÁLEZ, F. J.; FENSTERSEIFER, P. E. Dicionário crítico de Educação Física. Ijuí: Unijuí, 2014, p. 219-225., p. 219) that, understanding education as “a set of broader cultural processes” states that

among its polysemy and consequent ambiguities, the concept of body education is characterized by the progressive repression of bodily manifestations in what seems to be uncontrollable. Educating the body has been, thereby, making it suitable for social coexistence and inserting it into learning processes that seek to conceal and erase a rebellious nature, bringing a pacified nature to light. (SOARES, 2014SOARES, C. L. Educação do corpo. In: GONZÁLEZ, F. J.; FENSTERSEIFER, P. E. Dicionário crítico de Educação Física. Ijuí: Unijuí, 2014, p. 219-225., p. 221)

Quitzau (2013QUITZAU, E. A.. Different clubs, similar purposes? Gymnastics and sports in the German colony of São Paulo/Brazil at the turn of the nineteenth century. International Journal of the History of Sport, v. 30, n. 9, p. 963-975, 2013.), from the comparison between a gymnastics society and a sports club in the city of São Paulo, showed that, despite being practices of distinct origins, both gymnastics and sport were used by these institutions as educational elements, with the purpose of contributing to the formation of a physically and morally strong community, and that, in this scenario, there are indications that, instead of behaving as rivals, both institutions tried to establish cooperation bonds. However, the analysis of documents related to the Gymnastics society demonstrates, in many aspects, if not a discourse against the sport, a great reservation concerning such practice. In this sense, we aim at broadening this previous study analyzing how Turnen and sport were appropriated by the German-Brazilian gymnastic societies, in both the south and southeast regions of the country, as elements of body education and identity preservation, trying to identify the tensions generated by the introduction of sports practices in this scenario and how they were gradually incorporated as a complement to gymnastics. For this purpose, we work with a broad set of sources consisting of minutes of meetings, photographs, publications elaborated by the gymnastic societies and newspaper clippings, compiled into collections of the clubs themselves and in private and public files in Brazil and Germany.

THE GERMAN-BRAZILIAN GYMNASTIC ASSOCIATIONS: ORGANIZATION AND DAILY LIFE

As mentioned in the introduction, associations are considered a characteristic aspect of the German communities created in Brazil, especially those closest to urban centers. Although the first initiatives for the creation of societies by these immigrants date back to the decade of 1820 (SEYFERTH, 1999), it is only with the most numerous arrival of immigrants with a higher level of education and coming from urban areas that a greater impulse of associations is perceived in the country (SCHALLENBERGER, 2009SCHALLENBERGER, E. Associativismo cristão e desenvolvimento comunitário: imigração e produção social do espaço colonial no sul do Brasil. Cascavel: Edunioeste, 2009.). If we take a close look specifically at the case of the gymnastics societies, which is the object of the present investigation, one will realize that their development matches the analyses presented by Schallenberger (2009SCHALLENBERGER, E. Associativismo cristão e desenvolvimento comunitário: imigração e produção social do espaço colonial no sul do Brasil. Cascavel: Edunioeste, 2009.).

The first gymnastic societies founded by German origin immigrants in Brazilian lands date back to the end of the 1850’s. Whilst the first of them, the one from Joinville, has been active since its foundation, in 1858, the second, founded in Rio de Janeiro in 1859, closed its doors in the nineteenth century, and left few traces of its existence. Wieser (1991WIESER, L. Deutsches Turnen in Brasilien: Deutsche Auswanderung und die Entwicklung des deutsche-brasilisches Turnwesen bis zum 1917. London: Arena Publications, 1991.) identifies that until the beginning of the 1880’s, German immigrants had created only two other gymnastic societies in the country, which leads this author to name this early stage of development of the gymnastics associations as “isolation period”. From the decade of 1880 onwards, a significant increase in the number of associations of this type is observed, as well as the first movements towards the creation of supra regional organizations that brought different Brazilian and German gymnastic societies together, allowing the author to characterize this phase as “period of supra regional organization”, which lasts up to 1917, the limit of his study, marked by interruptions of the gymnastic societies activities due to World War I. In this same movement led by Wieser, Quitzau (2016QUITZAU, E. A.; SOARES, C. L. Um manual do século XVIII: culto à natureza e educação do corpo em “Ginástica para a Juventude”, de Guts Muths. Revista Brasileira de História da Educação, v. 1, n. 40, p. 23-50, 2016. Disponível em:<http://rbhe.sbhe.org.br/index.php/rbhe/article/view/540>.
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) identifies a third phase, comprised between the decades of 1920 and 1930, which can be classified as “period of resumption and expansion of activities”, once the associations did not only return to their usual operations, but there was also a higher level of communication among them (especially through what can be named as a “gymnastics press”), they also adopted new bodily practices, such as sports. The improvement of the communication forms by means of a specialized press provided even greater interaction with gymnastic societies founded by Germans in other South American countries, such as Argentina and Chile.2 2 Até o presente momento não foram encontrados estudos sobre o associativismo ginástico teuto-argentino. Por outro lado, as associações ginásticas fundadas por alemães no Chile foram objeto de investigação de Temme (2000). Os alemães que imigraram para o continente americano também desenvolveram uma intensa rede associativa nos Estados Unidos desde meados do século XIX, como mostram os estudos de Hofmann (2000; 2001; 2002; 2008; 2009; 2015).

The circulation of periodicals among the German-Brazilian gymnastic societies, performed by this gymnastics press, contributed to the approximation of these institutions as well as to the construction of an identity among their associates, conveying the idea that the German-Brazilian gymnast would be an individual always ready for work and sacrifice in the name of common good. Meanwhile, they also established an image that the gymnastic societies, and even Turnen, were institutions that united this community creating an environment free from partisan, class or denominational differentiations (QUITZAU, 2016QUITZAU, E. A.; SOARES, C. L. Um manual do século XVIII: culto à natureza e educação do corpo em “Ginástica para a Juventude”, de Guts Muths. Revista Brasileira de História da Educação, v. 1, n. 40, p. 23-50, 2016. Disponível em:<http://rbhe.sbhe.org.br/index.php/rbhe/article/view/540>.
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). The circulation of these journals strengthened an idea that was common to these institutions: as German-Brazilian gymnasts, their associates had a task in common that constituted the maintenance of the Germanness in foreign lands through the preservation of Turnen, of the German language, of its customs, building an environment that would be permeated by camaraderie and, mainly, by a sense of collective belonging.

These journals also indicate basic aspects of how the gymnastic societies worked, such as who was allowed to participate in their activities and use their facilities, at the same time that they disseminated certain required behaviors from the associates, such as the shared responsibility regarding the maintenance of equipment and spaces and the time limits for closing the institutions. This set of rules and norms of behavior, known as Hausordnung (Order of the House, in literal translation), concerned especially the duties and behaviors expected by the associates. On the other hand, the statutes were responsible for governing the way these institutions worked and determining the possible sanctions to those who did not behave according to the established rules, which could vary from mere warnings to the banishment from the membership board.

As well as the German gymnastic societies, the German-Brazilian ones were groups of volunteers, ruled by a statute that established, among other things, the purposes and objectives which would be pursued by these institutions. As the magazines and nearly all the documents published by the German-Brazilian gymnastic societies, the statutes were also written in German. Although there could be some particularities among the regulations of the different associations, some points were common to all of them, like the membership board composition, the persistence on its apolitical nature and, mostly, the objectives of the associations: the idea that the goal of the gymnastic societies was to promote the corporal and spiritual strengthening of the German-Brazilian community through Turnen was unanimous among the statutes that were found. In many cases, besides these objectives were the maintenance of the German language and culture and, the means to achieve them, the outdoor activities such as games and tours (QUITZAU, 2011QUITZAU, E. A. Educação do corpo e vida associativa: as sociedades ginásticas alemãs em São Paulo (fins do século XIX, primeiras décadas do século XX). 2011a. Universidade Estadual de Campinas, 2011.; 2016QUITZAU, E. A.; SOARES, C. L. Um manual do século XVIII: culto à natureza e educação do corpo em “Ginástica para a Juventude”, de Guts Muths. Revista Brasileira de História da Educação, v. 1, n. 40, p. 23-50, 2016. Disponível em:<http://rbhe.sbhe.org.br/index.php/rbhe/article/view/540>.
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).

The German-Brazilian gymnastic societies operated almost uninterruptedly and without major changes for about 80 years, from the creation of the first association, in Joinville, in 1858, until the beginning of the Vargas government nationalization policies, in 1938. During this period, these societies were intensely active, with activities that also involved theater and music performances, film screenings and the availability of books and journals in German through its important libraries.3 3 As bibliotecas podem ser consideradas como um dos exemplos do esforço das sociedades ginásticas teuto-brasileiras no sentido de preservar a língua e a cultura alemã no Brasil. Eram comuns às sociedades ginásticas e contavam com acervos bastante variados e, em muitos casos, bastante amplos. Em São Paulo, por exemplo, a biblioteca da Turnerschaft von 1890 foi inaugurada em 1902 (TURNERSCHAFT VON 1890 IN SÃO PAULO, 1903) e no ano de 1929 contabilizava um total de 1846 empréstimos anuais de seu variado acervo, que contava com periódicos como Die Woche, Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung, Deutsche Turnzeitung, e Deutscher Sport in Südamerika (QUITZAU, 2011). No Rio de Janeiro, o acervo da Deutscher Turn- und Sportverein contava, em 1920, com 2.000 volumes entre livros e periódicos em língua alemã. Há registros também de bibliotecas com importantes acervos em sociedades como a Leopoldenser Turnverein, Teuto-Brasilianischer Turnverein Curytiba e Turnerbund Porto Alegre (QUITZAU, 2016). During the week, at night, they offered gymnastics sessions to their associates. In these moments, they could exercise in the different equipment available: rings, parallel bars and horses were basic elements of the gymnastics halls of these societies. In these training sessions,

all gymnasts, older and younger, stay in line and wait for the Gymnastics master’s command. All of them turn to the right and initiate slight racing steps: the school of the body has started. Strong arms and legs movements work the whole body and let go of the last sensations of cold that this icy night of the Brazilian winter offers. The exercises warm the body and soon the gymnasts divide themselves into rows of five and gather for the free exercises. On stage, the gymnastics master demonstrates the exercises with lightness and enthusiasm accompanied by the piano. (...) (TURNERSCHAFT 1890TURNERSCHAFT von. 1890 IN SÃO PAULO. Deutsche Turnzeitung, 1903., 1937TURNERSCHAFT von. 1890 IN SÃO PAULO. Deutsche Turnzeitung, 1905, p. 573., p. 4)

As during the week the headquarters of the gymnastic societies were used by their associates only at night, many associations made their structure available so that students from the local German schools could also exercise in gymnastics during the day. In São Paulo,4 4 No caso da cidade de São Paulo, os registros indicam que, no início do século XX, um de seus instrutores de ginástica, Otto Beust, trabalhava também como professor de ginástica em escolas públicas da cidade. Conforme relatório do clube referente ao ano de 1902, Beust chegou a publicar um artigo intitulado “O valor pedagogico da gymnastica e sua applicação” na “Revista Educação” (TURNERSCHAFT VON 1890 IN SÃO PAULO, 1903). Dois anos depois, em relatório de atividades referente a 1904, o clube afirma que Beust se afastou de suas tarefas como professor de ginástica tanto no clube como nas escolas paulistas, para assumir uma tipografia local (TURNERSCHAFT VON 1890IN SÃO PAULO, 1905) for example, the Turnerschaft von 1890 had its headquarters at the disposal of the German schools of the city, while in Porto Alegre, the Turnerbund did something very similar (QUITZAU, 2011QUITZAU, E. A. Educação do corpo e vida associativa: as sociedades ginásticas alemãs em São Paulo (fins do século XIX, primeiras décadas do século XX). 2011a. Universidade Estadual de Campinas, 2011.; 2016QUITZAU, E. A.; SOARES, C. L. Um manual do século XVIII: culto à natureza e educação do corpo em “Ginástica para a Juventude”, de Guts Muths. Revista Brasileira de História da Educação, v. 1, n. 40, p. 23-50, 2016. Disponível em:<http://rbhe.sbhe.org.br/index.php/rbhe/article/view/540>.
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).

Having their own headquarters where a gymnasium could fit was one of the main challenges and one of the most desired administrative objectives in the early years of the gymnastic societies. In general, these associations started their activities in rented locations, usually in hotel halls or colony school courtyards, and later moved to a building of their own. Obtaining the headquarters, however, meant structure to carry out the gymnastics sessions and the cultural encounters, it did not satisfy the needs of these associations though. Once this first structure was obtained, they searched for a complementary one: a space in which they could have their Spielplatz, a square of games where they would meet on weekends to exercise outdoors. Allied to the weekly gymnastics sessions, the outdoor exercises would contribute to fighting the urban environment’s sufferings, because, as the members of Turnernbund Porto Alegre said, in a time when “nervousness had become a trendy disease, Tuberculosis and so many other diseases grow as scourges of humankind and we reached the point in which a decay of the power of the people is considered “ (TURNERBUND PORTO ALEGRE, Year 2, N. 2, 1916TURNERBUND PORTO ALEGRE. Deutsche Turnblätter. Monatliche Mitteilungen des Turner-Bundes in Porto Alegre, ano 2, n. 2, 1916., p. 11), physical exercises became “medicine” against the bodily and moral evils. Through Turnen health is improved, the body becomes strong, resistant, agile and acquires a “beautiful and natural” posture.

The outdoor games square, therefore, allowed an extension of the activities offered by these associations to their members. Along with races, jumps and throwing, exercises that were part of the first systematizations of physical exercises, such as Turnen proposed by Jahn, could also work in games such as fistball, handball and football. These games, however, indicate the arrival of a practice with logic and origin different from the Turnen: sport.

TURNEN X SPORT: TENSIONS AND APPROXIMATIONS

A few years ago, we lived here under the heading of sport, but our gymnastics proved again that, through it, one can take care of himself, aspire and acquire a multiple body formation (DEUTSCHER TURNVEREIN (STAMMVEREIN) ZU SÃO PAULO, 1905DEUTSCHER TURNVEREIN (STAMMVEREIN) ZU SÃO PAULO. (1905). Deutsche Turnzeitung, p. 413.).

In its activity report for the year 1904, published in the Deutsche Turnzeitung5 5 O Deutsche Turnzeitung foi um jornal criado em 1856, na Alemanha, e que na década de 1860 foi adotado com órgão oficial da Deutsche Turnerschaft. Foi um importante veículo de difusão e discussão do Turnen na Alemanha (KRÜGER, 1996), mas também para além de suas fronteiras, havendo indícios de sua circulação, por exemplo, entre as sociedades ginásticas teuto-brasileiras (QUITZAU, 2016). N ° 24, in June 1905, the directive Committee of Deutscher Turnverein zu São Paulo showed some concern regarding a novelty that was beginning to gain space in the capital of São Paulo, as well as within the German colony: sport. If, on the one hand, Turnen had been constituted throughout the nineteenth century as the great expression of the German physical culture, in the transition to the twentieth century it began to find sport as a potential rival, both in Germany and in Brazil. In São Paulo, for example, among the Germans there had been, since 1899, Sport Club Germania, founded for the practice of football, and which rapidly grew in the first decades of the twentieth century (QUITZAU; SOARES, 2010QUITZAU, E. A.; SOARES, C. L. “A força da juventude garante o futuro de um povo”: a educação do corpo no Sport Club Germania (1899-1938). Movimento, v. 16, n. 3, p. 87-106, 2010.). Also, in Porto Alegre, for example, as demonstrated by Mazo studies (2003MAZO, J. Z. A Emergência e a Expansão do Associativismo Desportivo em Porto Alegre - Brasil ( 1867 - 1945 ): Espaço de Representações da Identidade Cultural Teuto-Brasileira. 2003. 366 f. Universidade de Porto, 2003.), in the transition of the nineteenth century to the twentieth, there were a series of associations aimed at sporting practices, such as rowing, turf and swimming. The term sport itself had already circulated in German-language newspapers in Brazil since the late nineteenth century, initially referring to sports practices in Germany and, from the decade of 1910 on, referring specifically to practices performed in German-Brazilian clubs (ASMANN; MAZO FERNANDES, 2017ASSMANN, A. B.; MAZO, J. Z.; FERNANDES, C.. SPORT : uma concepção emergente no jornal kolonie. Motrivivência, Por que dizer que utilizavam o termo na língua inglesa se em alemão também é Sport, mas com maiúscula? E o que significaria, então, utilizar o termo em inglês (caso apareça em minúscula)?, v. 29, p. 77-91, 2017.).

In the early years of the twentieth century, sport also represented a concern for other gymnastic societies, such as Turnerschaft von 1890 in São Paulo and Turnerbund Porto Alegre. Both associations indicate the same problem and the same explanatory hypothesis in their activities reports concerning the year 1905: the decrease in the frequency in the gymnastics sessions and the reduction of the membership board, which were initially explained inside these clubs as a result of a migration of these individuals to the sports clubs, more specifically, to those of football. In 1904, Turnerschaft von 1890 criticized the associates who would, in a period of difficulties of the club, exchange Turnen for “performing sports movements”, namely football (TURNERSCHAFT VON 1890TURNERSCHAFT von 1890. Mitteilungen an unseren Mitgliedern, 1930.IN SÃO PAULO, 1905).

Although the reservation of the German-Brazilian gymnasts in the early twentieth century is not an exclusivity of the gymnastic societies founded by Germans in Brazil, it reflects, to some extent, the tensions and discussions that were taking place in Germany in the same period. Football, which reached the German territories in the decades of 1870 and 1880 (EISENBERG, 1991EISENBERG, C. Football in germany: Beginnings, 1890-1914. The International Journal of the History of Sport, v. 8, n. 2, p. 205-220, 1991.), and sport in a wider way, were initially configured as practices of the German aristocratic elite and faced great resistance, especially for its British origin. According to Merkel (2003MERKEL, U. The Politics of Physical Culture and German Nationalism: Turnen versus English Sports and French Olympism, 1871-1914. German Politics and Society, v. 21, n. 2, p. 69-96, 2003. Disponível em:<https://www.jstor.org/stable/23740767>.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/23740767...
), the fact of being a foreign practice with strong internationalist character, caused the sport to be initially received with great aversion, or even true rejection, mainly by Deutsche Turnerschaft.6 6 Entidade suprarregional alemã responsável por congregar as sociedades ginásticas existentes no país e fundadas por imigrantes no exterior. When Pierre de Coubertin started the first movements towards the organization of the modern Olympism, his ideas were received by the German Turner with great hostility, since they considered it

an anti-German conspiracy, as they felt threatened by their French neighbors, and were waiting for them to invade Germany at any moment in pursuit of revenge for the defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. They also fundamentally disagreed with the international nature of sports and the Olympic Games, since its concept of physical culture was clearly associated to national characteristics. (MERKEL, 2003MERKEL, U. The Politics of Physical Culture and German Nationalism: Turnen versus English Sports and French Olympism, 1871-1914. German Politics and Society, v. 21, n. 2, p. 69-96, 2003. Disponível em:<https://www.jstor.org/stable/23740767>.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/23740767...
, p. 81)

Turnen, this form of gymnastics spread by Deutsche Turnerschaft and by the German origin gymnasts who settled in other countries, as Brazil, is a creation of the early nineteenth century, markedly influenced by the nationalist movement of the period. Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, who created it, sought to exalt the German people through this practice and to prepare the youth to fight mainly against the French domination and fragmentation of the Germanic territories of the time. The change of the term Gymnastik for Turnen itself is an indication of the interests of Jahn and the influences he received by the nationalist movement and thinkers such as Johann Gottfried von Herder, Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Ernst Moritz Arndt (TESCHE, 2002TESCHE, L. O Turnen, a Educação e a Educação Física nas Escolas Teuto-Brasileiras no Rio Grande do Sul: 1852-1940. Ijuí: Unijuí, 2002.; MERKEL 2003MERKEL, U. The Politics of Physical Culture and German Nationalism: Turnen versus English Sports and French Olympism, 1871-1914. German Politics and Society, v. 21, n. 2, p. 69-96, 2003. Disponível em:<https://www.jstor.org/stable/23740767>.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/23740767...
; 2011 QUITZAU; 2016QUITZAU, E. A.; SOARES, C. L. Um manual do século XVIII: culto à natureza e educação do corpo em “Ginástica para a Juventude”, de Guts Muths. Revista Brasileira de História da Educação, v. 1, n. 40, p. 23-50, 2016. Disponível em:<http://rbhe.sbhe.org.br/index.php/rbhe/article/view/540>.
http://rbhe.sbhe.org.br/index.php/rbhe/a...
).

Reflecting upon Turnen, therefore, is thinking of a form of education of the body that had been conceived and nourished by a strong bond with political movements and struggles throughout the nineteenth century, and that was taken by the German gymnasts as an element of National identity constitution. In this regard, any practice that came from spaces beyond the newly demarcated German borders would most likely be the subject of intense resistance by this group. Concerning this, as Merkel affirms (2003MERKEL, U. The Politics of Physical Culture and German Nationalism: Turnen versus English Sports and French Olympism, 1871-1914. German Politics and Society, v. 21, n. 2, p. 69-96, 2003. Disponível em:<https://www.jstor.org/stable/23740767>.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/23740767...
, p. 86),

the main opponents were the leaders of Turnbewegung, the educated middle class, and many philosophers. Comparing it with the national, patriotic tradition of Turnen, the opponents of sport argued that it had no spiritual foundation — that is, that there was not a specific or coherent set of patriotic and national ideas associated with the sport, simply being a harmful free-time activity, incapable of developing positive virtues, but, on the contrary, promoting specialization, exaggerated selfishness, competitiveness, and the principle of individual achievement. Unilateral training of the athletes, the emerging commercialization and professionalization in the English football fields, as well as in the boxing rings, were also criticized.

Krüger (2013KRÜGER, M. The history of German sports clubs: Between integration and emigration. International Journal of the History of Sport, v. 30, n. 14, p. 1586-1603, 2013.), when studying the formation of gymnastic and sporting clubs in Germany also highlights the place of patriotism in Turnen and the criticism of gymnasts to the sports movement. On the other hand, based on the idea that Turnen was a much broader practice that also involved games, he states that, in a certain way, even these practices known as English sports could be appropriated by the gymnastic societies, once they were practiced in accordance with the “spirit of Turnen”. And this is an essential concept to understand the process of introducing and disseminating sports practices in the German-Brazilian gymnastic societies, despite this initial apparent hostility.

While the reports of the German-Brazilian gymnastic societies activities of the early twentieth century indicate that there was a certain skepticism concerning sport — especially football —, they also show a certain pacifying tendency from of their Committee boards. Turnerschaft von 1890, for example, presents the hypothesis that the decrease in gymnastics sessions frequency would be related to their members participation in soccer games, but it immediately emphasizes that the data of the association showed the opposite: “Only five or six of our associates are involved with football, and they are precisely the most active participants in the gymnastics sessions” (TURNERSCHAFT VON 1890TURNERSCHAFT von. 1890 IN SÃO PAULO. Deutsche Turnzeitung, 1906, p. 781.IN SÃO PAULO, 1906, p. 781).

The same observations are made by Turnerbund Porto Alegre in the same year. According to this association,

in comparison to the branches of the sport that are represented in Porto Alegre, Turnen became “old fashioned” again. Our purpose here is not to envy success of different sports clubs that are good friends of ours; unlike that, in the future we want to harmoniously strive for the purpose of bringing a great mass of those who do not practice physical exercises to this greater life joy, which is body movement. If this movement is called Turnen or sport, this should not put us in opposition, but Turnerbund may ask you not to neglect the weekly Turnen by the Sunday sport. We have many examples of how it is possible to unite Turnen and sport like that, because many of our most active Turner are also sportsmen (TURNERBUND PORTO ALEGRE, 1906TURNERBUND PORTO ALEGRE. Deutsche Turnzeitung, 1906, p. 541.).

It is possible to notice, thus, that despite the criticism and the initial hostility to sports practices, the gymnastics societies gradually adopt a conciliatory discourse between gymnastics and sport. Throughout the first decades of the twentieth century we will even find associations that are called “gymnastic and sporting”, as Deutscher Turn-und Sportverein Rio de Janeiro (1909) and Turn-und Sportverein São Bento (1925). Although this conciliatory tone does not put sport at the same level of gymnastics, at least initially (“Turnerbund may ask you not to neglect the weekly Turnen by the Sunday Sport”), it places it as an additional practice, whose main advantage is the fact of being outdoors.

For members of the gymnastic societies, outdoor body exercise is an important ally in combating physical and moral addictions derived from life in the growing cities and jobs that demanded little movement and inadequate postures from the body, in low air circulation environments. As the Porto Alegre gymnasts affirm, physical exercise is “medicine” against physical and moral evils (TURNERBUND PORTO ALEGRE, Year 2, Number 2, 1916TURNERBUND PORTO ALEGRE. Deutsche Turnblätter. Monatliche Mitteilungen des Turner-Bundes in Porto Alegre, ano 2, n. 2, 1916., p. 11). A similar idea is shared by Turnerschaft von 1890 from São Paulo, when they stated that daily work, of increasingly mechanized characteristics, affected body symmetry and pushed the individual away from an ideal of beauty marked by strong muscles, tanned skin and a look that is capable of revealing the spirit and joy of life. For this group of São Paulo, “the same way as hospitals, drugstores and medicine are seen as necessary and desirable for the cure of patients, it is wise to take care so that the body does not degenerate itself as a result of the contemporary ways of life” (QUITZAU, 2011QUITZAU, E. A. Educação do corpo e vida associativa: as sociedades ginásticas alemãs em São Paulo (fins do século XIX, primeiras décadas do século XX). 2011a. Universidade Estadual de Campinas, 2011., P. 107). For the gymnasts of São Paulo, “the bigger the belly, the greater the atherosclerosis!” (TURNERSCHAFT 1890TURNERSCHAFT von 1890. Monatliche Rundschau, ano 3, n. 5, 1936., 1936), and this idea was, to some extent, shared by German-Brazilian gymnasts in other cities of the country.

It is a consensus among the members of the different gymnastic societies that Turnen’s regular practice would allow the individual to achieve good heart and lungs performance, sturdy, agile muscles, and an adequate posture. In fact, they establish a very direct relationship between posture and functioning of the internal organs, when stating that a good posture

gives the lungs space so they can develop vigorously, and makes them healthy, resistant and insensitive against the incoming of diseases. Furthermore, the teaching of a good static, walking, sitting posture, etc., along with a marked strengthening of the abdomen and back muscles, is always associated with the strengthening of willpower. Human beings need willpower if they want to achieve something with competence [...] The ideal is when Turnen and game are complemented by swimming, which refreshes and tightens. Swimming strengthens nerves, skin, heart, lungs, stimulates metabolism, educates for courage and perseverance (TURNERBUND PORTO ALEGRE, Year 2, N. 6, 1916, p. 54).

As indicated by the excerpt of Porto Alegre, the regular practice of Turnen did not only have effects on the individuals’ muscles, but also contributed to the development of a series of virtues. In a gymnastics session, they

[...] get used to fully tensioning their spiritual and bodily forces in order to apply them in a goal, in a task. They are thus educated for the constriction of wills; they learn to overcome difficulties, their self-confidence grows, their courage is shaped. They are commanded by a greater will; this way, a gymnastics class is an excellent school of discipline and strict order (TEUTO-BRASILIANISCHER TURNVEREIN Year 1, N. 3, 1929TEUTO-BRASILIANISCHEN TURNVEREINS CURYTIBA. Vereins-Zeitung des Teuto-Brasilianischen Turnvereins Curytiba, ano 1, n. 4, 1929., p. 9).

There is a consensus among the gymnasts that Turnen was able to promote, at the same time, the development of physical and moral characteristics. Themes such as autonomy, courage, presence of spirit, mastery of oneself, collective belonging and discipline appeared side by side as physical effects provided by the regular practice of the exercises. And these effects would be more easily achieved if the gymnastics sessions were in a space where good humor and companionship prevailed. There is an emphasis from the gymnastic societies in the fact that the gymnastics sessions should be moments in which cordiality and good relationship between the participants predominate, and this ideal atmosphere would be achieved in several ways: by helping one another in more complex exercises, chanting songs at the end of the session and, in many cases, sharing a beer before returning home (QUITZAU, 2011QUITZAU, E. A. Educação do corpo e vida associativa: as sociedades ginásticas alemãs em São Paulo (fins do século XIX, primeiras décadas do século XX). 2011a. Universidade Estadual de Campinas, 2011.; 2016QUITZAU, E. A.; SOARES, C. L. Um manual do século XVIII: culto à natureza e educação do corpo em “Ginástica para a Juventude”, de Guts Muths. Revista Brasileira de História da Educação, v. 1, n. 40, p. 23-50, 2016. Disponível em:<http://rbhe.sbhe.org.br/index.php/rbhe/article/view/540>.
http://rbhe.sbhe.org.br/index.php/rbhe/a...
; KRÜGER, 2013KRÜGER, M. The history of German sports clubs: Between integration and emigration. International Journal of the History of Sport, v. 30, n. 14, p. 1586-1603, 2013.).

Although Turnen was considered a “multiple exercise, which sought to work all parts of the body harmoniously”, there was a characteristic that, without diminishing its value as an educational element, represented a small disadvantage: it was practiced during the week, at night, in enclosed spaces - even though they were planned with large windows to favor the circulation of air. In this regard, its potential would be even greater if allied to the outdoor bodily practices. Spielplatz (squares of games) would become socializing spaces on Saturdays and Sundays and would make it possible to combine the work performed during the week in the gymnasiums and the amusements performed along with nature.

Swimming, running, jumping, rowing, playing, exercising outdoors in general was considered an essential element in gymnastics, because “while Turnen is almost exclusively cultivated at night in closed gyms, games happen in the free nature of God, favored by the air and the sun, which by themselves provide the best benefits we can imagine to the human body “ (TEUTO-BRASILIANISCHER TURNVEREIN, Year 1, N. 4, 1929TEUTO-BRASILIANISCHEN TURNVEREINS CURYTIBA. Vereins-Zeitung des Teuto-Brasilianischen Turnvereins Curytiba, ano 1, n. 4, 1929., p. 1). This idea, conveyed in the German-Brasilianischer Turnverein Curytiba newspaper, is followed by a call to its associates: “Let our youth become strong in the gym class, live outdoors, under light and the sun, for our children are the greatest good of the nation, they are our hope for a better future” (idem, p. 8). It is in this context of outdoor life exaltation that body exercise along nature is an important complement to the very beneficial Turnen itself, that the games and the previously hostile sport become understood as important allies of gymnastics.

If we turn our eyes to the first gymnastics manuals published in Germany, still in the transition from the eighteenth to the nineteenth century, we can see that the outdoor games were one of the components of these systematizations, along with practices such as balancing, jumping, jogging, exercising in the parallel bars or on the horse (TESCHE, 2002TESCHE, L. O Turnen, a Educação e a Educação Física nas Escolas Teuto-Brasileiras no Rio Grande do Sul: 1852-1940. Ijuí: Unijuí, 2002.; QUITZAU, 2011QUITZAU, E. A. Educação do corpo e vida associativa: as sociedades ginásticas alemãs em São Paulo (fins do século XIX, primeiras décadas do século XX). 2011a. Universidade Estadual de Campinas, 2011.; 2015QUITZAU, E. A.; SOARES, C. L. Um manual do século XVIII: culto à natureza e educação do corpo em “Ginástica para a Juventude”, de Guts Muths. Revista Brasileira de História da Educação, v. 1, n. 40, p. 23-50, 2016. Disponível em:<http://rbhe.sbhe.org.br/index.php/rbhe/article/view/540>.
http://rbhe.sbhe.org.br/index.php/rbhe/a...
; A. QUITZAU; SOARES, 2016QUITZAU, E. A.; SOARES, C. L. “A força da juventude garante o futuro de um povo”: a educação do corpo no Sport Club Germania (1899-1938). Movimento, v. 16, n. 3, p. 87-106, 2010.). Guts Muths, for example, in his handbook on games, asserted that

if on one side it is possible to conclude something about the moral and political condition of a nation from games, on the other side it is also possible, from that association, to conclude that the game has significant influence over the character, that they belong to the nation means of education (GUTS MUTHS, 1959GUTS MUTHS, J. C. F. [1796]. Spiele zur Übung und Erholung des Körpers und Geistes. Berlin: Sportverlag, 1959., p. 10).

While in his manual Guts Muths described 106 games of distinct origins and characteristics, organized into two categories called “movement” and “seated or resting”, Jahn also points out the importance of games in the gymnastic movement, but establishes a number of features so that they can be considered a Turnspiel (gymnastic game), such as not depending on complex facilities, having easy-to-understand rules and making sure everyone is always in motion, describing only five games in his manual. For Jahn, games would have an important socializing role, since “gymnastic games constitute the transition to the great life in society and guide the youth cirandas” (JAHN and EISELEN, 1967JAHN, F. L.; EISELEN, E. [1816] Die deutsche Turnkunst. Stuttgart: Verlagsdruckerei Conradi & Co., 1967., p. 169-170).

References to these authors appear in Brazilian sources when dealing with the importance of outdoor gaming. When Turnerbund Porto Alegre inaugurated its square of games in 1921, Jakob Aloys Friedrichs, long-time president of this association, said:

[...] When it seems that we are playing, we are serving the homeland, according to the words of Guts-Muths who, even before Jahn, called the German people:

“The gymnastic games have something so great and encouraging in themselves, so much strength to act over the national spirit, guiding people, inspiring them with patriotism, exalting their sense of virtue and honor, spreading certain nobility of mind, which make me consider it a means of education of the whole nation “(TURNERBUND PORTO ALEGRE, Year 3, N. 5, 1917TURNERBUND PORTO ALEGRE. Deutsche Turnblätter. Monatliche Mitteilungen des Turner-Bundes in Porto Alegre, ano 3, n. 5, 1917., p. 26)

Among the different games that appear in the sources, one of the most common is fistball, which, according to Pfister (2003PFISTER, G. Cultural confrontations: German Turnen, Swedish gymnastics and English sport - European diversity in physical activities from a historical perspective. Culture, Sport, Society, v. 6, n. 1, p. 61-91, 2003.), is a good example of the “battle” between Turnen and sport. According to this author, fistball was a game created by a physical education teacher from the city of Munich in the decade of 1880. Played by two teams, in a marked space, separated by a rope, initially there was neither predetermined time nor exact number of players and demanded that these, when hitting the ball to the other side with their fists closed, did so to ensure that the other team could strike it back and follow the game. In this sense, she states that “fistball was a typical game of the Turnen, in which cooperation and the aesthetic aspect were much more important than competition and efficiency” (PFISTER, 2003PFISTER, G. Cultural confrontations: German Turnen, Swedish gymnastics and English sport - European diversity in physical activities from a historical perspective. Culture, Sport, Society, v. 6, n. 1, p. 61-91, 2003., p. 84). The newly created game drew attention of many people, and the spreading of the sport in Germany in this period was also felt in a series of transformations in the dynamics of fistball. According to Pfister (2003PFISTER, G. Cultural confrontations: German Turnen, Swedish gymnastics and English sport - European diversity in physical activities from a historical perspective. Culture, Sport, Society, v. 6, n. 1, p. 61-91, 2003., p. 84-85),

discussions on competition and performance arose and, after long disputes, the principles of sport were gradually accepted and integrated. Thus, at the turn of the century, fistball had changed as well, with the players trying to strike the ball with more power and speed — and from top to bottom — to prevent the other team from reaching it. In 1910, a new rule was introduced forbidding players to strike the ball from top to bottom. Other regulations were also discussed in order to save the original character of the game. For a Turner as Weber [creator of the game], the changes represented ‘aberrations, errors and a complete distortion of the game’, but the resistance to turning fistball into sports was in vain. In 1912, the principles of competition and a guidance to success exceeded all moral and aesthetic considerations, and all sorts of moves were allowed. Finally, in 1923, the score also changed: the opponent’s mistakes were now scored as points. The result of these changes was a complete transformation of the idea of fistball, and the game that was originally a gymnastic game turned into a sport.

It is not possible to say from which rules fistball was played among the German-Brazilian gymnasts, since no records of this type have been found in the sources used here. However, it is possible to say that they always referred to fistball as a game, never as a sport. This same logic can also be found in the references from São Paulo about the practice of handball, widely known today as a sport.

The members of Turnerschaft 1890 considered handball as an intense “racing game”, which required the ability of all players in the field, thus not allowing specializations according to the physical type of the players. Moreover, more than skills and physical endurance, handball was a game that required fast thinking and camaraderie among the team members. When reporting a game organized inside the club, in 1935, between a team of young people and one of adults, the emphasis on this aspect was huge: the unexpected victory of the adults over the young team, much faster and stronger, was explained by the “enthusiasm and spirit of camaraderie “with which the elders played (QUITZAU, 2011QUITZAU, E. A. Educação do corpo e vida associativa: as sociedades ginásticas alemãs em São Paulo (fins do século XIX, primeiras décadas do século XX). 2011a. Universidade Estadual de Campinas, 2011.). For the members of Turnerschaft von 1890, there was no problem that the members of the club were involved in handball tournaments, as long as they played it in an honorable, disciplined way and having the enjoyment of the game as their main objective, not the result itself, in other words: as long as they played handball according to the “jahnian spirit”. This competition issue and the way of playing remained in the discussions about the sport, even after having become part of these associations’ daily lives and having been considered, as well as Turnen, a means of education.

For the German-Brazilian gymnastic societies, sport, when practiced in a rational way, could develop values very similar to those of Turnen, as a sense of community and subordination. Practicing it in a reasonable manner would be, in this context, a form of body training, more as an exercise that could promote health, and not as an end. The competition keeps representing the great “flaw” of sport, so that, even though these associations start prescribing sports practices, they always do it with the reservation that it cannot become a frantic search for records or have humiliating the opponent as main purpose. In this sense, it is said, for example, that “remarkable advantage lies in Turnen as opposed to sport, because the performances do not move vertically, as in sport, but emerge horizontally. The sportsman fights to knock his opponent down, while the gymnast sees his opponent as a combat companion “(NACH DER RÜCKKEHR VOM 4. GAUTURNFEST DES JACUHY-GAUS IN CACHOEIRA, 1929NACH DER RÜCKKEHR VOM 4. GAUTURNFEST DES JACUHY-GAUS IN CACHOEIRA. Kolonie-Zeitung, 28 out. 1929.).

When analyzing the documentation of the third phase of the development of the German-Brazilian gymnastic associations, that is, from 1920 to the end of the 1930 decade, it is possible to realize that, from an educational function standpoint, there is no great difference between what is said about sports and gymnastics. The members of Turnerbund Porto Alegre, for example, claim that an aspect that generated great confusion between the two was to conceive gymnastics as exercises performed only in the gymnasiums and sport as the different outdoor activities, such as running, throwing and jumping, in addition to the collective games. According to the one from Porto Alegre, the aspects that differentiated gymnastics from sport would be the sports specialization, in the face of gymnastics multiplicity, the fact that Turnen harmoniously exercise all parts of the body, and the form of performance evaluation, since it was possible to have a much higher number of winners in gymnastics than in sport7 7 Although gymnastics festivals were set up as tournaments, in which individuals and groups competed against each other, the way of scoring in these events was very different from sports scoring: while in the sports awards the prize was only for, at most, the top three, in a gymnastics tournament, all those who achieved a minimum score established by the regulation were awarded, which allowed a large number of participants to be recognized as “winners” of a tournament (QUITZAU, 2016). (TURNERBUND PORTO ALEGRE, Year 5, N. 1, 1920TURNERBUND PORTO ALEGRE. Deutsche Turnblätter. Monatliche Mitteilungen des Turner-Bundes in Porto Alegre, ano 5, n. 1, 1920., p. 6). Among the sports practices that gain space in the gymnastic societies, football and athletics are the most common ones.

Athletics was present in all German-Brazilian gymnastics societies. It was considered as the “noblest and most beautiful of the sporting modalities” (TURNERBUND PORTO ALEGRE, Year 1, N. 5, 1915TURNERBUND PORTO ALEGRE. Deutsche Turnblätter. Monatliche Mitteilungen des Turner-Bundes in Porto Alegre, ano 1, n. 5, 1915., p. 58), it was seen as one of the safest complements to gymnastics. Athletics practiced in these associations, however, presented some peculiarities: a the same time it gathered practices that compose what we know as athletics today — such as long distance races, distance and high jumps — it also added its own modalities, such as the Steinstoßen (Stone throw). In addition, it presented an attempt to adapt the names to the German language, since the set of exercises that comprised the so-called Leichtathletik (“Light Athletic”, which gathered for example the races and jumps), at other times appeared referred to as Volkstümliche Übungen, which can be freely translated as “popular exercises”.

Another sporting practice that became quite common among the German-Brazilian gymnastic societies was football. Football teams were formed in societies such as Deutscher Turn-und Sportverein Rio de Janeiro and Turnerbund Porto Alegre and they often played games and took part in tournaments against other local teams. Among the qualities that could be developed by football practice were “quick decision making, keen eye and sharp blows” (17. STIFTUNGSFEST DES TURNVEREINS CAHY, 1915TURNERBUND PORTO ALEGRE. Deutsche Turnblätter. Monatliche Mitteilungen des Turner-Bundes in Porto Alegre, ano 1, n. 5, 1915.).

Sports practices and collective games in general, start having a prominent place, especially as an appeal to the young German-Brazilian participation, and the figure of Friedrich Ludwig Jahn himself is recovered as an argument to convince them to get involved with these practices. In Porto Alegre, for example, the club magazine appropriates itself of an excerpt from the Die Deutsche Turnkunst manual in which Jahn and his collaborator, Ernst Eiselen, claim that,

in games there is a dispute that is sociable, joyful and full of life. We unite work and pleasure with seriousness and rejoicing. In games the youth learns from an early age both rights and rules. For in them there is habit, morals and convenience in a vivid contemplation. Living from an early age with their equals is the cradle of greatness for man. The individual alone easily loses himself to selfishness, something that the playmates do not allow to happen. Moreover, the individual alone does not have a mirror that allows him to see himself in his true form, a living measure to compare his increase of strength, a judge for his own merit, a school for his wills and opportunity for quick decision and strength (PORTO ALEGRE , Year 6, N. 2, 1922TURNERBUND PORTO ALEGRE. Deutsche Turnblätter. Monatliche Mitteilungen des Turner-Bundes in Porto Alegre, ano 6, n. 2, 1922., p. 5; JAHN and EISELEN, 1967JAHN, F. L.; EISELEN, E. [1816] Die deutsche Turnkunst. Stuttgart: Verlagsdruckerei Conradi & Co., 1967., p. 169-170).

One may notice, therefore, that from the decade of 1910 on, and especially in the period of resumption of the activities of these gymnastic societies, after the First World War, sport gradually achieves an important status in these clubs and, even if subordinate to Turnen, is regarded as a practice with educational potential, capable of assisting these clubs in their goal of forming physically and morally strong individuals to contribute to the development not only of the colony in which they were inserted, but in a broader way, of the country that had welcomed them. In this period, which coincides with the expansion of the activities offered by the clubs and the establishment of a gymnastics press, it is possible to find a periodical dedicated to the sport, published by these associations: Deutsche Sportwoche - Allemã Sports Magazine, a bilingual publication that initially worked as an official organ of the Deutscher Turn-und Sportverein, the Deutscher Sport-Club and the Brazilian Yacht-Club, and subsequently represented the Deutscher Turnverein Petrópolis and the Brazilian Touring center, from Rio de Janeiro, and Deutscher Segelklub, Deutscher Turnverein, Deutscher Wassersportverein, Schwimmklub “Stern”, Turnerschaft von 1890 and Wanderbund “Villa Marianna”, from São Paulo. Self-titled as “first German sports newspaper for South America”, it conveyed both reports of the clubs it represented as well as news and results on different modalities in Brazil and Europe, among which we can highlight football, handball, athletics, tennis and water sports (QUITZAU, 2016QUITZAU, E. A.; SOARES, C. L. Um manual do século XVIII: culto à natureza e educação do corpo em “Ginástica para a Juventude”, de Guts Muths. Revista Brasileira de História da Educação, v. 1, n. 40, p. 23-50, 2016. Disponível em:<http://rbhe.sbhe.org.br/index.php/rbhe/article/view/540>.
http://rbhe.sbhe.org.br/index.php/rbhe/a...
).

Final considerations

In the 80 years that correspond to the period between the founding of the first German-Brazilian gymnastics Society and the nationalization policies of the Getúlio Vargas government, which marked an important rupture in their daily lives, these institutions sought to constitute themselves as spaces for the Germanness maintenance in the country, assigning it a role as important as that of the school and the church in such task (QUITZAU, 2016QUITZAU, E. A.; SOARES, C. L. Um manual do século XVIII: culto à natureza e educação do corpo em “Ginástica para a Juventude”, de Guts Muths. Revista Brasileira de História da Educação, v. 1, n. 40, p. 23-50, 2016. Disponível em:<http://rbhe.sbhe.org.br/index.php/rbhe/article/view/540>.
http://rbhe.sbhe.org.br/index.php/rbhe/a...
). During this period, they essentially used Turnen as an element of physical and moral formation of the members of the German colonies in which they were inserted, especially the younger ones. As a practice of Germanic origin and heavily loaded by nationalist ideals, Turnen has always occupied the central place in these institutions and has never ceased to be understood as one of the elements of German culture to be preserved in the country, as well as the language, music and literature. It is possible, however, to realize that Turnen, even not having lost its primacy, little by little it begins sharing space with another practice, more and more common: sport. A movement against sport is observed in the German-Brazilian societies very similar to the one presented by the gymnasts in their country of origin, Germany. If in the early twentieth century, sport, particularly football, is seen with hostility among gymnasts, especially because it is a creation with foreign roots and for its strong competitive character, over the first decades of the twentieth century it will consolidate itself as another practice among those offered by the gymnastic societies, so that from the decade of 1920 onwards, it is already part of the daily life of these institutions. In this sense, in German-Brazilian societies, sport is recognized as an important educational tool, but always subordinated to Turnen and, especially, since practiced according to the “Jahnian spirit”, that is, as another form of physical training and healthy enjoyment, promoting values as a spirit of camaraderie, discipline and submission to the common good, and caring to promote a complete and harmonious development of the body, not as a specialized practice and whose ultimate goal was to win.

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  • 7
    Although gymnastics festivals were set up as tournaments, in which individuals and groups competed against each other, the way of scoring in these events was very different from sports scoring: while in the sports awards the prize was only for, at most, the top three, in a gymnastics tournament, all those who achieved a minimum score established by the regulation were awarded, which allowed a large number of participants to be recognized as “winners” of a tournament (QUITZAU, 2016).
  • 1
    The concept of German-Brazilian is very common in the south and southeast regions of German colonization in Brazil and expresses double belonging: cultural to Germany and political to Brazil. Such “hyphenated identity”, as Lesser identifies it (2001; 2015), results of the concepts of nation and nationality that circulated in these communities, whose origins date back to the German romanticism and nationalism from the beginning of the XIX century, and were bound to the idea of Germanness (Deutschtum), which would represent and idea that valued both German hereditary and cultural aspects. See: Seyferth (1982; 1993; 1996; 2003; 2004); Quitzau (2016) on the concepts of German-Brazilian and Germanness.
  • 2
    Up to the present moment, studies on German-Argentinian gymnastic associations haven’t been found. On the other hand, the gymnastics associations founded by Germans in Chile were object of investigation by Temme (2000). The Germans who immigrated to the american continent have also developed an intense associative network in the United States since the mid-nineteenth century, as Hofmann studies show (2000; 2001; 2002; 2008; 2009; 2015).
  • 3
    The libraries can be considered one of the examples of the effort made by the German-Brazilian gymnastics associations in order to preserve the German language and culture in Brazil. They were common for the gymnastics societies and counted on quite varied collections and, in many cases, wide ones. In São Paulo, for instance, Turnerschaft von 1890 library was inaugurated in 1902 (TURNERSCHAFT VON 1890TURNERSCHAFT von 1890 IN: SÃO PAULO. Estatutos. 1910.IN SÃO PAULO, 1903) and in the year 1929 accounted for a total of 1846 annual lending of its varied collection, which included periodicals such as Die Woche, Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung, Deutsche Turnzeitung, and Deutscher Sport in Südamerika (QUITZAU, 2011QUITZAU, E. A. Educação do corpo e vida associativa: as sociedades ginásticas alemãs em São Paulo (fins do século XIX, primeiras décadas do século XX). 2011a. Universidade Estadual de Campinas, 2011.). In Rio de Janeiro, the collection from Deutscher Turn- und Sportverein had, in 1920, 2.000 volumes among books and periodicals in the German language. There are also records of libraries with important collections is associations like Leopoldenser Turnverein, Teuto-Brasilianischer Turnverein Curytiba and Turnerbund Porto Alegre (QUITZAU, 2016QUITZAU, E. A.; SOARES, C. L. “A força da juventude garante o futuro de um povo”: a educação do corpo no Sport Club Germania (1899-1938). Movimento, v. 16, n. 3, p. 87-106, 2010.).
  • 4
    Regarding the city of São Paulo, records indicate that, at the beginning of the XX century, Otto Beust, one of its gymnastics instructors, also worked as a gymnastics teacher in public schools in the city. As a report from the club for the year 1902, Beust came to publish an article entitled “The pedagogic value of gymnastic and its application” in “Revista Educação” (Turnerschaft von 1890 in São Paulo, 1903). Two years later, in an activity report for the year 1904, the club claims that Beust moved away from his assignments as gymnastic teacher, both from the club and the schools in São Paulo, to take on a local typography (TURNERSCHAFT VON 1890TURNERSCHAFT von 1890 IN: SÃO PAULO. Estatutos. 1910.IN SÃO PAULO, 1905).
  • 5
    Deutsche Turnzeitung was a newspaper created in 1856, in Germany, and which was adopted as an official organ of Deutsche Turnerschaft in the decade of 1860. It was an important dissemination vehicle of Turnen in Germany (Krüger, 1996), but also beyond its borders, since there are indications of its circulation, for instance, in the German- Brazilian gymnastic associations (QUITZAU, 2016QUITZAU, E. A.; SOARES, C. L. “A força da juventude garante o futuro de um povo”: a educação do corpo no Sport Club Germania (1899-1938). Movimento, v. 16, n. 3, p. 87-106, 2010.).
  • 6
    German supra regional entity responsible for bringing the existing gymnastic societies together in the country and founded by immigrants abroad.

Publication Dates

  • Publication in this collection
    12 Sept 2019
  • Date of issue
    2019

History

  • Received
    30 Nov 2018
  • Accepted
    17 Apr 2019
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