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From Gymnastics to the Youth to The German Gymnastics: remarks on the first German handbooks of gymnastics

The turn of the 18th century represents an important moment in the constitution of what we now know as physical education. This is the period in which the first systematizations of physical exercises start to be conceived and published in different handbooks of gymnastics. In Germany we can find two handbooks which were very important in this moment of consolidation of systems of physical exercises: Gymnastics for Youth, published in 1793 by J.C.F. Guts Muths, and The German Gymnastics, published by F.L. Jahn in 1816. This paper aims at analyzing these handbooks, presenting the arguments used by their authors to justify the importance of gymnastics, as well as the similarities between their propositions.

History of gymnastics; Turnen ; Guts Muths; Jahn


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