Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn- Museum

In Freyburg (Unstrut) stands the residence that Friedrich Ludwig Jahn had built in 1838/39; today it houses the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn Museum. The property is located on Schlossstraße at the eastern edge of the town near the Unstrut weir. After the house had been used from 1924 as a youth hostel and Turnerheim, it was converted into a museum in 1936; at that time Jahn’s remains were transferred from the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn memorial gymnasium to the crypt on the premises.

In 1999 the building was restored and renovated according to the original plans and reopened. The ground floor houses the permanent exhibition Friedrich Ludwig Jahn: Life and Work. The presentation depicts Jahn as a figure of his time and addresses both his achievements and his period-bound views and personal weaknesses. The aim is a comprehensive, balanced appraisal.

The exhibition is divided into four main sections. The lifework area explains the emergence of modern civic physical education and its establishment in the public sphere; significant objects include the vaulting horse donated by Berlin gymnasts in 1812 and the 1816 book Die deutsche Turnkunst, which Jahn published together with Ernst Eiselen. The private section documents Jahn’s life from childhood to death through personal items such as a four-player chess set, a notebook, a walking stick, a tobacco pipe and pouch; his six years of imprisonment are evidenced by documents.

The section on Jahn as a publicist presents handwritten texts from the museum collection; the manuscript on the Thirty Years’ War and a letter from his wife show fire damage dating from the 1838 apartment fire. Preserved pieces of furniture, such as the so-called “Sorgensessel” and a writing secretary, come from his estate. The political section brings together documents on the Nationalerziehungsplan, the book Deutsches Volksthum, the initiative to found the secret German Confederation, the establishment of the public exercise ground on the Hasenheide, the Wartburg Festival of 1817, Jahn’s arrest, the ban on gymnastics (Turnsperre) and his activity as a deputy in the Frankfurt National Assembly of 1848/49.

The support association, founded in 1992 and renamed Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Gesellschaft in 2008 with its seat in Freyburg (Unstrut), promotes research, interpretation and dissemination of Jahn’s life and milieu as well as the preservation of his legacy. To this end the society maintains relations with the Deutscher Turner-Bund, regional gymnastics associations, universities, schools, museums and other relevant organizations and seeks to make Jahn accessible to a wider public.