Friedrich Ludwig Jahn was a German man in the Prussian military with a very strong nationalistic side to him. He was a controversial gymnastics teacher due to the involvement of politics in his work. What drove him was the war against Napoleon and he felt that the nation needed to become stronger to be the dominant figure in that war. He was the first to open an open-air gymnasium, which became popular to the youth and was found almost religiously to Jahn. Although all of that sounds to be positive things for a country, he is seen as some to be the spiritual founder of Nazism, but there is no evidence of him being influential to the Nazi movement. He once wrote "Poles, French, Priests, Aristocrats, and Jews are Germanys misfortune."After Friedrich was imprisoned and banished 10 miles away from Berlin, Johann Guts Muth, in a way, took over where he had left off. Not the political stand point that Jahn had, but the physical endeavor for his country was replaced by Johann. He combined Gymnastics and physicality in his education as a teacher which was quite unheard of at that time. The main goal between these two men was to achieve top notch of what the human body can produce and involve it into the community to create a healthy Nation. Below are two monuments to Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, and Johann Guts Muth.
Cites: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Ludwig_Jahn
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Christoph_Friedrich_GutsMuths
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