GutsMuths, J. C. F. (1759–1839)

GutsMuths, J. C. F. (1759–1839)

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Johann Christoph Friedrich GutsMuths was born in 1759 in Quedlinburg, Germany, the son of an ordinary lower-middle-class family. GutsMuths's father died when he was twelve years old and in order to contribute financially to the family he worked as a private teacher for the two sons of the Ritter family while he attended high school. He went to Halle in 1779 to study at what was called the first modern university in Germany. Following the new principle of academic liberty, GutsMuths studied theology as well as physics, mathematics, philosophy, and history. He was especially influenced by a number of lessons on pedagogical methodology based on the principles of German educational reformer Johann Bernhardasedow.

Upon finishing his studies, GutsMuths returned to his occupation as a private teacher with the Ritter family. When the elder Doctor Ritter died GutsMuths assumed the responsibility for his children's upbringing and in that capacity followed the family to the new Philanthropic School in Schnepfenthal, Germany. The principal quickly noticed the young tutor's extraordinary pedagogical abilities and offered him a position at the school. GutsMuths remained there, with his wife and family, for the rest of his life.

GutsMuths was engaged as a teacher in the ordinary school subjects, but he won his international reputation as the founder of pedagogical gymnastics when he took responsibility for gymnastics education at the school in 1786. His meticulously prepared book Gymnastik für die Jugend (Gymnastics for youth) was published 1793 as the first textbook in gymnastics (revised in 1804). The first five chapters of the book explain his theories of child rearing and the use of gymnastics as an instrument for raising children. The remaining chapters are concerned with the pedagogy of gymnastics, which GutsMuths divides into proper gymnastics, or exercises, various hands-on activities, including gardening, and social play. He believed that all gymnastics should take place outside and that a seven-year-old child ought to spend around ten hours a day in physical activity. The book's critical view of the prevailing culture places it in the German philosophical tradition of the Enlightenment, especiallyas inspired by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. GutsMuths wished to break with the teachings of the Middle Ages and replace the divine with nature.

Besides Gymnastik für die Jugend, GutsMuths published several shorter works on physical exercise. He also published two books in which he combined gymnastics with the German Turnverein (gymnastics club) movement, a movement that followed the ideals of German educator Friedrich Ludwig Jahn.

Posterity has seen GutsMuths as a person who worked incessantly for pedagogical gymnastics, but actually we see in his orientation towards the German Turnverein the same nationalistic and patriotic thoughts as can be found in Jahn's work. The fact that he was engaged as a teacher for more than fifty years at Schnepfenthal probably supported the impression of continuity in his work. GutsMuths died in May 21, 1839.

See also: Interscholastic Athletics; Salzmann, Christian Gotthilf; Sports.

bibliography

GutsMuths, Johann Christoph Friedrich. 1970 [1803]. Gymnastics for Youth: or A Practical Guide to Healthful and Amusing Exercises. Dubuque, IA: Brown Reprints.

JØrn Hansen