Bars dispute
The bar dispute ( 1860 - 1863 ) was a dispute in Prussia about the target direction of gymnastics , the consequences of which in the position of health education in schools and training in physiotherapy in Germany are still effective today.
Course of the bars dispute
In October 1860, Carl Euler took up his position as a gymnastics teacher in the Königl. Prussian Central Gymnastics Institute (with a military and a civilian branch) and demanded the reintroduction of bars and bars , which the head of the facility, Hugo Rothstein , had abolished in order to enforce the system of Swedish gymnastics . The Swedish gymnastics was on the one hand health-oriented, rational and optimal for good posture (also for women ), on the other hand the mass exercises were particularly suitable for military drill .
The Ministry of Education sought expert assistance and had two medical reports prepared by the royal personal physician Christian Wilhelm Ludwig Abel and the privy councilor Bernhard von Langenbeck , medical director of the royal clinic in Berlin. Both spoke out against the bar in principle. These reports prompted the physiologist Emil Du Bois-Reymond and a member of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences to respond sharply. Finally the case landed in the Prussian House of Representatives and Rudolf Virchow was also moved to give an opinion. He also spoke out in favor of German gymnastics and against Swedish gymnastics. As a result, Hugo Rothstein resigned as head of the Central Turnanstalt.
Long term consequences
The school physical exercises (gymnastics lessons) were carried out in Germany with a focus on German gymnastics. The focus was on strength of character and disposition . The education at the universities was thus transferred to the philosophical faculties , as z. B. history lessons should also serve to educate people. The training in physiotherapy (physiotherapy) came to the medical faculties. In nearby Belgium , where a kind of bars dispute was also fought - but with a different outcome - the medical faculties trained both sports teachers and physiotherapists. Only through the influence of the USA has health education been reintegrated into physical education in Germany , and physiotherapy has also become an academic subject in Germany as part of the Bologna Process.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Michael Krüger (2000): Gymnastics and gymnastics philology of the 19th century as a forerunner of modern sports science. Sports Science 30 (2), 197-210
- ^ Arnd Krüger : Sport and Politics. From gymnastics father Jahn to state amateur . Torch bearer, Hanover 1975, ISBN 3-7716-2087-2 .
- ↑ Julia Helene Schöler (2005): About the beginnings of Swedish therapeutic gymnastics in Germany - a contribution to the history of physiotherapy in the 19th century. http://d-nb.info/99216589X/34
- ^ Herbert Haag (1970): Physical education in the United States. Schorndorf: Hofmann.