Franz Nachtegall

Franz Nachtegall

Victorius Franciscus "Franz" Nachtegall (complete: Vivat Victorius Fridericus Franciscus Nachtegall ; born October 3, 1777 in Copenhagen , † May 12, 1847 in Copenhagen) was a Danish professor of gymnastics. Nachtegall founded the first gymnastics club and introduced school gymnastics in Denmark.

Life

Nachtegall studied theology but had to drop out without an exam because of the death of his father. Had lessons from the French fencing master Ebbs. After reading Johann Christoph Friedrich GutsMuth's Gymnastics for the Young (1793), he introduced gymnastics to GutsMuths in Denmark , with the support of King Friedrich VII . This appointed him professor of gymnastics at the University of Copenhagen (1804). Nachtegall founded the world's first gymnastics club, a gymnastics society, in Copenhagen in 1798 . His private gymnastics school (Christianis Institute) followed in 1799, the military gymnastics institute in 1804, and a civil department from 1808 to 1816. In 1814 Denmark was the first country in the world to introduce school races for boys in state schools (from 1838 also for girls through Nachtegall). By 1828 it had prevailed in schools. In 1839, Nachtegal founded a state normal school for the training of gymnastics teachers, who taught according to his textbooks.

literature

• Leonard: Physical Education in Denmark . Available on archive.org.
• Franz Nachtegall: Gymnastikkens Fremdgang i Danmark fra dens første indsrelse i aaret 1799 indtil udgangen af ​​aaret 1830. Thiele, Kjøbenhavn 1831.
• Else Trangbæk : Danmark. In: James Riordan , Arnd Krüger (Ed.): European cultures of sport: Examining the nations and regions . Intellect, Bristol 2003, ISBN 1-84150-014-3 , pp. 47-66.
• VK Rao: Teaching of Physical Education. APH Publishing, New Delhi 2008, ISBN 978-81-313-0061-9 . (English)

Web links

• Franz Nachtegall in the Swedish National Encyclopedia
• Entry on gravsted.dk about Nachtegall's grave with a short biography (in Danish)