Fresh, pious, happy, free (motto)

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Jahn-Stein with a stylized Turner's cross for fresh, pious, happy, free

Fresh, pious, happy, free is the gymnast's motto . In its original version, it is fresh, free, happy, pious on the gable side of the last house of "Turnvater" Friedrich Ludwig Jahn in Freyburg an der Unstrut , which today houses the Friedrich Ludwig Jahn Museum .

origin

Jahn did not invent the Turner motto, but rather adopted a student motto from the 16th century. This was called:

Fresh, free, happy, pious
Are the student's wealth!

He takes a position for the student way of life and distinguishes himself from possessions and philistinism .

In his book Die deutsche Turnkunst , Jahn manifested the motto “Fresh, free, happy, pious” in the chapter entitled “Gymnastics laws”. There he modified the second line of the former student saying to:

Fresh, free, happy, pious
This is Turner's wealth!

Jahn's second line was later changed to:

Fresh, pious, happy, free
That other God be commanded!

The first line should be based on the sequence of the three terms that has already been carried out

fresh, fro, frey

based, which has been handed down from the 14th century.

Jahn also referred in writing to the phrase "from the FF" , in the sense of strength and efficiency. Anyone who has mastered a skill (such as gymnastics) from the "FF" can not only do it very well, but possibly even more in other areas.

The term pious was and is often misinterpreted in this context. Originally it had nothing in common with the religious and ecclesiastical concept of piety , but means efficient, diligent . The term is derived from the Old High German fruma (benefit, advantage) and developed into the Middle High German frum . Fruma and frum meant above, preferred , but also conducive, efficient . The verb pious bears witness to this original meaning . Jahn takes on this in his essay Ehrenrettung des Fromm. (1846) position. In it he piously describes as "the epitome of all moral activity, all mood of will, as loyalty to duty and being ahead."

Jahn has always opposed changing the four F-terms, for example in 1846:

“The increase is unmistakable in the four words, every change changes the meaning and weakens it. The saying is an inscription of a ring for gymnastics life. Leaving out just one word makes the tire brittle. Even the transformation of “happy” into “happy” disfigures the symbol, because, so closely related, both words come together, happy refers more to the inner mood and what is effective, happy, on the other hand, must be happy when it is revealed in external appearance (...) communicate, feel together (...) society needs ”.

Nevertheless, the stringing together of the four terms about fresh, pious, happy, free has been changed to the now common “fresh, pious, happy, free”.

Gymnast's cross

Main article: Gymnast's cross

Derived from the Turner motto "Fresh, free, happy, pious", Johann Heinrich Felsing from Darmstadt created the gymnast's cross of the four Fs in 1843, which is still used today . It is still a symbol of gymnastics .

International use

American postage stamp from 1948 marking the 100th anniversary of the American Turners.

The gymnast's motto "Fresh, pious, happy, free" was also used in other languages ​​and countries from the 19th century:

  • Danish : Frisk, from, freidig, fri
  • English : Frank, fresh, frish, free
  • French : franc, frais, fier, fort
  • Italian : Franco, fresco, fiero, forte
  • Dutch : Vroed, vrank, vrij, vroom
  • Portuguese : Franco, fresco, fero, forte
  • Swedish : Frisk, from, fröjdefull, fri
  • Spanish : Franco, fresco, firme, fuerte

After the German Revolution of 1848/49 , many German gymnasts emigrated to the United States of America. They introduced the Turner motto and the gymnast's cross into gymnastics clubs and associations, which they founded there. The term pious was, however, eliminated more and more; In 1880 the four Fs were officially converted to:

Fresh and free, strong and loyal

by the American Turners Association. This was founded in 1848 by the German fraternities and gymnasts Carl Beck ( Heidelberg ), Carl Follen ( Gießen ) and Francis Lieber ( Berlin ) in Cincinnati in the US state of Ohio ; its official language remained German. Torches, oak leaves and wreaths of ears of corn are also symbols of gymnastics there (see illustration of the US postage stamp from 1948 on the right).

This was followed in 1907 by the members of the Workers' Gymnastics Federation (ATB) , who were politically close to the emigrants, at their 8th Bundestag in Stuttgart . Your federal badge carried the motto:

Fresh, free, strong and loyal

persiflage

In his socially critical caricatures , the simplicissimus of Turner's motto has also been adopted.

Occasionally, the four F be reinterpreted to the physical fitness detrimental behavior of men ( " couch potatoes to characterize"): F ilzpantoffeln, F ernsehen, F ußball, F lax beer.

In the seven-part television series Die Lümmel von der Erste Bank , Theo Lingen, as director Taft, often uses this phrase to get his students in the mood for the new school year, for example.

literature

  • Friedrich Ludwig Jahn , Ernst Eiselen: The German gymnastics. 1816
  • K. Wassmannsdorff: The “pious” in Turner's motto. In: DTZ. 21, 1866, p. 104.
  • Carl Philipp Euler : Friedrich Ludwig Jahn - his life and work. Krabbe, Stuttgart 1889
  • Festival book, 7th German Gymnastics Festival. German Gymnastics Association (DT), Munich 1889.
  • Georg Hirth, Rudolf Gasch (ed.): The entire gymnastics - A reading book for German gymnasts. 2nd Edition. Lion, Court 1893.
  • Brockhaus' Kleines Konversations-Lexikon. 5th edition. Volume 1, Leipzig 1911, p. 626.
  • Wolfgang Meyer: The letters of Friedrich Ludwig Jahn. Leipzig 1913. - Letter to the Frankfurt gymnastics community: among other things, the value of gymnastics, interpretation of the four Fs (fresh, free, happy, pious)
  • Martha Wertheimer: The gymnast's saying. In: DTZ. 65, 1920, pp. 211-212.
  • Paul Piechowski: Friedrich Ludwig Jahn. From gymnastics father to public educator. With a portrait board. Leopold Klotz, Gotha 1926.
  • Heinrich Gerstenberg: Friedrich Ludwig Jahn. In: Central German Life Pictures. Volume 1: Pictures of the 19th Century. Magdeburg 1926, pp. 54-64.
  • Rudolf Gasch: Handbook of the entire gymnastics. Pichler, Vienna / Leipzig 1928.
  • Thilo Scheller: Customs, signs, greetings and costumes. In: The book of the gymnast youth. Moeck, Celle 1930.
  • Simplicissimus . H. 23, 1931, p. 273.
  • Konrad Sczygiol (Ed.): Deutscher Turner-Bund, Its foundation. Frankfurt am Main / Tübingen 1950.
  • Franz Wilhelm Beck: German gymnastics. Limpert, Frankfurt am Main 1953.
  • Herbert Polesny: Friedrich Ludwig Jahn - man and work. (= Eckart script. No. 78). Austrian Landsmannschaft , Vienna 1981.
  • O. Drees In: K. Achilles, G. Lüddecke: On the relevance of sport in workers' life stories - possibilities for theory formation with the biographical method. In: N. Sperle, H.-J. Schulke (Red.): Czwalina. Ahrendsburg 1985.
  • Herbert Neumann (Hrsg.): Gymnastics festivals - mirror image of the German gymnastics movement. Frankfurt am Main 1985.
  • Ernst Erich Metzner: Fresh - Pious - Happy - Free. In: German gymnastics. H. 3, 1990, pp. 26-29. ISSN  0343-5318
  • Harald Braun: The Turner salute. Deutscher Turner-Bund, Frankfurt am Main. (PDF file, 36 kB)
  • Gertrud Pfister: Fresh, Fromm, Happy, Free. In: E. Francois, H. Schulze (ed.): German places of memory. Volume II, CH Beck, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-406-47223-0 , pp. 202-220.
  • Oliver Ohmann: Friedrich Ludwig Jahn . Sutton, Erfurt 2009.

swell

Web links

Commons : The four Fs  - many other representations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Harald Braun: The Turner salute. Deutscher Turner-Bund, Frankfurt am Main
  2. ^ Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, Ernst Eiselen: The German gymnastics art. 1816.
  3. ↑ Herbert Polesny: Friedrich Ludwig Jahn - man and work. (= Eckart script. No. 78). Austrian Landsmannschaft , Vienna 1981.
  4. ↑ K. Wassmannsdorff: The "pious" in Turner's motto. In: DTZ. 21, 1866, p. 104.
  5. ↑ Fresh, pious, happy, free. In: Brockhaus Encyclopedia .
  6. ↑ Martha Wertheimer: The gymnast's saying. In: DTZ. 65, 1920, pp. 211-212.
  7. ↑ Georg Hirth, F. Rudolf Gasch (ed.): The entire gymnastics - A reading book for German gymnasts. 2nd Edition. Lion, Hof 1893, p. 207 f.
  8. ^ Brockhaus' Kleines Konversations-Lexikon. 5th edition. Volume 1, Leipzig 1911, p. 626.
  9. ↑ German gymnastics newspaper. No. 28, 1876.
  10. ^ Festival book, 7th German Gymnastics Festival. German Gymnastics Association (DT), Munich 1889, XII./3.
  11. ↑ Herbert Neumann (Ed.): Turnfests - mirror image of the German gymnastics movement. Frankfurt am Main 1985, p. 71 f.
  12. ^ History of the Sacramento Gymnastics Club USA, English
  13. ↑ O. Drees In: K. Achilles, G. Lüddecke: On the relevance of sport in workers' life stories - possibilities for theory formation with the biographical method. In: N. Sperle, H.-J. Schulke (Red.): Czwalina. Ahrendsburg, 1985, p. 75.
  14. ↑ Jeanne Mammen: Fresh, pious, happy, free! In: Simplicissimus. Vol. XXXVI, H 23, September 7, 1931, p. 273.