A Guide to the History of Physical Education

Denmark was the first European state to introduce physical training into its schools as an essential part of the course, and to prepare teachers of that subject by offering systematic instruction in theory and method of gymnastics. The leader in this movement, and its director for more than forty years, was Franz Nachtegall (1777-1847), the son of a Copenhagen tailor. His early education was received in a private school, and he had begun the study of theology in the university; but the death of his father prevented him from taking the final examination for his degree and threw upon him the support of an invalid mother. For a time he gave private lessons in Latin, history, and geography, but the small pay necessitated such long hours that his health began to suffer. From boyhood he had been interested in forms of physical activity, and as a university student gained considerable proficiency in fencing and vaulting. Inclination, therefore, and the reading of GutsMuths's "_Gymnastik für die Jugend_"[139] started him upon what was to become a life-work. He began to teach gymnastics, first to some students at his own home, and then, early in 1798, to a club of university students and tradesmen which he organized and directed. This brought him, a year later, an invitation to give lessons in the private school which Court Chaplain Christiani had opened in May of 1795, in accordance with the philanthropinistic ideals of Basedow and his followers. A rival institution, the Schouboe school which Nachtegall had himself attended as a boy, soon secured a share of his time for the same purpose. Other schools in the city, public as well as private, followed the example of these two, so that by 1805 at least nine were furnishing instruction in gymnastics to their pupils.

On November 5, 1799, having definitely decided to give himself wholly to the new calling, Nachtegall opened a private outdoor gymnasium in the yard of number 45 Østergade, the first institution in modern times devoted exclusively to physical training. The 5 pupils with whom he began had increased to 25 by the end of the year, and in the winter of 1803-04 the number reached 150, both children and adults, under six teachers whom he had himself trained. When in 1804 the King appointed him professor of gymnastics in the university he had already given, for two years, lectures on the history and method of physical training, with the help of a former pupil, to an audience made up of students there and in a college for teachers, with an admixture of military men. Meanwhile the training of military and naval cadets and the instruction in gymnastics given in schools for non-commissioned officers had also been entrusted to him, and when the King established a Training School for Teachers of Gymnastics in the Army (_det militere gymnastiske Institut_), by decree of August 25, 1804, Nachtegall became its first director. From this as a center the new teaching was to be spread throughout the entire army and navy, including the Norwegian regiments. Four years later civilians were also admitted to the courses, the institution now attempting to do for the schools and the people at large what it had already accomplished for the army, and to prepare instructors for teachers' colleges and the elementary schools especially. The usual length of the course was fifteen to eighteen months, though the first pupil was graduated in August of 1809. By 1814 the civilian training school, caught in the stress of hard times, had ceased to exist. Meanwhile a total of only 31 students had completed its course, but 10 of these went out to occupy positions at _Seminarier_ (teachers' colleges), and so became in turn the instructors of other teachers-to-be.