Turnen#

Friedrich Ludwig Jahn (1778-1852), the founder of the Turnverein (gymnastic club) movement in Berlin at the beginning of the 19th  century, can be called the "father of gymnastics". In Austria the concepts of gymnastics and physical education as part of the curriculum in schools are based mainly on the work of K. Gaulhofer and M. Streicher. In Vienna the first Universitaets-Turnanstalt (University Department of Physical Education), which also offered training for secondary school gymnastics teachers until 1870, was established in 1848. After 1870 special courses for gymnastics teachers were introduced at the Austrian universities (in Vienna in 1870/1871, in Graz in 1873, in Innsbruck in 1913 and 1919); these courses led to the establishment of degree programmes for physical education. The "Nordoesterreichischer Turngau", an association that formed part of the Deutsche Turnerschaft (German Gymnastics Association), was expelled in 1888 after having introduced a ban on non-Aryan members. It founded a new organisation, the "Deutscher Turnerbund" (re-established in Linz in 1919). Gymnastics also played a major role in the First Republic in the Worker´s Sports Movement. After the Second World War the following gymnastics organisations were formed in Austria: the Austrian Turn- und Sportunion, the Austrian Turnerbund, the Reichsbund for Gymnastics and Sports; the Austrian Federal Association for Gymnastics was founded in 1946 and has its head office in Vienna; in 1994 it had more than 130,000 members who belonged to 473 smaller organisations