ABOUT THE STATUE:
The life-size white marble bust was created by Austrian sculptor Leo von Moos in 1903. It depicts Jahn with a very long beard and staring out into the distance. Due to controversy about Jahn's supposed cultural influence on Nazism (some claiming he was the spiritual founder of Nazism), vandalism has occurred and his nose has been broken off, giving him a very strange appearance. The bust rests upon a darker marble plinth with an inscription that appears to read:
JARN
Den Deutschen kann
nur durch Deutsche
geholfen werden
[English Translation]
The Germans can only be helped by Germans
ABOUT THE MAN:
"Friedrich Ludwig Jahn (August 11, 1778 – October 15, 1852) was a German gymnastics educator and nationalist. His admirers know him as Turnvater Jahn, roughly meaning "father of gymnastics" Jahn.
Works
Among his works are the following:
-Bereicherung des hochdeutschen Sprachschatzes (Leipzig, 1806),
-Deutsches Volksthum (Lübeck, 1810),
-Runenblätter (Frankfurt, 1814),
-Die Deutsche Turnkunst (Berlin, 1816)
-Neue Runenblätter (Naumburg, 1828),
-Merke zum deutschen Volksthum (Hildburghausen, 1833), and
-Selbstvertheidigung (Vindication) (Leipzig, 1863).
A complete edition of his works appeared at Hof in 1884-1887. See the biography by Schultheiss (Berlin, 1894), and Jahn als Erzieher, by Friedric (Munich, 1895)."
--Wikipedia (
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