4. German Interpretations and Methods
NEW TRENDS IN PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY
The philosophies and revolutionary ideas of the pioneers of natural movement gave rise to revolts against existing physical education practices in the first decade of the twentieth century. Progressive women who were involved in art education, the emancipation of women, and the youth movement in Germany developed a new approach to physical education called "gymnastik."
Early in the century, Mensendieck propagated her scientific approach to gymnastics, and started teacher training courses in Germany, the Netherlands, and the Scandinavian countries. In 1910, the German Mensendieck Bund was formed under the leadership of Hedwig Hagemann, who was the director of the Mensendieck school in Hamburg. [1] When Mensendieck returned to Germany from the United States where she had spent the years of the First Worid War, she found, to her dismay, that her graduates' personal interpretations had brought about changes in her method. A cleavage developed between those graduates who adhered strictly to her static exercises and those who had developed freer and more expressive movements in space. Three groups of Mensendieck graduates formed societies [i] to develop their respective approaches. One of these, a society for "applied and free movement," was formed in Munich under the leadership of Dorothee Gunther, a colleague of Hedwig Hagemann.
Concurrently, the Duncan influence of natural movement continued and won many followers. Sponsored by important patrons, a dance school which Isadora founded in Germany in 1904 was directed by her sister, Elizabeth Duncan (1874-1948). Gymnastics, music, drawing, and dancing were taught, and the Duncan method contributed greatly to the art of movement. Elizabeth Duncan was later assisted in her work by the Austrian teacher Max Merz, [2] and, after changing locations several times in Germany, the school finally moved to Austria, It was a worthwhile enterprise for the dance education of children, but the Duncan influence declined as new approaches to movement education evolved.
A significant contribution to movement education in these years was the teaching of Hedwig Kallmeyer-Simon, born in 1884 in Stuttgart. Kallmeyer went to London in 1905 to study calisthenics, and then to New York in 1906 to continue her training at Genevieve Stebbins' School of Expression. After her return to Germany, she opened a school of harmonic gymnastics in Berlin and introduced the Stebbins method into Germany. [3] Her book, published in 1910, compared the traditional physical education with the new methods coming from Delsarte's work in France and with those of MacKaye-Stebbins in New York. [4]
Among the first students of the Kallmeyer school were Elsa Gindler, Dora Menzler, Gertrude von Hollander-Markus, and Hedwig von Rohden, All of these young women later became important leaders in the field of movement education. In the 1920's, Hedwig Kallmeyer developed a new approach to gymnastics, an approach which stressed breathing and relaxation for health and bodily efficiency in life and work.
Kallmeyer's disciple Elsa Gindler (1885-1961) was a teacher who was deeply influenced by the changing philosophies of the early twentieth century. Desiring to help the individual to live more effectively, she used movement to develop both mental and spiritual capacities. Gindler collaborated with the music teacher and psychologist Heinrich Jacoby, who maintained, on the basis of experiments, that the development of musical capacities depended mainly upon conquering inhibitions.
Basing her work on the same principles and on scientific research in gymnastics, Gindler led her students to experiment with movement and to become aware of the disturbing effect of wrong movement habits on body behavior. Her intellectual approach attracted, in particular, intellectual adults, men and women, who attended her evening classes for both physical and spiritual self-improvement. [5] Elsa Gindler also trained many dedicated teachers who promoted her teachings in various countries. She was assisted in her work by Gertrude von Hollander-Markus, and one of Gindler's graduates, Sophie Ludwig, continues her methods today in Berlin.
In the second decade of the twentieth century, new impulses arising from the classic tradition, music education, and the training of dancers influenced gymnastic movement. New methods of movement education evolved and new private experimental schools were established.
THE LOHELAND SCHOOL
In a private college at Kassel, courses were started in 1911 by two teachers, Hedwig von Rohden and Louise Langgaard. Hedwig von Rohden, born in 1890, had participated in the youth movement and was a graduate of the Kallmeyer school. Louise Langgaard, born in 1883, was an artist, a teacher of drawing, and a graduate of the Mensendieck school. Stimulated by the spiritual ideas of Dr. Rudolf Steiner, [ii] they created an approach which incorporated the ideas of the youth movement, art education, static and dynamic gymnastics, in a system called "classical gymnastics."
At the time of the First World War, the school left Kassel and continued in other places in Germany. After the war, Mrs. Langgaard found a large rural property on the slope of the Rhoen Mountains, near Fulda, and here the school assumed a new name, the "Loheland School For Gymnastics, Agriculture and Handicraft." In a humorous introduction to a recent publication, Mrs. Langgaard tells how this rural site, without houses or any appearance of culture, became a school with buildings, workshops, gardens, farmland, and forest. [6] Growing its own food, producing its own textiles in its workshops, the Loheland School stressed from the beginning simplicity and community life linked with spiritual and artistic movement experiences.
The Loheland School, which is still in existence, flourished in the 1920's, went through a period of danger and struggle during the Nazi period, and was reconstructed after the Second World War. Mrs. von Rohden left the school in the thirties because she could not endure the pressures of the National Socialist Party and Mrs. Langgaard carried on alone. Graduates of Loheland are teaching in educational and cultural organizations all over the world. Presently, the Loheland School is an educational establishment which, in addition to teacher training, serves as a private boarding school for children of six to fifteen years of age, and as a school where girls from fifteen to eighteen can continue their education before starting professional training. It offers summer courses for children, youth, and adults, as well as in-service courses for teachers.
The Loheland method is based on the theory that an education in movement and rhythm must encompass the entire human being in his physical, emotional, and intellectual individuality, because movement is the manifestation of man's whole self. [7] The method stresses the elimination of inhibitions which hamper the free flow of natural whole-body movement and the development of central breathing. The two-and-a-half-year course of study covers all phases of movement in connection with music, motion plays, and plastic arts.
Another stimulus to gymnastic education in the second decade of the century came from music, and in particular from the work of Jaques-Dalcroze. Both the Bode School in Munich and the Hellerau- Laxenburg School in Austria had their roots in the work of the Dalcroze Institute at Hellerau.
THE BODE SCHOOL
Rudolf Bode, who was born in 1881 at Kiel, was a student of music and a Dalcroze graduate. In 1911, he completed his study of music at Leipzig and worked as an assistant teacher in the summer school of the Dalcroze Institute at Hellerau. Bode objected to Dalcroze's interpretation of rhythm as primarily a musical factor, although he acknowledged Dalcroze's method of developing musical sensitivity through natural body movement. After leaving Hellerau, he established in Munich his own school for teachers of gymnastics, music, and dance. This school, founded in 1911, is still directed by Rudolf Bode and by Elly Bode, his wife.
Bode's theory of rhythmical gymnastics was basically influenced by the teaching of Pestalozzi that "nature produces the child as an individual whole, as an organic unity with manifold capacities of heart, mind and body." [8] His belief was that free and natural movement is more vital in its expression than artificial exercises, and that an education in movement should not suppress but develop original movement. "The task of Physical Education," he wrote, "is the maintenance of the organic unity of life and the natural rhythm of the life movement against the opposing powers inimical to life through their mental and mechanical alms, internally and externally." [9]
'With regard to Dalcroze's interpretation of rhythm, Bode maintained that Dalcroze and some of his followers adhered too closely to the measure and beat of the music. Bode gave numerous demonstrations and lectures, and he wrote repeatedly that movement is the basis of rhythm and the fundamental force in movement education, in human development, and in culture. Music, he claimed, is the force which stimulates the free flow of movement and expression. Explaining the relationship of music and movement, Bode wrote: "One can use music and then find the corresponding movements or one can invent movements and find the flow of matching music. It is not only the matching music that is important but also the vibration of the melodic progression which can only be understood through sound. You cannot only emphasize the beat of music, but you must also be aware of the sustaining flow of melody." [10]
Bode calls an "organic" movement one which, in an harmonious way, makes use of all pertinent powers of energy, whether they are emotional, nervous, or muscular energy, or the power of gravity. He emphasized the swinging quality of human motion; he stressed relaxation, rhythm and elasticity in movements which involve the whole body. In writing about science and life, Bode states that an anatomical and physiological approach to an education in movement is designed for the improvement of mechanical action; but natural movement involves the whole organism. Methods which are based on science alone, he states, will not develop expressive and aesthetic qualities since organic movement is based on the interdependence of the organic systems and the "Gestalt" quality of the living body. "The optimum development of the body," he writes, may be reached not "by exercises invented for specific organs," but by the benefits to the organs derived "from a freedom of movement of the whole body." [11]
Bode maintains that human movement has a rhythm of its own. This rhythm is consistent with the organic rhythm of the inner life and it appears in the flow of movements. Willed movements, which are directed by the mind, and movements which have mechanical aims interfere with the organic rhythm of life. Bode's goal was "to preserve the organic compactness of life's powers and the original rhythm of life's movement ... " [12]
It was Bode's conviction that rhythmical gymnastics are an art of expression of body, mind, and soul in rhythmical movement, and that gymnastics have the same possibilities for artistic expression as any other art. He desired to effect a spiritual union of the arts in culture and in education and he sought his inspiration in the youth movement, in the folklore of music and dance, in home music, and in amateur theatricals. His philosophy of the interrelation of movement and the arts, and the significance of this commutuality for personality development, culture, and education, enriched rhythmical gymnastics. The Bode Bund, an association of graduates of the Bode School, extended and spread internationally the basic theories of this pioneer of movement and rhythmic education.
THE HELLERAU-LAXENBURG SCHOOL
In 1914, Jaques-Dalcroze, who had signed an international document protesting the German government's policies in the First World War, had to leave Germany. He then returned to Geneva and his work at Hellerau was continued by several of his graduates including Mrs. Christine Baer-Frissell (1886-1932), an American-born musician who had been educated in Europe. In 1919, Mrs. Baer-Frissell took over the school in association with her Dalcroze schoolmates, Valerie Kratina, a noted German dancer, Ernest Ferand, a Hungarian musician, and his wife, an artist. In 1925, when the school moved to the Laxenburg Castle, Vienna, it was named the Hellerau-Laxenburg School. In 1921, Mrs. Baer-Frissell established a separate department of body training, which was directed by Jarmila Kroeschlova, a Czechoslovakian dancer who was both a Dalcroze and a Mensendieck graduate. [13]
These developments led to a number of changes, and the Hellerau-Laxenburg method followed a new course. Movement education became an integral part of the school's curriculum, and studies of natural movement brought about a better understanding of body rhythm. The Greek style of movement and the Greek attire, which characterized movement and dance in the early twentieth century, were abandoned as the concept of natural move· ment and natural body rhythm evolved .. An aware· ness of the dynamic and space elements in move· ment was stressed; and the detailed interpretation of musical time-patterns was eliminated when it was found to conflict with the natural rhythm of movement. Many of the strictly metrical Dalcroze exercises were modified, and the conducting movements became freer. Furthermore, rather than conducting only with the arms, the leader would often express musical thought by free dance movements of the whole body. Percussion instruments were often used exclusively, and sometimes music would be omitted altogether and leader and follower would improvise by movement alone. [14]
Another significant development was Rosalia Chladek's and Marianne Pontan's formulation of basic principles of body training. [15] These two Hellerau-Laxenburg graduates, who were students of Kroeschlova, systematized theories and materials and defined the Hellerau-Laxenburg method of movement education. The aim of the method was to develop good posture and effective, coordinated, natural movement. An understanding of anatomy and body mechanics was stressed and movement was taught as an action of the total organism. Elimination of physical and mental tensions, a feeling for the flow of motion and for the body's relationship to space were emphasized. The students were encouraged to explore their innate movement capacities and to create movements in their own natural rhythm. A term "body intelligence" was used to imply the individual's capacity for consciously directing movement and for exploring cause and effect of movement in its relation to energy, space, and time.
The body training was organized into loosening and constructive exercises and the study of movement. The purpose of the loosening work was to eliminate undue tensions through relaxation in order to develop ease of motion and natural mobility. The aim of the constructive work was to develop coordination of the different body parts, keener body awareness, elasticity, balance, and finer skills in whole body movement. In the study of movement, an awareness of basic movement factors was developed. Body structure, gravity, body energy, dynamics, time, and flow were studied, and their effect on body movement in space was explored by teacher and student. [16]
The Hellerau-Laxenburg School offered professional training in gymnastics, eurhythmics, dance education, and also in the dance as a performing art. Over the years a large number of teachers and dancers of different nationalities were graduated, and today they are dispersed all over the globe. Shortly after the Austrian "Anschluss," the Laxenburg Castle was occupied by German troops, and in 1939 the school was closed. A movement training which evolved from the Hellerau-Laxenburg method continues today in the dance department of the Academy of Music and the Performing Arts, Vienna, under the direction of Rosalia Chladek, and in its eurhythmics department, directed by Brigitte Mueller, a Hellerau-Laxenburg graduate who was Mrs. Baer-Frissell's successor at the Laxenburg School.
Movement education was greatly influenced by revolutionary developments in the art of dance. The natural dance of Isadora Duncan, and Laban's analytical approach to movement and nonverbal communication, marked the beginning of the contemporary dance. New philosophies and exercises for the training of dancers appeared. These exercises bore some resemblance to gymnastic movements although they differed in purpose. While the aim of the dance exercises was to develop the body as an instrument of expression, the goal of the gymnastic exercises was to develop the ability for natural, free, flowing movement. The Laban schools in various cities were attended by numerous students who, in turn, opened their own schools. Laban published his basic philosophy in The World of the Dancer [17] in 1920, and he added two books on gymnastics in 1926. [18] His approach had an international impact on movement education.
THE YEARS OF THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC
The years of the Weimar Republic (1919-1933) were the grand time of the new German gymnastics. An important conference on "Creative Methods of Physical Education" was held in 1922 at the State College of Music at Berlin. The program included lectures by famous experts in health, education, music, and the arts, and also demonstrations by groups from the schools of Bode, Duncan, Hagemann, Hellerau, Laban, and Loheland. [19] Widely attended by representatives of the youth movement and teachers of gymnastics, the conference gave a strong impetus to the progress of the new develop· ments in gymnastics.
DEUTSCHER GYMNASTIK-BUND
Subsequent negotiations with leading organizations of turnen and sports for the recognition of the new gymnastics bore no results. Consequently, in 1925, the schools of gymnastics formed an organization of their own called the "Deutscher Gymnastik-Bund." Franz Hilker was elected president of the organization, and he also served as editor of the Bund's magazine, Gymnastik, which was published twice a month until 1933. The Gymnastik-Bund served somewhat like a voluntary accrediting organization. It prepared suggestions for teaching gymnastics and for training teachers, and it also established conditions for the enrollment of members. It aimed to foster and promote the new approach to gymnastics while still allowing freedom for the methodical differences between the various schools.
The original schools which joined in founding the Bund were Bode, Gindler, Kallmeyer, Loheland, Laban, and Mensendieck. Membership increased as other schools met standards for admission. For example, both the Hilda Senff and the Dora Menzler Schools were admitted in 1926.
Hilda Senff, a Dalcroze graduate, founded in 1911 the first branch of the Dalcroze Institute in Paris. In 1919, she opened her own teacher training institute for movement and music, the Rhythmical School Community, in Dusseldorf. [20] She continued her studies with Mary Wigman and at the school of breathing, Rothenburg, and became interested in the work of Elsa Gindler. Although her school was destroyed by bombs in the Second World War, Mrs. Senff continues her work today as a teacher of curative gymnastics.
Dora Menzler, born in 1879 at Jever, was a graduate of the Kallmeyer school. In 1918 she opened at Leipzig the Dora Menzler School, a training institute for teachers of movement. In her article "Aus meiner Arbeit," [21] she explains her principles of movement, which show the influence of Dalcroze, Bode, and Laban.
Initially, schools of dance were also members of the Deutscher Gymnastik-Bund, but in the early twenties it became evident that there was a marked difference between movement education and dance training. So schools which were primarily interested in the dance as a performing art eventually formed an organization of their own. The Deutscher Gymnastik- Bund reached its peak of development in 1930, when it included twelve hundred teachers and fourteen private teacher training institutions. With economic difficulties and political conflicts in the following years, its activities began to decline, and, when the Nazis rose to power, the Bund, like all other free organizations, was dissolved. Yet, in the few years of its existence, the Bund had a great influence on the evolution of movement education in Germany. Since the graduates of the private schools of gymnastics could qualify for teaching certificates through state examinations, the new movement education found its way into schools, conservatories, and other private and public institutions.
OTHER SCHOOLS OF THIS ERA
During these years of progress, many new private schools were opened as enthusiasm for the various approaches to natural movement gained momentum. It was in the 1920's that two internationally known schools were founded: the Medau School and the Gunther School. Both schools were members of the Deutscher Gymnastik-Bund.
The Medau School.
Hinrich Medau, born in 1890, was a teacher of music and physical education and a student of the Dalcroze method. A graduate of the Bode School of Gymnastics, he served as director of the Bode School in Berlin while furthering his academic education at the Universities of Berlin and Munich. In 1928 he gave courses in rhythmical gymnastics in the summer session at Teachers College, Columbia University, and in 1929 he opened his own school in Berlin, The Medau School of Rhythmical Movement. After the Second World War, the school was permanently located in Coburg, Bavaria, where it still exists today under the direction of Hinrich Medau and his wife, Senta. [22]
Medau created a movement education for girls and women which was natural and appropriate for the biological and psychological development of the female organism. His principles of exercise for women, presented in a speech at the second Ligymmfest in Saarbrucken in 1955, were based on experiments with various kinds of movement, and on comparative studies of the organic nature, capacities, and interests of men and women. He stated that a physical training for girls and women should fulfill three principles: health, beauty of fOfm and posture, and gracefulness. He said that the playful approach to movement is more important than competitive gymnastics and that biological findings indicate that women are in need of exercises which stress dynamics, circulation, breathing, and rhythm. [23]
The Medau method stresses movement which is "alive" rather than mechanical, and emphasizes "natural, whole-body movement with particular stress on rhythmical flow and dynamic quality of movement." [24] In good whole-body movement, the impulse comes from the center of the body and flows outward to the extremities. It has flow, is expressive, and it appears effortless and natural. "Medau Work" is planned to help the individual through a great variety of experiences to move with ease and coordination in walking, running, leaping, swinging, twisting, and "feathering," a German word for the springy resilience or the natural rebound in good movement. [25]
Medau uses simple music and folk themes for accompaniment to stimulate joy in moving, movement improvisation, and to develop ease of movement. [26] He has also developed methods for the harmonizing of the body through breathing. Basing his exercises on the natural breathing processes, Medau has his pupils consciously perform deep breathing in different body positions [iii] in order to increase the pressure of blood and lymph circulation, and so enhance the action of the digestive and nervous systems, and to improve movement and posture.
The Medau School is particularly well known for its work with hand apparatus. Experimenting with balls, clubs, and hoops, Medau and his women associates discovered a wide variety of movement possibilities which would increase the scope and natural flow of movement and also improve posture. "Medau Work" with hand apparatus is widely used today in many countries. [27]
The Gunther School.
Dorothee Gunther, born in 1896, was a Mensendieck graduate who was also well acquainted with the Dalcroze and Laban approaches to movement. Educated in the arts, drama, music, and the dance, Mrs. Gunther created her own approach to gymnastics, rhythmics, music, and dance. To follow the Gunther method, a group of Mensendieck teachers who had separated from the Mensendieck Bund established the "Bundesschule" in Munich in 1924. There, teachers were trained in three separate branches: Mensendieck gymnastics, rhythmical movement education, and contemporary dance. In 1931, the Bundesschule became the Gunther School, and, through a merger with the Trumpey School in 1933, a second Gunther School was founded in Berlin. The Gunther Schools were closed by the National Socialist Party in 1944, and bombs destroyed the Munich branch in 1945. Neither school reopened after the war, but former members of the staff and graduates continue the Gunther method today in other institutions. [28]
The movement and dance education of the Gunther School was based on an approach to music and rhythm which had been developed by the composer Carl Orff and his associate, Gunild Keetman, both teachers at the Gunther School for many years. The Orff method of teaching rhythm and melody to children and adults is known as "Orff Schulwerk." It has won international recognition, and an institute sponsored by the Austrian government for the professional teaching of the Orff method was established after the Second World War in Salzburg. In the Orff method, primitive rhythms and natural movement responses to sounds, calls, poetry, and percussion instruments are used to develop a feeling for rhythm and melody. Tunable drums of different sizes, wood blocks, gongs, separable glockenspiels and xylophones, are manufactured as the "Orff instruments," and they are played in conjunction with recorders and other musical instruments. Student orchestras which evolved from this musical training provided the accompaniment for the Gunther School's gymnastic and dance demonstrations. [29]
The Orff Schulwerk was a required course for all Gunther School students, and Mrs. Gunther, the head of the school, taught theory and method in all departments. Emphasizing the ever-changing flow and rhythm of movement, she regarded technique, not as an end in itself, but as a means for increasing the individual's capacity for expression and improvisation. Aware of the relation of movement to art, she developed sensitivity for the art of movement by having the students draw movement shapes and designs. She stressed "neatness of execution, unequivocal expression and rhythmics," body development, suppleness, control of strength, and creativity. [30] Mrs. Gunther writes, "My basic idea was to lead the body-education to one entity of music and movement, to unfold and develop the capacity of experiencing rhythm, and therefore disclose an essential vital power to modern human beings." [31]
The dance department of the school was directed by the well known dance teacher, Maja Lex, who is presently teaching at the Deutsche Sporthochschule, Koln. Procedures in the approach to gymnastics and dance are similar, since both are based on the Orff music and movement training, and both emphasize movements improvised through carefully outlined projects in dynamics, time, space, and flow. Explaining this similarity, Dorothee Gunther stated that free movement is the basis for both gymnastics and dance, and the boundaries between these two activities are narrow and fluent. Gymnastics are more functional in purpose and the dance is more expressive in spirit. [32]
CARL LOGES AND REFORM IN TURNEN
Controversies continued between the members of the turnen and sports organizations and the members of the Deutscher Gymnastik-Bund. The fact that both used the term "gymnastics" to define their exercises probably did not help to resolve their differences. While the gymnastics of the private experimental schools denoted an educational, artistic, and cultural activity, the turners continued their traditional methods of calisthenics and apparatus work. Since competition in these events was an important feature of the turner program, the movement education teachers regarded these activities as a sport.
Yet it is evident that early in the 1920's the new approaches to natural movement began to influence the free-standing exercises commonly practiced in the turnvereins. In the transition from rigid positions to flowing movement in calisthenics, Carl Loges (1887-1958) was undoubtedly the most prominent leader.
From his early youth, Carl Loges was identified with the German turners, first in Hanover, his home town, then in turner organizations in other parts of Germany. A student of both music and dance, he was also a highly skillful gymnast who won many competitions at home and abroad. Loges was graduated from the Physical Education Teachers College in Dresden in 1911, and early in his career he devoted himself to the reorganization and modernization o[ free-standing gymnastics for girls and women.
Loges developed a flowing movement technique [or women's rhythmical gymnastics, using some of Bode's ideas and Laban's dance movements [33] which he had studied with a pupil of Laban's. He created simple, natural movements and blended them with gymnastics and dance in harmonious and rhythmical compositions.
In 1921, Loges founded the Hanover Model Turn School, a turnverein gymnastic organization, and in it, over the years, he taught thousands of children, girls, women, and men his new approach to rhythmical gymnastics. In 1925, he founded his own private school for teachers, the Loges School for Movement Art, which was attended by many German and foreign teachers alike, both men and women. This school, destroyed during the Second World War, was reestablished shortly after the war at Wilhelmshaven, where it still continues under the direction of his son Helmut Loges and his daughter Ilse Speidel. [34]
Carl Loges was a leader in various turner societies in Germany and he became the national physical director for women of the German Turnverein. His influential position enabled Loges to revolutionize turnverein gymnastics. He gave numerous courses for turners and held many demonstrations of his artistic dance-gymnastics in Europe. In 1932, he gave a course of several weeks for the American turners at the summer camp of the Normal College of the American Gymnastic Union, Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. When women's gymnastic events were scheduled for the first time at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, he was the coach of the German women's team. The German women won first place in gymnastics, largely because their movements were fluent, sensitive, and harmonious. His methods, however, were challenged by both the conservative turners who favored the conventional German gymnastics, and by the Deutscher Gymnastik-Bund which stressed movement education and objected to competitive gymnastic skills.
Since the time of Jahn, the aim of the turner movement was to reach all classes and all ages, and Carl Loges can well be recognized as the modern leader who continued the Jahn tradition in popularizing the new approach to calisthenics. The movements which he used came from many sources, but his gymnastic choreography was original and the movements were natural, flowing, and beautiful. His teaching greatly influenced both basic movement training and the style of choreography for "artistic gymnastics" which are used today in international competition.
GYMNASTIC EDUCATION IN THE NAZI PERIOD
When the National Socialist Party took over the government of Germany (1933-1945), drastic changes came about. Physical education was regarded as an important instrument for political training, and the Deutscher Gymnastik-Bund as well as other free organizations of physical education were dissolved. The private schools of gymnastics were closed and gymnastic teachers were forbidden to teach unless they complied with the racial and political policies of National Socialism. At the same time, physical education was reorganized and promoted as a state function. All private teachers of gymnastics were lumped together with teachers of turnen, sports, and dance in a state-controlled association, the "Reichsverband Deutscher Turn-, Sport- und Gymnastiklehrer." This organization was divided into two sections, one for turnen and sports, and the other for teachers of gymnastics and dance. Later, the dance teachers were incorporated in the Chamber of Arts and Theatre.
In an effort to unify the various approaches to movement education, the leader of the Reichsverband formed a committee of experienced teachers who worked out a plan which was published in 1935 as the "Lehrplan der Deutschen Gymnastik." [35] According to this report, the goal of German gymnastics was to develop the sense and capacity for movement. The work plan covered five divisions of movement which could be summarized briefly as fundamentals of movement, totality of movement, movements with objects called "tools," enrichment of movement, and creative forms of group movements such as motion plays, pageants, and folk dances. Instead of the approach to creative movement for individual expression, the new interpretation required that movement be considered as a natural common language in the development of community feeling. Thus, in dance, the folk dance was particularly emphasized as a joyful expression of community life.
Every teacher training institute was required to follow this new work plan. Individual development, which had been the goal of teachers of movement education, was lost and replaced by the new requirement of mass education in accordance with National Socialistic policy. Teacher training was controlled through state examinations, and in the approved schools movement education was combined with turnen and sport. [36]
THE REVIVAL OF MOVEMENT EDUCATION SINCE 1950
THE 1949 CONFERENCE
At the beginning of the Nazi period, the private teacher training schools of gymnastics were allowed some degree of freedom, but this was eliminated when the regime got into political difficulties. The Second World War inhibited any progress in movement education, and one after another the schools were closed. In December 1949, a renaissance of movement education started when a conference on creative education was held at Fulda. Franz Hilker, Louise Langgaard, Hilda Senff, and other authorities on movement education were speakers on this occasion, and the conference was instrumental in establishing new principles of gymnastic education.
Although opposed by representatives of turnen and sport organizations, the principles of movement education were adopted by the teacher training institutes for physical education, and especially by those connected with universities. As an example of a pioneer school for higher education in physical education, the Deutsche Sporthochschule Koln may be cited.
THE DEUTSCHE SPORTHOCHSCHULE KOLN
The Deutsche Sporthochschule Koln was founded in 1920 in Berlin as the "Deutsche Hochschule fur Leibesubungen," a self-supporting institution for physical education in cooperation with the Friederich Wilhelm University. The idea of a four-year course for higher studies in physical education on the university level was first conceived by Carl Diem (1882-1962), a world figure internationally respected for his distinguished leadership in organizing and promoting physical education. [37] Basically opposed to the traditional over-stress on academic training, and to the rigidity of gymnastics at that time, the college supported a new trend in education which emphasized natural movement, play, sports, physical fitness, and outdoor living. [38] Physical training was closely linked with interdisciplinary studies in the natural and physical sciences, medicine, movement research, and therapy, and courses in every physical education activity were offered.
In 1933, the operation of the college, by then internationally known, was interrupted by political events. Dr. Diem and his wife, Professor Liselott Diem, were summarily dismissed by the National Socialist Party and the college existed, in name only, until 1935 when it was discontinued. Two years after the Second World War, with the help of British and American occupation authorities, the college reopened as a self-supporting institution in cooperation with the University of Cologne. After Dr. Diem's death in 1962, the institution became the Deutsche Sporthochschule Koln, the center of research and teacher training in sport and physical education in Germany. Presently, there are chairs of philosophy, psychology, pedagogy, methodology and didactics, history and methodology, physiology, cardiology and sports medicine, biomechanics, rehabilitation, and music pedagogy. A new law authorizing the Deutsche Sporthochschule to confer academic degrees is in process. [39] The institution is widely known for the breadth of its program, its scientific studies, research in every phase of physical education, and the development of new methods.
One of the outstanding contributions to physical education is Mrs. Diem's natural approach to teaching children to move effectively in all kinds of situations. Dr. Arthur H. Steinhaus, in the introduction to the English translation of her book Who Can, says that the philosophy underlying her method is "to discover the movement readiness characteristic of the child's stage of development," "to prepare the environment so that the child can without undue hazard exercise this readiness at will," and "to challenge the child with additional related tasks designed to ensure maximal diversification and development of this readiness." [40]
In her approach, Professor Diem presents movement tasks which are natural at the child's level of maturity, and the child explores movements freely in his own way. The teacher arranges learning situations and materials to bring about the desired movement responses. Simple equipment, such as balls, wands, ropes, boxes, benches, ladders, is used to develop a great variety of movements in individual, partner, and group work. The purpose of the movement tasks is to build a strong and flexible body, to develop movement skills, and a sense of balance.
The teacher challenges the child with questions, such as "who can do this?" "how can it be done differently?" and "why is one performance better than another?" By such questions and by suggesting different ways of performing the movement, the teacher guides the pupil in directing his own endeavors and in improving the quality of his movements. Children are encouraged to "play" with a movement, and to invent new ways of moving in order to broaden their movement experiences. [41]
In the movement education of older pupils, Professor Diem stresses the development of a keener awareness and analysis of how to use muscular force and how to move in time and space. Critical examination of performance, quality of movement, and the feeling of movement are emphasized. With a great variety of free and natural movements which pertain to the intended movement task, the pupils develop gradually both the natural ability to move, and specific techniques in tumbling, dancing, and athletics. Thus methods are developed for movement experiences which are natural but also purposeful, self-directed yet guided, orderly yet enjoyable. [42] Professor Diem's "who can" method has been officially adopted in the Nordrhine-Westphalia elementary schools, and it is used in the schools of many other countries. [iv]
SUMMARY
The survey of the pioneers' theories in Chapters 3 and 4 reveals the international scope of contributions to body training in movement and rhythm. Although Delsarte was French, his art of expression had a great influence in the United States and Europe. Jaques-Dalcroze, who developed music education through movement and achieved world renown, was Swiss. Laban, a Hungarian, started his movement studies in Germany, continued them in England, and had a world-wide influence on dance and movement education. Genevieve Stebbins, Isadora Duncan, Bess Mensendieck, and Christine Baer-Frissell were born in America but their teaching, first accepted in Europe, was spread through their students to many parts of the world. The Loges influence was particularly evident in wide reforms of turnverein gymnastics and in the free, natural movements of artistic gymnastic compositions. The Gunther and the Carl Orff methods, as well as Medau's particular approach to gymnastics with hand objects, are used today in many countries. The work of the Deutsche Sporthochschule has assumed international dimensions. A wealth of original ideas in movement education is currently developing through the creative work of dance teachers in the United States. In schools and colleges, in concert and theatre, disciples of the pioneer American modern dancers are advancing the modern dance both as a valuable movement education and as a performing art.
While the methods of the European pioneer schools of movement education varied, they all held certain basic principles in common:
l. A fundamental belief in the true value of natural movement and a violent opposition to the regimentation of the body.
2. A focus on the involvement of mind, body, and spirit in organic movement.
3. The recognition that movement education has a vital educational and artistic influence, and that it is of utmost importance for man's physical, mental, and emotional development.
4. Emphasis on the application of physical laws, and of biological and psychological principles in the teaching of movement.
5. Stress on the awareness of the genuine rhythm of the body and its relation to musical rhythm.
Although movement education cannot be regarded as one firmly established method, the contributions of these pioneers mark the beginning of the blending of the science of body mechanics, free expression, and the rhythm of movement. Developed further by their students and their students' students, an infinite variety of objectives and adaptations has evolved. It is difficult to speak of one general concept of movement education; however, there is a fundamental belief that movement is a powerful force in education, and that movement which is organic and dynamic; movement which is natural and emanates from the inner self-such movement is life.
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Notes:
i. Known as "bunds."
ii. Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), founder of anthroposophy, a metaphysical philosophy of the wisdom of man which relates the spiritual in the human being to the spiritual in the universe.
iii. A conclusion of Margaret C. Brown's observation is that some positions resemble the asanas in Hatha Yoga.
iv. Who Can is published in German, English) Spanish and Japanese editions.
1. Franz Hilker, Reine Gymnastik (Berlin: Max Hesses Verlag, 1926), p. 44.
2. Max Merz, "Die Erneuerung des Lebens und Koerpergefuehls," Kunstlerische Korperschulung, ed. by Ludwig Pallat and Franz Hilker, n. p., Breslau, 1923.
3. Hedwig Kallmeyer, "Aus der Arbeit von Genevieve Stebbins," Gymnastik, publication of the Deutscher Gymnastik- Bund, I, 1926, pp. 74-83.
4. Hedwig Kallmeyer, Kunstlerische Gymnastik. Harmonische Korperkultur nach dem amerikanischen System Stebbins-Kallmeyer (Berlin: Kultur-Verlag, 1910).
5. Franz Hilker, "Dem Andenken Einer Grossen Padagogin, Bildung und Erziehung, XV, 1961, pp. 65-69.
6. Louise Langgaard, Bewegungsentfaltung und Menschenbildung (Loheland: Loheland-Verlag, 1968).
7. Franz Hilker, "Bewegung und Bildung," Bildung und Erziehung," XVI, 1963, pp. 1-19. In this article, Franz Hilker pays homage to Mrs. Langgaard on her eightieth birthday.
8. Rudolf Bode, Expression Gymnastics, trans. Sonya Forthal and Elizabeth Waterman (New York: A. S. Barnes and Company, 1931), pp. 16-17.
9. Ibid., p. 25.
10. Rudolf Bode, personal letter, July 26, 1964.
11. Bode, op. cit., p. 33.
12. Ludwig Mester, "Rudolf Bode's Lebenswerk," Magazine of the Bode Bund (Munich: The Bode School, August 1951). (Mimeographed.)
13. "Christine Baer-Frissell," Publication of the Hellerau- Laxenburg School No. 26 (an autobiography; Vienna, November 1934); Catalogue of the Hellerau-Laxenburg School, 1934, pp. 5-14. (Out of print.)
14. Elfriede Feudel, Rhythmik (Munich: Delphin Verlag, 1926), pp. 22-27.
15. Marianne Pontan, "Principles of Body Training," Publication of the Hellerau-Laxenburg School No. 2 (Vienna, 1929), pp. 1113-1129. (Out of print.)
16. Loc. cit. A graduate of the Hellerau-Laxenburg School, Betty K. Sommer was a student of Christine Baer- Frissell, Rosalia Chladek, and Marianne Pontan, and she also taught in the summer sessions of the school.
17. Rudolf von Laban, Die Welt des Tanzers: Funt Gedankenreigen (Stuttgart: Verlag Walter Seiffert, 1920).
18. Rudolf von Laban, Gymnastik und Tanz; also Des Kindes Gymnastik und Tanz (Oldenburg: Gerhard Stalling Verlag, 1926).
19. Franz Hilker, personal manuscript, September 13, 1968.
20. Hilda Senff, Ich oder Es?, Eine Ruckkehr zum Gesetz des Rhythmus (Dusseldorf: Verband Deutsche Frauenkultur e.V., 1960), p. 64.
21. Dora Menzler, "Aus meiner Arbeit," Die Schonheit deines Korpers (Stuttgart: Dieck &: Co., Verlag, 1924), pp. 26-31.
22. Catalogue of The Medau School, 1965.
23. Hinrich Medau, "Gedanken zu einer Leibeserziehung der Frau" (Coburg: The Medau School, 1955.) (Mimeographed.)
24. Molly Braithwaite, Medau Rhythmic Movement (London: n.p., 1955), p. 11. This book is available at The Ling Book Shop in London.
25. Hildegard Erbguth, "What is Feathering?" Medau Rhythmic Movement, pp. 52-54.
26. Hinrich Medau et al., Moderne Gymnastik (Celle, Germany: Verlag Pohl Druckerei und Verlagsanstalt, 1967), pp. 63-72, 85-91; Hinrich Medau, "'Organgymnastik': Posture, Respiration, Movement," The Adolescents of Today, Report of the Fifth International Congress on Physical Education and Sports for Girls and Women, Deutsche Sporthochschule Koln, August 1965 (Schorndorf bei Stuttgart: Verlag Karl Hoffman, 1966), pp. 157-158.
27. Hinrich Medau, "The Development of My Work," Medau Rhythmic Movement, pp. 18, 21-22. Medau work was observed by Margaret C. Brown at the Olympic Festival in Berlin 1936, the Olympic Festival in Helsinki 1952, and at the Congress of the International Association of Physical Education and Sports for Girls and Women, Koln 1965.
28. Catalogues of the Gunther School; correspondence and professional biography of Dorothee Gunther, January 2, 1966, and September 19, 1968. At the Olympic Festival in Berlin 1936, Mrs. Gunther directed the choreography for two displays in which 3500 children and 2500 young girls participated. These were observed by Margaret C. Brown who also visited the Gunther School in Berlin.
29. Loc. cit.
30. Announcement of the Gunther School, undated.
31. Dorothee Gunther, personal letter, January 1, 1966.
32. Dorothee Gunther, "Dance Education in Schools," The Adolescents of Today, p. 145.
33. Helmut Loges, questionnaire, December 30, 1964.
34. Loc. cit.
35. Published in Gymnastik und Tanz, ed. Reichsverband (Berlin: Wilhelm Limpert-Verlag, 1935), X, pp. 1-7.
36. Franz Hilker (ed.), "Die Gymnastischen Schulen in Deutschland," Gymnastik und Tanz (Olympic edition; Berlin: Wilhelm Limpert-Verlag), XI, August 1936, pp. 113-128. This article lists twenty-eight schools approved by the Reichsverband.
37. Deobold B. Van Dalen, Elmer D. Mitchell and Bruce L. Bennet, A World History of Physical Education (New York: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1953), pp. 230-232; J. G. Dixon, "Prussia: Politics and Physical Education," in P. C. Mc- Intosh et al., op. cit., pp. 130-137; Philip Smithells, "In Memoriam," Journal of Health· Physical Education Recreation, XXXIV (Hune 1963), p. 64.
38. Carl Diem, Fundamental Principles of Physical Education (Berlin: Organizing Committee for the XI Olympiade, 1936), pp. 27-48.
39. Deutsche Sporthochschule Koln, Prospectus for the Summer Session, 1966, pp. 5-8; Liselott Diem, personal letter, August 1968.
40. Liselott Diem, Who Can, trans. Arthur Steinhaus (fourth edition; Frankfort M.: Wilhelm Limpert-Verlag, 1964), p. 4. Professor of methodology at the Sporthochschule, and 1965-1969 president of the International Association of Physical Education and Sports for Girls and Women, Mrs. Diem has given many international courses and demonstrations of her method.
41. Ibid., pp. 5-7.
42. Liselott Diem, "I am-I can-I will: Experiences through Movement," The Adolescents of Today, pp. 58- 65; questionnaire and printed materials, February 1966; personal observation.