is given credit as "The Father of Systematic Physical Culture". Other memorials to are located in , Germany; Vienna; and Cincinnati, Ohio's Inwood Park in the Mount Auburn Historic District. An elementary school in Chicago, is named after . Criticism In his own time was seen by both supporters and opponents as a liberal figure. He advocated that the German states should unite after the withdrawal of Napoleon's occupying armies and establish a democratic constitution under the monarchy, which would include the right to free speech. As a German nationalist, advocated maintaining German language and culture against foreign influence. In 1810 he wrote, "Poles, French, priests, aristocrats and Jews are Germany's misfortune." At the time wrote this, the German states were occupied by foreign armies under the leadership of Napoleon. Also, was "the guiding spirit" of the fanatic book burning episode carried out by revolutionary students at the Wartburg festival in 1817. Scholarly focus on the of thought started in the 1920s with a new generation of interpreters like and . explicitly linked with National Socialism. The equation by the National Socialists of ideas with their world view was more or less complete by the mid-1930s. , an educational philosopher and university lecturer who attempted to provide theoretical support for Nazi ideology (through the interpretation of among others) wrote a monograph on in which he characterized invention of gymnastics as an explicitly political project, designed to create the ultimate citizen by educating his body. gained infamy in English-speaking countries following the publication of Metapolitics: The Roots of the Nazi Mind (1941). claimed was the spiritual founder of Nazism who inspired early German romantics with anti-Semitic and authoritarian doctrines, influencing and finally, the Nazis. However, observed that portrait of cultural trends supposedly leading to Nazism was "a caricature without resemblance" relying on "misleading shortcuts", though response in the same issue points out that it is clear from remarks that did not read far into the book. See also Turners Notes References Further reading External links Early Climbing Activities in Gymnastics Forest Park Monument1 Forest Park Monument 2 Open Library 1778 births 1852 deaths People associated with physical culture People from Prignitz Freikorps personnel of the Napoleonic Wars German gymnasts 19th-century German educators History of gymnastics Prussian Army personnel of the Napoleonic Wars People from the Margraviate of Brandenburg University of Greifswald alumni Members of the Frankfurt Parliament German nationalists German prisoners