11. Juli 2019  
Berlin, GER  
Artistic Gymnastics

Descendants of German Grandfather of Gymnastics Friedrich Ludwig Jahn looking for clues

Little Ernie, 2002: "Hey, Grand Pa ...!"
(c) gymmedia/P. Frenkel

<<  Seventeen years after this photo (2002), when Little "Ernie John" once smiled at his famous great-great-great grandfather, Friedrich Ludwig Jahn,now an almost 20-year-old descendant of the German "Father of Gymnastics" now follows his footsteps on a tour of Germany.
With his Rohr Family from Chicago / Illinois - the American line of the Jahn family tree - the tour starts at upcoming weekend in Potsdam, in the Jahn Sports Gymnasium, where Olympic champion and photographer Peter Frenkel (20km walking, 1972, Munich) then took the photo opposite. After than should follow as next station the historical "Hasenheide" in Berlin, where Jahn 1811opened the first German gymnastics court, and then the village of Lanz near Lenzen, the birthplace of the "old man with the beard"  ...

Dad Ernie Rohr sen. with Little "Ernie John" jun. 2002 on an old pommel horse of Jahn


... this medal presented once by Olympic champion Klaus Koeste at that time holds the youngest Jahn descendant in great honor!

At the request of the guests from Chicago, they want to stay in the small village Jesenitz ( near Leipzig in Saxonia) at the grave of the deceased gymnastics Olympic champion Klaus Koeste, because the Leipzig's top gymnast had taken over at the last Leipzig Turnfest 2002 together with Peter Frenkel the sponsorship as godfathers of the then one-year-old boy!
Of course, the Leipzig Mayor of Sport Heiko Rosenthal, the organizers of the upcoming 2021 German Gymnastics Festival and the GymnasticsFederation of Saxonia will organize a small reception, because even then the Rohr family stayed as guests of honor in the sports city.

Last stop is then from the middle of next week the Jahn city of Freyburg at the river Unstrut, with tomb and last residential house of Jahn, in which now the historical  Jahn museum is located.
Freyburg's mayor Udo Maenicke and Jahn society now want to give even the youngest 18-year-old offspring of the Turnvater's descendants on the threshold of adulthood lasting memories of his descent, because after his first visit 17 years ago "Little Ernie John" can't remember nothing more of course...!
* GYMmedia, together with Peter Frenkel, will accompany this remember tour and will report in summary next week.

Also in the USA, too, one looks with interest at this Germany tour of the Jahn descendants, because in a few months a gymnastics museum will be opened in Pennsylvania in which Germany's Father of Gymnast Friedrich Ludwig Jahn will play a central role in the historical presentation of modern gymnastics. After all, Central Germany and Jahn's ideas played a central starting role on the later successful path to a world-wide sports group of the gymnastics disciplines.

Father of Gymnastics JAHN, also highly revered in the USA - here in the center of an exhibition in the International Gymnastic Training Camp - preliminary stage of the planned historical museum in Pennsylvenia.

In the year of the major events currently taking place, such as the World Gymnaestrada (Dornbirn / AUT) and the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships (Stuttgart / GER), this special Germany tour of the Jahn Family demonstrates a significant connection, especially in our modern times, which also has its roots in the current ones Jahn's ideas of a body culture of the whole people!
(c) gymmedia / E. Herholz