WERNER, Johann Adolf Ludwig.

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Gymnastik für die weibliche Jugend oder weibliche Körperbildung für Gesundheit, Kraft und Anmuth First edition of this treatise advocating gymnastics for girls, with detailed illustrations of the proposed exercises. Publishing during the Prussian Turnverbot ("gymnastics ban"), Werner sought to depoliticise the sport by aiming it towards women.The Turnverbot was implemented in 1819 by Frederick William III in response to the liberal associations of the Turnen movement founded by Friedrich Ludwig Jahn. Werner (1794-1866), a theologian based in Saxony - which did not formally implement the ban but nevertheless displayed anti-Turnen sentiment - sought to show that the primary benefits of the sport were physical instead of ideological. "To prevent any suspicion, he refrained from using the concept of Turnen and used instead the Germanized version of the old Greek concept of 'gymnastics'. This was not only an expression of opportunism but also indicated a different style of physical exercises that may be seen as related to medical gymnastics" (Tröhler, p. 36). Werner's emphasis on health, beauty, and grace meant that gymnastics was accepted by German society as appropriate for women, and daughters of upper-class families soon started practising the sport.Provenance: the Catholic Gymnasium in Glatz (Kłodzko), with its contemporary library stamp on the title page. Founded by the Jesuits in 1597, the gymnasium exclusively admitted boys; its acquisition of the book demonstrates that

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