Adolf Spiess

Adolf Spiess
Illustration from A Guide to the History of Physical Education, by Fred Eugene Leonard. Lea & Febiger, 1923 (artist uncredited)
Academic work

Adolf Spiess (3 February 1810 in Lauterbach, Hesse – 9 May 1858), German gymnast and educator, contributed to the development of school gymnastics for children of both sexes in Switzerland and Germany.

Spiess's father, Johann Balthasar Spiess (1782–1841) and himself the son of a Thuringian farmer and master smith, had first prepared himself for a position as teacher in the elementary schools, but after some years of professional experience at Frankfurt am Main decided upon further study, and so completed a course in theology at the University of Giessen, and immediately after passing his examination, in 1807, became teacher and sub-rector at the Latin school in Lauterbach. There he brought his bride Luise Werner, of Saarbrücken, who he had first met in Frankfurt. Adolf Spiess was the oldest of their five children.

In 1811 the father accepted a pastoral position in the Evangelical Lutheran Church at Offenbach, across the Main from Frankfurt, and in addition to his clerical duties opened a private school which prepared for the upper classes of the gymnasium (a higher classical school) or for a mercantile career. Ten years before this he had observed the methods in use at Schnepfenthal, and made the acquaintance of GutsMuths and other teachers there, renewed by frequent later visits. It was therefore natural that one feature of the daily program should be gymnastics, as described and practised by GutsMuths — walking the balance beam, jumping, running, climbing, throwing, skating, swimming, etc., and games of all sorts. Every week throughout the year there were also excursions with teachers, and dancing lessons were given in the winter months.

Adolf Spiess entered his father's school at the age of six or less. A few years later, in 1819, Fritz Hessemer, just back from the University of Giessen, made the pupils acquainted with the new Jahn gymnastics, and parallel bars and a horizontal bar were now added to the equipment. In 1824 some of the boys organized a little society for the purpose of practising gymnastics regularly outside of school hours. They met in the private garden exercise area (German: Turnplatz) of Councillor (German: Hofrath) A. André, using Jahn's Deutsche Turnkunst as a guide. They soon met other turners in Hanau, a few miles to the east, with whom joint excursions on foot to the Taunus Range were made in 1826 and 1827.