In 1806, at the Battle of Jena, Napoleonic French forces defeated Fredrick the Great’s fabled Army and reduced Prussia to a vassal state. Then, as a century later, the French sought to disarm Prussia reducing the size of its allowable army. In response, independence minded reformers sought to liberalize Prussian society and at the same time throw off the French yoke.
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| Scharnhorst |
On the military side, Count Gerhard von Scharnhorst, democratized the army allowing free men of all classes into the Officer Corps. To circumvent the French restrictions, he established the Krumper System under which free peasants and burghers would serve 60 days stints and be discharged back home along with their rifle, to remain on call for that day when the national hue and cry would be raised.
In tandem Friederich Jahn, the founder of modern gymnstatics, conceived the idea of restoring the spirits of his countrymen through the development of their physical and moral powers. “Young gymnasts were taught to regard themselves as members of a kind of guild for the emancipation of their fatherland.” (Wiki). His motto was “Live Hardy, Pious, Cheerful, and Free.”
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| Jahn |
In 1813 Jahn joined students, academics, writers and others in forming the Lutzow Freikorps which joined the mobilization against the French. That same year, Scharnhorst died of wounds he received in the battle of Lützen. Napoleon’s defeat was really the work of the Russians, but the Krumper System made sure he returned all the way to Paris.
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