ABSTRACT
When the first German nation-state was founded in 1871, the modern concept of sport had just emerged as a kind of by-product of the engineering, mining and textile know-how of the British, who helped to industrialise the German Empire. By that time the Germans had already developed and consolidated their own distinctive form of physical culture, Turnen (gymnastics). A large number of Turner (gymnasts) were part of a national movement that had actively promoted the political unification of the German people and democratisation of society. The conservative Turner reacted to the arrival of English sport(s) initially with indifference, which quickly turned into open hostility. They were, however, unable to stop this triumphal march of modern sport. Boosted by the development of public transport systems and the mass press, the momentum of modern sports proved unstoppable, and Turnen gave way slowly to the new forms, the latter embodying the contemporary spirit of energetic competition.
