ABSTRACT
The internationally renowned Danish gymnastics pedagogue and hygienist I.P. Muller became a propagandist for the blessings of water, air and light at a time when these concepts were gaining an increasingly important role in the emerging science of medicine. He spread the evolving medical profession’s gospel of hygiene and purification to the broad public by his own example and his simple ritualistic scheme of gymnastics. In his writings and in his agitation he always fought against the cramped life of the growing cities and for the blessings of the open-air life which made him become an icon of beauty and health for the evolving Continental movements that praised the concepts of nudity, healthy food and the liberation of the body from Victorian dogmatism. In 1912 Muller had achieved such international recognition that he was able to settle in London, change his name from Müller to Muller and open the very successful Muller Institute at 45 Dover Street, which was frequented by ailing members of the affluent classes, including the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VIII.
