Abstract
The main topic of the book is the Jahns barrow on the Spittelberg near Cheb, built between 1891 and 1913 and damaged in 1945. The barrow should honour Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, a German patriot who founded the first gymnastic training ground in the park Hasenheide.
The idea of the national gymnastic training spread rapidly and in 1868 the organisation "Deutsche Turnerschaft" (DT) was founded. In 1888 some clubs left DT founding 1889 the "völkisch" association "Deutscher Turnerbund" (DTB) which initiated the creation of the Jahns barrow.
In DTB Jahn was seen as a prophet of the race purity and the German unity and this was evident in his monuments as well. The initiator of the barrow, Franz Xaver Kießling, preferred to build it in one of the supposed Germanic cult place in the Lower Austria, but finally Cheb as a "free Staufer town" was chosen.
The finalisation of the barrow was deliberately planned for 1913, the 100-anniversary of "Befreiungskriege" so the project has to be understood in this context as well. The barrow did not arise easily.
The members of DTB seem to do not have any interests on the project and - for example - did not want to contribute financially to it. All this problems should have been covered by the 6th feast of DTB during which the barrow was unveiled.
However, the most periodical at this time did not reflect on this act. Friedrich Rudolf Zenker, the author of the final design of the barrow, brought together in the monument all the points of the DTB-Weltanschauung, i. e. race theory, anti-catholicism or unity of all Germans.
The "völkisch" gymnasts were expected to pilgrimage to the barrow but the WWI impeded it. After 1918, for many gymnasts the barrow was not but only a bizarre curio. 1945 the monument was nearly destroyed by the Czechoslovak army.
This act made from it one of the symbols of the lost homeland for many German gymnasts from the Czechoslovakia. It is still a question which relationship the Czechs evolve to the Jahns barrow.