Canto IV
MASSMANN. A German philologist and one of Heine’s favourite butts. He was one of the most enthusiastic advocates of German gymnastics. Athletics was one of the pet ideas of the German patriots; the Government, however, held it in suspicion, inasmuch as the so-called “Turner” (gymnasts) cherished political ambitions. In time, however, the exercise of the muscles cured the revolutionary brain-fag, and the Government was enabled to assume a sort of protectorship over gymnastics. Though enthusiastically carried on to this very day in Germany, the movement no longer has any political significance.
FRESH, PIOUS, GAY, AND FREE. FRISCH, FROMM, FRÖHLICH, FREI—the four F’s—formed the motto of the German “Turner.”