George Brosius (September 9, 1839 – March 17, 1920) was a German-Americangymnastics teacher associated from 1854 to 1915 with the Milwaukee Turnverein.[1] He served in the Union Army from 1861 to 1864. He introduced physical education to the Milwaukee public schools in 1875 and supervised it until 1883. His crowning achievement was leading seven members of the Milwaukee Turnverein to the international gymnastics tournament in Frankfurt am Main in 1880, where they won the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 13th, and 21st individual prizes. He served as director of the American Gymnastic Union's Normal College of Physical Education in Milwaukee from 1875 to 1899.
Gallery
Lieutenant George Brosius, 1863
Brosius as a gymnast, 1865
Brosius as a teacher, 1890
Brosius with his family, 1888
With acrobatic gymnasts of the Milwaukee Turnverein, 1866
With the first team of the Milwaukee gymnasium, 1869
With prize-winning Milwaukee gymnasts, 1880
The Milwaukee team that won 5 medals at Germany's Fifth National Turnfest, 1880
^[1]"Turnen is simply the German word for gymnastics, but the Turner movement has been defined by its compelling combination of physical exercise, cultural activity, and civic engagement. The German-American group played a leading role in the public life of Milwaukee, especially in the late nineteenth century."