Jahn is one of the popular person in German. He was born in Lanz in Brandenburg where he studied theology and philology from University of Greifswald on1802 at Halle, Göttingen. Jahn joined the Prussian army in 1806 after the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt in 1806. In 1809 he went back to Berlin, where he became an instructor at the Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster and at the Plamann School. He decided to train as a gymnastic only because the brooding upon what he saw as the humiliation of his native land by Napoleons. Jahn literally conceived the idea to restore the spirits of his countrymen by the development of their physical and moral powers through the practice of gymnastics. In 1811, the first Turnplatz, or open-air gymnasium was opened by Jahn in Berlin and thus the Turnverein (gymnastics association) movement spread rapidly. Young gymnasts were taught to regard themselves as members of a kind of guild for the emancipation of their fatherland. In 1813 Jahn took an active part in the formation of the famous Lützow Free Corps, a volunteer force in the Prussian army fighting with Napoleon. He was the commander of the battalion corps, though he was often employed in the secret service during the same period. After the war he returned to Berlin where he was appointed state teacher of gymnastics, and took on a role in the formation of the student patriotic fraternities, or Burschenschaften, in Jena.