Dr. Karl Zapp
Dr. Karl Zapp was born in 1851 in the lovely Palatinate to an old family of millers. Raised in Otterberg, he graduated the Volksschule and the technical and trade school in Kaiserslautern. After serving an apprenticeship in the accounting office of the linen weavers in Otterburg, he emigrated at the age of 17 to the United States, settling in Chicago.
Ever a friend of physical exercise and gymnastics, he soon joined the Vorwiirts Turner Society there, belonging from 1870 to 1875. As a member of Vorwiirts he won many prizes at various Turner festivals, particularly winning first prize in racing and third in high jump and broad jump. As a young man of 21 he founded the first children's association in Chicago, leading it until he entered teachers' seminary. He also organized the first meetings for mental and intellectual discussion, a practice which is now general.
His interests in gymnastics caused him to attend the Turner seminary, which had moved to Milwaukee. He graduated in the first place in the first course of 1875. His first position was in Toledo, where he was active for three successful years and helped to build a hall by means of a very successful fair.
He was cofounder of the Lake Erie Turner District, leading many of their festivals. He was entrusted with the organization of the first Turner rules by the Cleveland federal assembly in 1878. The exercises with the iron staff and other required activities used today, as well as the fixed and movable apparatus, were introduced to America by him.
In 1879 he was entrusted with the leadership of the Turner schools of the local Social and Germania Turner Societies, which he led together until 1887. In 1884 and 1884 he held great Turner shows in the Tabernacle and the Woodland Rink. The Germania Turner Society made him an honorary member after he staged a fair that freed the society from a heavy debt.
In 1887 German and pro-German members of the school board brought about the introduction of gymnastics to the schools, and they commissioned him to introduce and lead instruction. For five years, all by himself, he taught all the primary and graduate schools, the two high schools and the Normal School with great success, so that delegations came from elsewhere to study the matter. In the West High School gymnastics were most highly developed in that four large classrooms were made into gymnastic halls with apparatus, and they were used by many classes, both boys and girls.
German gymnastics celebrated great triumphs at the commencements in the music hall, and the principals of the high schools are even today great supporters of gymnastics. In 1890 he composed a guide for gymnastic instruction in the schools, which was given to the teachers for free. On the introduction of the Federal Plan, Dr. Zapp lost his position in the schools due to political intrigue. The position was first eliminated under the pretext of economy and the claim that the teachers now knew enough. Yet under another title, two inexperienced ladies were hired, under whom the quality of gymnastics immediately collapsed. The newly introduced Delsarte-Emerson System collapsed after a year of the two 'physical education teachers'.
The loss of his position caused Dr. Zapp to turn to the study of medicine, so that he declined the offer to introduce and oversee gymnastics in the schools of Cincinnati. He studied first of all in the Western Reserve and then in the Wooster Medical College, graduating in 1895. He made a special study of treating deformations of the spine.
On taking up gymnastics in the schools, he had given up his position with the Social Turner Society, keeping only his position with the Germania.
His classes won prizes in all regional and some federal festivals, producing many diplomas and laurel wreaths. At the field day in 1894, in which Turner societies (German, Bohemian, Swiss), the YMCA, the Athletic Club, and the YMCA took part, his class took first prize. He possesses great talent in staging festivities, particularly presentations, dances and tableaux for masked balls and children's festivals. At the great Turner show of all the societies at the time of the centennial celebration in 1896, he directed. Since 1880 he leads gymnastic instruction in the Jewish Orphanage for over 200 boys and girls.
Dr. Zapp was a delegate of the Lake Erie Turner District to the federal assemblies in Cleveland, Indianapolis, Newark, Davenport, Chicago, New York, Denver and Louisville, and he always stood on the progressive side. At his urging the summer course for teachers was organized, and the English Turner journal, Mind and Body, was established. Competitive gymnastics and greater attention to popular exercising were promoted by him and first introduced in the Lake Erie Turner District. In 1890 he was sent by the Turner central authority to Chautauqua to study Swedish gymnastics. His report and the recommendations contained in it stimulated a lively debate and led to a basic study of variant systems.
Dr. Zapp is one of the founders of the Turner Teacher Association, and he was president without interruption from 1892 to 1897. He also founded the local Physical Education Society, and he was its first president. He has repeatedly been elected to the testing committee of the Turner teacher seminary, and he was on the faculty of the summer course for several years. He is also a contributor to the English gymnastic book, German American Gymnastics. A 'good friend" deprived him of the fruits of his 1883 invention of adjustable weights by simply copying the unpatented invention. In the construction of the Germania Hall, he was, together with Mr. Wm. Kaufmann, once the most zealous member of the building committee and for many years a member of the directing committee.
Dr. Zapp is a member of the Social Turner Society, the Cleveland Singing Society, the local Physical Education Society, the American Association for Physical Education and the American Medical Association.
On December 27, 1885 he married Mary Cobelli, the daughter of our prominent late fellow citizen Karl J. Cobelli. His aged mother, a brother and three sisters live in Chicago, and a sister in Germany. His father died when Dr. Zapp was 11 years old.
Cleveland and Its Germans 1897-98