Detleff Neumann-Neurode

Detleff Neumann-Neurode (1879 to 1945) was a German pioneer of pediatric physical therapy and infant gymnastics. Born on his family's estate at Groß Woitsdorf in Upper Silesia, he served in a Prussian grenadier regiment and taught physical training at the Military Exercise Academy in Berlin, where he saw how regular exercise changed himself and his students. He concluded that active physical treatment begun at the earliest ages could influence developmental defects, studied anatomy and physiology, and exercised with his own children. His book Kindersport appeared in 1909. Discharged from military service in 1921, he worked with physicians, surgeons and orthopedists on a method of infant gymnastics, and in 1922 he founded an institute for physical exercise in earliest childhood. Leading children's hospitals in Berlin adopted the method, a state-accredited Neumann-Neurode School opened in Berlin in 1926, and followers such as Estrid Dane in London carried it abroad. He died at Aumühle near Hamburg.