| Who was Joseph Hubertus Pilates? While millions of | | | | extremely hard by the flu, only 200 men died at |
| people do Pilates exercises everyday, most do not | | | | Knockaloe, thus proving to Joe that he was |
| even know that Pilates was a person, let alone an | | | | right.After the war Pilates was deported back to |
| extremely interesting and colorful personality who | | | | Germany, where he continued to develop, practice, |
| was at the leading edge of exercise science. It is | | | | and teach his exercises until 1925. He trained the |
| interesting not only to hear about his life story, but | | | | Hamburg Military Police, took on some private clients, |
| also to explore his story in the context of the | | | | and worked as an early Physical Therapist, exercising |
| important social and political events of his time, as | | | | patients who suffered from the same illnesses he |
| they all impacted his life and work. Of course, most | | | | had, including rheumatic fever. Joe met and |
| of what we know came from Joseph Pilates himself, | | | | collaborated with movement analyst Rudolf van |
| so the veracity of some of his claims is | | | | Laban and famous German dancer Mary Wigman, and |
| questionable.Joe Pilates was born in 1880 in | | | | began developing spring based exercise equipment. "I |
| Moenchengladbach, a town near Dusseldorf, Germany | | | | thought, why use my strength [to exercise rheumatic |
| to a gymnast father and a naturopathic physician | | | | patients]? So I made a machine to do it for me. |
| mother. Moenchengladbach, located in West-Central | | | | Look, you see it resists your movements in just the |
| Germany, was a center of industry and production, | | | | right way so those inner muscles really have to work |
| specifically cotton textiles. Pilates was a frail and | | | | against it. That way you can concentrate on |
| sickly child who suffered from rickets, rheumatic | | | | movement. You must always do it slowly and |
| fever, and asthma. Other children constantly made | | | | smoothly. Then your whole body is in it."Post war |
| fun of both his name (they called him "Christ killer") | | | | Germany was not doing well either politically or |
| and his frailty, and Joe was too weak and skinny to | | | | economically. The Weimar Republic was not accepted |
| ever fight back. He resolved to get stronger in his | | | | by many Germans, inflation was up due to wartime |
| breathing and his movements so that he could | | | | debts, and unemployment was at an all time high. By |
| defend himself.One day Joe's doctor gave him an | | | | 1923 French and Belgium troops had moved in to |
| anatomy book, and the seeds of Contrology were | | | | Germany as she defaulted on war reparations |
| sewn. Of this book Pilates said, "I learned every | | | | payments. The government began printing so much |
| page, every part of the body I would move each | | | | money that the mark became worthless in 1914 the |
| part as I memorized it. As a child, I would lie in the | | | | US dollar was equivalent to 4 marks, in 1920 40 |
| woods for hours, hiding and watching the animals | | | | marks, in 1922 200 marks, in 1923 18,000 marks, and |
| move, how the mother taught the young." While | | | | by 1924 4.2 trillion marks. Things had literally gotten |
| attending school and studying history, philosophy, and | | | | to the point where you needed a wheelbarrow full of |
| engineering, Pilates also studied Eastern and Western | | | | paper money just to buy groceries.In 1925 Pilates |
| forms of exercise. The young Joe sent for more | | | | was invited to train the New German Army. |
| books and haunted the University libraries in | | | | However, given the situation in Germany, he had |
| Dusseldorf. The more he learned the more questions | | | | already decided to leave. Boxing expert Nat Fleischer |
| he had. He tried yoga, Buddhist meditation, and | | | | and Olympic boxer Max Schmelling convinced Joe to |
| ancient Greek and Roman gymnastic exercises, and | | | | come to the US, specifically to New York City. Here |
| kept meticulous written records of what the | | | | he could train boxers and continue to work on his |
| exercises did for him and how he progressed. Pilates | | | | equipment, inventing and patenting his new machines. |
| held fast to the ancient Roman credo "Mens sana in | | | | He met his future wife Clara, a kindergarten teacher, |
| corpore sano (A sound mind in a sound body)." By | | | | on the boat to Ellis Island. The story goes that Clara |
| the time he turned 14 he was not only strong | | | | suffered from arthritis and Joe worked with her to |
| enough to be considered an accomplished skin diver, | | | | increase her mobility and relieve her pain. Once in |
| gymnast, boxer, and skier, he also modeled for | | | | New York they opened their gym at 939 Eighth |
| anatomy charts.We know that Pilates traveled to | | | | Avenue, in the same building that housed rehearsal |
| England when he was in his 30s, but there are at | | | | studios for George Ballanchine's New York City |
| least two different equally plausible stories about how | | | | Ballet.Joseph Pilates never received the level of |
| and why he went. The first story tells us that he | | | | recognition that his brilliant work clearly deserved, and |
| went there to box, having exhausted most of the | | | | even today it is difficult to wade through the myth |
| prizefighting venues at home. The second claims that | | | | and find the true story. This is partially true because |
| Joe had begun successfully performing in the circus | | | | most of what we know about his life has come from |
| with his brother, and they had a Greek statue act | | | | students of students of his students.While many |
| that was so popular they took it to England. | | | | facts about Joe's life are verifiable, sources still |
| Whichever is true, Pilates was in England in 1914 | | | | disagree on the basics. In fact, I just reviewed |
| when WW I broke out and was interned by the | | | | several sites and each gave a different year of |
| British as an enemy alien. He first went to a small | | | | death (1966, 1967, 1968) as well as a different cause |
| camp near Lancaster, where he began teaching self | | | | of death (he died in a fire as a result of a fire as a |
| defense and wrestling to the other Germans, claiming | | | | result of smoke inhalation from a fire etc.). According |
| that they would be stronger when they left than | | | | to his New York Times obituary Joseph Pilates died in |
| when they entered. It was here that Joe began to | | | | 1967 at Lenox Hill Hospital, but the Times never |
| develop his system of Contrology. Then he was | | | | mentions cause of death. And there was indeed a |
| transferred.During both World Wars, the British set | | | | fire on the same floor as his studio in 1965 where |
| up their Alien Civilian Internment Camps on the Isle of | | | | Joe suffered a bad leg scrape while inspecting the |
| Man. Interestingly, they only interned males women | | | | studio. But, according to Pilates Elder Mary Bowen, |
| were not interned. For WW1 (1914-1918) a very large | | | | "To set the record straight - no, Joe did not die in a |
| camp was established on the west coast of the | | | | fire. He died two years later...of advanced |
| island at Knockaloe. The Knockaloe camp, intended to | | | | emphysema from smoking cigars for too many |
| house 5000 men, ended up expanding to hold about | | | | years...." Apparently all the good breathing in the world |
| 24,000. It was 22 acres large, divided into 23 | | | | could not keep his scarred lungs (recall that he was |
| compounds split into 4 separate camps. Each camp | | | | rheumatic and asthmatic as a child) from feeling the |
| had its own hospital, theater, cafeteria, printing | | | | effects of smoking. As Joe left no will, Clara took |
| presses, etc. and the hospitals were used to treat | | | | over and ran the studio until she retired in the |
| soldiers injured on the front lines of battle. The | | | | mid-70s. This is where the story gets interesting...The |
| Knockaloe camps were built from wooden huts, and | | | | Question of LineageMost Pilates teachers out there |
| became extremely depressing after several years. To | | | | today can trace his or her lineage back to Joe and |
| make things worse, the camps did not close right at | | | | Clara, and this includes such heavyweights as Winsor |
| the end of the war, since there was a long period of | | | | and Stott. I, for example, originally was a client at |
| postwar hostilities. The camps finally closed in late | | | | SUNY Purchase where I learned under Steve |
| 1919, and most of the internees were deported back | | | | Giordano who studied with Joe's student Romana |
| to Germany.It was while interned at Knockaloe camp | | | | Kryzanowska. Then I worked with Karen Carlson in |
| that Joe Pilates began to really experiment with his | | | | Philadelphia who studied with Mary Bowen and Kathy |
| exercises and theories. It was obviously his priority to | | | | Grant who both studied with Joe. And I received my |
| maintain his own strength and conditioning, which was | | | | certification from both Michelle Larson and her |
| not easy given the basic lack of hygienic conditions | | | | teacher Eve Gentry who studied with Joe. Since then |
| and the presence of injured and sick internees and | | | | I have worked directly with Romana, with Eve |
| soldiers, but Pilates also had to deal with the great | | | | before she died, and with Kathy. So even though my |
| influenza epidemic of 1918. In a time when there was | | | | studio training affiliation is with the PhysicalMind |
| no physical or exercise therapy and medicine was | | | | Institute I trace my lineage as a student and teacher |
| relatively archaic, Joe began to work with the sick | | | | back to Pilates himself and when people ask me |
| and injured men. He taught them to breathe and | | | | what style of Pilates I teach I can honestly say that |
| attached bedsprings with straps to the walls by their | | | | it is my own, but informed by all of my teachers.Of |
| hospital beds so they could begin to stretch and | | | | the 10 students of Joe's who taught Pilates either at |
| exercise by pushing or pulling on the springs before | | | | his studio or opened their own (yes, there were |
| they could even get out of bed. His patients got out | | | | other New York Pilates studios open in the 50s!), only |
| of bed much faster, and Joe's experiments were | | | | 6 are still alive and 5 are still actively teaching in their |
| encouraged. Outside of the hospital he took large | | | | 70s and 80s! Each individual took what he or she |
| groups of internees through his exercise regimen | | | | learned from Joe and Clara and expanded the work |
| every day believing wholeheartedly that the more | | | | with their own knowledge and expertise. Additionally, |
| everyone breathed and moved the better off they | | | | many of the Elders worked with one another. Hence, |
| would be. "Out with the bad germs and in with the | | | | the different styles of Pilates, all of which can |
| fresh new oxygen," he would counsel. England lost | | | | ultimately be traced back to Joseph Pilates himself. |
| tens of thousands and while the camps were hit | | | | |