The New International Encyclopædia/Friesen, Karl Friedrich

FRIESEN, Karl Friedrich (1785-1814). A German patriot, and one of the principal promoters of gymnastics in Germany. He was born at Magdeburg. He studied at the Academy of Architecture, Berlin, collaborated on the great atlas of Mexico edited by Humboldt, and from 1810 was an instructor in the Plamann Institute. In 1810-12 he rendered important services to Jahn in the establishment of German gymnastics. Upon the outbreak of the German War of Liberation, in 1813, he assisted in organizing the famous volunteer corps of Major von Lützow, whose adjutant he became. After the dispersion of the corps by Napoleon at Rheims, he was captured and shot by the French at La Lobbe, Ardennes, March 15, 1814. In 1843 his body was buried with solemnity in the military cemetery at Berlin. He has frequently been celebrated by German writers, in particular by E. M. Arndt in “Es thront am Elbestrande.” Consult Schiele, Friedrich Friesen Eine Lebensbeschreibung (Berlin, 1875).