Niels Bukh

Niels Ebbesen Mortensen Bukh (15 June 1880 – 7 July 1950)[1] was a Danish gymnast and educator who founded the first athletic folk high school in Ollerup in Funen, Denmark.

He achieved international fame as a gymnastics trainer for the Danish team at the Olympic Games in Stockholm in 1912.

Within the tradition of Pehr Henrik Ling, Bukh developed his own primitive gymnastics, aimed at using forceful exercises to prevent stiffness and bad bodily habits.

His system of exercise became highly popular in Germany, and in 1933 Bukh publicly expressed his allegiance to the National Socialist cause and its aim of improving the health of the Aryan race through gymnastics.

Biographers speculate that Bukh never became aware of the Nazi stance against homosexuality, even with his frequent visits to Germany during the 1930s and 1940s.