Henryk Jordan was a Polish

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 philanthropist, physician

Physician

A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...

 and pioneer of physical education

Physical education

Physical education or gymnastics is a course taken during primary and secondary education that encourages psychomotor learning in a play or movement exploration setting....

 in Poland. A professor of obstetrics

Obstetrics

Obstetrics is the medical specialty dealing with the care of all women's reproductive tracts and their children during pregnancy , childbirth and the postnatal period...

 from 1895 at Kraków

Kraków

Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...

's Jagiellonian University

Jagiellonian University

The Jagiellonian University was established in 1364 by Casimir III the Great in Kazimierz . It is the oldest university in Poland, the second oldest university in Central Europe and one of the oldest universities in the world....

, Jordan became best known for organizing children’s playgrounds, called "Jordan’s Gardens" after him.

Life

Henryk Jordan was born into an impoverished noble szlachta

Szlachta

The szlachta was a legally privileged noble class with origins in the Kingdom of Poland. It gained considerable institutional privileges during the 1333-1370 reign of Casimir the Great. In 1413, following a series of tentative personal unions between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of...

family from the village of Zakliczyn

Zakliczyn

Zakliczyn is a town in Tarnów County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Poland, with 1,558 inhabitants , on the right bank of the Dunajec River.Zakliczyn had town rights from 1557 to 1934, and regained them on January 1, 2006....

. His father, Bonifacy Jordan, gave private lessons. His mother, Salomea Wędrychowska, was a homemaker.

Jordan received his high-school education in Tarnopol and Tarnów

Tarnów

Tarnów is a city in southeastern Poland with 115,341 inhabitants as of June 2009. The city has been situated in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship since 1999, but from 1975 to 1998 it was the capital of the Tarnów Voivodeship. It is a major rail junction, located on the strategic east-west connection...

. In 1861, however, he took part in pro-Polish demonstrations for which he was threatened with expulsion from school. In 1862 he moved to Trieste

Trieste

Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...

 and a year later passed his high-school examinations, in Italian, with honors.

Jordan began his university studies in Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

, and from 1863 continued them at Kraków's Jagiellonian University

Jagiellonian University

The Jagiellonian University was established in 1364 by Casimir III the Great in Kazimierz . It is the oldest university in Poland, the second oldest university in Central Europe and one of the oldest universities in the world....

. He passed his science examinations in 1867 but did not receive his master's degree due to pneumonia. He went to Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

 and from there to New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. While there, Jordan for the first time encountered the "Swedish school of gymnastics" for girls and young women, which became an area of interest for him.

While in the USA, Jordan began his medical practice, and also opened a school for midwives. On returning to Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

, he continued to work first in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, then in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. Back in Kraków, Jordan took on a number of social functions. From 1895 to 1901 he was an Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 representing the city at the Polish Sejm

Sejm

The Sejm is the lower house of the Polish parliament. The Sejm is made up of 460 deputies, or Poseł in Polish . It is elected by universal ballot and is presided over by a speaker called the Marshal of the Sejm ....

. In addition, Jordan presided over the Kraków Gynecological Society, as well as the Society of Medical Doctors, and the Association of Polish Teachers of Higher Education (a precursor to Polish Teachers' Union

Polish Teachers' Union

Polish Teachers' Union is the largest Polish trade union for teachers and educators and their largest professional association.-History:First Polish teachers trade unions date to 1905, the year that marks the period of unrest known as the Revolution in the Kingdom of Poland...

). Thanks to his efforts, physical education classes were introduced as compulsory into all Polish schools.

Henryk Jordan's biggest achievement was to set up a public playground in 1889, with exercise fixtures modeled after playgrounds in the USA, the first in Kraków and perhaps the first in Europe. The Jordan’s Garden built on the grounds of Kraków’s Błonia included a swimming pool, 12 playing and soccer fields, as well as numerous running and exercise tracks. Facilities were added for indoor activities in 1906, in case of bad weather. The park was equipped with locker rooms and showers. On top of that, a free meal service was established for the children.

Legacy

Jordan believed that: “Being serious and working all the time is humanly impossible. A tired body requires rest, as does an overburdened spirit striving for joy.”

"Jordan’s gardens" took off like wildfire. They were opened in Warsaw

Warsaw

Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...

, Płock, Kalisz

Kalisz

Kalisz is a city in central Poland with 106,857 inhabitants , the capital city of the Kalisz Region. Situated on the Prosna river in the southeastern part of the Greater Poland Voivodeship, the city forms a conurbation with the nearby towns of Ostrów Wielkopolski and Nowe Skalmierzyce...

 and Lublin

Lublin

Lublin is the ninth largest city in Poland. It is the capital of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 350,392 . Lublin is also the largest Polish city east of the Vistula river...

. In 1928 a Society for Jordan’s Gardens was established to oversee the construction of recreational facilities in interwar Poland.

See also

• History of Poland, Partitioned Poland 1795-1914
• Science in Poland
• Culture of Kraków
  Culture of Kraków
  Kraków is considered by many to be the cultural capital of Poland. It was named the European Capital of Culture by European Union for the year 2000. The city has some of the best museums in the country and several famous theaters...