Martina Bergman-Österberg
Encyclopedia
Martina Sofia Helena Bergman-Österberg (née Bergman; 7 October 1849 – 29 July 1915) was a Swedish
physical education
instructor and women's suffrage
advocate. After studying Swedish gymnastics in Stockholm she moved to London, where she founded the first physical education instructor's college in England, in which she admitted women only. Bergman-Österberg pioneered teaching physical education as a full subject within the English school curriculum, with Swedish-style gymnastics
at its core. She also advocated the use of gymslip
s by women playing sports, and played a pivotal role in the early development of netball
. Bergman-Österberg was an advocate of women's emancipation, directly encouraging women to be active in sport and education, and also donating money to women's emancipation organisations in her native Sweden. Several of her students founded the Ling Association, which later became the Physical Education Association of the United Kingdom
.
, a farming community in Malmöhus County
(now part of Skåne County
), Sweden. Her parents were Karl Bergman, a farmer, and Betty Lundgren; she also had two brothers who both died at a young age, and three sisters who eventually settled abroad. After receiving a sound private education, she was employed as a governess from 1870–73, and from 1874–77 she worked as a Nordisk familjebok
librarian, where she met her future husband.
In 1879, she started a two-year course at the Royal Central Gymnastics Institute in Stockholm, studying pedagogical and medical gymnastics. She was trained in the Swedish system of gymnastics devised by Pehr Henrik Ling
. Her gymnastics studies also took her to England, France, Germany and Switzerland. She graduated in 1881, and later that year moved to London.
as Lady Superintendent of Physical Exercises in Girls' and Infants' schools. Eleven years earlier, the Elementary Education Act 1870
had provided universal elementary education in England, and allowed schools to receive government grants for providing physical training. But at the time, physical education (or "physical training" at the time) as a subject was not taught in the curricula of most schools. Military drill was taught to boys in public schools, while private institutions taught either German-style gymnastics, which emphasised apparatus-based and rhythmic exercises, or Swedish-style gymnastics, which used anatomy-based regimented drills and therapeutic exercises. Physical training was permitted for girls in 1873 by the Gladstone government, and within three years it was made compulsory for girls in elementary schools within the London School Board.
The superintendent position at the London School Board was first established in 1878. Since no English teachers possessed sufficient qualifications at the time, its first appointee was a Swede named Concordia Löfving, who like Bergman-Österberg was trained at the Royal Central Gymnastics Institute in Stockholm. She advocated Swedish gymnastics and introduced it to girls' schools; after one year in the position she had received 600 applications. When Löfving resigned from the post in 1881, Bergman-Österberg was appointed as her successor.
Bergman-Österberg was responsible for the instruction of female physical training teachers and with certifying their competence. During her appointment she trained 1312 teachers in Swedish gymnastics, anatomy and physiology, and pioneered a national system of physical training instruction, incorporating Swedish gymnastics as taught by Ling. Most of her work focused on training educators for elementary school students, and during her time at the London School Board she introduced Swedish gymnastics to nearly 300 schools; by 1888, Swedish gymnastics was being taught by qualified teachers in girls' schools in every department of the London School Board. Bergman-Österberg also organised public demonstrations of her students performing Swedish gymnastics and promoting women's physical education: one such public demonstration in 1883 was attended by the Prince and Princess of Wales, and received approbation in the press.
Her interest eventually shifted towards teaching middle-class women to become physical training instructors in English public schools
. She grew dissatisfied with the bureaucracy at the London School Board, and felt stifled in fully achieving her aims. She also remarked on the unsuitability of teaching working-class girls in London, observing that they lived in an environment of malnutrition, neglect and dreadful living conditions.
Bergman-Österberg developed a two-year course modelled on that at the Royal Central Gymnastics Institute in Sweden. She taught anatomy, animal physiology, chemistry, physics, hygiene, theory of movement, dancing, deportment and Swedish gymnastics. English team sports were also taught at the college: although Bergman-Österberg never fully understood them, she did appreciate their significance to the English people, and their potential to teach an "appreciation of space and time, discipline, reason, quickness and unselfishness".
Believing that the liberators of the female sex were to be found in the ranks of the middle class, she deliberately kept enrolment fees high and student numbers low. She only admitted students with above-average intelligence and education, an aptitude for natural science, a sound constitution and character, a pleasing appearance, and considerable zeal and devotion. Bergman-Österberg's ideas on women's emancipation were centred on contemporary social Darwinism
, gearing her young students for motherhood, or establishing them to train other young women for such a role: "I try to train my girls to help raise their own sex, and so to accelerate the progress of the race; for unless the women are strong, healthy, pure, and true, how can the race progress?".
Once students entered the college, Bergman-Österberg maintained an autocratic rule over their daily lives. She forbade students from visiting each other's rooms, enforced an early "lights out" rule, permitted only cold baths, refused weekend leave except in special circumstances and censored their mail. But after completing the course, graduates of the college were virtually guaranteed employment in girls schools throughout the country, with an ample yearly salary of £100.
In 1886, she married Dr Edvin Per Wilhelm Österberg, a professor at the University of Uppsala, and was often referred to as Madame Österberg after her marriage. However, while Dr Österberg remained in Sweden, Madame Österberg continued her work in England, although they visited each other as often as their work allowed.
, which was invented in the United States in 1891. In 1893, Bergman-Österberg returned from a visit to the United States, and informally introduced one version of basketball to her students at Hampstead. Two years later, an American lecturer by the name of Dr Toles (alternatively spelled "Toll") more formally introduced basketball to her students. The rules of this game were modified by Madame Österberg's students over several years. Substantial revisions were made during a visit in 1897 from another American teacher, Miss Porter, who introduced rules from women's basketball
in the United States. By this time, the new sport had also acquired a new name: "net ball".
Bergman-Österberg's students were themselves to have their own influences on women's physical education. In 1897 one of her students, Mary Tait, invented the gymslip
, a dress that facilitated practical movement for women playing sport, replacing the ground-length skirts and mutton-arm blouses that were normally worn by contemporary sportswomen. Bergman-Österberg eagerly adopted the new apparel for her students, which became a standard uniform among British schoolgirls during the 20th century.
A group of her graduate students formed the Ling Physical Education Association in 1899, the first association representing the workers of the emerging profession in the United Kingdom. They invited Bergman-Österberg to be president of the new association, but she angrily refused, disavowing any rival institutions to her own; however, Kathleen McCrone attributes Bergman-Österberg's opposition to the fact the she did not come up with the idea herself. Instead she formed her own, insular association, the Bergman Österberg Union, in 1900. Conflicts between the two associations would not be resolved until after Bergman-Österberg's death, with both organisations merging to form the Ling Association and Affiliated Gymnastic Societies. This organisation would eventually become the Physical Education Association of the United Kingdom
.
to the Country Association for Women's Suffrage, a women's suffrage organisation in Sweden, and donated a property near Båstad
to the Fredrika Bremer
Association for the establishment of an orchard garden school.
Bergman-Österberg received a Litteris et Artibus
medal in 1906 for her life's work. An English Heritage
blue plaque
also commemorates Bergman-Österberg's original physical training college campus at 1 Broadhurst Gardens (NW6) in South Hampstead
, London.
A physical education instructor's college for men would not exist in England until the 1930s. During World War II, her college at Dartford was evacuated to Newquay
in Cornwall, at which time it was renamed the Dartford College of Physical Education. In 1976, Dartford College was amalgamated with Thames Polytechnic: gymnastics instruction ceased in 1982, and by 1986 teacher training had stopped as well; the college was eventually incorporated into the University of Greenwich
. The university maintains The Bergman Österberg Archive, a collection of material regarding her physical education college in Dartford.
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
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....
instructor and women's suffrage
Women's suffrage
Women's suffrage or woman suffrage is the right of women to vote and to run for office. The expression is also used for the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending these rights to women and without any restrictions or qualifications such as property ownership, payment of tax, or...
advocate. After studying Swedish gymnastics in Stockholm she moved to London, where she founded the first physical education instructor's college in England, in which she admitted women only. Bergman-Österberg pioneered teaching physical education as a full subject within the English school curriculum, with Swedish-style gymnastics
Gymnastics
Gymnastics is a sport involving performance of exercises requiring physical strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, and balance. Internationally, all of the gymnastic sports are governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique with each country having its own national governing body...
at its core. She also advocated the use of gymslip
Gymslip
A gymslip is a sleeveless tunic with a pleated skirt most commonly seen as part of a girl's school uniform. The term gymslip primarily refers to athletic wear; otherwise the term pinafore dress or jumper dress is usually preferred.The introduction of the gymslip as female athletic wear is...
s by women playing sports, and played a pivotal role in the early development of netball
Netball
Netball is a ball sport played between two teams of seven players. Its development, derived from early versions of basketball, began in England in the 1890s. By 1960 international playing rules had been standardised for the game, and the International Federation of Netball and Women's Basketball ...
. Bergman-Österberg was an advocate of women's emancipation, directly encouraging women to be active in sport and education, and also donating money to women's emancipation organisations in her native Sweden. Several of her students founded the Ling Association, which later became the Physical Education Association of the United Kingdom
Physical Education Association of the United Kingdom
The Physical Education Association of the United Kingdom is a former leading body in the United Kingdom for physical education. It was founded in 1899 as the Ling Association....
.
Early life and career
Martina Bergman-Österberg was born on 7 October 1849 in HammarlundaEslöv Municipality
Eslöv Municipality is one of 290 municipalities of Sweden, situated in Skåne County in southern Sweden. Its seat is located in the city of Eslöv....
, a farming community in Malmöhus County
Malmöhus County
Malmöhus County was a county of Sweden until 1997 when it was merged with Kristianstad County to form Skåne County.It had been named after Malmöhus, the castle in Malmö, which also was where the Governor originally resided....
(now part of Skåne County
Skåne County
Skåne County is the southernmost administrative county or län, of Sweden, basically corresponding to the historical province Scania. It borders the counties of Halland, Kronoberg and Blekinge. The seat of residence for the Skåne Governor is the town of Malmö...
), Sweden. Her parents were Karl Bergman, a farmer, and Betty Lundgren; she also had two brothers who both died at a young age, and three sisters who eventually settled abroad. After receiving a sound private education, she was employed as a governess from 1870–73, and from 1874–77 she worked as a Nordisk familjebok
Nordisk familjebok
Nordisk familjebok is a Swedish encyclopedia, published between 1876 and 1957.- History :The first edition was published in 20 volumes between 1876 and 1899. The first edition is known as the "Iðunn edition" because of the picture of Iðunn on the cover...
librarian, where she met her future husband.
In 1879, she started a two-year course at the Royal Central Gymnastics Institute in Stockholm, studying pedagogical and medical gymnastics. She was trained in the Swedish system of gymnastics devised by Pehr Henrik Ling
Pehr Henrik Ling
Per Henrik Ling was a Swedish physical therapist, developer and teacher of medical-gymnastics.-Early life:...
. Her gymnastics studies also took her to England, France, Germany and Switzerland. She graduated in 1881, and later that year moved to London.
London School Board
Bergman-Österberg was appointed in 1881 to the London School BoardLondon School Board
The School Board for London was an institution of local government and the first directly elected body covering the whole of London....
as Lady Superintendent of Physical Exercises in Girls' and Infants' schools. Eleven years earlier, the Elementary Education Act 1870
Elementary Education Act 1870
The Elementary Education Act 1870, commonly known as Forster's Education Act, set the framework for schooling of all children between ages 5 and 12 in England and Wales...
had provided universal elementary education in England, and allowed schools to receive government grants for providing physical training. But at the time, physical education (or "physical training" at the time) as a subject was not taught in the curricula of most schools. Military drill was taught to boys in public schools, while private institutions taught either German-style gymnastics, which emphasised apparatus-based and rhythmic exercises, or Swedish-style gymnastics, which used anatomy-based regimented drills and therapeutic exercises. Physical training was permitted for girls in 1873 by the Gladstone government, and within three years it was made compulsory for girls in elementary schools within the London School Board.
The superintendent position at the London School Board was first established in 1878. Since no English teachers possessed sufficient qualifications at the time, its first appointee was a Swede named Concordia Löfving, who like Bergman-Österberg was trained at the Royal Central Gymnastics Institute in Stockholm. She advocated Swedish gymnastics and introduced it to girls' schools; after one year in the position she had received 600 applications. When Löfving resigned from the post in 1881, Bergman-Österberg was appointed as her successor.
Bergman-Österberg was responsible for the instruction of female physical training teachers and with certifying their competence. During her appointment she trained 1312 teachers in Swedish gymnastics, anatomy and physiology, and pioneered a national system of physical training instruction, incorporating Swedish gymnastics as taught by Ling. Most of her work focused on training educators for elementary school students, and during her time at the London School Board she introduced Swedish gymnastics to nearly 300 schools; by 1888, Swedish gymnastics was being taught by qualified teachers in girls' schools in every department of the London School Board. Bergman-Österberg also organised public demonstrations of her students performing Swedish gymnastics and promoting women's physical education: one such public demonstration in 1883 was attended by the Prince and Princess of Wales, and received approbation in the press.
Her interest eventually shifted towards teaching middle-class women to become physical training instructors in English public schools
Independent school (UK)
An independent school is a school that is not financed through the taxation system by local or national government and is instead funded by private sources, predominantly in the form of tuition charges, gifts and long-term charitable endowments, and so is not subject to the conditions imposed by...
. She grew dissatisfied with the bureaucracy at the London School Board, and felt stifled in fully achieving her aims. She also remarked on the unsuitability of teaching working-class girls in London, observing that they lived in an environment of malnutrition, neglect and dreadful living conditions.
Hampstead College
In 1885, Bergman-Österberg established the Hampstead Physical Training College and Gymnasium for women, against financial advice, at Broadhurst Gardens in South Hampstead, London. Her college was the first physical training college in England, one in which she admitted women only, as she felt that female instructors would better understand their female students. While male instructors did teach physical training in schools, at that time there were no institutions offering pedagogical physical training courses for men in England, who generally had to travel to Germany, Denmark or Sweden to gain formal qualifications.Bergman-Österberg developed a two-year course modelled on that at the Royal Central Gymnastics Institute in Sweden. She taught anatomy, animal physiology, chemistry, physics, hygiene, theory of movement, dancing, deportment and Swedish gymnastics. English team sports were also taught at the college: although Bergman-Österberg never fully understood them, she did appreciate their significance to the English people, and their potential to teach an "appreciation of space and time, discipline, reason, quickness and unselfishness".
Believing that the liberators of the female sex were to be found in the ranks of the middle class, she deliberately kept enrolment fees high and student numbers low. She only admitted students with above-average intelligence and education, an aptitude for natural science, a sound constitution and character, a pleasing appearance, and considerable zeal and devotion. Bergman-Österberg's ideas on women's emancipation were centred on contemporary social Darwinism
Social Darwinism
Social Darwinism is a term commonly used for theories of society that emerged in England and the United States in the 1870s, seeking to apply the principles of Darwinian evolution to sociology and politics...
, gearing her young students for motherhood, or establishing them to train other young women for such a role: "I try to train my girls to help raise their own sex, and so to accelerate the progress of the race; for unless the women are strong, healthy, pure, and true, how can the race progress?".
Once students entered the college, Bergman-Österberg maintained an autocratic rule over their daily lives. She forbade students from visiting each other's rooms, enforced an early "lights out" rule, permitted only cold baths, refused weekend leave except in special circumstances and censored their mail. But after completing the course, graduates of the college were virtually guaranteed employment in girls schools throughout the country, with an ample yearly salary of £100.
In 1886, she married Dr Edvin Per Wilhelm Österberg, a professor at the University of Uppsala, and was often referred to as Madame Österberg after her marriage. However, while Dr Österberg remained in Sweden, Madame Österberg continued her work in England, although they visited each other as often as their work allowed.
Early development of netball
Martina Bergman-Österberg is noted as having played a pivotal role in the early development of netball. Netball was derived from basketballBasketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
, which was invented in the United States in 1891. In 1893, Bergman-Österberg returned from a visit to the United States, and informally introduced one version of basketball to her students at Hampstead. Two years later, an American lecturer by the name of Dr Toles (alternatively spelled "Toll") more formally introduced basketball to her students. The rules of this game were modified by Madame Österberg's students over several years. Substantial revisions were made during a visit in 1897 from another American teacher, Miss Porter, who introduced rules from women's basketball
Women's basketball
Women's basketball is one of the few women's sports that developed in tandem with its men's counterpart. It became popular, spreading from the east coast of the United States to the west coast , in large part via women's colleges...
in the United States. By this time, the new sport had also acquired a new name: "net ball".
Dartford College
With less space to accommodate increased enrolments, and with the imminent demolition of the Hampstead campus to make way for a railway, later in 1895 Bergman-Österberg purchased a large country house named Kingsfield on a 14 acres (56,656 m²) estate in Dartford. She converted the ballroom to a gymnasium, and the lookout tower to servants' quarters, before opening the new college in September that year. At its new campus, the school became known as the Bergman Österberg Physical Training College.Bergman-Österberg's students were themselves to have their own influences on women's physical education. In 1897 one of her students, Mary Tait, invented the gymslip
Gymslip
A gymslip is a sleeveless tunic with a pleated skirt most commonly seen as part of a girl's school uniform. The term gymslip primarily refers to athletic wear; otherwise the term pinafore dress or jumper dress is usually preferred.The introduction of the gymslip as female athletic wear is...
, a dress that facilitated practical movement for women playing sport, replacing the ground-length skirts and mutton-arm blouses that were normally worn by contemporary sportswomen. Bergman-Österberg eagerly adopted the new apparel for her students, which became a standard uniform among British schoolgirls during the 20th century.
A group of her graduate students formed the Ling Physical Education Association in 1899, the first association representing the workers of the emerging profession in the United Kingdom. They invited Bergman-Österberg to be president of the new association, but she angrily refused, disavowing any rival institutions to her own; however, Kathleen McCrone attributes Bergman-Österberg's opposition to the fact the she did not come up with the idea herself. Instead she formed her own, insular association, the Bergman Österberg Union, in 1900. Conflicts between the two associations would not be resolved until after Bergman-Österberg's death, with both organisations merging to form the Ling Association and Affiliated Gymnastic Societies. This organisation would eventually become the Physical Education Association of the United Kingdom
Physical Education Association of the United Kingdom
The Physical Education Association of the United Kingdom is a former leading body in the United Kingdom for physical education. It was founded in 1899 as the Ling Association....
.
Later years and legacy
Madame Österberg remained at the college for the rest of her life, although she retired from her teaching duties starting in 1913. Her health was reported to be declining in the spring of 1915: on 29 July that year, Martina Bergman-Österberg died of cancer at the age of 65. Before her death, she bequeathed her college to the English nation. She also left 50,000 krSwedish krona
The krona has been the currency of Sweden since 1873. Both the ISO code "SEK" and currency sign "kr" are in common use; the former precedes or follows the value, the latter usually follows it, but especially in the past, it sometimes preceded the value...
to the Country Association for Women's Suffrage, a women's suffrage organisation in Sweden, and donated a property near Båstad
Båstad
Båstad is a locality and the seat of Båstad Municipality, Skåne County, Sweden with 4,793 inhabitants in 2005.-Geography:The town of Båstad is located in a sheltered bay with the Hallandian ridge stretching behind it...
to the Fredrika Bremer
Fredrika Bremer
Fredrika Bremer was a Swedish writer and a feminist activist. She had a large influence on the social development in Sweden, especially in feminist issues.-Background:...
Association for the establishment of an orchard garden school.
Bergman-Österberg received a Litteris et Artibus
Litteris et Artibus
Litteris et Artibus is a Swedish royal medal established in 1853 by Charles XV of Sweden, who was then crown prince. It is awarded to people who have made important contributions to culture, especially music, dramatic art and literature....
medal in 1906 for her life's work. An English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
blue plaque
Blue plaque
A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person or event, serving as a historical marker....
also commemorates Bergman-Österberg's original physical training college campus at 1 Broadhurst Gardens (NW6) in South Hampstead
South Hampstead
South Hampstead is a district of northwest London, part of the London Borough of Camden. It could be defined as the area between West End Lane, Belsize Road, Finchley Road and Broadhurst Gardens, although the area is largely indistinguishable from the nearby Swiss Cottage.-Nearby places:* Hampstead...
, London.
A physical education instructor's college for men would not exist in England until the 1930s. During World War II, her college at Dartford was evacuated to Newquay
Newquay
Newquay is a town, civil parish, seaside resort and fishing port in Cornwall, England. It is situated on the North Atlantic coast of Cornwall approximately west of Bodmin and north of Truro....
in Cornwall, at which time it was renamed the Dartford College of Physical Education. In 1976, Dartford College was amalgamated with Thames Polytechnic: gymnastics instruction ceased in 1982, and by 1986 teacher training had stopped as well; the college was eventually incorporated into the University of Greenwich
University of Greenwich
The University of Greenwich is a British university located in the London Borough of Greenwich, London, England. The main campus is located on the grounds of the Old Royal Naval College, a central location within the Maritime Greenwich UNESCO World Heritage Site.-History:The history of the...
. The university maintains The Bergman Österberg Archive, a collection of material regarding her physical education college in Dartford.
External links
- The Bergman Österberg Union Archive at the University of GreenwichUniversity of GreenwichThe University of Greenwich is a British university located in the London Borough of Greenwich, London, England. The main campus is located on the grounds of the Old Royal Naval College, a central location within the Maritime Greenwich UNESCO World Heritage Site.-History:The history of the...