Background
Massmann was born in Berlin, Margraviate of Brandenburg, where he also studied.
Massmann was born in Berlin, Margraviate of Brandenburg, where he also studied.
In Berlin, he had been a friend and a pupil of Jahn. His radical ideas and "demagogue" sympathies brought him into difficulties with the authorities. Initially his duties included military cadets.
Later his duties were extended to a public outdoor exercise facility (German: Turnanstalt) which was to serve all the schools in the city.
Later he was also chosen professor of Old German Literature at the university. In 1841, he went to Berlin to confer with Minister Eichhorn regarding the revival of physical training in Prussia.
Eichhorn later spoke with Adolf Spiess, a citizen of Hesse who had been directing such programs in Burgdorf, Switzerland. In 1842, Massmann was chosen to implement the plans developed, a position which he resigned in 1851.
During this time, he accepted the chair of Germanic philology at the city university.
He died in Muskau in Lusatia.
He served in the War of Liberation, was a member of the Jena Burschenschaft, and was present at the Wartburg festival of 1817.