Overview
- Otto Feick, a Palatine metalworker, conceived the wheel in a Mainz jail from a childhood memory and patented the device about a century ago.
- After moving to Schönau, he built a metal workshop and toured with a demonstration troupe across Europe and the United States before selling the patent and dying impoverished in 1959.
- The Deutscher Turnerbund designated the wheel an official apparatus in 1956, and the first German championship took place in 1960.
- German athletes have long been among the world’s best, with the federation citing the sport’s rare mix of strength, balance, body tension, spatial orientation, and flexibility.
- Schönau preserves Feick’s legacy through an archive and a monument, a proposed museum lacks funding, and clubs face capacity limits from roughly 50‑kilogram wheels even as social media slowly broadens awareness.