Doctor Zander's Medico-Mechanical Institute in Opatija

At the beginning of the 20th century, there were different kinds of medical institutions in the health and seaside spa resort Abbazia (nowadays Opatija). The Opatija Guidebooks (1904-1914) praised the three sanatoriums and Zander's Medico-Mechanical Institute, which was owned by Dr. Isor Stein. Dr. Zander, who is not well-known today, has been the main topic of the authors' research. The authors have found out that Dr. Gustav Zander (1835-1920) worked as a teacher of gymnastics, a physician, and a university lecturer about the remedial gymnastics at the University of Stockholm. He constructed several devices which enabled constant and regular movement of individual parts of the human body, as well as certain devices that replaced the manual massage. Zander started his first institute in Stockholm in 1865. People could do exercise using his apparatus. He gained international fame by exhibiting his devices at the International Exhibitions in Brussels and Philadelphia in 1876 and in Paris in 1878. Several Zander's medico-mechanical institutes were established around the world and they were all named after him. There were two hundred and two Zander's Institutes in 1911 when his success and fame reached its peak. Zander's Institute in Opatija was constructed already in 1904 and it was located on the ground floor of Stein's mansion, known as Vila Stein, nowadays Vila Dora. The First World War changed the fundamental role of Zander's Institutes and the Great Depression in 1929 destroyed them. It seems the Institute in Opatija closed down at that time too, even thought we have not found out the precise date. The modern fitness studios started to emerge in Europe in the 1950s, a few decades after Zander's medico-mechanical institutes ceased to exist. Many modern professional fitness devices are basically derived from the apparatus that was recommended, constructed and launched into the society already by Dr. Gustav Zander. The authors of this article presume that it was Dr. Zander who already used the methods of physiotherapy and fitness that are generally used today.