Joseph Hubertus Pilates was born in 1883 in Mönchengladbach, Germany. By his own account he was a sickly child, and he spent his youth studying the body and training in gymnastics, boxing and other physical disciplines.
England and the First World War
Pilates was living in England when the First World War began and, as a German national, was interned — first at Lancaster and then at Knockaloe on the Isle of Man. Accounts say he taught exercise to fellow internees there and began developing apparatus. A story often told is that his students came through the 1918 influenza pandemic well; it is part of the method's history, but it is not documented evidence.
New York
In 1926 he emigrated to the United States and, with Clara, opened a studio in New York on Eighth Avenue. He called the work Contrology. Many dancers came to the studio, and he taught in New York until his death in 1967.
Physical fitness is the first requisite of happiness. — Joseph Pilates, Return to Life Through Contrology
Two books, one method
He published two short books — Your Health (1934) and Return to Life Through Contrology (1945, with William John Miller). Together with the teachers he trained, who passed the work on, they are the foundation of the classical tradition.
