Gustav Zander

Who was Gustav Zander?

Jonas Gustav Vilhelm Zander was a Swedish physician, orthopedist and one of the originators of mechanotherapy. He is known for inventing a therapeutic method of exercise carried out by means of a special apparatus. He began his work in 1860s. He established the Zander Therapeutical Institute in Stockholm.

In 1880 he became a lecturer of the Stockholm University, and in 1896 he became a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Zander exhibited his Institute at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia where his exercise machines won a gold medal. By 1906 he had established Institutes in 146 countries, and by 1910 "ample numbers of Americans were familiar with the machines". They were established at health spas, and some were privately owned though expensive.