His fascination with the book and the movements of the body is well known with him stating "I learned every page, every part of the body; I would move each part as I memorized it. As a child, I would lie in the woods for hours, hiding and watching the animals move, how the mother taught the young."
He began to study both Eastern and Western forms of exercise including yoga and by the time he reached 14 he had developed his body to the point that he was modeling for anatomy charts.
During his youth in Germany he achieved some success as a boxer and a gymnast as well as being a skilled skier and diver. During 1912 he went to England for further training as a boxer and found employment as a circus performer. By 1914 he had become a circus star, touring England with his troupe. Joseph Pilates and his brother were performing as a Greek statue act.
When WWI broke out he was interned along with other German nationals in a "camp" for enemy aliens in Lancaster, England. While incarcerated he taught wrestling and self-defense, boasting that his students would emerge stronger than they were before being interned. It was here that he started to develop the system of his exercises that he later named "Contrology". On transferring to another camp on The Isle of Man he became a nursing assistant and worked with many internees who suffered from the diseases of WW1 era and from incarceration. He then began devising equipment to rehabilitate them, taking the springs from the beds and rigging exercise apparatus for those who could not get out of bed. During 1918 an epidemic of influenza swept the world that killed millions of people including tens of thousands in England, especially the camps. Not one of Joseph Pilates followers succumbed to the virus.
Post war he returned to Germany and was employed to train the Hamburg Military Police in self-defense and physical training. He also took on personal clients.
In 1925 he was invited to train the New German Army but because he was not happy with the political direction of Germany and decided to leave. On the urging of boxing expert, Nat Fleischer and with the aid of Max Schmelling he decided to come to the U.S. It was en route to America that Joe met Clara who was to become his second wife (information available on his first wife is unavailable). She was a kindergarten teacher who was suffering from arthritic pain and Joe worked with her on the boat to heal her.
In New York City in 1926 they opened a gym at 939 Eight Ave, in the same building as several dance studios and rehearsal spaces. The location was perfect for "Contrology" to become part of many dancers' training as well as rehab training as many were sent to Joseph to be "fixed". George Balanchine, the famous choreographer, studied with Pilates and sent many of his dancers to him for strengthening and "balancing" as well as rehabilitation, as did another famous dancer/choreographer called Martha Graham.
From 1939 until 1951 Joseph and his wife spent every summer in Jacob's Pillow, a well-known dance camp in the Berkshire Mountains. He was a friend and teacher to renowned dancer/choreographers of the day including Ted Shawn, Ruth St. Denis, Martha Graham and Jerome Robbins. Many of them required their dancers to go to him. Hanya Holm and Martha Graham made Pilates' exercises as part of students' lessons.
Everyone has their weaknesses and although Joseph Pilates was a health advocate, he strongly believed in fitness supporting life's riches. He wasknown to like cigars, whiskey, and women.
In January 1966 there was a fire in his building. Joseph Pilates returned to his studio to try and save his precious equipment and fell through burnt out floorboards, hanging by his hands from a beam for quite some time until rescued by the firefighters. He inhaled a lot of smoke and this may have led to his death in October 1967, at the age of 87. Clara his wife, regarded by many as the more patient teacher, continued to teach and run the studio until she died10 years later, in 1977.
