Turners

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Turners are members of German-American gymnastic clubs called Turnvereine. They promoted gymnastics, German culture, and liberal politics. The movement began in Germany in the early 1800s with Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, who started a big gymnastic movement while Germany was under Napoleon. The Turnvereine were not only about sport; they were also political and national in spirit, influenced by other European groups like the Sokol. Many Turners supported the 1848 revolutions. After those revolutions failed, many Turners left Germany for the United States, especially to the Ohio Valley, Wisconsin, Missouri, and Texas.

In the United States, Turners helped make gymnastics popular as a sport and as a school subject. They provided social, cultural, and political activities for German immigrants and supported public education and labor movements. The movement grew in the U.S. but declined after 1900, and especially after 1917 during World War I.

Before the Turnvereine, gymnastics began in the U.S. in the 1820s with German and American teachers. Charles Beck opened the first U.S. gymnasium in 1825 in Northampton, Massachusetts. Charles Follen started the first college gymnasium at Harvard in 1826 and opened the first public gymnasium in Boston. John Neal opened the first public gymnasium in Portland, Maine, in 1827. He wrote about these efforts and helped spread the movement in America.

Turners helped German-Americans feel at home in the United States. They remained active in many places with strong German communities, including Iowa, Texas, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, Kentucky, New York City, Sacramento, and Los Angeles. About 1,000 Turners fought as Union soldiers in the Civil War, and anti-slavery ideas were common among them, with leaders like Carl Schurz. They even helped protect Abraham Lincoln at his inauguration and funeral and took part in the Camp Jackson Affair in St. Louis at the start of the war.

After the war, the national group was renamed Nordamerikanischer Turnerbund and continued to support German-language teaching in high schools along with gymnastics. Women also joined as auxiliaries in the 1850s and 1860s. The peak of the movement came in 1894, with hundreds of clubs and tens of thousands of members and their families.

Turners also participated in the 1904 Olympics, with several competitors and Olympic teams sponsored by Turner groups. During World War I, people questioned German ideas, German language instruction declined, and the government limited German-language publications. Younger members moved toward English, and many Turner halls became dance halls, bars, or bowling alleys.

As of 2011, 54 Turner societies remained in the United States, with the national headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky. In 1948, the U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp to mark the 100th anniversary of the movement. The Sacramento Turnverein, founded in 1854, claims to be the oldest club in the city. The Turnverein Vorwärts in Fort Wayne owned the Hugh McCulloch House from 1906 to 1966, and that house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.