Turner Societies
The Turner societies (Turnvereine) are among the most important societies founded by Germans in the United States. As of 2005 about 700 American Turnver- eine once existed. In 1998 the first American Turner societies celebrated their 150th anniversary, and one year later the 50th National Turnfest was organized.
In 2002 there were 58 societies with approximately 12,000 members left that belonged to the umbrella organization, American Turners.The Turner movement had its origins in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Germany and was closely connected to intellectual developments and such political, social, and economic changes as the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, the
The Turner societies are among the most important societies founded by Germans in the United States. Cincinnati, 1850. (Library of Congress)
new political order in Europe, and technical advancement. In this context ideas and concepts of the education of the masses arose, in which national unity, patriotism, and the readiness to fight for one’s fatherland played a special role. Among these ideas was the concept of German Turnen, largely developed by Turnvater (Turnfather) Friedrich Ludwig Jahn (1778—1852). In the beginning, the goals of the Turners were the liberation from the French occupation that followed the defeat of the Prussian army in the Napoleonic Wars, the overthrow of the feudal order, and an end to the division of Germany into many small states in favor of a single nation-state.
The cradle of Turnen was Berlin, where Jahn and his followers set up the first gymnastic ground (Turnplatz) in 1811 on the Hasenheide. The Turner movement spread throughout the states of the German Confederation, and Turner societies were founded from 1815 on.
Jahn’s Turnen, which accommodated only male Germans, included—besides political engagement— exercises on apparatus, games, and volk- stumliche Ubungen (traditional exercises) like running, jumping, lifting, and climb- ing—as well as fencing, swimming, and wrestling. Over the years Turnfeste, Turn- fahrten, and social gatherings became popular components of the movement. In 1819, however, during the era of restoration after Napoleon’s defeat, Turnen was banned in Prussia because it was associated with the nationalist movement that was now considered a threat. Under the Carlsbad Decrees the German rulers were required to suppress any opposition movement whatsoever. The Turners, too, along with nationalistic student associations (Burschenschaften), were classed as forces of opposition because they were against German particularism and thus against the new political order of the German Confederation. In other German states, too, Turn- platze were closed and a period ensued in which Turnen was completely banned (Turnsperre). Jahn, accused of having links with persons suspected of disloyalty and subversion, was arrested in July 1819 and incarcerated for five years. In 1842 the Turnsperre was officially lifted and Turnen experienced a revival. It was accepted as a “necessary and indispensable part of male education” in the curriculum of boys’ secondary schools in Prussia. In the 1840s demands for political rights and national unity arose in all thirty-nine German states. In this period many democratic societies were founded, among them Turner societies, which became centers of political discussions and activities. The growth of the Turner movement resulted in the desire to found a nationwide federation, and various attempts to establish a Turnerbund were made.The Turner movement played an important role in the Revolution of 1848 and 1849 that strove for freedom, equality, and fraternity of the united German people. In many societies Turner militia were established to maintain law and order and uphold republican ideals and the constitution.
In the summer of 1848 various crises, upheavals, and armed conflicts weakened the revolutionary movement. After the failure of the revolution, many Turners who had defended the constitution with weapons had to leave their home country because imprisonment or the death penalty awaited them if they stayed. Thus, some emigrated to Switzerland, and some left from there to settle in England or the United States. This led to an end of the revival of Turnen in Germany, and antigovernment activities were abandoned. Due to the assembly and association laws passed in 1850, some Turnvereine were prohibited; others were closely watched by the police; and still others disbanded.The German Revolution of 1848 and 1849 was the hour of birth of Turnen in the United States. First attempts to introduce Turnen to educational institutions in New England in the early 1820s by the German political exiles Karl Beck (1789-1866), Karl Follen (1796-1840), and Franz Lieber (1800-1872), who had been followers of Jahn, were unsuccessful. Turnen was performed in the form of physical exercises for only a few years and forgotten until the political refugees of the German Revolution of 1848 and 184, the Forty-Eighters, founded the first Turner societies in 1848 on the American continent, which then spread all over the country. The umbrella organization Socialistischer Turnerbund von Nordamerika (Socialist Turner Union of North America) was founded in 1851. The Turners’ Socialist political orientation was also reflected in the names of some of the first American Turnvereine founded in the late 1840s and early 1850s that added the adjective social to their names. According to the Convention Protocol of the Socialistischer Turnerbund from 1859 to 1860, the Turner movement was to be a “planting school for all revolutionary ideas which have their origin in a natural and rational world conception” (Hofmann 2001, 14). The Turners promoted a socialism that concentrated on the rights and freedom of the individual.
In terms of the sociopolitical circumstances in the United States, this meant that they fought American nativism and the system of slavery, as well as temperance and Sabbath-day laws, and they protected the rights of the working class and opposed monarchy and religious indoctrination of the people. These political attitudes reflected those of the freethinkers, an antireligious movement that advocated rationalism, science, and history, and considered itself part of the tradition of American intellectuals such as Thomas Paine, who embodied political and religious freedom in an enlightened America. The close connection between the Turners and the freethinkers held until the twentieth century.Following their motto, mens sana in corpore sano (a sound mind in a sound body), the Turnvereine offered physical education classes, in the beginning only for men, boys, and girls, and functioned as vehicles for German immigrants to continue their cultural endeavors in North America through preserving German traditional customs, language, and celebrations. They established a bridge between the old and the new culture by offering English-language classes and demanding American citizenship of their members. The Turner Halls were social centers in which political debates, lectures, and theater plays took place. The Turners’ Sunday schools and libraries provided further education for German immigrants and their children.
Supported by the Turnerbund, the majority of Turners were on the Republican side during the 1850s and 1860s. This support resulted in the establishment of Lincoln’s bodyguard during his first inauguration and the defense of abolitionist meetings, as well as the forming of different Turner regiments at the beginning of the Civil War in 1861. Some 1,000 Turners fought in different military units for the North. The Turners in the southern states were of divided opinion: some decided to defend the Confederacy; others left to fight for Lincoln’s army.
Before the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 there were over 130 Turner societies in the United States.After the Civil War, in 1865, the Turner union renamed itself Nord- amerikanischer Turnerbund (Turner Union of North America). Although the importance of politics generally diminished, political and educational topics continued to be discussed on the national level, such as the prohibition of child labor and the introduction of compulsory school attendance. On the local level some societies were active in the American workers’ riots during the 1870s and 1880s.
In these postwar years the activity of Turnen was introduced in public schools. Some Turners and their societies were active in the playground movement, and in 1866 a Turnlehrerseminar (Turn Instructor Training Institution) was opened that later became the Normal School of the American Gymnastic Union. Classes in Turnen for women were introduced from the 1860s on and many societies established a ladies auxiliary during that time. In 1909 the number of women participating in turn classes exceeded that of the males for the first time.
During the postbellum years the number of German immigrants increased; thus in many American cities new Turner societies were founded while established ones enlarged their membership. The peak of the American Turner movement was reached in 1894 with 317 societies, including approximately 40,000 members and more than 25,000 children and 3,000 women participating in the activity classes (Hofmann 2001, 314). This boom ceased by World War I, a time when the radical and Socialistic tendencies in the Turner movement had declined. Around the turn of the century the American Turners held controversial debates on whether women should be taken up as full members in their societies or not. At the beginning of the twentieth century women received the right to vote in some societies. However, not until the end of the twentieth century did all societies accept women as full members.
The national president in 2005, Daisy Leidy, is the first female president of the American Turners.Over the years an assimilation process became visible among the German population, especially with the growth of the American-born generations. The second and third generations were no longer fluent in German and to a certain extent had lost their cultural affinity to, and interest in, the land of their ancestors. This development toward assimilation—americaniza- tion—was also intensified by the anti-German politics of the American government in the years 1914—1918. Many German Americans were accused of lacking loyalty to the American nation. However, despite minor local problems the Turner movement and its societies survived World War I, unlike other German American societies. The statistical reports of the Turner union show that the number of societies and membership remained constant during the war years. The union had around 200 societies with approximately 38,000 members (Hofmann 2001, 238). The decline started after the war in 1918 and did not stop until 1943 when fewer than 100 societies with only 16,000 Turners were affiliated with the American Turners (Hofmann 2001, 238).
Although the Turner movement survived, americanization and anti-German sentiment during both world wars led to a decrease in the numbers of Turner societies and their members. Gradually Turnvereine and the union adopted English as their language and americanized their names. The Nordamerikanischer Turnerbund kept its name until 1938, and then changed it to American Turners. The national convention proceedings and the national organ, the Amerikanische Turnzeitung (American Turner Newspaper), also adopted the English language in the 1920s and 1930s. In 1936 the American Turner Topics took the place of the Amerikanische Turnzeitung. This journal still appears bimonthly in 2005.
After World War II new members could be recruited from the new wave of German immigration. Thus, the membership numbers of the Turner societies reached 25,000 again, organized in approximately 80 societies (Hofmann 2001, 256). In 1948 the American Turners also adopted a new set of principles. They now put their emphasis more on athletic, cultural, and social programs and less on political goals. This is also reflected in twenty-first-century Turner societies. The traditional American Turner society no longer exists. Instead, each society presents an individual picture, resulting from the wide range of membership numbers, which vary between a little more than 10 to over 2,000; its heterogeneous ethnic backgrounds; and the different programs. Because individual societies emphasize different programs it is not possible to make general statements about these Turner societies. Because of the shift of the programs and the ethnically mixed membership, a
transition from ethnic German to European American organizations can be noticed in the majority of the Turner societies. Although certain Turner symbols and traditions recall German heritage, American values and customs have been adopted and integrated into Turner life in North America.
Turnen was never able to develop into a national movement in the United States as it did in Germany. But the Turners and their societies have contributed to American culture and history and to American sporting heritage. In some states they were the first to introduce physical education in public schools. The former Normal School of the Nordamerikanische Turnerbund is today integrated into the Indiana Univer- sity—Purdue University at Indianapolis as the School of Physical Education. Moreover, the Turners participated successfully on American gymnastic teams in the Olympic Games until the 1960s. The national Turnfest of the American Turners remains the longest-standing national sport competition in the United States; it has been continuously organized since 1851. In 2005 the American Turners are a member of the sport federations USA Gymnastics and USA Volleyball; they still maintain some contact with the German Turner Federation (Deutsche Turner-Bund).
Annette Hofmann
See also American Civil War, German Participants in; Follen, Charles; Forty- Eighters; Lieber, Francis
References and Further Reading
Hofmann, Annette: Aufstieg und Niedergang des Deutschen Turnens in den USA. Schorndorf: Hofmann Verlag, 2001.
Hofmann, Annette, ed. Turnen and Sport: Transatlantic Transfers. Munster and New York: Waxmann, 2001.
Pumroy, Eric, and Katja Rampelmann.
Research Guide to the Turner Movement in the United States. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1996.
Ueberhorst, Horst: Turner unterm Sternenbanner. Munchen: Heinz Moos Verlag, 1978.