Turners

Turners (German: Turner, German: [ˈtʊʁnɐ] ^ⓘ) are members of German-American gymnastic clubs called Turnvereine. They promoted German culture, physical culture, and liberal politics. Turners, especially Francis Lieber (1798–1872), were the leading sponsors of gymnastics as an American sport and the field of academic study.

In Germany, a major gymnastic movement was started by Turnvater ("father of gymnastics") and nationalist Friedrich Ludwig Jahn in the early 19th century when Germany was occupied by Napoleon. The Turnvereine (German: [ˈtʊʁnfɛɐ̯ˌʔaɪ̯nə] ^ⓘ; "gymnastic unions"; from German turnen meaning “to practice gymnastics,” and Verein meaning “club, union”) were not only athletic but also political, reflecting their origin in similar ethnocentric "national gymnastic" organizations in Europe (such as the Czech Sokol), who were participants in various national movements for independence. The Turner movement in Germany was generally liberal in nature, and many Turners took part in the Revolutions of 1848.^[1]

After the failure of the 1848 Revolution in Germany, the Turner movement was suppressed, and many Turners left Germany, some emigrating to the United States, especially to the Ohio Valley region, Wisconsin, Missouri, and Texas. Several of these Forty-Eighters went on to become Union soldiers, and some became Republican politicians.^[2] Besides serving as physical education, social, political, and cultural organizations for German immigrants, Turners were also active in public education and labor movements.^[3][4][5] They were leading promoters of gymnastics in the United States as a sport and as a school subject.^[6] In the United States, the movement declined after 1900, and especially after 1917.^[7]