Gymnastics movement in the USA

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Gymnasium at Turner Hall, Milwaukee , ca.1900
3,000 gymnasts at the National Gymnastics Festival in Milwaukee, 1893.

As Turner refers to the representatives of the gymnastics movement in the US , which in German-American gymnastic clubs are organized. The movement reached its peak in the 19th century. They promoted German culture, physical culture, and liberal politics, and supported the Union's war effort during the American Civil War. Gymnasts like Francis Lieber (1798–1872) were the leading proponents of gymnastics in the USA as a popular sport as well as a university sport .

In Germany in the early 19th century, when Germany was occupied by Napoleon, the gymnastics movement was initiated by gymnastics father Friedrich Ludwig Jahn . The gymnastics clubs understood each other not only in terms of sport, but also politically and thus corresponded to the zeitgeist of similar nationalistic gymnastics organizations in Europe. The gymnastics movement in Germany was close to liberalism , and many German gymnasts had participated in the German Revolution of 1848 .

Group picture of the St. Louis, Missouri Gymnastics Club in 1860.

After their suppression, the movement in the German states was suppressed and many gymnasts left Germany. Some emigrated to the United States, particularly the Ohio Valley . Many of these Forty-Eighters later became Union soldiers, and some became Republican Party politicians . The gymnastics clubs were not only used for athletic training: They were also social, cultural and political meeting points for German immigrants, and ultimately they were involved in popular education and the labor movement . They were leading proponents of gymnastics as a popular sport and school subject in the USA. However, the movement lost its popularity from around 1900, and drastically after the USA entered the First World War in 1917. To date, there are around 50 gymnastics clubs in the umbrella organization of the American Turners .

History in the United States

Special stamp for the 100th anniversary of the US gymnastics movement

The gymnastics clubs did integration work for the German-Americans in their new home. To this day, gymnastics clubs exist in areas with heavy German immigration, such as Iowa , Texas , Wisconsin , Indiana , Ohio , Minnesota , Missouri , Syracuse, NY , Kentucky , New York City, and Los Angeles .

About 1,000 gymnasts served as Union soldiers during the Civil War. A connecting element was abolitionism . Republican representatives in German communities were often Turner, with Carl Schurz as a leading example. However, the majority of German-Americans in the 19th century were close to the Democratic Party. The gymnastics clubs provided bodyguards at Abraham Lincoln's inauguration on March 4, 1861 and at his funeral in April 1865. In the Camp Jackson Affair , numerous German volunteers helped thwart the Confederate occupation of the federal arsenal in St. Louis just before the outbreak of war. After the civil war, the umbrella organization took on the name of the North American Gymnastics Association and promoted German and gymnastics classes in public schools. Women's gymnastics clubs primarily emerged in the 1850s and 1860s. The largest number of members was in 1894 with 317 clubs and about 40,000 adult male members as well as 25,000 children and 3,000 women.

Like other German-American groups, the gymnasts were under general suspicion in the First World War , even though they had very little contact with Germany at the time. German classes were stopped at many schools and universities, and the federal government severely restricted German-language publications. The younger generation demanded the exclusive use of the English language at social events. Many gymnastics clubs could continue to exist on this basis. Assimilation and the two world wars with Germany resulted in a gradual decline in membership. Many gyms were closed or were converted into dance halls, pubs or bowling halls. In 2011 there were still 54 gymnastics clubs. The current headquarters of the American Gymnastics Federation is in Louisville, Kentucky .

In 1948, the US Post issued a 3-cent commemorative stamp to mark the 100th anniversary of the movement in the United States .

The gymnastics club in Sacramento, founded in 1854, is considered the oldest existing in the USA. The gymnastics club Forward in Fort Wayne owned the Hugh McCulloch House from 1906 to 1966 . This was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

gallery

Davenport Iowa Gymnastics Community Memorial

Contemporary images from the Milwaukee gymnastics club

  • 1866

  • 1869

  • 1875

  • 1879

  • 1915

Other gymnastics clubs in Wisconsin 1915

  • Kenosha

  • Madison

  • Madison Bears (seniors)

  • New Holstein

  • Sheboygan

American memorial plaques on the Berlin Jahndenkmal

  • Chicago, 1861

  • Cincinnati, 1865

  • Jahn memorial with commemorative plaques

  • Philadelphia, 1861

  • Washington, DC, 1911

Turner Halls

See also

supporting documents

  1. ^ Claire E. Nolte: The German Turnverein. Encyclopedia of 1848 Revolutions, accessed January 9, 2011 .
  2. ↑ Gruen, Mardee. "Milwaukee Turners, local Jews go back 141 years." Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle April 29, 1994; p. 6, col. 1
  3. ^ A b Annette R. Hofmann: 150 Years of Turnerism in the United States. Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis Max Kade Center, August 3, 1998, accessed February 26, 2020 .
  4. ↑ John B. Jentz: Gymnastics Club. In: Encyclopedia of Chicago. Retrieved July 20, 2019 .
  5. ^ A b Mary Lou LeCompte: TURNING CLUB MOVEMENT. Texas State Historical Association, accessed January 9, 2011 .
  6. ^ George Eisen, David Kenneth Wiggins: Ethnicity and Sport in North American History and Culture . ABC-CLIO, 1995, p. 28.
  7. ^ Annette R. Hofmann, "Transformation and Americanization: The American Turners and their new identity." International Journal of Sports History 19.1 (2002): 91-118.
  8. ↑ Scott Williams: THE ROLE OF GERMAN IMMIGRANTS IN CIVIL WAR - MISSOURI. (No longer available online.) The Missouri Civil War Museum, archived from the original on March 3, 2012 ; Retrieved January 10, 2011 .
  9. ↑ Steven A. Reiss (ed.), Sports in America from Colonial Times to the 21st Century: An Encyclopedia (2011) pp. 913-916.
  10. ↑ Welcome to American Turners. (No longer available online.) American Turners, archived from the original on April 6, 2011 ; Retrieved January 9, 2011 .
  11. ^ Homepage of the Sacramento Gymnastics Club. Retrieved June 13, 2019 .
  12. ^ = Indiana State Historic Architectural and Archaeological Research Database (SHAARD). (Searchable database) Department of Natural Resources, Division of Historic Preservation and Archeology, accessed July 1, 2015 . Note: This includes Karen Anderson: National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form: Hugh McCulloch House. (PDF) November 1979, accessed July 1, 2015 . and Accompanying photographs.
  13. ^ National Register Information System . In: National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service . Retrieved July 9, 2010.

literature

  • Barney, Robert Knight. "German Turners in America: Their Role in Nineteenth Century Exercise Expression and Physical Education Legislation." in Earle F. Zeigler ed., American Sport and Physical Education History (to 1875) (1975): 116+. on-line
  • Barney, Robert Knight. "Knights of Cause and Exercise: German Forty-Eighters and Turnvereine in the United States during the Antebellum Period." Canadian Journal of History of Sport 13.2 (1982): 62-79.
  • Barney, Robert Knight. "America's First Gymnastics Club: Commentary in Favor of Louisville, Kentucky." Journal of Sport History 11.1 (1984): 134-137. on-line
  • Kramer, William M., and Norton B. Stern. "The Turnverein: A German Experience for Western Jewry." Western States Jewish History 16 (1984): 227.
  • Metzner, Henry. A brief history of the American Turnerbund (1924) online
  • Pfister, Gertrud. "The Role of German Turners in American Physical Education," International Journal of the History of Sport 26 (no. 13, 2009) 1893-925
  • Pumroy, Eric, and Katja Rampelmann. Research guide to the Turner movement in the United States (Greenwood, 1996).

Web links

Commons : Turner Halls  - collection of images, videos, and audio files
Wikisource: The North American Gymnastics Federation  - Sources and full texts