Vater Jahn

by Si Bass

The following information is from a study by Thomas B. Rentschler and forwarded to me by our friends Debbie White and Jim Brodhag.

In the nineteenth century we had a large influx of German immigrants. In order to hold on to at least part of their culture, they would form special clubs, societies, cooperatives, militia groups, ad infinitium. The large German groups of newcomers in the Cincinnati area formed one such society named "Turners." Turner is the German word for gymnast.

Fredrick John, established many gymnastic societies (TURNVEREIN see label below) in Germany in the early 1800’s. These gymnastic clubs became centers for good health and exercise, emphasizing in physical training as a means of furthering political ideals. John, a political activist, structured the TURNVEREIN to teach patriotism and German unification.

The gymnasiums were soon banned by the government, John was jailed for five years and this resulted in the German Revolution of 1848. Many of those evolved imigrated to the United States in the Cincinnati, Ohio area.

The Turners soon numbered in the tens of thousands. The men brought with them their nationalistic fervor as they continued to practice with arms and had shooting matches. These Turners, now often called 48ers, presented an odd mixture of free thinkers, socialism, American patriotism and German nationalism.

Their collective feats during the Civil War were legendary, but alas that is another story.

Note: Fedrick John (Vater Jahn [1778-1852]) founded the Turner movement in Berlin in 1811. He invented almost all of the gymnastic equipment that is standard today. Because of Vater Jahn this equipment was brought to the U.S. by his Turners. See the vignettes on the labels below. This is especially meaningful to me as I placed all California gymnastics in 1948, and did not know the history of the equipment.

Copyright © 1997 The Cigar-Label Gazette