Cincinnati Turner Societies

Seeking asylum after the failed German revolution of 1848, refugees flocked to Cincinnati's Over-the-Rhine neighborhood. They brought their Germanic culture—language, literature, music, art, dance, drink, celebration or gemutlichkeit—and their love for gymnastics. It was here, in the small tavern Hecker Haus, that the American Turners were born, founded by a group of fourteen German-speaking immigrants. This movement rapidly spread throughout Cincinnati, northern Kentucky and America, influencing a growing nation in education, progressive thought, politics, human rights, health, literature and the arts. This is the story of the area Turners and their cultivation of a great German American movement.