A Guide to the History of Physical Education

GERMAN-AMERICAN GYMNASTIC SOCIETIES AND THE NORTH AMERICAN TURNERBUND.

The first introduction of the Jahn gymnastics into the United States, in the years 1825-1828, we owe to Follen, Beck, Lieber, and Völker, men who had been associated with the German _Turnvater_ or had come under his influence during their university days in Europe and who fled from their native land to America or England in consequence of the reactionary measures adopted by the Holy Alliance after the murder of Kotzebue by Karl Sand in 1819. Although Prussia's example in suppressing public _Turnen_ was followed by other German states, the procedure was by no means universal, so that between 1820 and 1840 not only did the old organizations continue without interruption in certain cities, but a number of new societies of older boys or young men, who met regularly for exercise, were formed here and there. One sign of the quickened political life which followed the accession of Frederick-William IV to the Prussian throne in 1840 was a general revival of the Jahn gymnastics, we have seen (p. 102). New societies sprang up everywhere, until at the close of the decade they numbered nearly three hundred. The desire for union which early showed itself was met by holding district conventions (_Turntage_) and gatherings for gymnastic exercises (_Turnfeste_). Agitation for reform in state and nation found many bold and able adherents among these later disciples of Jahn, and Saxon and South German turners, especially, took an active part in the revolutionary movements of 1848 and 1849. The prompt suppression of all such popular outbreaks and the new reactionary policy pursued by the various governments led to an exodus of thousands of disappointed patriots to the United States, and these brought with them, together with other institutions and customs of the fatherland, the German _Turnen_.