The Role of German Turners in American Physical Education

In the early and mid-nineteenth century German immigrants brought Turnen with them to the United States. There, it changed in many respects, adapted to new situations and adopted new aims, roles, meanings and practices. On the one hand, the Turnen underwent 'Americanization' processes; on the other hand, The Turners attempted to exercise influence on American movement culture. This article focuses on the endeavours of the Turner in endeavours to introduce physical education (PE) in the form of 'German gymnastics' into American educational institutions. Although the Turner clubs served as 'cradles of ethnicity', there was a consensus among the Turners that the attempts to introduce Turnen into the American public schools were aimed at mutual benefits: fitness and health of the American society as well as prestige and 'empowerment' for the Turner movement. Therefore the Turners participated in the 'battle of the systems', which is another main issue of this article. The perception of Turnen as 'non-American' was one of the reasons why the 'German system' could not become the dominating form of PE, but was restricted mainly to the cities with a large German-American population. However, the Turners influenced the introduction as well as the quality of PE even in places in which their system was not implemented. In any overall evaluation of the Turners' influence, it must be taken into account that elements of Turnen were to be found in many 'American' systems.