St. Paul Turners (Saint Paul, Minn.).

The Turnverein St. Paul was organized on November 13, 1896, and changed its name to St. Paul Turners on August 29, 1940. The history of this organization, as well as that of other German groups and Turner societies, can best be understood by a more general review of the history of Turners in St. Paul.

The Turner movement, which had its birth in early 19th century Germany, was in part transplanted to the United States by German revolutionaries who fled their homeland after 1848. While the Turner movement in Germany became increasingly less political in its orientation, the American branch retained a more radical political tradition, as well as a theory of physical education shared by both branches. The first Turner society in the United States was formed in Cincinnati in 1848. By 1850 the movement had spread throughout the eastern states, and in that year a national organization was formed at a meeting held in Philadelphia. The first Minnesota chapter was formed November 11, 1856 in New Ulm.

The first St. Paul chapter was formed by Casper Sauer as a section of the St. Paul Leseverein (Reading Society). Some members of this group, however, felt the need for an independent organization, and on November 10, 1858, formed the St. Paul Turnverein . The group prospered until 1861, when 74 of its 76 members responded to President Lincoln's first call for volunteers to augment the union forces in the Civil War. The St. Paul society was reorganized immediately after the war, and in a St. Paul meeting on December 12, 1866, the Minnesota District of the national federation of Turner organizations (Turnbezirks Minnesota des Nordamerikanischer Turnerbund) was formed.

Minutes of meetings and newspaper articles of the late 1860s, 1870s, and 1880s show that the St. Paul society was not only very active in the area of physical education and training, but also that it maintained a good library, conducted German and drawing classes, and had a Sunday program. In addition, the society sponsored concerts, dramatic presentations, debates, and gymnastic exhibitions.

On November 10, 1886, after the Deutscher Verein (German Society) lost its meeting place due to fire, that social organization amalgamated with the St. Paul Turnverein to form the Turnverein Germania . Another loss of a building due to fire, as well as the financial panic of 1893, resulted in the disbanding of the Turnverein Germania in 1895. Many members of the organization temporarily joined the West Seite Turnverein (West Side Gymnastic Society), which had been formed on August 9, 1888, in what is now the Riverside district of St. Paul.

The Turnverein St. Paul, as mentioned above, was organized in 1896 and in April, 1913, the West Seite Turnverein, with 53 of its members, merged with the Turnverein St. Paul. In 1906 the Turnverein St. Paul purchased the former Unity Church property, on the south side of Wabasha Street at Summit Avenue, and occupied these premises until the building was destroyed by fire on September 22, 1943. On December 11, 1950 the society moved into a new hall on the corner of Ohio and Baker Street in the Cherokee Heights district of St. Paul.

Membership in the Turnverein was originally limited to men. The West Seite Turnverein had a ladies auxiliary from at least 1896 to 1907. In 1906 a women's auxiliary ( Turner Damen Verein ) of the St. Paul club was formed. Membership was opened to women in 1923.

The society, under its new name, St. Paul Turners, has survived into the 1990s. In 1997 a Turner school of Gymnastics was still in operation on Lexington Avenue in Mendota Heights, just south of St. Paul.

Historical information was taken from the collection.

From the guide to the Society records., 1857-1983., (Minnesota Historical Society)