HISTORY OF THE GERMAN GYMNASTIC MOVEMENT OF BALTIMORE By AUGUSTUS J. PRAHL Baltimore played a rather important "Mobtown." Karl A. M. Scholtz gives part in the early history of American the following account of the event: "It Turnerism. Here the "Sozial-demo- was on the eleventh of September, 1852, kratische Turnverein of Baltimore" was when as a part of the entertainment a founded in 1849 shortly after similar picnic with gymnastic exercises and societies had been established in New sports had been arranged at the Fair York, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, and Grounds on Charles Street, above what Boston. Its cradle stood, according to is now North Avenue, that rowdy gang- Louis Hoffmann, in the courtyard of an sters sought to break up the picnic by inn owned by two Germans, Auer and rushing the gate and breaking into the Lauer, at the corner of Liberty and grounds. They failed to count on the Saratoga Streets. The Turners Carl discipline maintained by the Turners, so Giller, Conrad H. Becker, Louis Binder- they were beaten off and driven out. wald, and Adam Geyer were supposed They took revenge by waylaying indi- to have been the first who investigated viduals homeward bound from the fest. the founding of a Turnverein. In 1850 To ward off further attacks on the re- the society in Baltimore counted a mem- turn home in the evening, a long pro- bership of 278 and was the strongest of cession was formed; in the middle the the seventeen gymnastic organizations women and children were placed, at then existing in the United States. the head of the line and bringing up The "Social-demokratische Turnve- the rear was the Turner rifle corps. rein Baltimores" must be considered With flags flying and drums rolling the the progenitor of all the gymnastic as- body marched townward. Several desul- sociations which sprung up in the tory attacks were attempted, fortunately course of time in Baltimore. Albert von without bloodshed. The while this was Degen in the book Baltimore, seine Ver- happening the friendly Irish, from what gangenheit und Gegenwart speaks of it was then known as Frenchtown (the as "the center of the Germans in pre- section around the Western Maryland Civil War days." Only a few facts are R. R. Station) came to aid. There was known about the early history of this no further disturbance that evening." organization. It was instrumental in When in 1855 the national organiza- the founding of the national organiza- tion, at its meeting in Buffalo accepted tion, the "Sozialistische Turnerbund." an anti-slavery platform, the "Social- The first national gathering was held in Democratic Turnverein" of Baltimore Baltimore, in September, 1852. supported this program, thus doing its It was at the occasion of the first na- share in preventing the creation of a new regional organization intended by tional Turnfest in 1852 that the Ger- 1 man Turners came face to face with the several societies located in the South. antagonism of such "native" gangs as On the other hand, the sharp criti- the "Know-nothings," the "Blood Tubs," cism of the spirit of the Turnzeitung, the "Plug Uglies," etc., all of which launched by the Baltimore society, was helped Baltimore to secure the title the cause for a dissension which had 'The Turnvereine of Houston, Texas; Charleston, S. C.; Savannah, Ga.; Augusta, Ga., and Mobile, Ala., were in opposition to the platform of 1855 and withdrew from the national organization. The first mentioned made an attempt to found a Turnerbund on Southern basis—a friendly attitude to- ward slavery. This attempt failed miserably, due to the faithfulness of the other Vereine in the slave- holding states, chiefly the "Social-Democratic Turnverein" of Baltimore and the Turnvereine in Louis- ville, Ky.; Covington, Ky.; Newport, Ky.; St. Louis, Mo., and Wheeling, W. Va. Only the Turnverein in New Orleans, La., joined the opposing party in 1857. For detailed information see: Heinrich Huhn, "Die Spaltung und die Wiedervereinigung des Turnerbundes," Amerik. Turner-Kalender (1890), p. 26. [16] threatened the national organization for their powerful and stirring energy of a long time and which was not settled spirit the best lyric production result- until after the Civil War. ing from the Turner movement. Several Shortly before the Civil War Balti- of their poems are dedicated to the more became the center of the Turner "Social-Democratic Turnverein" of Bal- movement of the whole country. In timore. 1860 Baltimore was made the "Vorort" With the approach of the Civil War (headquarters) of the Turnerbund. At the situation of the Baltimore Turners a meeting in Williamsburg, N. Y., in became very precarious. Two days after the same year, the Baltimore society the bombardment of Fort Sumter and tried to reunite all the Turnvereine, but Lincoln's call to arms, in April, 1861, this proved impossible. In spite of the a company of Baltimore Turners went fact that certain Turn-societies had left to Washington and offered their serv- the national organization, some prob- ices to the government. This company, ably compelled by geographical fac- with the Washington and Georgetown tors, most of them remained in contact Turners, was the first corps of volun- with the "Vorort." teers. Although the leaving of the Bal- Fully aware of the seriousness of the timore Turners had been carried out situation the "Vorort" at Baltimore with the greatest secrecy, the Southern urged all associated clubs on October sympathizers of Baltimore had re- 16, 1860, to exercise conscientiously ceived news of it. On April 20, 1861, their right to vote, and to cast their the "Social-Democratic Turnverein" re- ballot in favor of the Republican candi- ceived the ultimatum to hoist the Mary- date. An excerpt of the proclamation land State flag instead of flying the reads as follows: "The Turner strongly Stars and Stripes. This request to show opposes slavery, nativism or any form Southern sympathies was promptly re- of deprivation of rights resulting from fused. On April 20, 1861, late in the color, religion, or place of birth, since evening, a mob supposedly led by a this is incompatible with a cosmopoli- German forcefully broke into the gym- tan conception of the world." Another nasium located at 300 West Pratt Street, proclamation was published in the burning all the papers and destroying Turnzeitung on October 23 in which all movable furniture. The same fate Lincoln was warmly recommended as overtook the office of the Baltimore candidate for the presidency. Wecker (April 22), where the Turn- zeitung was printed. The result of The early history of the Baltimore these happenings was that many Ger- Turnverein would be incomplete with- mans considered it wise to leave the out the mention of two names: Carl city, among them the editors of the Heinrich Schnauffer and Johann Strau- 2 Turnzeitung, Wilhelm Rapp and Dr. benmüller. Both names were well G. E. Wiss, joining the Union forces in known not only in Baltimore but in all large numbers.8 German-American circles of the United It is but natural that during the Civil States. Both were active in promulgat- War the activities of the "Social-Demo- ing the Turner sentiments through the cratic Turnverein" of Baltimore—as of medium of the Baltimore Wecker and all Turnvereine—came to an end. Once through their poems which represent in the war was over, with the return of 2 A. E. Zucker, "Carl Heinrich Schnauffer," Twenty-fourth Report of the Society for the History of the Germans in Maryland (1939), 17-23. M. D. Learned, "The German-American Turner Lyric, Tenth Report of the Society for the History of the Germans in Maryland (1896), 77-134. 3 This is not the place to treat the part the Turners in Maryland played in the Civil War, since this question has been investigated by Dieter Cunz, "The Maryland Germans in the Civil War," Mary- land Historical Magazine, XXXVI, iv (1941), 394-419. A fine compliment was paid the Turners by Winston Churchill in his book, The Crisis (p. 211). Although here referring to the Turners in St. Louis, it can, with equal justification, be applied to the Turners in general: "Strange, indeed, that the striving life of these leaders of a European Revolution has been suddenly cut off in its vigor. There came to Stephan a flash of that world-comprehension which marks great statesmen. Was it not with a divine purpose that this measureless force of patriotism and high ideal has been given to this youngest of the nations, that its high mission might be fulfilled?" [17] the Turners, the "Social-Democratic cial difficulties which the club experi- Turnverein" began to function again.4 enced toward the end of the sixties led But with the Civil War the spirit to the founding of new gymnastic organ- which had called into life the "Social- izations, e. g., the Turnverein "Vor- Democratic Turnverein" no longer ani- waerts" (1867), the "Atlantic Turnve- rein" (1872), and the "Gymnastische mated its members. Many of the older 5 members had withdrawn from the or- Pyramiden Club. ganization ; the German element coming The separation from the parental body to Baltimore in the sixties represented was in the case of the "Atlantic Turn- a different background; very little verein" a rather shortlived affair. After understanding existed on the part of fifteen years of independent exist- the American-German element for the ence (1887) the "Atlantic Turnverein" real goals of the Turnerei—all these rejoined the "Social-Democratic Turn- factors are responsible for the different verein," thus pouring new blood into spirit which permeated the society. the veins of the old organization. The Likewise the fact that the gymnastic hall new organization was known by the and the various gymnastic apparatus name of "Baltimore Turngemeinde." had been destroyed in 1861 should not Under the circumspect guidance of such be forgotten.