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 14 German speaking immigrants. This movement
rapidly spread, influencing a growing nation in education, progressive
thought, politics, human rights, health, literature and the arts. This
is the story of that organization, born and raised in Cincinnati and
Northern Kentucky, which fostered a great German-American movement.