These records are those of the Madison German Turnverein Society or Association, member of the National American Turners (Turnerbund). The society was founded in 1855 as a model to the parent German society by a number of German settlers in Wisconsin, mainly those displaced ones from 1848 in Germany. It is a society for physical education and “rational ideas.” Although it is not a political organization, there are some declarations--from the National, not the local Turnverein--of the political ideals sanctioned by them during the several political eras covered by these papers (1855-1951). There is little of a political or historical interest in the correspondence after 1920, that is, until 1938-1939. Prior to 1931, most of the materials are handwritten in German script. The correspondence contains much of interest to the social or economic historian, but it is limited otherwise to the following matters: gymnastic activities, membership lists, minutes of the Turnverein and the Damenverein (Ladies' Auxiliary), speeches, Turnfests, financial letters, labor relations, Social Security data, and various legal contracts.
There is also information to be found on the following subjects: travel in Germany, World Wars I and II, friends of the German House at the University of Wisconsin, Olympic Games of 1932 and 1936, Liberty Bond drives, the American Monthly magazine, Prohibition, the Depression of 1929, the “Lost Provinces of Germany and Austria,” the U.S. Wild Life Sanctuary, Frost's Woods, and the Indianapolis Gymnastic Union Normal College and its summer Camp, Brosius, at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
There are a number of financial accounts and notes which include most of the expenses connected with the operation of the Turnverein gymnastic society at Madison. In these can be found the original constitution of 1855 and its various revisions of later dates. It should be noted that some of the correspondence includes carbon copies of letters of various dates on both sides.
The volumes that are included in the collection contain the minutes, election results, financial accounts, and membership lists from 1855, and all prior to 1930 are written entirely in German handwritten script. There are some letters which were filed chronologically by the secretaries in these volumes.
