Based on the essay, “Socialist Gym Rats Fought to End Slavery in America” for Jacobin Magazine, this talk examines the role of Turner Halls in the leadup to the American Civil War. 
 
Starting with the founder, Turnvater Jahn, this talk tracks Turner Halls as a reaction to Napoleonic Empire; a kind of social technology that created strong, community-enmeshed bonds. Migrating to America — especially after the failures of the 1848 Revolutions — German Turners, and their social-physical architecture, were on the front lines against the nativist Know Nothings. They became vital to abolitionist organizing, since many German immigrants were socialists, and saw the Confederacy as a new kind of monarchical-church rule over a racial caste system; a repeat of the horrors of feudal Europe.
 
American Turner Halls became community centers guided by the philosophy of “gut heil,” meaning “good health,” which was achieved through exercise of both body and mind. Beer and political talk helped organize German-American militia volunteers as the conflict over slavery became more and more intense. Turner Halls as they withstood nativist riots — like those in Cincinnati in 1855 — and created shooting clubs that ultimately defended the Union against secessionists. 

Devin’s writing is in The Nation, Slate, The Emerson Review, Jacobin, Protean, Boulevard, and elsewhere. He's the author THE VEILED PROPHET, publishing with Haymarket Books. Rep: Erik Hane. Northwestern MFA, 2018. 

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