TURNVEREIN - Gymnastics Club, Friedrich Ludwig Jahn - Complete set of 12 Poster stamps (Reklamemarken) with J.M. Hirschmann Kunstanstalt (Diplome, Plakate, Postkarten) Offenbach imprint

TURNVEREIN - Gymnastics Club,  Friedrich Ludwig Jahn - Complete set of 12 Poster stamps (Reklamemarken) with J.M. Hirschmann Kunstanstalt (Diplome, Plakate, Postkarten) from Offenbach imprint.

Turners (German: Turner) are members of German-American gymnastic clubs that also served as nationalist political groups that were politically active and often served in German military outfits as well as the Union Army in the United States during the American Civil War.

A German gymnastic movement was started by Turnvater ("father of gymnastics")

Friedrich Ludwig Jahn in the early 19th century when Germany was occupied by Napoleon. The Turnvereine ("gymnastic unions", from German turnen meaning “to practice gymnastics”, and Verein meaning “club, union”) were not only athletic, but also political, reflecting their origin in similar "nationalistic gymnastic" organizations in Europe. The Turner movement in Germany was generally liberal in nature, and many Turners took part in the Revolution of 1848.

After its defeat, the movement was suppressed and many Turners left Germany, some emigrating to the United States. Several of these Forty-Eighters went on to become Civil War soldiers, the great majority in the Union Army, and American politicians.  Besides serving as physical education, social, political and cultural organizations for German immigrants, Turners were also active in the American public education and the labor movements. Eventually the German Turner movement became involved in the process leading to German unification.