The Kansas City Turners (The Kansas City Socialer Turnverein) was founded on the fourteenth day of February, 1858.  Kansas City was a small town of 7,000 inhabitants, a frontier city known to the world  merely as a town situated near Westport Landing and Independence, Missouri.  They were founded to further the teachings of Frederich Ludwig Jahn who was the Father of the Turner movement.      The Turner movement itself was established in the United States just 10 years prior.  The prime purpose of the Turner movement was the development of “A Sound Mind in A Sound Body”.  The Kansas City Socialer Turnverein first practiced the teachings of physical and  mental training of “Turnvater Jahn” in a small building near fifth and Main Streets.  Rapid growth necessitated moving to Esslinger’s Hall on Main between Fifth and Missouri Avenue the following year.     At the beginning of the Civil War most of the members left their families and

joined the Union Army to fight for the liberation of the slaves and the preservation of the Union of their newly adopted country.  All available finances of the young society—--eight hundred dollars—- were used for the purchase of arms and munitions.  The wives of the Turners dedicated a beautiful silk flag to the soldiers, which was carried by them through the war and is now preserved in the Turner Hall as the most sacred emblem of the society.    The activity of the Turners was also manifest in many other civic enterprises, among which was the Kansas City Educational Society (Schul-Verein), Incorporated.  Seven years before the public schools were started in Kansas City, the German Schulverein founded a German school at the southeast  corner of Tenth and McGee Streets for the elementary study of English and German.  This

school had an attendance of ninety-nine pupils at the close of the Civil War.  Many leading citizens received their schooling at that school.  And, when public schools were established in Kansas City in 1867, two members of the first school board were Turners—-J.A. Bachman and Henry C. Kumpf.  Mr. Kumpf was later elected Mayor of Kansas City for three terms. Long before there were any calisthenics in public schools, the Turners were teaching them to their children.  In fact, the schools adopted calisthenics and physical exercises from the Turners.  The first physical instructor in public schools of Kansas City, Dr. Carl Betz, was borrowed from the Turners, where he had been instructor for a long time.    With the return of the young soldiers, the Turnverein received a fresh impetus.  In 1864 a previous acquired piece of property on Fifteenth and Main Streets was sold and a one-story building at the southeast corner of Tenth and Main Streets was purchased for One Thousand Dollars.  With the building itself being too small for the rapidly growing membership, the Society erected what was then considered a magnificent Turner Hall, with the capacity for seating twelve hundred people.  Theatrical performances in German and festive occasions, made this hall the center of German social activities.  In 1865 the Turnverein was regularly incorporated.    In 1868, Captain Christ Klingman formed an independent hook and ladder company.  The first Kansas City Fire Department.    During the period of the Turnverein’s prosperity, Kansas City also experienced unprecedented growth.  There was an abnormal increase in the value of property.  In 1881, the Turn-verein was offered $26,000 for the Tenth Street corner.  Determined to erect a more modern Turner Hall, the society acquired a half block of ground on the southeast corner of Twelfth and Oak Streets for $10,000.  A new Turner Hall, at the expense of $40,000 was erected and was formally dedicated in 1884.  During the next twelve years, all expectations of bettering the conditions of the Turnverein, and increasing the memberships and activities, were fully realized. History continued on Next Page Website maintained by KC Imagemakers