Fredericksburg Social Turn Verein

Fredericksburg's club belonged to a movement brought by the Forty-Eighters, political refugees who practiced Friedrich Ludwig Jahn's gymnastic system of 1811. Texas clubs began at Galveston in 1851, followed by Houston, New Braunfels, San Antonio and Comfort. The 1870s were their heyday, with fifteen new clubs; in 1877 the Texanischer Turnerbund was organized, and Fredericksburg gymnasts competed at its 1878 Bundesturnfest in Houston. Gymnastics never became popular in Texas, and many clubs turned to bowling, forming a Texas Turnverein Bowling League in 1913. In 1984 Fredericksburg's was one of six Texas turnvereins still active.

What the plaque says

Fredericksburg Social Turn Verein The Fredericksburg Social Turn Verein was established in 1871 in the tradition of German gymnastic clubs. Initially located at a site nearby, the club opened with a gymnastics school and a 9-pin bowling alley. In 1872 the club held the first of its annual Christmas celebrations and in 1883 sponsored a fire brigade which became the City Volunteer Fire Department. The Turn Verein moved to this location in 1909. Children's gymnastics, Christmas celebrations, and bowling continue at Fredericksburg Social Turn Verein, one of the city's oldest continuing organizations. (1993)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Vereins Kirche and Main Street — steps away
  The octagonal Society Church on Fredericksburg's market square, rebuilt in stone in the 1930s, beside a main street laid out like a Rhine village.
• National Museum of the Pacific War — 0.4 mi
  A museum of the war in the Pacific in Chester Nimitz's hometown, dedicated at his request to the two million who served with him, with a garden given by Japan.
• Fort Martin Scott — 2.5 mi
  An army post of 1848 on Barons Creek beside the German town, where soldiers kept the peace of a Comanche trade and paid the merchants in hard cash.
• Luckenbach — 9.6 mi
  A store, saloon and dance hall on Grape Creek that a humorist bought in 1971, declared a free state of mind, and turned into a pilgrimage for Texas music.

More markers nearby

• Bethany Lutheran Church — steps away
• Market Square (Mark Platz) — 0.2 mi
• Gillespie County — 0.2 mi
• Old Central Drugstore — 0.2 mi