Seeking asylum after the failed German revolution of 1848, refugees flocked to Cincinnati"s Over-the-Rhine neighborhood. They brought their Germanic culture--language, literature, music, art, dance, drink, celebration or gemutlichkeit--and their love for gymnastics. It was here, in the small tavern Hecker Haus, that the American Turners were born, founded by a group of fourteen German-speaking immigrants. This movement rapidly spread throughout Cincinnati, northern Kentucky and America, influencing a growing nation in education, progressive thought, politics, human rights, health, literature and the arts. This is the story of the area Turners and their cultivation of a great German American movement.