Welcome to the Los Angeles Turners Society.

When the Turners came to the US they brought their ideas. Turnen, the German word for Gymnastics, was a part of them. Founded in 1811 in Berlin, Germany, at the ‘Hasenheide’ by ‘Turnvater’ Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, the Turner movement promoted physical and mental fitness, and spread all over Germany. The Turners brought Gymnastics from Germany with them across the Atlantic. In addition they formulated their goals. Here are the Turner Principles from 1871, that we still adhere to today:

We believe in

• Liberty against all oppression

• Tolerance against all fanaticism

• Reason against all superstition

• Justice against all exploitation

• Free speech, a free press, free assembly for the discussion of all questions so men and women may think unfettered and order their lives by the dictates of conscience, which we strive to attain through a Sound Mind in a Sound Body

• We endorse every effort to equalize conditions in our economic life to abolish class distinctions and maintain all human rights

• We believe every human being should be accorded every opportunity to secure for him or herself by mental and physical labor a dignified and decent livelihood.