German Forty-Eighters in 19^th Century America: From the German Turnens to the American Turners

Abstract

This paper aims to evaluate the German Forty-Eighters in the United States in the global perspective, who came to America during the revolution of 1848 and in the later years of the 1850s. They were reformers and revolutionists who tried to build up their ideal societies in America which they failed to make in their original countries. The conventional studies on them were not positively done, because they were conceived as failures of the revolution and political exiles. However, I wish to shed new light on them, by exploring their transatlantic networks between Europe and America, and by analyzing their daily activities in each hub of the networks.

The Forty-Eighters were basically intellectuals comprising of students, professors, journalists as well as political activists in their home lands. They introduced the advanced philosophical theory on politics and society to America and gave a theoretical flamework to the American ideology of popular sovereignty, which resulted in rallying public opinion, especially concerning the anti-slavery movements in the 1850s. I wish to point out that they acted a critical role, at least as a catalyst in the realigning process of political parties from the Free Soil to the Republicans.

In inquiring Watertown, Wisconsin as a hub or a terminal of the networks, I will indicate that they built up the Turner club in this German town, and encouraged the radical Turner movements which were transplanted from Europe, by inspiring the residents which included Americans as well as Germans, through making space of public sphere. For example, they tried to publish the newspapers and pamphlets, to open rental libraries, and to speak before popular meetings.