An extremely rare museum quality German American Turner Folk Art belt buckle measuring approximately 2 5/8 x 3 ½ inches and weighing approximately 91 grams made by C. F. Kleinsteuber, Machinist & Engraver (business pictured with occupancy from 1856 to 1881/1882). A very solid and expertly etched item. This buckle, almost exactly the same, and its ornamental belt is in the Oshkosh Museum. It appears to be coin silver but is untested. The backing is brass. Signed C.F.W. Maas and attributed as Charles F.W. Maas (born 1836, Immigrant 1845) There is a Charles Maas and Charles Maass (pictured document) from Milwaukee in the civil war. It is unkown if Charles F.W. Maas was a Civil War soldier. There was a Charles Maas in the 9th Wisconsin Regiment and the listed picture shows a Charles Maass mustered in as of 1863. Charles F.W. Maas ran as a Fusion Candidate for Milwaukee Alderman in 1896 (pictured narrative). A very rare item. Last origin was Wisconsin. I have a 1870s CDV photograph of a Turner in my store. Below is an overview of the Turners, the Fusion party, Charles F.W. Maas genealogy, and the same at the Oshkosh, WI Museum. Shipping includes insurance. Thanks for looking.

Gut Heil Good Health
Stark Treu Strongly Loyal
Frisch Frei Fresh Free

The Turners, or Turnverein were a paramilitary German-American athletic society, founded in 1848 in Cincinnati. The Turnvereine made an important contribution to the integration of German-Americans into their new home. The organizations continue to exist in areas of heavy German immigration, such as Iowa, Texas, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Minnesota, Missouri, Kentucky, New York City, and Los Angeles.

Together with Carl Schurz, the American Turners were supportive of the election of Abraham Lincoln as president of the United States. They provided the bodyguard at his inauguration on March 4, 1861, and at his funeral in April, 1865. In the Camp Jackson Affair, a large force of German volunteers helped prevent Confederate forces from seizing the government arsenal in St. Louis just prior to the beginning of the war.

Like other German-American groups, the American Turners experienced discrimination during World War I. The German language was banned in schools and universities, and German language journals and newspapers were shut down, but the Turner societies continued to function.

In 1948, the U.S. Post Office issued a 3-cent commemorative stamp marking the 100th anniversary of the movement in the United States.

Cultural assimilation and the two World Wars with Germany took a gradual toll on membership, with some halls closing and others becoming regular dance halls, bars or bowling alleys. Fifty-four Turner societies still exist around the U.S. as of 2011. The current headquarters of the American Turners is in Louisville, Kentucky.

Beaded belts are depicted in the four extant lithographs of groups of Turners. Some are stitched with yarn only, while others are comprised of yarn and glass beads.

Electoral fusion was once widespread in the United States. In the late nineteenth century, however, as minor political parties such as the Populist Party became increasingly successful in using fusion, state legislatures enacted bans against it. In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, during the heyday of the Sewer Socialists, the Republican and Democratic parties would agree not to run candidates against each other in some districts, concentrating instead on defeating the Socialists. These candidates were usually called "non-partisan", but sometimes were termed "fusion" candidates instead. One Republican Minnesota state legislator was clear about what his party was trying to do: "We don't propose to allow the Democrats to make allies of the Populists, Prohibitionists, or any other party, and get up combination tickets against us. We can whip them single-handed, but don't intend to fight all creation." The creation of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party made this particular tactical position obsolete. By 1907 the practice had been banned in 18 states; today, fusion as conventionally practiced remains legal in only eight states.

Name: Charles F W Maas
Age: 63
Birth Date: Dec 1836
Birthplace: Germany
Home in 1900: Milwaukee Ward 10, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Race: White
Gender: Male
Immigration Year: 1845
Relation to Head of House: Head
Marital Status: Married
Spouse's Name: Eva Maas
Marriage Year: 1857
Years Married: 43
Father's Birthplace: Germany
Mother's Birthplace: Germany
Occupation: Seed Merchant
Household Members:
Name Age
Charles F W Maas 63
Eva Maas 62
Walter Maas 18
Herbert Maas 16

The Oshkosh Museum has a similar buckle by the same maker with its beaded belt and provides the following description:

Description Turner Belt. Belt of red leather topped with wool needlework in a floral pattern. Back of belt has another leather strap with buckle attached to adjust belt size. Silver plated buckle has scalloped edge and turned edge for hook closure of belt. Incised on center of buckle is a design of two shaking hands surrounding by a laurel-type wreath, outside the wreath are German words, top left: "FRISCH" translated means energy; top right: "FREI" translated means freedom; bottom left: "STARK" translated means strength; bottom right: "TREU" translated means truth; left middle: "GUT" and right middle: "HEIL" these two words go together and translated mean wellness or wholeness; at bottom center owners name: "Oliver Huse." Back of buckle has makers mark: C. KLEINSTEUBER/MILWAUKEE. Other end of belt had brass bar for buckle to hook belt closed. See photograph P1939.4 too see Turners wearing this type of belt.

The Turner Organization: Were the principal German organizations, other than the churches, for maintaining cultural and social German traditions with singing and gymnastics societies, known respectively as the "Gesang Vereins" and the "Turn Vereins" (Gesang = Singing; Turn = Gymnastics; Verein = Club or Society) established not long after the arrival of the first significant numbers of Germans in the late 1840's and early 1850's. These groups, which came to be known among the non-Germans in the community simply as the "Turners," and traced their origin to the work of Father Freidrich Ludwig Jahn who established the first Turn Verein in Berlin in 1809 at the time Germany was being suppressed by Napoleon. Father Jahn supposedly formed the group to drill his followers in gymnastics and military tactics with the object of making them better soldiers. In later years, however, music, theatricals and oratory were added to the social function in the German community. The first Turner organization in Wisconsin was in Milwaukee in 1853. The Oshkosh Turners were organized in the fall of 1868. Oshkosh in fact had two Turner Societies, one on the North Side-founded in 1869 and another on the South Side-founded in 1886.

Oliver Huse, information taken from his obituary found in The Daily Northwestern, Tuesday Evening, March 20, 1928: Huse was born in German February 12, 1854 and came to America when he was one year old with his parents. Shortly after they arrived they settled in Oshkosh and Huse lived the rest of his life there. He worked at the Morgan Company for 45 years. He was a member of the Mystic Workers and the Turners. He died on March 19, 1928 at the age of 74 and is buried in Riverside Cemetery.
Dimensions W-2.75 L-32 inches
Year Range from 1869
Year range to 1900
Material Leather
Makers mark C.KLEINSTEUBER/MILWAUKEE
Object ID 2360-5
Object Name Belt
People Huse, Oliver A.
Used Huse, Oliver A./Turners of Oshkosh/Oshkosh, WI

On Apr-27-13 at 19:03:56 PDT, seller added the following information:

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