you may want to read up on the turnerbewegung
friedrich ludwig jahn <- the guy who kinda founded them (just wiki, but good enough for a first glance), basicly all that
turnen (gymnastics) was a vehicle to be fit enought to fight the french. so your 'turners' being armed and ready comes in no way as a surprise to me
to achieve (germany) or preserve (usa) the union ist the thing to do for them