If you live in Milwaukee, or the United States for the matter, you know that arguably the world's most beloved motor company is celebrating its 100th year anniversary this year. But did you know that 2003 marks major anniversaries for several big names in Milwaukee?

It seems that exactly 100 years ago Milwaukee was a fertile industrial field ready to foster the growth of companies and societies that have shaped Milwaukee culture as we know it today. Here's a historical glance to add some significance to a few Milwaukee cornerstones with big b-days this year.

MSOE

We begin our historical trip with the start of MSOE, a highly regarded engineering university in Wisconsin and the world, created 100 years ago by a 23-year-old German immigrant. Oscar Werwath, studied in Germany to receive degrees in both mechanical and electrical engineering and in reward convinced his father to pay for a trip around the world after graduation.

And where does one begin such a trip? With a cousin living in Milwaukee, Werwath decided Milwaukee was the logical choice. Seeing the industrial potential in Milwaukee caused Werwath to call off the rest of his trip and call Milwaukee home.

Werwath got a day job manufacturing electrical controls and engines and with a lack of prime-time television, spent his evenings gathered with friends to discuss the coming electrical age. He was such a natural leader that his friends encouraged him to teach and eventually, he did. In 1903 Werwath started teaching classes in electrical engineering to a small class of seven students.

And that, they say, is history. Reaching its 100th year as the Milwaukee School of Engineering, the university today has roughly 2,600 students, almost 18,000 alumni and a 15-acre campus.

To commemorate it's b-day, MSOE will publish a 150-page coffee table history book in autumn and has created a centennial Web site with historic photos, a history of the university, timelines, alumni updates and other useful information www.msoe.edu/centennial.

THE MILWAUKEE TURNERS

The Milwaukee Turners also have foundation back in the old country, when Frederick Ludwig Jahn founded the Turn Verein Association in 1811 to "prepare youth, both mentally and physically, for resistance to Napoleonic domination, and later for other anti-democratic forms of government," according to the Milwaukee Turners website.

The name Turner stems from the German word for gymnastics, turnen. Gymnastics forms the basis for the Turner Society, with their motto, "Sound Mind in a Sound Body." The "gymnastics" taught to the earliest of Turner members in Germany were actually quasi-military exercises designed to help overthrow the German government in 1848.

The first Turner Society in the United States began during the same year by German immigrants called "48-ers." Attempts to form the society in Milwaukee in 1848 were made, but citizens found the group very radical so soon after the German revolution.

In 1853, the Turner Society began to meet at Phillips Tavern on Market Street in Milwaukee, behind the current City Hall. After several moves, the Turner Society has made their permanent home on 4th Street in 1882. They are the oldest continuous Society to be located in the same building in Milwaukee. To date, Milwaukee Turners continue in their history of gymnastics, hold civic activities such as the 4th Street Forum and Cream City Sessions, hold the best darn fish fry at the historic Turner Restaurant and are currently trying to raise funds to restore the Turner Hall ballroom, built in 1882.

The Turner Society will celebrate its 150th birthday with a party on  Page 1 of 2 

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