As waves of German-speaking immigrants arrived in America throughout the 19th century, their newly founded singing societies began to dot the national landscape.
Sängerverein members had different musical interests, socioeconomic backgrounds, and came from different regions in Europe. This was reflected in many of the clubs’ names, such as the Baltimore Arbeiter Gesangverein [Workers’ Singing Society], and the Schleswig-Holsteinischer Gesangverein (Hoboken, New Jersey), whose founders hailed from the German province of that name. Some choirs were elite and required high membership fees, such as New York City’s Arion. Others were affiliated with different German clubs, such as the Gesangsektion des Turn Vereins (singing section of the Turner Club) in Elkader, Iowa.
Soon, many German American singing societies united to form large regional singing associations, the Sängerbunds, for the sole purpose of organizing grand singing festivals, the Sängerfests. The Nordwestlicher Sängerbund was officially founded in 1866 by seven choirs from western Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa that had organized their first regional singing festival in La Crosse, Wisconsin, earlier that year.