The Hamburger Segel-Club (Hamburger Sailing Club) (HSC), is one of the oldest and most active sailing clubs in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. This club is located by the shores of the Alster

Alster

The Alster is a right tributary of the River Elbe in Northern Germany. It has its source near Henstedt-Ulzburg, Schleswig-Holstein, flows roughly southwards and reaches the Elbe in Hamburg. In the centre of Hamburg the Alster has been dammed...

, in the heart of the harbor city of Hamburg

Hamburg

-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

 and is one of the organizers of the Kiel Week

Kiel Week

Kiel Week is an annual sailing event in Kiel, Germany. It is the largest sailing event in the world, and also one of the largest Volksfest in Europe.- Procedure :...

 together with the Yacht Club of Kiel, the Verein Seglerhaus am Wannsee

Verein Seglerhaus am Wannsee

The Verein Seglerhaus am Wannsee is the second oldest yacht club in Germany after Segelclub RHE. It is located on the shores of the Greater Wannsee lake, southwest of Berlin....

 and the Norddeutscher Regattaverein. Taking place in the Bay of Kiel

Bay of Kiel

The Bay of Kiel is a bay in the southwestern Baltic Sea, off the shores of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany and the islands of Denmark. It is connected with the Bay of Mecklenburg in the east, the Little Belt in the northwest, and the Great Belt in the North....

, this annual event is one of the largest and most prestigious sailing regattas in the world.

The HSC also assists the Yacht Club of Lübeck

Yacht Club of Lübeck

The Lübecker Yacht-Club , is a yacht club in Germany. The club is run by two commodores and has four houses.The oldest one was established in 1920 in Lübeck, one of the former Hanseatic League cities...

 and the Norddeutscher Regattaverein in the organization of the Travemünder Woche

Travemünder Woche

thumb|Barque Passat in TravemündeThe Travemünder Woche is the second largest annual race week in sailing in Germany. It is held since 1892 by the end of July at the traditional seaside resort Travemünde located at the Bay of Lübeck of the Baltic Sea...

.

History

The predecessor of the present-day HSC was the Hamburger Yacht-Club, established in October 1892, out of which a group split in 1895. In 1926 this group merged with the Hamburger Segel-Verein. In 1927 it was registered as the Hamburger Segel-Club at the registry in Hamburg.
The founders of the original Hamburger Yacht-Club were yacht racing

Yacht racing

Yacht racing is the sport of competitive yachting.While sailing groups organize the most active and popular competitive yachting, other boating events are also held world-wide: speed motorboat racing; competitive canoeing, kayaking, and rowing; model yachting; and navigational contests Yacht racing...

 and cruising

Cruising (maritime)

Cruising by boat is a lifestyle that involves living for extended time on a boat while traveling from place to place for pleasure. Cruising generally refers to trips of a few days or more, and can extend to round-the-world voyages.- History :...

 enthusiasts who joined the Deutscher Segler-Verband four weeks after establishing the club.

In 1925 the club organized the North Sea Week (Nordseewoche) sailing competition off Heligoland

Heligoland

Heligoland is a small German archipelago in the North Sea.Formerly Danish and British possessions, the islands are located in the Heligoland Bight in the south-eastern corner of the North Sea...

. In 1927 it helped to organize the Travemünder Woche for the first time and since 1928 the Kieler Woche (Kiel Week) as well.

Five years after having been established the club had 343 members and 87 boats; 46 competitions had been organized in which a total of 922 sailcraft took part.
The best yachts of the club at the time were the Freya, the Ingeborg VIII and Otto Schümann's Carla IV.

Between 1934 and 1935, during Nazi times

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

, all sailing clubs in Germany lost their autonomy and were arbitrarily joined to departments of the Deutscher Reichsbund für Leibesübungen (DRL), later renamed Nationalsozialistischer Reichsbund für Leibesübungen

Nationalsozialistischer Reichsbund für Leibesübungen

The Nationalsozialistischer Reichsbund für Leibesübungen , more rarely "NSRBL", , known as Deutscher Reichsbund für Leibesübungen until 1938, was the umbrella organization for sports during the Third Reich.The NSRL was led by the Reichssportführer, who after 1934 was...

(NSRL), like the Wassersportverband (Watersports Association).

Since the NSRL, as a Nazi organization, was disbanded after Germany's defeat in World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, the Hamburger Sailing Club had to be established anew, like other yacht clubs in West Germany

West Germany

West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....

 at that time. Carl Georg Gewers led the club through the difficult postwar and rebuilding years. Among other achievements, he was able to convince the British occupation authorities

Allied Occupation Zones in Germany

The Allied powers who defeated Nazi Germany in World War II divided the country west of the Oder-Neisse line into four occupation zones for administrative purposes during 1945–49. In the closing weeks of fighting in Europe, US forces had pushed beyond the previously agreed boundaries for the...

to give back the seized sailing craft to the club.

In 1950 the Hamburger Sailing Club helped to organize the Kieler Woche (Kiel Week) again. After that the club was able to grow and expand until today.