Yacht-Club von Deutschland
Encyclopedia
Yacht club
A yacht club is a sports club specifically related to sailing and yachting.-Description:Yacht Clubs are mostly located by the sea, although there are some that have been established at a lake or riverside locations...
platform established in 1937 during Nazi rule
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
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...
.
History
The Sports Office of the ReichNationalsozialistischer 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...
(DRL/NSRL) was founded in July 1934. As a result of its activity all German sport associations gradually lost their independence and became subject to its manipulation.
The Yacht-Club von Deutschland originated after the 1936 Summer Olympics
1936 Summer Olympics
The 1936 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event which was held in 1936 in Berlin, Germany. Berlin won the bid to host the Games over Barcelona, Spain on April 26, 1931, at the 29th IOC Session in Barcelona...
sailing events 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....
. The following year the prestigious Kaiserlicher Yacht Club
Kaiserlicher Yacht Club
Kaiserlicher Yacht-Club, "Imperial Yacht Club", was one of the forerunners of the Kiel Yacht Club. Known also as "Küz" from its acronym KYC, it was a prestigious yacht club located in the harbor city of Kiel, Germany. German Emperor Wilhelm II, his younger brother Prince Heinrich of Prussia and...
(Imperial Yacht Club) was forcefully merged with local smaller clubs in the Kiel
Kiel
Kiel is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 238,049 .Kiel is approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore of the...
area, like "Kieler Segelvereinigung" (KSV).
The main purpose in the creation of the Yacht-Club von Deutschland was to "bring into line" the scattered yachting and sailing clubs of North Germany's former Hanseatic League
Hanseatic League
The Hanseatic League was an economic alliance of trading cities and their merchant guilds that dominated trade along the coast of Northern Europe...
cities under a central command along with yacht clubs elsewhere in Germany. The Yacht Club of Kiel's name "Kaiserlicher Yacht Club", deemed by the Nazis not to be in tune with "the spirit of the times" ("zeitgemäß"), soon fell into oblivion and the honorary commodore's title was withdrawn from old former Emperor William II, who withered in exile in Doorn
Doorn
Doorn is a town in the municipality of Utrechtse Heuvelrug in the central Netherlands, in the province of Utrecht. On 1 January 2008 the town had 10,052 inhabitants.-History:...
, the Netherlands.
The Yacht-Club von Deutschland was further expanded by the "incorporation" ("Einverleibung") with other German yacht clubs having a royal background. Foremost of these were the Yacht Club of Bavaria (Bayerischer Yacht-Club) and the Württembergischer Yacht Club
Württembergischer Yacht Club
The Württembergischer Yacht-Club is a yacht club in Friedrichshafen. It is located on the pleasant shores of Lake Constance, Germany. This club was established in January 1911 as the "Königlich Württembergischer Yacht-Club" .-History:The WYC was originally inscribed in the local Tettnang registry...
, to form a massive pan-German entity.
After successfully organizing the 1937 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 :...
, the Yacht-Club von Deutschland supported the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein
Norddeutscher Regatta Verein
Norddeutscher Regatta Verein , roughly meaning "North German Regatta Club", is one of the oldest and most prestigious yacht clubs in Germany. This club is located in Hamburg and is one of the organizers of the Kiel Week together with the Yacht Club of Kiel, the Verein Seglerhaus am Wannsee and the...
(NRV) in the organization of the Star Class
Star (sailboat)
The International Star is a 6.9 m one-design racing keelboat for two people.The boat must weigh at least 671 kg with a maximum total sail area of 26.5 m . It is sloop-rigged, with a mainsail larger in proportional size than any other boat of its length...
European Championship in the same year.
Upon the 1938 annexation of Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
("Anschluss
Anschluss
The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....
"), half of the Austrian yacht clubs were brought under the wing of the Yacht-Club von Deutschland. In 1939 many of the sailing competitions and other planned events in preparation for the 1940 Helsinki
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
Summer Olympics were carried out in Germany, especially in Kiel
Kiel
Kiel is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 238,049 .Kiel is approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore of the...
, despite of the imminence of the war.
The last significant activity of the Yacht-Club von Deutschland right before the outbreak of 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...
was the organization of the Star World Championship, together with the NRV. YCvD Kiel members Dr. Peter Hansohm and Christian Blankenburg ended up third in the general classification. On September 1st, participants belonging mainly to nations that had become hostile were brought safely across the border into Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
together with their boats. This operation was carried out with the assistance of the Kriegsmarine
Kriegsmarine
The Kriegsmarine was the name of the German Navy during the Nazi regime . It superseded the Kaiserliche Marine of World War I and the post-war Reichsmarine. The Kriegsmarine was one of three official branches of the Wehrmacht, the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany.The Kriegsmarine grew rapidly...
.
World War Two radically altered the role of the Yacht-Club von Deutschland in the country. Even though it continued its sailing school activities among the youth for a few years, yachting was discouraged. In 1940 monetary funds for organizing sailing events, like Kiel Week, were not forthcoming. Contributors felt emboldened to deny funds to the Yacht-Club von Deutschland owing to the war-related shifting of priorities.
In the last years of the war many members of the many branches of the yacht club, among them young teenagers, had to go to fight to the fronts. A figure of the casualties is not known.
The Yacht-Club von Deutschland's short life ended with the capitulation of the Nazi government
End of World War II in Europe
The final battles of the European Theatre of World War II as well as the German surrender to the Western Allies and the Soviet Union took place in late April and early May 1945.-Timeline of surrenders and deaths:...
in 1945. As a Nazi organization, it was disbanded when the American Military Government issued a special law outlawing the Nazi party and all of its branches. The smaller yacht clubs that had been forcefully merged with it had to be reestablished anew after the war.
Since the Kaiser had died in 1941 and the reestablishment of the club under the name "Yacht-Club von Deutschland" was not allowed by the British occupying authorities, the former Kaiserlicher Yacht Club was reestablished as the Yacht Club of Kiel.
The Yacht-Club von Deutschland should not be confused with the Motor-Yacht-Club von Deutschland.
Publications
- Mitteilungsblatt des Yacht-Clubs von Deutschland. — Kiel: NS.-Gauverl. Schleswig-HolsteinSchleswig-HolsteinSchleswig-Holstein is the northernmost of the sixteen states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Schleswig...
. (Newsletter) - Monatsschrift des Yacht-Clubs von Deutschland e.V. (Monthly).