Kieler Yacht-Club (''Kiel Yacht Club'') is one of the oldest

yacht club A yacht club is a sports club specifically related to yachting. Description Yacht clubs are mostly located by the sea, although there some that have been established at a lake or riverside locations. Yacht or sailing clubs have either a mari ...

s in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. It is located in the harbor city of

Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the J ...

. This club is well known for some of the

yacht racing Yacht racing is a Sailing (sport), sailing sport involving sailing yachts and larger sailboats, as distinguished from dinghy racing, which involves open boats. It is composed of multiple yachts, in direct competition, racing around a course marke ...

events it organizes. The main one is the yearly Kieler Woche (

Kiel Week The Kiel Week (german: Kieler Woche) or Kiel Regatta is an annual sailing event in Kiel, the capital of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is the largest sailing event in Europe, and also one of the largest Volksfeste in Germany, attracting ...

), which is perhaps the biggest sailing event in the world. In 1972, when the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

were held in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

, the Olympic sailing competitions took place in the

Kiel Bay The Bay of Kiel or Kiel Bay (, ; ) 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 this yacht club had a major role in their organization.

Historical background

A club for military personnel, the "

Marine-Regatta-Verein The Marine-Regatta-Verein (MRV), "Naval Regatta Union", is a yacht club of the German Navy. Its main branch is located in the harbor city of Kiel, and it has branches in different states of Germany. This club promotes both sailing and powerboating ...

" ("Naval Regatta Club"), was established in 1887 in

by officers of the

Imperial German Navy The Imperial German Navy or the Imperial Navy () was the navy of the German Empire, which existed between 1871 and 1919. It grew out of the small Prussian Navy (from 1867 the North German Federal Navy), which was mainly for coast defence. Wilhel ...

. Prince Heinrich of Prussia, a yachting enthusiast and German Emperor's

Wilhelm II Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert; 27 January 18594 June 1941) was the last German Emperor (german: Kaiser) and King of Prussia, reigning from 15 June 1888 until his abdication on 9 November 1918. Despite strengthening the German Empir ...

's younger brother, was its patron. In 1891 Wilhelm II became the club's commodore, bringing his own yacht ''Meteor I'' (the former ''

Thistle Thistle is the common name of a group of flowering plants characterised by leaves with sharp prickles on the margins, mostly in the family Asteraceae. Prickles can also occur all over the planton the stem and on the flat parts of the leaves. ...

'') to the club's

marina A marina (from Spanish , Portuguese and Italian : ''marina'', "coast" or "shore") is a dock or basin with moorings and supplies for yachts and small boats. A marina differs from a port in that a marina does not handle large passenger ships o ...

in Kiel. The same year the club changed its name to "

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, G ...

" (Imperial Yacht Club), among other changes introduced, the club allowed civilian members to join. In 1914, the German Emperor got the fateful news of the assassination of

Austro-Hungarian Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

heir to the throne

Archduke Franz Ferdinand Archduke Franz Ferdinand Carl Ludwig Joseph Maria of Austria, (18 December 1863 – 28 June 1914) was the heir presumptive to the throne of Austria-Hungary. His assassination in Sarajevo was the most immediate cause of World War I. Fr ...

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its a ...

, while he was competing on a regatta organized by the Kaiserlicher Yacht Club. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

the Kiel Week regatta had to be called off. 455 members of the Kaiserlicher Yacht Club died and its club house was transformed into a

Lazaretto A lazaretto or lazaret (from it, lazzaretto a diminutive form of the Italian word for beggar cf. lazzaro) is a quarantine station for maritime travellers. Lazarets can be ships permanently at anchor, isolated islands, or mainland buildings ...

. After these difficult years the club almost went bankrupt. William II remained as honorary commodore of the Kaiserlicher Yacht Club, even after the

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June ...

that brought the German monarchy to an end and forced him to live in exile in Doorn, the Netherlands. During Nazi rule the Kaiserlicher Yacht Club was manipulated by the propaganda machine of the state that made wide use of sports in order to harden the German spirit. This yacht club took part in the organization of

Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then ...

1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (German: ''Olympische Sommerspiele 1936''), officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad (German: ''Spiele der XI. Olympiade'') and commonly known as Berlin 1936 or the Nazi Olympics, were an international multi-sp ...

. In 1937 the Kaiserlicher Yacht Club was forcefully merged with other yacht clubs to form a massive entity, the "

Yacht-Club von Deutschland The Yacht-Club von Deutschland (YCvD), "Yacht Club of Germany", was a yacht club platform established in 1937 during Nazi rule in Germany. History The Sports Office of the Reich (DRL/NSRL) was founded in July 1934. As a result of its activity ...

" (YCvD), "Yacht Club of Germany", to instill unity among German youth. The club's name "Kaiserlicher Yacht Club", deemed by the Nazis not to be in tune with "the spirit of the times", became history and exiled and ailing former Emperor William was stripped of the honorary commodore's title. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

sailing activities were discouraged, the club house was seized by the government and many members of the yacht club died in the war.

Establishment of Kiel Yacht Club

In the postwar years Kiel was under British occupation, and regulations imposed by the new rulers made yacht clubs in Kiel no longer operative. British officers ran a "British Kiel Yacht Club", who even revived the Kiel Week regattas in 1946 and 1947, but German citizens were excluded from this military yacht club. In 1948, Kiel Yacht Club was allowed to be established and during the following decades it experienced a steady growth. After its recovery it became again one of the most prestigious yacht clubs of Germany. In 1982 the celebrations for the Kieler Woche's 100th birthday are organized with a large windjammer parade to close the event. In 2007 Kiel Yacht Club ran into serious financial difficulties and had to sell its club house to the

ThyssenKrupp ThyssenKrupp AG (, ; stylized as thyssenkrupp) is a German industrial engineering and steel production multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate. It is the result of the 1999 merger of Thyssen AG and Krupp and h ...

Company.

References

Kieler Yacht-Club's site
{{Coord, 54, 20, N, 10, 09, E, display=title, region:DE_type:landmark_source:GNS-enwiki Yacht clubs in Germany 1887 establishments in Germany Sport in Kiel