Exported from Great Britain, rowing came to Germany in the early 1800's with the first German rowing club founded in Hamburg in 1836 by British rowers living there. Over the next half century, a large number of rowing clubs were started all over the country culminating with the creation of the German Rowing Association, Deutscher Ruderverband or DRV in March 1883 with thirty-four rowing clubs and one thousand one hundred sixty six members. The regatta scene then was dominated by racing in pairs, fours, single sculls and eights, with single scullers held in the highest regard among athletes and spectators. Until 1905 the German Championships were conducted in this class only.

Around 1884, women started to enter the German rowing scene. By 1892, every fourth rower was a woman and the first women's rowing club was founded in 1901. In 1919, women had their first regatta with competitions in rowing style. The first speed races for women were introduced in 1921 over 1000-meters. The first German Championships in this category were held in 1937 although the style competitions remained part of the German regatta program until 1969. The first German championships for youth were held in 1937 and lightweight rowing races were introduced in 1925.

Racing dominated the rowing scene until the start of the twentieth century. Since then, rowing in Germany is not only about competing in racing shells, but is also a leisure sport practiced in gig-boats. More and more clubs developed a strong interest for the leisure-rowing scene, wanderrudern, with trips being organized on Germany's splendid waterways. Long distance tours and gig-races were also introduced to the regatta schedules. Today, almost every club offers rowing to both interest groups.

During the two World Wars, the German rowing scene suffered a harsh blow with many of the clubhouses built over the last 100 years, as well as, the majority of the boats being destroyed. The first post-war regatta took place in 1946.

This period then saw German rowing split into two, following the division of the country into East and West. From 1965-1991, there were two German rowing teams and rowing associations, DRV & DRSV. With the fall of the Berlin wall in November 1989, German rowing was reunited. In 1991, the two German rowing teams that each had successfully competed on the international rowing scene for over thirty years became one team again.

Today, the German Rowing Association, DRV, has the largest membership within FISA and is one of the most successful rowing countries in the world. In fact, since 2000, the DRV is the most successful rowing association in the world. The DRV is the oldest sports association in Germany and ranks at the top as one of the strongest sport associations in the country.

Rowing is enjoyed all over Germany by every age group from children to adults, as well as, masters rowers; living up to its marketing slogan "Rowing, a sport for everybody aged 8-80".

INTERNET LINKS
www.rudern.de
www.rudern1.de
www.werow.com

PERSONALITIES

Willy Empacher: Founder of the world-famous German rowing boat building company. In 1923, Willy Empacher, a trained master boat builder and chief master of the guild, started his first boatyard in Königsberg, East Prussia at the age of 21. In 1947, he started a new business at Eberbach on the Neckar River, which grew to become one of the world's most successful rowing shell builders. To date, more than five hundred medals have been won in Empacher boats and roughly sixty percent of the participants in World Championships and Olympic Games row boats crafted by Empacher, including the majority of the members of the German national team.

Karl Adam: Rowing professor and coach who was already a legend when still alive, Karl Adam, 1912-1976, had a major impact on one of the most successful eras in German rowing history that starting at the end of the 1950's. Adam is considered a great innovator of training techniques and methods that impacted the development of rowing known in the rowing world as the Ratzeburger style. In the 1960's, Karl Adam's world-champion crews from Ratzeburg pioneered advances such as speed play, interval training, shovel-shaped oars, and bucket rigging, which puts the #4 and #5 oars on the starboard side of the boat.

Jörg and Bernd Landvoigt: The famous German twins, born in 1951 from the Potsdamer Rudergesellschaft, formerly Dynamo Potsdam, who made rowing history and dominated the international rowing scene in the pair for over two decades. Their record of success is legendary in the rowing world with one hundred seventy nine victories in one hundred eighty races: three Olympic medals, gold in 1976 and 1980, bronze in 1972, plus six world championship titles.

Peter-Michael Kolbe: German sculling legend that was world champion in the single in 1975, 1978, 1981, 1983 and 1986. Though he was considered the best sculler in the world for five years, he was never able to win an Olympic gold medal. At three Olympic Games he won the silver medal; in 1976 and 1984 he came second against his Finnish rival Pertii Karppinnen, and in 1988 he placed second against the next German sculling legend, Thomas Lange, then still racing for the GDR. Lange went on to become Olympic champion again in 1992 and the bronze medallist in 1996.

Kathrin Boron: Born in 1969, Kathrin Boron's current title is that of the world's best female sculler - with three Olympic gold medals: Sydney 2002-women's double sculls, Atlanta 1996- women's quadruple sculls, Barcelona 1992- women's double sculls and eight world championship titles: women's double sculls 1990,1991,1997,1999, 2001 and women's quadruple sculls 1989,1997, 1998.

REGIONS
There are 16 federal states in Germany, though they are not divided into precise regions. Rowing is possible in most regions on rivers, lakes artificial regatta courses, canals or the sea.

Northern / North-East Germany:
The lowlands in the north of Germany stretch from the Netherlands to Poland, skimming southern Denmark where it bridges the North and Baltic seas, including the federal states of Lower-Saxony, the Hanse Cities Bremen and Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, Berlin and Brandenburg

Middle-West / Middle-East Germany:
There is a rather industrialized central belt that cinches Belgium and Luxembourg to the Czech Republic's western prong. (North-Rhine Westfalia to the West, to the East Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt). In addition, the middle part of Germany is dominated by the rivers Rhine and Main long crucial for inland shipping, that power through the troughs and gorges which cut through the Central Uplands and wine-dominated regions (Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, Thuringia)
.
Southern Germany:
To the south, the Danube River drains the Bavarian highlands from the Black Forest, near the French and Swiss borders, to Munich. The southern reaches of the Bavarian Alps give way to Austria. Federal states: Bavaria, Baden-Wuerttemberg ]

Germany has a predominantly temperate climate. Average summer temperatures range from 20C to 30C (68F to 86F). The average winter temperature is 0C (32F). The German climate is variable, so it is best to be prepared for all types of weather throughout the year. The most reliable weather is from May to October, which coincides with the main regatta season.

Rowing Sites of Interest

There are a large variety of major regattas, as well as, long distance tours happening throughout the year in almost every part of Germany; check the calendars at www.rudern.de or www.werow.com for detailed information on events and dates:

Berlin: Berlin-Grünau, Olympic Regatta Course from 1936, "Across Berlin" - Berlin long distance regatta in the fall;
City of Brandenburg: host course of the 2005 Junior World Championships.
Potsdam: Women's sculling trainings center
Hamburg: Several regattas, e.g., speedrows: sprint regatta in spring April/May.
Northrhine-Westphalia:
Cologne: Fühlingen regatta course, host course of the World Championships 1997
Duisburg: International Wedau-Regatta 22./23. May 2004
Essen: Baldeney-Lake, host lake to the international Hügelregatta every 2nd year.
Dortmund: home and trainings center to the German sweep rowing team and the "Deutschlandachter"
Dresden: Elbe-Pokal, long distance regatta, end of October.
Munich: Olympic regatta course of 1972, usually hosts one World Cup regatta each season (end of June), applicant city for the World Championships 2007.
Starnberg: Lake Starnberg, "rose-island eight", long distance regatta, October
Ratzeburg: Rowing academy, sculling training center
Rendsburg: Canal-Cup, first weekend in October, international long distance national team eights races (e.g. finalists world championships)
Mecklenburg-West Pomerania: Coast of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, e.g. Stralsund: sea water rowing on the baltic sea