Rowing Club Prussia
The rowing club "Prussia" e. V. (RVP) was founded on November 25th, 1903 and was founded in 2015 with the rowing club "Saffonia 08" e. V. merged to the Ruder-Vereinigung Preußen Saffonia eV . The RVP was the northernmost of the numerous Berlin rowing clubs. The umbrella organizations in which the RVP was a member are the German Rowing Association and the State Rowing Association Berlin .
history
Founding fathers
Hugo Haase
Bank
Cashier Kondor
Hermann Lehmann
Pharmacist Roth
Bank Manager Schnepf
Factory Director Franz Wild
Honorary Protector
Lieutenant General z. D. Curt Laube
Honorary Senior
Claus Major v. Bismarck, Knight of the Order of St. John
Honorary Chairman:
Erich Conti (deceased)
Wilhelm Geske (deceased)
Martin Götze (deceased)
Beginnings
In 1903, the year the RVP was founded, there was a phase of national exuberance - the German Reich was founded just 32 years ago - as well as enormous technical progress, such as the discovery of radioactivity or the first powered flight .
In the late 19th and early 20th century also took place in Germany , the pursuit of more and more from England rowing "imported" appeal, and a variety of rowing clubs have their foundation date at this time.
From the helm Society from 1884 through Haase, the Berliner Ruder-Club "Alemannia" by Lehmann and some still clubless rowers, which are primarily the hiking rowing had prescribed was on 25 November 1903, the rowing club "Prussia" e. V. founded. The flags gebung proved straightforward. The two black bars were taken from the "Alemannia", instead of the black star, the Prussian eagle was placed in the middle, and the goat's corner was given the abbreviation RVP. The beginnings under the very first chairman Hugo Haase were modest. It was rowed in private boats that were stored in various locations. It was only with some delay that a wooden shed in Wendenschloß near Köpenick could be acquired as a temporary boathouse , which accommodated the six existing private boats. During this time about 25 members belonged to the association. In March 1906 the RVP acquired its first ship-new four-seater .
As the situation continued to improve, the desire for a permanent clubhouse arose. The necessary prerequisites were found on a site in Karolinenhof far from the city, located in the forest with a view over the Long Lake to the Rohrwall (an island in the Dahme ) and further to the Müggelberge . In 1913 the new property was occupied and made usable. Here, too, a larger wooden shed initially served as a place to stay for the boats. Summer and winter festivals were organized, which not only brought joy and conviviality but also money for the club's treasury.
New beginning in Karolinenhof
Despite the heavy loss of life, reconstruction work continued after the First World War . Five older comrades enabled the “Prussian” rowing club to purchase the property in Karolinenhof that had been leased up until then for 25,000 Reichsmarks . After creating a solid basis for the activities of the association, the connection to the touring rowing association Mark Brandenburg was completed, which was soon followed by the entry into the German rowing association . Eventually there were sporting successes and on September 12, 1920 the RVP won the first ever victory in the autumn regatta of the North German Rowing Association and a third place in the autumn long-term rowing of the touring rowing association of the Mark Brandenburg.
On March 1, 1921, the boathouse in Karolinenhof burned down together with the 32 boats stored in it. Only a charred flag could be saved from the heap of rubble. After this catastrophe, it was thanks in particular to the helpfulness of other clubs that the RVP was able to continue to exist. A charity event raised funds for a fresh start. The active members were temporarily accepted into friendly clubs for training. The year 1921 was mainly dedicated to the reconstruction, but already at the spring regatta on March 14, 1922 there was another victory of a regatta team of the RV "Prussia".
Supported by my own work and financed to a large extent by share certificates , the new building of the boathouse was pushed ahead even in the economically very difficult years of inflation . The entertainment committee also contributed to the realization of the plans for the new boathouse by organizing profitable festivities, such as a ball in the hall of the Friedrichshain brewery with around 3,000 participating rowers. The accepted banknotes of one thousand to one billion Reichsmarks were transported to the bank in suitcases as quickly as possible so that they could be exchanged for currency of stable value in good time before the new rates were fixed. In spring 1923 the new boathouse was inaugurated. In addition, five newly acquired quads could be christened.
After the house was furnished with furniture, it became a sociable meeting place after rowing. The year 1924 was up to then the most successful sporting year of the RV “Prussia”, here the annals show six wins, four second, two third places and a fourth place in different regattas and age groups. Even at that time the RVP was a comparatively small association with 113 members, but due to the numerous activities it was on friendly terms with many clubs across the country. This fact was taken into account on festive occasions with the "flag gala", the hoisting of around 55 friendship flags on the mast. After the successful development work of the first few years, despite all the setbacks, the rowing club “Prussia” celebrated its 25th anniversary in November 1928, combined with a festival ball in the “Rheingold” restaurant.
With the Olympic Games in Berlin in 1936 there was a notable sporting climax for the club. The boathouse and its inventory were made available to the German Rowing Association for the rowing competitions in Grünau in order to serve the Olympians as a home and training facility. Furthermore, in 1936 the sum of 419,500 RM, which consisted of share certificates and loans from the members, was transferred to the association. Through the commitment of its members, the association was in possession of a debt-free property, the boathouse including inventory and the boat material.
During the Second World War , many members were drafted into military service and never returned. A bomb hit the house badly damaged and could only be repaired by the few comrades who remained at home. After Berlin was taken by the Red Army , the boathouse was initially used as a stable for Soviet troops and later as a rest home for Soviet officers . After the Soviet troops left Karolinenhof again, the association members around the 1st chairman Wilhelm Rickel were refused entry and the house was expropriated. The name "Prussia" was deleted from the register of associations .
From the Dahme to the Havel
After the loss of their own property with boathouse in Karolinenhof, which was devastating for the continued existence of the RVP, as a result of the Second World War, most of the surviving rowers dispersed in clubs throughout Germany. Only a small group of 11 remaining members kept the fellowship going and met regularly under an emergency board to exchange ideas. This led to the fact that the rowing club "Prussia" was reconstituted in November 1950 with almost 30 members under the chairmanship of comrade Erich Conti. In response to an advertisement in 1951, a boathouse with land on the Niederneuendorfer See in Heiligensee was leased and the association was relocated from the south-east to the north-west of Berlin.
The first boats were two foursome, which were borrowed cheaply from the student rowing association at Wannsee. The keys to the boathouse were handed over on March 4, 1951. There initially some private boats took up quarters, until on May 18, 1952, a self-purchased boat could be christened again for the first time with the “Einigkeit”, a used double double scull.
In 1951 the Jungmann Gigvier achieved its first victory at the spring regatta in Grünau. And after further victorious races, the renowned endurance race “Across Berlin” was won for the first time in the club's history in 1953, the year of the club's 50th anniversary.
The highlights of the anniversary year were the renovation of the day room and the christening of a new racing four-wheeler, financed by donations, under the name "Black and White" on August 16, 1953. The anniversary then culminated with the ceremony in the "Schultheiss" on Fehrbelliner Platz under the Chairman of the newly elected chairman Wilhelm "Willi" Geske at the beginning of the same year, who managed the association until 1972.
In 1954/55 the three gigs "Unser Kamerad", "Phönix" and "Prussia" were acquired, mostly financed by donations and loans from the Hein couple. After Wilhelm Hein died in 1955 and became an honorary member posthumously, his wife donated the giant “Willi Hein” and the two without “Ratzeputz” in memory of him - all five boats mentioned are still in operation today.
As before, the “old men” determined everyday sporting life at RV “Prussia”. In 1955 and 1956, the RVP's senior giant won the "Quer durch Berlin" competition. Several kilometer records were set, such as the daily record on July 12, 1958 in a double quad of 255 km in 24 hours. The focus, however, was on the fight for the "Blue Pennant", which the RVP actually won in 1958 with 817.2 km per rower. In 1964 the property of the boathouse was bought.
From October 1965, four rowers trained in a racing community with the aim of participating in regattas in Germany at RC Hevella. The racing community rowed eight wins in 1966 and 1967, but broke up again in 1968. Two of these comrades continued and trained in Heiligensee. In 1968 and 1969 they achieved five first and two second places. In 1969 they competed in their races in the elite class and took 5th place in the final of the German championship in double sculls. D. Bieler was successful a total of 15 times and Wolfgang Schuster 12 times for the rowing club "Prussia". In addition, Thomas Schulz, also in 1969 in Hannoversch-Minden, was the first youth of the club to win an open regatta. P. Götze and Bernd Fischer rowed five victories in the A and B class in a senior double scull in 1970.
In 1971 the club area was expanded by taking over the neighboring property. As a result, a second boat hall was now also available. The construction of a larger jetty enabled the rowing operations to run better. At the annual general meeting in 1974 a drastic change to the statutes of the RV “Prussia” was resolved: With 31 votes in favor, 4 against and 2 abstentions, a women's department was added to the association. Thus, from now on, the RVP was no longer a pure men's rowing club, but a rowing club in which women could also practice rowing. As a result, the number of members increased to over 100. At this time, a youth department of the association was established again. The number of kilometers rowed increased, and from 1975 racing rowing was started with Wolfgang Schuster as trainer.
The juniors Knut Tessmann and Mario Okun in double sculls as well as Clemens Kurth and again Mario "Moppel" Okun in singles achieved a total of 12 victories from 1976 to 1978; In 1978, Bärbel Eckel was the first female club member to win six races in the junior one. Around 80 boats with around 400 rowers took part in a rally to mark the 75th anniversary of the association. At the end of the anniversary year, a ceremony was held in the Reichstag on November 21, 1978.
1979 was the club's most successful year to date, with a total of 17 victories at national regattas. The small cell of racing rowers mainly consisted of one of the women's squads founded in 1974/75. When the RV "Prussia" took part in junior championships for the first time, the young rowers achieved notable successes. At the federal decisions of the German B-Youth Championships in Munich, Bärbel Eckel and Corinna Lauw could already take 3rd and 4th place in the single. In the period after that, racing rowing in the youth sector developed more and more into an integral part of the RVP; Thomas Schiefke had now taken over the training. At the beginning of the 80s, the male juniors also achieved better placements and in 1982/83 by Jens Pieper another 11 wins in the single.
But Bärbel Eckel achieved the greatest success for the “Prussia” rowing club in 1982 at the German championships in Munich. She won the title in a foursome with a helmsman in racing community with other clubs. Since it was the first German championship for a member of the RVP, the other clubs did away with the oak leaf in a friendly manner.
Bärbel Eckel crowned her sporting achievements with two second places in the oak wreath races of the U23 in Hanover. In a double scull and in a four with a helmsman. Because of these excellent results, she was invited to the Senior Cup in Vienna, the unofficial European championship, and also qualified in a foursome for the German national team, with which she took part in the international match between Germany and Czechoslovakia.
This was followed by the title at the federal decisions of the German Youth Championships by Elke Blawat in 1985 in Munich in the lightweight single, after she had already become runner-up in the previous year, and in 1986 in Duisburg in the double scull. In the same year she was nominated for the Junior World Championships in rowing as a helmsman for the Germany eighth, with which she finally became vice world champion. In the following years only Ina Quernheim achieved respectable results for the rowers in the youth area of the RV "Prussia" by being in the racing community in Essen at the German Youth Championships in 1987 in double sculls and in the Eichkranz races in 1989 in double sculls and in 1991 in double sculls. -Reached four front placements.
In the women's category, there were only a few victorious races after Bärbel Eckel's German championship: In the quadruple scull with taxwoman at the 1985 Women's Masters in Magdeburg with Angelika Zickert, Roswitha Horn, Roswitha Küpferling, Eva Schuster and taxwoman Elke Sasse; furthermore two further victories in 1989 and 1990 by Eva Schuster in a racing team and with Roswitha Horn in a mixed double foursome, each together with Bernd Fischer and Wolfgang Schuster. The two were again successful in the men's division between 1988 and 1992 in double sculls and in various racing communities on numerous national and international master regattas for the RVP. Then in 1993 racing rowing at the rowing club “Prussia” had to be stopped again for financial reasons.
Table tennis was a second sporting asset of the club. Accepted to pass the time in the winter months, they soon took part in the rowing association's round games with their own team. In 1967/68 the RV "Prussia" rose to the A group and immediately took 4th place. At the German tournament in Hamm they even reached 2nd place and in 1970 the German Cup was won for the first time in Hamburg. This started a series of successes during which the club won the German Rowing Association's cup five times in a row from 1970 to 1975 and again in 1978 and 1983. In recent years, however, due to reasons of age or due to the departure of some teammates and a lack of young talent, regular training was no longer carried out, but only occasionally participated in tournaments.
New Horizons
The fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989 was of particular importance for rowing in divided Berlin. Now it was again possible to navigate the waters inside and outside Berlin, which they had been denied until then. Before that, rowers of the RV "Prussia" had occasionally "invaded" the territory of the GDR by mistake in strong winds, fog or darkness , as the border at that time ran exactly in the middle of the Nieder Neuendorfer See and was only marked as such by a few buoys .
On December 30, 1989, Fritz-Ulrich Bergemann and Lars Quernheim, the first rowers of the club, took the opportunity to sail the waters. Due to the new legal situation in 1990, an application was made for the return of the property in Karolinenhof . The property was last used by the rowing community "Rotation", which had its seat there in GDR times and is particularly successful in rowing. The aim was to keep the property and lease it to RG “Rotation” in the long term. The transfer back finally took place in July 1998, since the board members were the same in 1934 and 1954. This proved that the club stock from the time before the Second World War was identical to the rowing club “Prussia” after the war.
In view of the changes caused by the reunification and the withdrawal from racing rowing, rowing itself faded a little in the RV "Prussia". The number of members was reduced to between 70 and 80, in the youth sector there were at times only two members. Even at the annual Oberhavel regatta, there were hardly any results worth mentioning. The highlight of the rowing sport during this time was, however, the two participation of some of our club members in May 1999 and 2000 with their own four-man team at the Vogalonga in Venice , a traditional protest against motorized boat traffic in the Venice lagoon as part of a race of non-motorized boats of all kinds In 2000 the rowing club “Prussia” could look back on 25 years of women's rowing and celebrated this on September 10, 2000 with a rally. The rowers now make up a third of the members.
The roof of the club house was re-covered in 2002.
In 2003 an agreement on the future of the property in Karolinenhof was reached with the RG "Rotation", which guarantees planning security for both sides. The RG "Rotation" bought it in the same year.
From the beginning of the 2003 rowing season, the club won a coach for youth work and was able to build up a successful youth work. The number of kilometers rowed also increased among the older members, due to increased hiking and day trips.
The events for the club anniversary began on May 18, 2003 with a rally to the rowing club “Prussia”. About 70 rowing boats moored at the jetty and more than 400 participants were guests. A district festival was held on June 21, 2003, and a festive ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of RV “Prussia” on November 1, 2003 in the parish hall of the Heiligensee village church was the highlight of the celebrations.
In 2015 the association merged with the neighboring association "Saffonia 08" e. V. to the new rowing association Prussia Saffonia eV The property and boathouse at the height of the kilometer marking 10 (the Havel-Oder waterway (HOW)) was given up in favor of the "saffonian" property at the height of the kilometer marking 9.
"FREE AWAY!"
“FREI-WEG!” Was the title of the official association magazine of the RVP. This title is derived from a rowing command, which removes previous restrictions (e.g. "Half Force"), so that means free travel without restrictions.
The articles were delivered by the members and gave an overview of what was happening in the club. The magazine was published twice a year whenever possible.
Friendship group of the Oberhavel rowing clubs
The friendship group consists of the following associations:
- Rowing Club "Prussia" e. V.
- Rowing Club "Saffonia 08" e. V.
- Rowing Club Tegelort e. V.
- Rowing squad TV Waidmannslust e. V.
In November 2006 the sports club "Grün-Weiß" Birkenwerder e. V. - rowing department - accepted into the friendship group.
In 2015, Prussia and Saffonia merged into one association.
These clubs organize various events together during the year, such as an internal regatta or various hiking trips.
literature
- Festschrift on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the association, 2003, Rotaprint-Druck Berlin, edition 200
Web links
- Website of the Rowing Association Preußen Saffonia eV
Coordinates: 52 ° 36 ′ 38.6 ″ N , 13 ° 12 ′ 48.6 ″ E