From the friendship regatta to a major event

Summer 1881:Two men are curiously watching what is happening at sea. While hardly anyone in Kiel takes any notice of the small friendship regatta on the Förde, two Hamburg sailors take a close look. The chairman of the North German Regatta Association and his brother-in-law turn the friendly showdown into a major event the following year, together with the Kiel sailors.

On June 23, 1882, the calendar of the Kiel Week begins with 20 yachts. Only ten years later, participants travel from all over the world. The Hamburg Sailing Club finds a partner in the Navy Regatta Club founded by officers from Kiel.

The Emperor is coming

As a friend of sailors, Kaiser Wilhelm II traveled to Kiel for the regatta in 1889 - the year after his accession to the throne. On May 2, 1891, as "Commodore", he took over the patronage of the naval regatta club, which was renamed the "Imperial Yacht Club". In 1894, when His Highness was once again on his way, the term "Kieler Woche" for the regatta event lasting several days appeared in a newspaper for the first time - and it remained the same. When the Kaiser received the news of the assassination attempt in Sarajevo on his yacht "Meteor" in 1914, the calendar of the sailing event ended again.

German performance show under National Socialism

Just under 60 yachts are registered in 1920 for the first Kiel Week after the First World War. But it doesn't take long for the city to be the center of international attention again. With the rise of National Socialism, the week turned into a German showcase:hundreds of sailing boats and warships, swastika flags on the house walls and a big "Kraft durch Freude" fireworks display. Celebratory regatta dinners and balls evoke the old Wilhelmine times.

The high point is reached with the Olympic sailing competitions in Kiel in 1936, after which the Kiel Week is celebrated. The low point follows three years later. When the Second World War loomed in 1939, foreign countries almost completely decided not to take part. While the suitcases are being packed at the end of the week, the war breaks out.

British people organize the first "Kiel Week" in 1945

Without the Kieler, but in the middle of Kiel, the sailing event is revived after the war. The British occupying forces celebrate the first "Kiel Week" in 1945. The event is repeated a year later - but with the exclusion of the Kiel population. In 1947 Mayor Andreas Gayk brought the "September Week:Kiel on the move" into being, which documented the reconstruction work after the war in lectures and art exhibitions. It will be repeated the following year under the name Kieler Woche.

In 1948, two Kiel Weeks were celebrated:in June there was sailing, in the fall there was "September Week". In 1949 it finally became an event:sailing, sports, culture and a program for children and young people form the new week from now on.

Kiel Week becomes a sailing event

From 1950 onwards, Federal Presidents and Chancellors passed the ship's bell:from Theodor Heuss to Horst Köhler. Today more than 5,000 athletes fight against the wind on the outer fjord in front of the Olympic Center in Schilksee. This makes the Kiel Week the largest sailing event in the world. With around three million visitors a year, the spectacle between Schilksee, Rathausmarkt, Ostseekai, Spiellinie and Krusenkupplung is also the largest summer festival in Northern Europe.