This year, the members of the Barther Sailing Club (BSV) are celebrating 100 years of their history. The German Sailing Association (DSV) is marking the anniversary with a profile on its website. You can also read it below here on YACHT online, courtesy of the DSV:
a reflection of German history
The Barther Sailing Club is situated on the Barther Bodden, just a few miles from Hiddensee, Zingst, the Sundische Wiesen and Rügen. Directly opposite the historic town centre, on a small headland overlooking the islands of Kirr and Oie, the club has had its sailing home for 100 years. The German Sailing Association congratulates the club on this special anniversary. Here is a look back at the eventful history of the Barther SV, which exemplifies a century of German history.
How it all began
In April 1926, six sailors from Barth, who spent their free time sailing the Bodden waters and the Baltic Sea, founded their own club at the suggestion of their friends from the Stralsund Sailing Club Hansa. It proved a success and proved popular: by the end of the year, the six founding members – with two sailing yachts and one motorboat – had grown to 30 members with eight sailing boats and three motorboats.
Just one year later, the fledgling club leased a site measuring around 1,800 square metres on a former excavation spoil tip on the north-western side of Barth Harbour – which remains the club’s location to this day. Due to the difficult economic situation of the late 1920s, the club had to do without a clubhouse at first. Instead, a makeshift boathouse was built, whilst meetings were held in the town’s pubs. Sailing boats and motorboats were moored in the harbour, and in winter ice sledges were added for trips across the frozen waters of the Bodden.
Economic Recovery and the War Years
In the early 1930s, the club experienced its first heyday. The youth section, then still known as the ‘Jungmänner’, developed into a key pillar of club life. In 1932, it celebrated the christening of its own 15-m² half-racing dinghy, named ‘Gorch Fock’.
Regatta sailing and cruising have been part of the club’s DNA from the very beginning. There was close interaction with neighbouring sailing clubs, and joint regattas were an integral part of club life.
When the National Socialists came to power, the overall circumstances changed fundamentally. In 1933, all sports federations were merged into the ‘National Socialist Reich Federation for Physical Exercise’. As part of the ‘Gleichschaltung’ (bringing everything into line), the two smaller sailing associations were incorporated into the German Sailing Association (DSV), and the chairman of the BSV became the ‘Vereinsführer’.
From 1938 onwards, the Luftwaffe used the club’s premises to station five boats, so that the soldiers in Barth could go sailing. With the outbreak of the Second World War, club activities declined steadily as many members were called to the front. Sailing did continue, however – albeit on a much more limited scale than in peacetime.
After the war ended, the Soviet occupying forces confiscated the remaining sailing boats as reparations, and the Barth Sailing Club and all the town’s other clubs were disbanded. Two boats were hidden – in the shallow Bodden and under a pile of coal.
The immediate post-war period, with its food shortages and existential worries, left little room for sailing. Many members of the BSV had been killed in action, were being held as prisoners of war, or had fled to the West German occupation zones.
A new beginning in the GDR
A new chapter began with the establishment of the GDR. In 1950, the sailing and angling club, which had been newly founded in 1947, was replaced by the company sports clubs (BSG) Motor and Lok. Once again, it was the active members who, working together, restored the clubhouse and harbour facilities.
As early as the beginning of the 1950s, regatta activity began to flourish once again. This culminated in 1955 with a major national regatta to mark the 700th anniversary of the town of Barth.
Sailing on the Baltic Sea came to an abrupt end in 1961 following the closure of the maritime border. To prevent people from fleeing the GDR, the East German government imposed severe restrictions on sailing. Sailing trips to Hiddensee, Rügen or Warnemünde were suddenly no longer possible. The permitted sailing area was restricted to designated inland and coastal waters. Night-time sailing and anchoring in the Bodden waters were prohibited, and Barhöft – as a border and customs post – became off-limits to water sports enthusiasts. In the club’s chronicle, which has just been published, this period is described as a “three-decade-long nightmare” for sailors on the Baltic Sea.
Despite all the restrictions, the BSV community remained strong. Traditional events such as the start-of-season and end-of-season sailing trips and the Whitsun trips helped to strengthen the sense of community. Since 1972, young members have been organised and trained in a dedicated children’s and youth group.
The scene at the harbour changed over the decades: alongside the traditional wooden dinghy cruisers, smaller steel motorboats were increasingly moored at the jetties.
The cruising yacht rallies organised by the GDR’s German Sailing Association were of great significance to the club and the entire region. Between 1972 and 1988, five of these events took place in Barth. Up to 400 boats, carrying over 1,000 sailors, gathered for these events and celebrated together both on board and across the extensive grounds.
A New Beginning Following Reunification
With the political upheaval of 1989–90, club life underwent yet another massive change. On 4 July 1990, following a unanimous decision by the members, the BSG Motor Sailing Section was renamed the Barther Segler-Verein.
At the same time, sailors from all over Germany discovered the previously little-known sailing areas of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. From Barth, it was now possible to sail to Poland and Scandinavia. The harbour experienced an unprecedented influx of visiting yachts, whose crews were keen to enjoy their newfound freedom on the Baltic Sea.
The downside of this development was the loss of certain traditions. The Central Coastal Cruising Regatta, initiated in the GDR by the German Sailing Federation, ceased to exist; an attempt to revive it as a purely regional cruising regatta, at the suggestion of the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Sailing Association, failed due to a lack of interest.
Rowing and the development of young talent
Regatta activities also grew in importance, with the BSV developing into one of the region’s leading organisers of national and international regattas, often in collaboration with neighbouring clubs.
The development was significantly supported by Klaus Krogmann, then head of the DSV Racing Committee and managing director of the Hamburg Sailing Club. His commitment to training regatta officials and umpires played a key role in ensuring that a total of 18 German and international championships, as well as European Cups, were held in Barth between 1994 and 2009.
Furthermore, the BSV was one of the first clubs in Germany to promote the Zoom8 youth class, which originated in Scandinavia. In 2005, it hosted the World Championships for this class, which have since become a regular feature of the Warnemünder Woche programme.
However, developing young talent remained a challenge. Although many children and young people were trained in the 1990s, a great many of them temporarily moved to the newly founded Barth-Borgwall Sailing Association. Later, the majority of the youth section returned to the BSV. Repeated departures of coaches and instructors, however, hampered the continuity of youth work.
In order to improve training provision in the long term, the Barth Youth and Leisure Centre was built on the club’s grounds in 2006/07 with the help of a grant of 900,000 euros from the Euroregion Pomerania (EU). However, due to construction defects that were discovered too late, the centre has been closed since 2024. The club now plans to purchase the building, which is listed on the town’s balance sheet, renovate it and put it back into operation.
In order to be able to continue offering sailing courses and thus ensure the club’s future generation of sailors, the club now works in partnership with the Müritz Sailing Centre. The instructors from this DSV-accredited sailing school travel to Barth to deliver lessons and impart sound sailing skills, enabling the next generation to set sail from Barth and explore the delightful destinations along the German Baltic coast.
Inclusion and social engagement
The BSV also took an early leading role in the field of inclusion. For the past six years, it has been enabling people with physical disabilities to sail on inclusive Hansa 303 keel dinghies.
Since 2020, the association has been participating, alongside the town of Barth, in the international EU project ‘Baltic for all’. The aim of the project is to enable people with special needs to take part in sailing. The programme includes sailing trips to Poland and Lithuania as well as local activities.
The BSV today
The Barther Sailing Club’s harbour has lost none of its appeal over the decades. The clubhouse, which was thoroughly refurbished in 1985 and completely rebuilt in 2005, is at the heart of club life.
The club restaurant ‘Vinetablick’ has been run by the Schottenhammel family and the legendary restaurateur ‘Moppi’ since 1991. What was once a sailors’ canteen has become arguably the town’s best-known restaurant and a popular meeting place for locals and visitors alike.
The main meeting point next to the restaurant is the new, large boathouse, the ‘Schipperschuppen’, which is used for various events and to host training camps. This is also where the big celebration marking the club’s 100th anniversary will take place.
Club life has changed over the years. Whilst grand sailing balls used to be the social highlights, today the focus is on the Annual General Meeting, the joint boat-hauling in spring and autumn, and the popular Christmas parties.
Even today, mooring owners are still required to contribute to the upkeep and maintenance of the facilities through fees based on the size of their boats and through community involvement – even if they do not live in Barth itself, but only use their boats at weekends or during the holidays.
To prevent the club from becoming increasingly ageing and appealing mainly to sailors interested in a mooring with access to the Baltic Sea, the Barther Segler-Verein is setting a course for renewal.
The aim is to get young adults and families excited about the club, so that, with more volunteers, we can breathe new life into it, organise championships and regattas, and spark an enthusiasm for regatta sailing among children and young people.
This is the Barther Sailing Club
The Barth Sailing Club is situated in the harbour town of Barth, in the heart of the western Vorpommern Bodden landscape. The club has around 140 active and supporting members. The club’s grounds, covering approximately 7,000 square metres and including the clubhouse, are located at the West Harbour. The club owns 40 berths at the pier, the fixed jetty and the floating jetty. There are also 20 guest berths. The berths are equipped with water and electricity connections. After mooring, guests simply check in at the club restaurant. Barth’s old town is just a few minutes’ walk from the harbour. Should no guest berth be available, the municipal marina and several other marinas with additional berths are located in the immediate vicinity.
Address: Am Westhafen 15, 18356 Barth; Email: Barther-Seglerverein@web.de ; Website: https://www.barther-seglerverein.de/
