Everything has a beginning
Founded in 1889, the Travemünder Woche is 134 years old this year. The most beautiful regatta week in the world was created when the Hamburg merchants Hermann Wentzel and Hermann Dröge sailed around Travemünde. The winner:in received a bottle of Lübeck Rotspon.
It was not until nine years later – in 1898 – that the Lübeck Yacht Club was founded following an appeal by Kaiser Wilhelm II to have an institution to professionally organize the Travemünde Week. Since then, the Lübeck Yacht Club has been the main organizer of the sailing week with its clubhouses on the Wakenitz, at the Leuchtenfeld in Travemünde and at the former Mövenstein seaside bathing resort. Co-organizers are the Hanseatic City of Lübeck, the North German Regatta Association (NRV) and, since this year, the Zurich Yacht Club.
Due to the First World War, the Travemünder Woche did not take place in the period from 1914 to 1920. In 1921 the first post-war TW was organized again. Also in 1932 the sailing event was cancelled (because of the world economic and banking crisis), in 1940/41 there were the Travemünde war regattas, which had a different name, but were quite similar to the TW. In 1942/43, a slimmed-down version of the TW was held over one weekend. In the following years, the TW was cancelled four times due to the war. It has been held every year since 1948. The TW outage in 2020 due to the Corona pandemic was the twelfth outage in history. In 2021, the regatta week could be held again in full. Meanwhile, the land program was still very reduced.
the attracTion point
For decades, the Travemünder Woche has been the center of attraction for thousands of active sailors and hundreds of thousands of enthusiastic spectators and visitors who enjoy both the major sporting event and the fine festival on land. Nowhere in the world is sailing so closely linked with a varied land program as in Travemünde. Family atmosphere, top sports, summer, beach feeling and show are the highlights that distinguish the Travemünder Woche year after year.
In the recent past, the Travemünder Woche has gained an outstanding reputation as a championship venue in particular.
Year after year, a wide variety of classes come to the mouth of the Trave River to hold their German, European or global title competitions here. The Travemünder Woche is not only for the class associations but also for the sailors the best opportunity to present themselves.
