DIeter Kloss put his bag on the table, took off his bicycle helmet, and apologized for being a bit out of breath. “My size is wrong,” he said. “The weight room has been closed for a year.” Klaus, 91 years old, is the informal age chairman of the senior citizens of the Dresden Kayak Club. Every Thursday afternoon they meet at the clubhouse in the east of Dresden. There are about a dozen men and women with coffee, lemonade, and beer. They are all active kayakers, some of them are trainers, youth workers and cash auditors.
Klaus was even the East German champion. “The quartet of 1956,” he shouted. “As a reward, there is a vase that should actually be placed somewhere in the closet.” You won’t find it, but the club members have won many trophies, titles and honors. “According to GDR standards, we are one of the best sports clubs,” Heinz Göldner said. He is 87 years old and is used to training beginners. The interest is very big. He reported that once, they had 33 girls but only 30 ships.
Series: Visiting voters
Overview of the first few parts of the 2021 federal election series
The memory is awakened. How did they play in Hof and Bamberg in the west before the wall was built, how the team got back to the Elbe from there, and how they no longer needed contact after 1961. Then there was the big sailing regatta after the war. “There are 6,000 spectators present,” Klaus said. “It’s unimaginable in canoeing!” But the annual Elbe Regatta has become the past ten years. In general, a lot of changes have taken place. From the clubhouse, you can see the Wachwitz Castle on the river, the last residence of the Wetting family, and the TV tower. In Dresden, this is a huge political issue because it was closed to the public after reunification. It offers its own tower café and offers a magnificent view of the Elbe Valley. So far, due to lack of funds, the reopening ended in failure.
“We have little to do with politics,” said 77-year-old Elisabet Thümmel, the youngest sitting at the table. “We rarely talk about it.” This is a good thing, Klaus said. “Otherwise the tattered things will fly here.” He was very annoyed by the limitations of the corona, also because the life of the club was actually idle. There are hardly any races, hardly any boats on the water. At the beginning of his life, the war destroyed his canoe, and now, finally, a pandemic. “That’s the way it is, I have to deal with it,” he said angrily. After all, they are all vaccinated now, Thümmel said.
They assured us that of course they will all participate in the September elections. Then they quickly changed the subject. The conversation was about the use of their own canoe campsite at the Saxon Swiss Club. During peak season, they will be there every week to take care of tourists and keep things tidy. Canoe tourists from Belgium and France were there recently. “We communicated with the translation program on our smartphone,” Göldner said proudly.
“It’s really bad after unification”
After the gate of the boathouse was opened, young people flocked to the shore in canoes. Tell the elderly that about half of the 220 club members are children. The louder the volume outside, the brighter your eyes. In the past few years, more and more children and young people have come to the association. “A wonderful thing,” Heinz Göldner said. “We are very happy that our children can now train again.” In the past, clubs could only accept adults. It was not until the 1960s that children and young people joined the group.
Specially selected talents are sent to the training center, and there will be competitions on weekends. “After the reunification, the situation was really bad,” said Dieter Kloss. People went to the West, the members were halved, and the full-time coach was fired. “They are special trainers for canoe races!” Klaus shouted. “Suddenly they are all gone. Great!” Cross is a walking association encyclopedia, only ten years older than himself. He wrote a 250-page chronicle.
Most of them work as engineers, high-current, precision machinery, building construction, civil engineering, and construction. There is also a teacher and a personnel manager on the table. After 1989, they all had to readjust their direction, including professional, social and personal aspects. The canoe club is usually the only constant in their post-Wende life, even though almost everything has changed there. But they can now travel along the Elbe to Hamburg, along the Moselle and Altmere rivers, and finally the Danube, previously only between Presburg (Bratislava) and Mohács in Hungary To arrive. “Today, we are still paddling in Spreewald,” Elisabet Thümmel said. “Yes,” Heinz Goldner said. “Then stop where there is food and drink.” Everyone laughed. So did Dieter Klaus. Then he must go to the gym first, he said. After all, it is now open again.
Every Tuesday
