By Paul U. Unschuld
The Rotary Club of Munich was founded on 2 November 1928 as the
fourth Rotary Club in Germany, preceded only by the Rotary Clubs
of Hamburg and Frankfurt (both founded in 1927), and Cologne
(founded in 1928). It may have been the dominating influence
exerted by the Viennese Rotarians (who together with the RC
Hamburg founded the Club in Munich) which resulted in a
significant number of representatives of the arts and sciences
among the founding members of the Rotary Club of Munich. The
most famous
![[Photo: Thomas Mann]](../../../images/thomasmann.jpg) member happened to be
Thomas Mann (left) who was awarded
the Nobel Prize in literature in 1929. When the RC Munich marked
this event with a festive reception, Thomas Mann used the
occasion to explicitly express his support of the international
mission of Rotary to further humaneness and freedom. It was only
four years later, on 4 April 1933, that the celebrated author,
now in exile in Switzerland, was removed from the list of
members together with several Jewish and non-Jewish Rotarians
who appeared politically unacceptable under Nazi rule. The
circumstances of this move remain unclear to this day.
Years before they were able to rise to power,
the Nazi Party had made no secret of its aversion to the Rotary
movement which it considered a branch of
international
freemasonry and therefore incompatible with the “ethnic German
movement” it intended to push. In 1933, several German Rotary
Clubs decided to disband their organizations. Encouraged by
national and international exhortations to maintain the ideals
of Rotary even under Nazi rule, such plans were not realized for
the time being. Despite the fact that some members of the Rotary
Club of Munich became actively engaged in the anti-Nazi
resistance movement, the attempts to ensure the survival of
their Rotary Club provide, from hindsight, an example of a
policy of appeasement that was bound to fail. In 1937, after
four years of negotiations, those opinion leaders in the Nazi
party prevailed who saw no common basis with Rotary. Their
decision to the effect that membership in Rotary and in the Nazi
Party were irreconcilable finally convinced all Rotary Clubs of
Germany that it was time to dissolve themselves.
Immediately afterwards all German Rotary files
were confiscated by the Gestapo. Found in a German archive by
the Red Army in 1945, they were brought to Moscow from where
they were returned to East Germany in the 1950s and 1960s.
Following the reunification of Germany they were deposited in
the National Prussian Archives in Berlin where they are open for
research now. On the occasion of the celebration of the 75th
anniversary of its foundation in 2003, the Rotary Club of Munich
has authorized an analysis of the files associated with the
Rotary Club of Munich (some 30.000 pages) in the archive in
Berlin. The result of this first substantial review of the
history of the Club under Nazi rule has been published as the
second chapter in a chronicle covering the entire 75 years since
its foundation in 1928 with many illustrations and quotes from
the original documents. The chronicle includes four parts.
A recollection by Walther Meuschel, a founding
member of the RC Munich, of the years 1928 through 1948, written
at the occasion of the Club’s 50th anniversary in 1978, as was a
view on the years from 1949 through 1978 by Benno Keim. Paul
Unschuld, in addition to contributing the analysis of the period
of 1933 through 1937, added as a fourth chapter a survey of the
years from 1978 through 2003. In the early years of the Rotary
Club of Munich a deep-felt enthusiasm motivated its members to
enter international relationships following the trauma of
isolation and economic depression after World War I. From 1937
to 1948 members of the former Rotary Club of Munich met
privately to uphold their ideals. When the reappearance of
Rotary in Germany was permitted by the political administration
in 1948, some surviving members of the old club together with
newly won Rotarian friends brought the Rotary Club of Munich
back to life.
In 1949, Rotary International renewed its
charter of the Rotary Club of Munich which soon afterwards was
founded again on 12 October 1949. It was now that the Rotary
Club of Munich was able to expand and flourish in a democratic
society firmly integrated into the moral value system of the
Western world. For the past 54 years it has been able to
continuously attract members who in their positions in society,
including commerce and the arts, the sciences and medicine, have
reached leadership positions and at the same time were able to
uphold Rotarian values.
The Rotary Club of Munich has established
close and intimate relationships with its partner clubs in St.
Gallen/Switzerland (since 1954) and Merano/Italy (since 1964).
It has participated in international Rotary activities (such as
group study exchanges) and has itself founded several Rotary
Clubs in Munich and elsewhere. In 1987, Munich was the venue of
the World Convention and hosted about 25,000 Rotarian
participants. Aside from furthering and maintaining friendship
among its members, the Rotary Club of Munich has provided
valuable assistance to charity projects regionally and
internationally. In particular following German reunification,
projects in the former GDR have been several times the focus of
support. One of the highlights was the renovation of the Abbey
St. Marienstern in Saxony. For this purpose the members of the
Rotary Club of Munich donated DM 150 000 in 1990 and 1991, and
were able to raise another 45 million DM from other sources to
rescue this national landmark and asylum for mentally retarded
women from its most deplorable condition.
On the occasion of its 75th anniversary, the
club donated 100 000 Euro to a project in Munich aiming at
integrating socially disadvantaged teenagers into the work
force. Seen in retrospect, the history of the RC Munich in
post-WWII Germany offers an impression of a vital club life tied
to the international values of Rotary International and
contributing significantly to social welfare in its own
environment.
Prof. Dr. Paul. U. Unschuld, M.P.H., is Professor and
Director of the Institute fort he History of Medicine, Munich
University, Lessingstrasse 2, 80336 Munich, Germany.
His book, “Chronik des Rotary Club München, 1928 – 2003” is
available thru the Cygnus Verlag,
cygnus.verlag@cimc.de
Sonnblickstrasse 8, 81377
München, Germany, ISBN 3-926936-11-8, € 36.50 + postage.
Additional remarks by
Wolfgang Ziegler
 Aerial
view of the Zisterzienserinnen Abbey St. Marienstern in Saxonia
after the refurbishment
The biggest and most demanding task ever undertaken by the
Rotary Club of Munich was the refurbishment of the Abbey St.
Marienstern in Saxonia, formerly East Germany. Since decades the
sisters of this abbey cared for disabled girls and women. After
the fall of the wall, starting with the Christmas collections of
1990 and 1991, more than 80.000 Dollars were donated towards the
refurbishment of the abbey. However, the resources of the Rotary
Club of Munich were not nearly sufficient to finance this
tremendous task.
In the end, the challenge of the refurbishment of the Abbey St.
Marienstern showed, that remarkable accomplishments are possible
against all odds. A small group of highly dedicated Rotarians
used their economical and professional knowledge, their personal
acquaintance with decision makers and the will to make financial
sacrifices - metaphorically spoken like a nucleus of
crystallization – to subsequently motivate a larger group of
friends and other forces to take action. The reward was the
knowledge of having saved historically outstanding buildings
from destruction. Probably more important, having created for
the sisters an unexpected, long lasting and sound basis, who
since centuries made sacrifices far from the hustle and bustle
of every-day life, caring for a group persons on the brink of
our society.
The joining of many very different sources finally led to a
financial support of twenty-five million dollars. |
