Rotary in Europe

History of Rotary in Europe

RGHF's Europe Chair is PDG Kari Tallberg, Finland

In this section, you will find information about the development of Rotary in many of the countries of Europe - in the Balkans, the Baltic, Benelux, Great Britain and Ireland, the Iberian peninsula, the Mediterranean, Scandinavia, and others which don't fit exactly into these groups. If you are not sure in which section a particular country has been located, look at the index below.

In some of the countries, there is a small section about what happened during the Second World War, when many clubs were closed and others badly disrupted.

Another part of this section relates to the first 10 clubs in Europe.

The development of Rotary in Europe has been critically affected by at least three outside forces. These are: the suppression by Fascist and Communist totalitarian regimes; the Second World War; the influence of the Roman Catholic church. You should also be aware of the re-drawing of state boundaries and the re-naming of many towns and cities, most particularly in Eastern Europe.

In our pages on Masons and Rotary, there are several references to the views of the Catholic Church which tended to regard Rotary as being quasi-Masonic. As such, it was considered anathema to the Church. This attitude particularly inhibited the growth of Rotary in the Irish Free State (Eire) where there were only 2 clubs before 1946; in 2005 there were 45. In Spain and Italy, Catholic Bishops and journals both warned against membership in Rotary, although it was not until 1940 that Spanish clubs had their charters terminated and this was not due to the Church.

THE INDEX

These are sub-headings for Europe

See also the DISTRICTS IN EUROPE