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Welcome to District 1940
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Rotary International District 1940 is located in the north-east of Germany and covers the States of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Berlin and the easternmost part of Schleswig-Holstein. The district extends over an area of about 270 km from the city of Lübeck in the West to the Viadrina (Oder) river which is the border to Poland in the East and from the coastline of the Baltic Sea in the North over 370 km to Saxonia in the South.
District 1940 is a typical agricultural area with some centers of industry and with considerable attraction for tourists from Germany as well as from abroad. The main cities are Berlin which is the Capital of the Federal Republic of Germany, Lübeck, Rostock, Cottbus, Potsdam and Frankfurt/Oder, some of them looking back on a great history as members of the Hanseatic League in the Middle Ages.
Rotary came to this area in 1929 when the Rotary Club of Berlin was founded. Other clubs followed but had to return their charter when the German Rotarians decided to dissolve their clubs in 1937 under increasing pressure from the Nationalsocialist regime. Five years after the end of World War II Rotary returned to Germany – however to “the free world” only, i.e the Federal Republic of Germany including West Berlin. Unfortunately nearly the entire territory of today’s District 1940 (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg and East-Berlin) came under control of the Soviets and was integrated into the socialistic German Democratic Republic (GDR) as part ot the Soviet Bloc. In the GDR Rotary was again forbidden.
Therefore only 13 Rotary Clubs were in existence in this area when Germany was reunited in 1990: seven clubs in West Berlin and six clubs in Schleswig Holstein: Neustadt/Ostsee, Lübeck, Lübeck-Burgtor, Lübeck-Holstentor, Lübecker Bucht-Timmendorfer Strand and Herzogtum Lauenburg-Mölln. These clubs were then part of R.I. District 1890.
After Germany was finally reunited German Rotary Clubs started to found Clubs in the so called “New States” on former GDR territory. This territory was in the beginning administered by R.I. District 1890. When 30 new clubs were in existence in 1995 with further clubs to be founded it became necessary to divide the old District 1890. So District 1940 came into existence. In the following years the District grew considerably with today 74 Rotary Clubs and a total of about 3.300 members.
Our clubs focus mainly on charity activities in their communities. An average of ten Matching Grant projects are executed every year which we support intensively by means of our DDF. As a participant in the GSE program District 1940 exchanged teams in recent years with US districts (Los Angeles, Sacramento, North Pennsylvania, Denver), India and Australia. We do not participate in the Ambassadorial Scholarship program but run our own program by granting scholarships to 30 students from Poland and other eastern European countries every year who study at the Europa Viadrina University in Frankfurt/Oder and other universities in our district. For that project we raise funds from our clubs in a total of some 70.000 Euro (110.000 USD) per year. In the Rotary year 2008/09 District 1940 encourages the clubs to launch a special literacy project in their communities: The idea of the Rotary project “Lesen lernen – Leben lernen” (learn to read – learn to live) is to give books to elementary school children that will inspire in them the joy of reading. More than 50 per cent of the clubs are participating. Plans are to reach at least 5.000 students during this year.
Our District shares a long border with Poland and is therefore the district in charge of the German Inter Country Committee with this neighboring country. Every two years we organize a 3-day-meeting and encourage the partnership between clubs on both sides of the border.
If you plan to travel to our part of Germany we recommend the following websites in English for information on travel and tourism:
www.auf-nach-mv.de/index.php?lang=2
www.brandenburg-tourism.com
www.visitberlin.de/index.en.php?
www.sh-tourismus.de/en/index.html
We will be glad to welcome Rotarian visitors in our clubs. For information on Rotary in District 1940 (clubs, meeting sites and dates) please write to
berichte1940@rotary.de
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Montag, 2. Februar 2009/DL
Letzte Änderung: 02.02.09/DL
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Druckansicht
