Binz pier:An accident leads to the founding of the DLRG

Nationwide, the DLRG is deployed thousands of times a year when it comes to rescuing people from an emergency situation in the water - its foundation dates back to a tragic accident. In 1912, 16 people drowned in an accident on Rügen.

July 28, 1912 is a hot summer day on Rügen - high season in the popular seaside resort of Binz. In the evening there is still a lot of activity on the pier of the bathing resort. Hundreds of people stroll across the bridge and watch as the pleasure boats dock and depart. Others are waiting for their ship or are watching the warships of the Imperial Navy, which are currently anchored in the Baltic Sea off Binz. At around 6:30 p.m., the "Rügensche Kreis- und Anzeigeblatt" reported later, the steamer "Kronprinz Wilhelm" docked at the bridge, passengers boarded and disembarked. Shortly thereafter, the catastrophe struck:Under the weight of the crowds, a crossbeam at the bridgehead gave way, and the landing stage collapsed over a length of about eight meters. According to the newspaper, 70 to 80 people fall into the sea, which is about six meters deep at this point.

Tragic result of the accident:16 dead

There are horrific scenes that play out:screaming people fight for their lives in the water. Only a few could swim back then, according to estimates only about two to three percent of the population. The number of those who are able to save drowning is much smaller:Most visitors on the pier watch helplessly as people sink into the water. Others try to save the unfortunate victims with ladders and poles. The crew of the steamer "Kronprinz Wilhelm" throws lifebelts and ropes into the sea. But for eight women, four men and two children, any rescue comes too late. they drown. Two other women die a few days later as a result of the accident.

The fact that there are no more victims is partly due to the crew of the naval ships, who rushed to help. Military doctors treat the rescued, some of whom are unconscious. Military sergeant Richard Römer from Hohenlimburg in Westphalia, who just happened to be nearby when the accident happened, made a particularly valuable contribution to the rescue operation.

Richard Römer's courageous rescue operation

Römer, a member of the Imperial Guard in Berlin, is on the island without a vacation permit because he wants to spend the off-duty weekend at the beach. When he sees the drowning people, the 24-year-old reacts immediately:he takes off his uniform jacket and throws himself into the water to help. Römer can swim, but he doesn't know how to save people from the water. In order not to be grabbed by the drowning and dragged under the water, Römer dives under the people and pushes them to the collapsed pier beam, where other helpers pull them out of the water. After saving twelve people, Römer is so exhausted that he almost drowns on the beam itself. In the spring of 1913, Kaiser Wilhelm II awarded Richard Römer the rescue medal with ribbon for his courageous deed.

The DLRG arises as a consequence of the accident

The Binz tragedy led to the founding of the German Life Saving Society (DLRG) a good year later on October 19, 1913 in the Hotel de Prusse in Leipzig. Just a few months later, at the end of the year it was founded, the organization already has 435 members. Through lectures, training courses and competitions, the Society aims to spread knowledge and skills on how to save lives and prevent emergencies. In addition, lifeguards are trained and tested for use on rivers and lakes and security services are set up. To this day, Richard Römer is considered a kind of spiritual father at the DLRG.

Influence of the National Socialists on the DLRG

When the Nazis were preparing to take power in the early 1930s, their influence was also anchored in the structures of the DLRG - and National Socialist ideas also flowed into the work of the water rescuers. As the DLRG itself writes about its history, in 1933 the organization was incorporated into the specialist office V for swimming in the German Reich Association for Physical Exercise. As before, combating death by drowning is the priority and the work - albeit under the auspices of "maintaining and strengthening the German people's power and military capability". The contacts of the DLRG to the Hitler Youth, the Bund Deutscher Mädel, the "Sturmabteilung" (SA ), the Schutzstaffel (SS) and the NSDAP. After the end of the Second World War, the members could resume their original work in the British and American zones of occupation. In what later became the GDR, the water rescue service of the German Red Cross (DRK) took over the tasks - and still does so today alongside the DLRG.

DLRG has already saved tens of thousands of people

Despite the National Socialist involvement, which the DLRG says it wants to thoroughly investigate and work through, the work of the water rescuers is and remains a success story:while in the first decades of the 19th century around 5,000 people lost their lives in the water every year, it is in 2019 only 417 nationwide. In the course of its history, the DLRG has managed to drastically reduce the number of deaths and make swimming fashionable.

In the first 100 years after it was founded, between 1913 and 2013, the DLRG helpers saved more than 66,000 people from drowning. The number of swimmers increases from three to around 80 percent of the German population - even if, according to the DRLG, a dangerous number of bottom swimmers cannot swim due to current developments. In 2019 alone, the watch keeper said they saved 609 people from drowning. Around 45,000 volunteer lifeguards from the DLRG, which has had its headquarters in Bad Nenndorf in Lower Saxony since 1995, are now on duty on German waters every year.