Minister to open Travemuende

The German Minister of Traffic is set to open Travemuende Week this year

Wolfgang Tiefensee will officially open the 119th edition of the international Travemuende Week on 18 July. The German Federal Minister of Traffic has taken over the patronage of the traditional sailing event organized in Travemuende, Germany annually since 1889 and will be visiting the Baltic resort town for two days. The fact that the opening ceremony will be held by a high-level politician once more points out the importance of this regatta. The highly rated sailing competition will welcome more than 800 dinghies and yachts in over 30 classes that will be sailed by 2000 competitors from all over the world. Five championships will be contested, one of them the ORC European Championship of the Sport Boats. About one million visitors come each year to celebrate the maritime festival on the estuary of the river Trave.

Minister Tiefensee first signalled his interest to hold the opening at a meeting with the organising Luebeck Yacht Club in February. Now this has been officially confirmed by the Federal Ministry of Traffic, Construction and Urban Development. “We feel both honoured and happy about his acceptance”, say the organizing heads of the Travemuende Week, Karin Boege and Claus-Dieter Stolze. As the administrative head of the federal waterways such as the river Trave and the sailing area along the coast of the Bay of Luebeck, Wolfgang Tiefensee can in a sense even be seen as the “host” of the event, and is especially welcome. His visit will also additionally enhance the value of the international race week shortly before the start of the Olympic Games in China. The Prime Minister of Schleswig-Holstein, Peter Harry Carstensen, has also once again announced to attend the opening ceremony.

To prove that the opening is more than just a matter of polite political routine, Minister Tiefensee will stay on to also attend the entailing opening dinner, which is traditionally hosted by the race week’s long-time partner, “Duesseldorf trade fair” organizing the world’s largest boat show in January every year. On Saturday, he will then continue his visit by watching the races out on the Bay of Luebeck from a spectator boat. And there will be a good show on out on the water, as more than 60 offshore yachts start for their first leg to Karlskrona, Sweden in the fourth edition of the Baltic Sprint Cup that day.
It was not just all by chance that minister Tiefensee will visit the Travemuende Week. The former CEO of the Duesseldorf trade fair, Kurt Schoop lives in Travemuende, and is naturally a keen fan of the maritime festival. When he held a speech on generation politics in Travemuende earlier this year, Schoop had brought the event organizers together with the minister.