The club members take over their new house here.

The first boathouse, featuring a changing room and a boat hall, was constructed around 1901 at its present site. The building was situated over the Alster and founded on wooden piles. In 1911, the boathouse was expanded with a second boat hall, erected on concrete piles. By 1924, the clubhouse was further extended with a third boat hall and gained a reinforced concrete boat jetty.

In the 1960s, the clubhouse underwent internal modernization and renovation. In 1988, the concrete floor slab of boat hall 1 and its underlying steel support structure required extensive and costly refurbishment.

In 2011, the CLUB’s board decided to expand the boathouse to create additional space for rowing boats and a modern gym. By then, the number of members had grown to over 800. A corresponding application was submitted to the building authority, and the building permit for the conversion and expansion was issued on January 31, 2012. In the meantime, divers commissioned by the board had inspected the condition of the foundation components, such as piles and the support structure beneath the concrete slab, and found them to be significantly corroded. The long-term structural integrity of the clubhouse could no longer be guaranteed.

An expert panel comprising CLUB members, civil engineers, architects, and building services engineers developed various technical options to secure and permanently renovate the boathouse. The associated costs were so prohibitively high that, following intensive discussions, the general assembly of members decided in June 2012 to demolish the old boathouse and replace it with a new one. The draft plans were approved by the membership six months later, and a preliminary building inquiry was submitted, which received a positive decision. The final building permit was issued by the Eimsbüttel district office in mid-November 2013. This was followed by detailed execution planning and the tendering of individual trades. On January 19, 2015, the CLUB’s board resolved to begin construction work.

On February 2, 2015, the demolition of the historic boathouse began, a structure that had been part of the Außenalster panorama for over a hundred years. The new boathouse is scheduled to be inaugurated in March 2016.

Update on February 23, 2015: The old clubhouse is being demolished.

Update on November 18, 2015: Topping-out ceremony.

July 1, 2016: Rowing Club Germania opens its doors to women. Report on NDR.

July 15, 2016: Oldest rowing club has new home on the Alster.