1. Aim of the club
The aim of the club is to organise and implement events in Duttenstedt, focusing on families, children, the integration of new residents and the common good in the village.
True to the motto: ‘Get out of anonymity, join the village life’.
Community events promote the integration of new residents as well as families and individuals who have been living in Duttenstedt for some time. To this end, the Spinneklub plans, organises and implements an average of 15-18 events each year. The events are particularly focussed on children and families. Although the content of the Spinneklub itself is defined for men, the aims are clearly "family-orientated". The number of members currently exceeds 100.
All men who have their main residence in Duttenstedt and are between 30 and 55 years old at the time of joining are eligible to join. Married men may be younger, but not older. However, the Executive Board decides on exceptions. The Club's guidelines are therefore not necessarily exclusion criteria.
The Spinneklub is now an integral part of Duttenstedt and has already been cited in writing by the city of Peine when allocating building land. Together with women and children, almost one third of the citizens of Duttenstedt are directly or indirectly involved in the Spinneklub and are simply enthusiastic about shaping and improving the life of the village.
2. Introduction
In 2024, the current Board, consisting of Christian Gleich, Henning Gebhardt, Sigmar Aust, Eugen Zarezke, Rainer Bruns, Mathias Thrams, Benjamin Guttmann, Andreas Kahlo, Henri Beier and Daniel Stehr, will endeavour to compile a chronicle of the year's events, including the history of its origins, interviews with the founding fathers and the course of the year. A continuation by the subsequent board is planned. An abridged version of the Duttenstedt chronicle will be printed for the 1050th anniversary of the town in 2023. Duttenstedt itself is a district of the town of Peine in Lower Saxony, Germany, situated between Braunschweig and Hannover.
3. Foundation
The Spinneklub was founded in 2000 by Carsten Herberg, Axel Keunecke, Bernd Flohr and Detlef Haßelmann. It was in September 2000 that Axel Keunecke was initially able to convince his friend Carsten Herberg of the idea of founding a club. As described later in an interview, logistics and thinking specialists Bernd Flohr and Detlef Haßelmann quickly accepted the idea. Axel Keunecke thought the date of 1 October 2000 was a suitable date for the foundation of the club. The aim should be to socialise the community. During the first preliminary discussions, guidance was quickly found in other clubs. The aim of the club was to strengthen and promote the village community and to integrate new residents. Following the motto ‘Today is 1 October 2000, now we are a club’, the name and the content were important. Imagine you have a club, but no members and no name.
How did the club come about? Here is a quote from Adolph Kemp's book ‘1000 years of Duttenstedt from 1973:
The young people of the village met twice a week in the Spinneklub. The young people took turns meeting in the houses where there were young girls. The entertainment consisted mainly in storytelling. While the girls were spinning, knitting or crocheting, the boys sang folk songs. They probably also prepared grog and the girls baked ‘poor knights’. Afterwards, the young people sometimes went to the small hall of the inn to eat a roast herring or ‘fish and bread’. The young men were only allowed to enter the big hall when they had completed their military service.
This is how the village community was practiced before the Second World War. The Spinneklub at that time died out when many young men did not return after the Second World War. The club was not revived after 1945. It was not until 2000, when the founding members were looking for a suitable name, that this historical term was chosen.
The Spinneklub became an all-male club after the founding members socialised together. Membership is open to all men who have their main residence in Duttenstedt and are between 30 and 55 years old at the time of membership. Married men may be younger, but not older.
Since its foundation, the Spinneklub has had its own coat of arms, based on that of Duttenstedt. The lion symbolises the ancient connection to the Braunschweig region, the spinning wheel refers to the historical name of origin and the swing top bottle stands for conviviality.
4. Development of the Spinneklub
The development has been rapid and shows the village commitment of the members. In the Spinneklub itself, the paying members are certainly only men, but this is not a relic of antediluvian attitudes. The events are centred on the family, the children, the integration of new residents and the common good of the village. The town of Peine even makes reference to the Spinneklub in its building tenders.
The number of events has increased from 4 at the beginning to about 15-18 events per year. In addition, the events tend to last several days and some of them involve air travelling.
The number of events has increased from 4 at the beginning to about 15-18 events per year. In addition, the events tend to last several days and some of them involve air travelling. Proportionately, membership has steadily increased and currently stands at 106 members (as of August 20, 2024). Considering that Duttenstedt has a population of just under 1,000, we believe this is an outstanding number. The links between them and the help given in all life situations illustrate the contrast with today's reality. While “anonymity” prevails in many places, we live and enjoy town life” and support each other. True to the motto of the village children‘s jokes…
The range of ideas we have for families and members is already very well developed and is always planned with commitment throughout.
Since 2005, on the first holiday weekend of the summer holidays, excursions for fathers and children with 50-70 participants have been organised. Destinations such as Grömitz, Verden, Güntersberge, Norddeich, Bad Zwischenahn, Cuxhaven-Sahlenburg, Kiez-Arendsee, Wernigerode, Ratzeburg, Osnabrück, Schierke and Goslar provided wonderful experiences and increased the coexistence between parents and children. The socialisation of our children and their development were also an important milestone.
Father-child ski tours have been part of the programme since 2016. We travelled to Austria and Switzerland for 5 days each. Due to the lack of snow, winter tractor-drawn sleigh rides have been converted to covered wagon rides on 29 December each year.
The annual Boßeln ("ball rolling") with the local dish borecole has become ‘The Boßeln Cup’. Already in 2002 there was a live broadcast of this event by the «Härke Club» on Radio 21. The family parties had a variety of themes: Asterix & Obelix, water games, games without limits, cow roulette, bike rally, human table soccer, highland games, the 1st Duttenstedt Bobby Car Championship and much more.
There is currently one trip abroad by plane in the even-numbered years. The destinations since 2010 have been Jerez, Dublin, Istanbul, Lisbon, Malta and Split. In 2024 there will be a trip to Seville, and in 2025, on the occasion of the 25th “Spinneklub” anniversary, the destination is still open. In the odd-numbered years, we enjoy couple tours to the Moselle and other locations, such as Hamburg in 2023.
In addition to the annual general meeting, which is always held on 2 October, the agenda included visits to power stations, the Konrad mine and the steelworks, canoe trips on the Oker River, a presentation on data security by the Lower Saxony State Criminal Investigation Office and our own Living Advent Calendar. Summernight events in the village together with the fire brigade, the Junggesellschaft Duttenstedt (the young men society), the Duttenstedter Mädel (the young women society) and the Theklas (the women society) were part of the event repertoire, as were our self-organised tastings since 2016 with rum, whisky, gin, bourbon, brandy, vodka and now also tequila. In 2024, Walpurgis Night was organised for the first time, with 150 children enthusiastically enjoying it.
Annual good deeds included waste collection, works in the church and kindergarten, and the highlight in 2022 was the construction of the new bus stop in the village centre, financed by a foundation and the city of Peine. In 2023, the Spinneklub donated a tree, the so-called ‘peace oak’, with a commemorative plaque in the centre of the village.
Temporarily a holiday programme for pupils has been set up. We are currently looking forward to our Christmas event with a juggler. We cook our own food, brew our own beer and a juggler guides us through the upcoming themes, such as knights, pirates or Teutons. Even a visit to the brewery hiking trail in Franconian Tuscany near Bamberg has established itself as a permanent annual event for the month of June.
It is just this non-profit and diversity, perhaps also the commitment of the members and their social competence, that characterises this unique club.
Stay healthy, life is short!
The Executive Board