HISTORY OF ROTARY IN EUROPE

RGHF's Europe Chair is PDG Kari Tallberg, Finland

In this section, you will find information about the development of Rotary in many of the countries of Europe -  in the Balkans, the Baltic, Benelux, Great Britain and Ireland, the Iberian peninsula, the Mediterranean, Scandinavia, and others which don't fit exactly into these groups. If you are not sure in which section a particular country has been located, look at the index below. In some of the countries, there is a small section about what happened during the Second World War, when many clubs were closed and others badly disrupted.

Europe is obviously a major area of research and anyone who can help with corrections, additions or alterations is welcome to contact the webmaster. Another part of this section relates to the first 10 clubs in Europe.

The development of Rotary in Europe has been critically affected by at least three outside forces. These are: the suppression by Fascist and Communist totalitarian regimes; the Second World War; the influence of the Roman Catholic church. You should also be aware of the re-drawing of state boundaries and the re-naming of many towns and cities, most particularly in Eastern Europe.

In our pages on Masons and Rotary, there are several references to the views of the Catholic Church which tended to regard Rotary as being quasi-Masonic. As such, it was considered anathema to the Church. This attitude particularly inhibited the growth of Rotary in the Irish Free State (Eire) where there were only 2 clubs before 1946; in 2005 there were 45. In Spain and Italy, Catholic Bishops and journals both warned against membership in Rotary, although it was not until 1940 that Spanish clubs had their charters terminated and this was not due to the Church.

THE INDEX

These are sub-headings for Europe

Also use our "Search for History" at www.historysearch.org to find any articles on Europe

See also the DISTRICTS IN EUROPE

• THE FIRST TEN CLUBS IN EUROPE

• THE BALKAN STATES

  • Albania

  • Bosnia- Herzegovina

  • Bulgaria  (EN & BU)

  • Croatia

  • Hungary

  • Kosova (EN & KO)

  • Macedonia 

  • Romania

  • Serbia and Montenegro

  • Slovenia

  • Yugoslavia 

    •  also see an article on early history in the Balkan States

• THE BALTIC STATES

  •  Danzig

  • Estonia

  • Latvia

  • Lithuania (EN & LI)

• BENELUX

  • Belgium

  • Luxemburg

  • The Netherlands

• CENTRAL

  • Austria

  • France

  • Germany

  • Liechtenstein

  • Switzerland

  • Rotary in Central Europe (Austria, Czech Republic, and Slovakia)

   

• EASTERN

  • Czechoslovakia

  • Moldova

  • Poland

  • Russia

  • Belarus

  • Ukraine 

  • Czech Republic

  • Slovakia

• GREAT BRITAIN & IRELAND

  • Eire

  • United Kingdom

• IBERIA

  • Andorra

  • Gibraltar

  • Portugal

  • Spain

• MEDITERRANEAN

  • Cyprus

  • Greece

  • Italy

  • San Marino

  • Malta

  • Monaco

  • Turkey (See also Asia) 

• NORDIC

  • Denmark

    • including the Faeroes

  • Finland

    • including the Åland Islands

  • Iceland

  • Norway

  • Sweden

  • Greenland

  
  For information on any clubs which may have existed before 1945 in Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovenia, see Yugoslavia

Created 26 December 2005 by historian Basil Lewis