Broadcast – Death in the clubhouse? How clubs fight for survival on Wed, 04.09.2024

After more than 100 years, the Rot-Weiß Mellen sports club is facing closure – there is simply no one left to take over the board work.

After more than 100 years, the Rot-Weiß Mellen sports club is facing closure – there is simply no one left who wants to take on the work on the board. The club in Sauerland is not alone in this. All over the country there is a lack of volunteers who want to take on positions and responsibilities – whether in the men’s choir, the swimming club or the volunteer fire brigade. And that’s why others are quickly working around the clock. Like Björn Freiburg, who looked after three clubs in Mellen. But if he can’t find a new colleague on the board, not only will his marriage be over, but so will the sports club.

Clubs connect people and create a shared identity. For example, 15-year-old Omar fled Syria. Fate took him to the Sauerland, where he made friends at Rot-Weiß Mellen and learned the language. “I wouldn’t have known what to do here if it hadn’t been for the football club,” he says today. When a sports club goes under, it leaves a gap in the town. But when a fire brigade stops functioning, that is a community’s problem. When the voluntary fire brigade in List on Sylt no longer had enough members, the island town got the first compulsory fire brigade in Germany since the Second World War! 50 people from Sylt were conscripted. The film shows what became of them and how duty and volunteering changed their lives.

The film follows the fight for survival of Rot-Weiß Mellen and other clubs, but also discovers where new and different things are emerging in the club landscape. Currently trending: cannabis clubs.