Back in 1976, a group of young British professionals in Frankfurt am Main decided to start an English club to meet like-minded English speakers. At the time, there was no internet, no Meetup groups and no Tinder… 😉
So, founding a club seemed like the natural thing to do. It wasn’t supposed to be the archetypal ‘English club’ with gentlemen smoking cigars in leather armchairs; rather, it was intended to be a lively, international and diverse crowd who would go out and about to explore Frankfurt, go on trips and try many other things.
While the original idea of forming an ‘eingetragener Verein’ (a registered association under German law) was soon abandoned due to the many regulatory constraints associated with it, the club became a ‘nicht-eingetragener Verein’ with statutes, membership fees, a bank account, a treasurer, and a committee. This committee managed to organise a quarterly programme of weekend activities every week for many years – until 2020 when the global lockdowns caused by the Covid pandemic hit most of the world, including Frankfurt.
‘Social distancing’ was not compatible with the idea of a social club, so the weekly meetings had to switch to Zoom and all other group activities, such as excursions, were cancelled. Overall, the pandemic marked a significant hiatus for the club: When it became possible to resume regular club activities slowly in 2022, it seemed that more than two years had passed; and the committee felt much older and more tired. The weekly programme of weekend activities was never resumed, so in reality, the club is now just a weekly Wednesday Stammtisch with the occasional extra activity.
But be that as it may: The Pickwick English Club in Frankfurt managed to survive for a full 50 years, from 1976 to 2026!
And even if there are plans to disband the ‘Pickwicks English Club’ after the anniversary celebrations and convert it into a ‘Pickwicks English Stammtisch’ (without a committee, membership fees, etc.), the basic idea of the founders will still continue: to provide a regular meeting place for people who enjoy speaking English.