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Kiel Week (German: Kieler Woche) is an annual sailing event in Kiel, Germany. It is one of the largest Volksfeste in Northern Europe and the largest sailing event in the world.

Kiel Week is held annually in the last full week in June, and opens officially on the preceding Saturday with the official Glasen, followed by the Holstenbummel. Even before that, Friday evening sees the Soundcheck, a music festival playing on all the stages within the city. Kiel Weeks ends with a large fireworks display at 11 p.m., fired from pontoons or the quays at the Howaldtswerke, visible all across the Bay of Kiel.

IACC-class Yacht at the Kiel Week 2005

Most ship races begin at the Olympic harbor of Schilksee, also the center of most sporting activities during Kiel Week. Other good places to view sailing races of smaller ship types are along the Kiellinie at the west coast of the Bay of Kiel.

Kiel Week sees 5,000 sailors, 2,000 ships, and about three million visitors each year.

F221 Hessen, a Sachsen class frigate of the German Navy at the Kiel Week 2007

U15, a Type 206 submarine, of the German Navy at the Kiel Week 2007

While Kiel Week started out as a ship racing championship, it has long since become a large festival with many popular bands playing on public stages, often for free, although the corporate sponsors, many from the Schleswig-Holstein media and telecommunications industry, display their involvement prominently. Most of the stages can be found at the Kiellinie (the western side of the Kieler Förde from the Düsternbrook yacht harbor past the Schleswig-Holstein parliament building to the big inner city ferry harbor), and as of late, across the Hoernbridge to the Germania harbor and the Hörn. Another area of rich cultural activity is the city center (Rathausplatz, Holstenbrücke) and the area connecting the city center with the ferry harbor (Alter Markt, Dänische Straße, Schloßpark). Between the public stages and especially on the International Market on the Rathausplatz, food specialties from different countries can be eaten. In between often small street performances and street compedy is being performed in many places. A special children's programme is available at the Spiellinie.

Another special event is the Tall Ships Parade, often lead by the Gorch Fock, with more than 100 tall ships and traditional sailing ships and hundreds of yachts. The Tall Ships Parade is usually in the morning of the closing Sunday of Kiel Week.

• June 23, 1882 20 sailing yachts (one of them Danish) participate in a ship race from Düsternbrook. Because of the large success the event is held annually in the following years.
• 1889 The German Emperor Wilhelm II visits the ship races for the first time.
• 1892 More than 100 ships announce themselves for the ship races.
• 1894 The event is called Kiel Week for the first time in press reports. Emperor Wilhelm II is a regular visitor now.
• 1895 Opening of the Kiel Canal, then called Kaiser-Wilhelm-Kanal during Kiel Week.
• 1907 25th anniversary of Kiel Week. Since then more than 6,000 ships have been racing at the event.
• 1914 New canal locks are opened during Kiel Week. On June 28 Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria is murdered in Sarajevo, leading to World War I and interrupting Kiel Week. Between 1914-1918 Kiel Week is not held.
• 1934 Kiel Week becomes an instrument of propaganda for the Nazis.
• 1936 For the first time, Kiel is the location for the sailing contests at the Summer Olympics.
• 1940 – 1946 During World War II, Kiel Week does not happen.
• 1945 The first sailing week after the Second World War is held by the British occupation army under the name "Kiel-Week".
• 1947 A festival week in September is held under the name 'Kiel im Aufbau' ('Kiel in reconstruction').
• * End of June 1948 First Kiel Week after the war.
• September 1948 "Kiel im Aufbau" held for the second time.
• 1949 "Kiel im Aufbau" integrated into Kiel Week.
• 1950 Theodor Heuss is the first President of Germany to visit Kiel Week.
• 1962 Important Scandinavian theatre groups and orchestras set new accents for the cultural part of Kiel Week.
• 1972 For the second time the sailing contests at the Summer Olympics are held in Kiel, finishing with a Tall Ships Parade.
• 1974 The Spiellinie becomes a permanent institution at Kiel Week after the initial success of the Olympic Spielstraße for children in 1972. It is established along the Kiellinie.
• 1982 100 years of Kiel Week celebrations.
• 1994 100th Kiel Week celebrations (during the First and Second World Wars, Kiel Week was suspended).
• 1995 100 years of the Kiel Canal (formerly Kaiser-Wilhelm-Canal) celebrations.

• (English) Kiel Week website
• (German) History of Kiel Week